Bluebasser86

Mostly floated up against the bank after someone loses them and they work free from the snag of the fish. I don’t remember ever pulling one out of a tree.

I find quite a few RKs because they’re popular around here. I probably have 15 of them but I don’t think I paid for 3 of them.

I like the headhunter jerkbaits, but for some reason haven’t had any luck on the fire tail. It looks good and swims good though. I don’t know if it’s a color thing or maybe just confidence. I have no doubt they work just fine though.

I fish flat sides a lot during the winter, but the H2O is not one that I'm a fan of. I have a long list of baits that I do fish depending on conditions; Berkley Frittside Evergreen Flat Force Berkley Flicker Shad Shallow 6th Sense Flat 75X 6th Sense Pressure Series Jackall Bling Strike King Chick Magnet Rapala OG Slim Rapala Shad Rap

I haven’t used the FM gloves you’re talking about but I’ve used the half finger Wooly gloves and these are definitely warmer.

I’m a firm believer in contrasting colors at times being a better option than matching colors.

The Bassmooch gloves are full finger fleece gloves over the pinky and ring finger and half finger for the other 3. It’s the best combination of warmth and maximum dexterity IMO.

The last really good day I remember I having with a red bait was a homemade red bladed jig with a black and blue craw trailer in water I could see bottom in 5’ of water in. I normally prefer it in stained to dirty water, but if the water is cool to cold, I’ll always give it a shot.

Are you wanted a full finger style of gloves? I’m a big fan of the Bassmooch “reel-em”, fleece gloves if you like a mixed style. https://bassmooch.com/collections/gloves/products/fleece-reel-em-glove

Hoping for the best for you. Glad it was caught early and sounds like a promising diagnosis. We’re all here for you if you need someone to talk to.

Something about the 100 and 200 Bandit, they're just some of the best fish catching crankbaits I've owned. I don't know about the new ones, but I have several that are 10+ years old and covered in scratches from being eaten so many times. It seems like they really shine when everyone else is catching on cranks and the fish are seeing lots of other baits. Nobody is fishing Bandits anymore and they're just a little smaller and not as loud. Tennessee Shad, Lousiana Shad, Mistake, Firetiger, a few of the craw patterns, they've all got a place in my crankbait box.

You might be able to find a great deal on something gently used if you keep an eye open. People getting that sweet new piece of electronic gear for Christmas that will be looking to unload their current equipment to be able to buy more stuff will often get you a good price if you're okay with used gear.

Pics from 2 different days. First day was a dinkfest, but I did catch one that had stole my jig about a hour earlier, and I reached the goal of catching bass number 2025 for the year. It was bass number 88 of an 89 bass day. next trip was cold and raining almost all day. It was really right on the threshold of my tolerance. The fishing was a little slower than I’d hoped but catching a 20” 5.20lb fish right when I was starting to think about how nice my warm bed sounded kept me out another 4 hours. I caught a couple more pretty solid fish and a bunch of smaller ones as a result. Now there’s 4” of snow on the ground and it’s barely supposed to make it above freezing only a couple times for the next week, getting a jumpstart on the real cold stuff it seems.

This is the best toad toter buzzbait I've found. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Crock-O-Gator_X-Bite_Skirtless_Buzzbaits/descpage-CRKOGX.html

Big Bite Baits Craw Tube, something about it just gets the big bites for me. I like that they sell them in bulk packs too.

I've heard that California bass are extremely finicky because of the fishing pressure. Never fished there personally, but I've heard it enough times there has to be some truth to it. You might try posting some questions on the local forums and see if you can get some first hand experience on the bodies of water you're fishing, maybe someone would even be willing to meet up and show you what they're doing to catch where you're at. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/forum/17-western-bass-fishing/

If I'm fishing a bigger, flipping style tube on a T-rig in cover, then it's casting gear. For the smaller tubes that I typically fish on a tube head, I fish them on spinning gear.

Are you looking for line thru glides specifically or just line thru swimbaits? There's not a ton of options for line through glides that I'm aware of, but lots of line thru swimbaits.

Sometimes I'll learn more on the bad days than the good ones. If you're not learning from your failures on the water, then you're not growing as an angler. Also, if you're afraid to fail on the water, you're likely not growing as an angler. If you go out and do the same thing, in the same places, every time, you'll likely get the same results. Maybe you're happy with that, but I'm always trying to learn and improve on the water. Offering reports and results from a bad trip gives other anglers with different experiences and viewpoints the chance to act as a sounding board for you. What could/should you have done differently? What are the likely reasons you were unsuccessful? I've learned a lot from listening to others and reflecting on my day on the water. The answer is often right there, it sometimes just takes a different person's point of view to realize it.

I've seen quite a few of them. The Deep Dive app is the only one I've ever been impressed enough with to actually use.

This was the first year I've taken my oldest son deer hunting. I haven't been in the last 4 years since we moved from our last place and I didn't have anywhere to hunt except public land. Lake showed an interest and I told him if he got his hunter's safety permit, I'd take him. Well he did his Hunter's Safety classes last January and still said he wanted to go, so I did my best Google Maps scouting and found a small piece of walk in hunting near our house that looked like crop field with some tree rows. I was pretty surprised it actually looked pretty good when we drove out to hunt it. We never saw a thing, not even a squirrel. It was pretty warm and windy, but Lake's chair was comfortable. We got extremely lucky and got invited out to hunt private land about 25 minutes away that had a couple blinds already set up with feeders on it. Our first night we saw one nice 8 point cruise by out of range and had a doe cruise right up to the blind, but winded us about 10 yards away. No amount of cover scent could hide the cologne he'd doused himself in before school that morning I guess. Our second sit was pretty exciting with a really big buck chasing a doe all over through the trees about 100 yards out. It had quieted down and we were running out of light when I saw movement through the blind behind Lake. A little 8 point slipped in on us and he tried to get the crossbow up and steady but I guess it was heavier for him than I realized and that combined with his shaking and uncontrollable heavy breathing made me pull his arm down. I was afraid he'd make a bad shot and we wouldn't find the deer. The landowner sent me a picture off his trailcam asking if we were tracking the deer yet. The third night I brought a doe bleat call and we weren't in the blind 30 minutes when a little fork horn buck came in to check out the call. It was pretty much a replay of the night before but Lake wasn't going to give me a chance to tell him no. The bolt sailed right over it's back but I wasn't looking at the deer when he shot so I didn't know if he'd hit it. It wasn't until Troy sent me the video from his trailcam later that night I got to see the bolt miss completely. We went straight to Academy that night and got a monopod for him to rest the crossbow on when he was aiming. He really liked how much easier it was to aim with it at the house so I was hoping that would be the solution to our problems. The next night the weather was a little warm but the wind was perfect, blowing right back down the trail we walked in on and out into the cut bean field, away from the feeder and woods the deer usually came from. Then 10 minutes after we got there, someone started shooting nearby. They must have gotten a new rifle, because they started shooting and they just kept shooting, over and over. On top of that, Lake had developed a cough and even though he tried, occasionally one would slip out and I was 100% sure we wouldn't see anything. About when I was ready to pack it in and leave early, I heard movement to my left and I was 100% sure it was a deer. I had Lake get the crossbow up and steady and we watched the deer come out of the trees and start working towards the feeder. It stopped and starred at us a couple times, and I realized he had taken his face cover off, so his glowing white face was sticking out of the opening of the blind. I was sure the deer would run off, but it kept working in. I was trying to record and coach at the same time, and right when I told him to wait for it to turn broadside "whack!". I knew from the instand blood spurt that it was a solid hit, a heart shot I was pretty sure. We both celebrated and moments later, I could hear the branches and leaves thrashing not far down the path the deer had gone, I knew it was down. You know you're not going far when the leaves look like this. I told Lake we were going to walk our stuff to the truck and then go find his deer, but we ended up doing both. Almost the exact same size as the first deer I ever killed, makes it easier on me when he doesn't set the bar too high right away. Made some great memories and he's already looking forward to next season. Then I stop this morning for my quick morning fishing before work and see this brute drinking from the water's edge not far from me.

Found a Megabass Vision 110+2, Shadtron, Major Craft Zoner, Azuma crankbait (now a BassMooch Claud Hopper), a wounded Spook, and a Berkley 6" Cullshad. I also pulled up a Magdraft Freestyle when I snagged the line it was tied to and it appears to still be in good enough shape to fish.

Haven't posted for a while but I've been getting out and fishing quite a bit. Water temps are down in the mid 50's, about my favorite time of year to fish. I've been catching some nice ones, including a new lake PB at one of the lakes nearest my house that ate one of my homemade Ned jigs. I'm less than 100 fish from the beginning of the year goal to catch 2025 bass this year.

A bunch, they’re my favorite cold water, wide wobbling crawfish imitation. They cast much better than the old wiggle warts also.

I use a 7' 9" and 7' 11" swimbait rod in kayak with no issues. Most of my rods are 7' or longer and I'm a majority of the time a kayak angler anymore.