Bluebasser86

Oh man I like that idea! That would help me keep my platics in the garage way more orgainized I believe. Thanks!

Must be rough to be fishing in shorts and light shirts in January Very jealous of those bookend hogs.

I've done most of my fishing this winter from the shore. Not usually the case because the ponds would normally be long frozen by now but not the case this year. Most of our ponds are muck bottoms with lots of moss so baits that stay out of the crud are about the only option. I've been doing pretty well with a jerkbait with pauses up to 15 seconds. It kills me to wait that long between twitches but I only do it in likely areas. In the few places I can get away from the moss I like a finesse worm on a shakeyhead or jighead and just drag it, no hops and move very slowly. You have to keep in mind that whatever the bass is eating is in very cold water and moving very slowly and so are the bass. If you move something with fast jerks or hops it probably isn't going to get eaten this time of year. Rocks and trees also hold heat and concentrate fish this time of year. I fished an entire 3 acre pond yesterday and caught 6, all on a jerkbait, each one of them off the same tree branch which happens to be the only one in the pond. Today I caught a few more, all off of rocks or pieces of wood on jerkbaits or finesse worms.

Plastics take up tons of space, not really way around it. I use binders and freezer bags, haven't found a better way to do it as of yet.

Yeah the warm water tends to concentrate all kinds of fish. I catch quite a few wipers and tons of white bass fishing for bass every winter. If I get bored I break out the jigging spoons and start whacking big buffalo carp. Usually they're snagged but they pull like crazy and are a whole lot better than no fishing at all! I give them to the shore fishermen hoping they'll have all the fish they need for the day and go home before they catch a big bass or wiper and keep that instead.

I like the biggest fathead or ruby red minnows I can find, usually 2.5-3.5 inches long unless I'm tipping a jig with them, then I'll go smaller.

I fish mine on 6-10lb fuoro on a spinning rod unless I go to a bigger head. A baby brush hog or a beaver bait on a 1/2 oz head is an effective bait in some of the lakes around here and fishes very easily on casting gear.

Wow that is a pretty box of some expensive poppers there

I do a little of both I guess. I have my shallow, medium, deep runners, lipless, but I also have a box of baits that are too small to fish on casting gear that are all different depths, just small or light.

I'm sure they will still be in winter mode in your area. We have had very warm temps in Kansas with air temps in the 50's and 60's for several days in a row now but they are still very sluggish because the water temps are only in the high 30's/low 40's. Jerkbaits and slow moving finesse plastics have been the deal for us. Just caught bass number 100 for the year today in fact.

The warm water around the discharge allows algae to grow year round and tends to attract baitfish and bass year round, especially during the winter. The discharge areas usually get fished hard too though, so the bass can be picky. This time of year I've caught them in warm water discharges on everything from shakeyhead finesse worms to 6" swimbaits to spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. Crankbaits and rattletraps seem to be pretty solid choices and if the water is warm enough a topwater can be a good choice also. If the bass are chasing shad really well, tossing a big swimbait can be a whole lot of fun!

Been thinking about doing a thread like this for awhile. Here's a few of my warriors. 1.Strike King King Shad 2.A couple 78 pointers 3. Another 78 pointer and a 97 slender pointer. 4. A couple of my favorites. A one eyed Zell pop and a Xcalibur XR50.

Man that's rough! I fished one at a local lake that had 80 anglers without a single bass weighed in, it's pretty crazy to think how much water is covered and baits that had to be presented to fish and nobody could catch anything.

3/8 oz black skirt, blade color hasn't really mattered much for me but I usually go with red or black.

1/8, 3/16, 1/4 are the sizes I use the most. I pour my own with a long 4/0 or 5/0 that have a spiral keeper. I like the spiral keeper but I cut them down shorter so it's easier to get the bait on.

Thank you and stay safe over there!

Mozingo is a blast to fish most of the time. I usually fish it late spring/early summer and get on a good topwater bite along the edge of the grass in the morning and then flip the trees and grass when it gets hotter out. There is also usually a good deep crankbait bite during the summer if you can find the deep brushpiles. As far as the weather, I'd rather it be a cooler spring without all the rain we had last year. Colder water is a lot easier to catch fish in than high, muddy water imo.

Both rods are great but I'm a St.Croix guy myself. They've always been good to me so I've never felt a need to change to something different.

1. Cavitron 2.Zell Pop 3.Top Dollar

I cut some big limbs and run them different directions through the holes in cinder blocks. Easy and inexpensive and they seem to hold fish very well. If you are careful you can get them to sink straight down and stand up in shallower water to be basically like a small tree that is still standing.

First I had this 1/2oz football jig with some green pumpkin/purple skirt mixed with some brown and purple round rubber skirt. It's a bulky bait but I'm hoping it will stick a pig for me at Table Rock in May. Next is my wife's jig. She puts up with me always at my table tying jigs and the other day while we were at the tackle store getting tying materials she wanted to know if I'd make her one. I don't know if it will catch any fish but I think her little finesse jig turned out well. It's a little 1/8oz head so she shouldn't have any problem fishing it on her spinning rod at least.

Water was 43-44 degrees pretty much everywhere we went in our limited time we had to fish. There was shad EVERYWHERE! I started with a Rick Clunn jerkbait but I couldn't help noticing all the shad were about 3 inches long so I switched to a smaller 78 pointer and 3 inches of a Z-man zinker on a jighead. Finally caught a little 12 inch largemouth on the zinker and lost another small largemouth on the pointer. Stayed slow for us all afternoon but I did catch 3 keeper spots with my largest being this very fat 16.5 incher on the zinker. I'm also very proud to show this monster that fell for the zinker. Takes a special touch to feel one like this 20' down on a 3/32oz head. Weather was perfect and anytime you can get on soft water in January, it's a good day. 2012 bass count-87

He backlashed it so bad his first cast he had to cut it all out I've heard the new stuff is a lot better and obviously there are some pros that fish with it so it must not be that bad, I just had a bad experience that cost me a tournament on one occasion and big fish in another tournament, about 3 grand worth of not wanting to fish with it ever again.

You must not have been sprayed with that new Sabre Red crap, that's hell in a can. Never done the gas, no desire too. Hope to never do any of them again but I always seem to get hit when I'm in the middle of the pile.

At least you're fishing and hooking fish, I'm not even getting that far, just fishing and wishing. Some of the ponds have skim ice on them too so that doesn't help.