Bluebasser86

Welcome!

Googan Squad Lite

I tried on a mostly still frozen warm water lake, but fish use to warm water apparently don't like it when it suddenly gets cold.

Barely missed winning a tournament several years ago with a T-rigged pumpkin 5" Chompers. 1/4oz bullet weight with a 3/0 EWG. They wouldn't hardly touch it on a jighead but were chewing it T rigged, no idea why.

Got high hopes for these things. Not pictured is a Northern Secret 110+1 JR also, didn't figure that was worth showing ?

Most are what I'd call "pressure" bites. I never feel anything, it's just extra weight on the line when I try to move the bait or lift the rod next time. I'm also a rod tip watcher and will check the inflection of the rod tip to see if there's any noticeable movement. I use a fairly long rod (7' 3" ML/XF), with 10lb braid and an 8lb leader but we don't have a lake in the state with 100' of water in it so I can't speak on fishing anything that deep.

Green pumpkin red is my favorite, but I really like green pumpkin blue, green pumpkin orange, green pumpkin green, green pumpkin purple, and regular green pumpkin too.

For dirty water, a plain green pumpkin jig and the green pumpkin trailer of your choice. The color isn't going to matter as much as putting it in front of them in that situation.

If you can find the Storm twitch sticks, they've been great pond baits for me. Lucky Craft 65 pointers are another I fish in ponds a lot. The old school Rogues are good too.

Rage and Keitech swing Impacts

It happens, I just try to learn from it. Reflect and try to think of why (real reasons why, not excuses), I didn't get bit. I believe the good fishermen learn more from the tough days than the good days. Anyone can catch them when they're jumping in the boat, it's when you're grinding for them and having to listen and adjust and scrape for every bite that the truly good anglers rise up and find a way to get those bites, most days ?

I've never understood the internet weight guessing professionals. Unless it's going to somehow effect them personally, like they're entering the fish at that weight into an online contest or something, who cares? It's a big fish, congrats, move on with your life. How many of us regularly catch fish that size to know what one looks like? Not me unfortunately.

I use primarily those "tip heavy", St. Croix rods you hear about and I catch a fish every now and then despite it ? Maybe I'm just not in touch with my sensitive side enough to notice. Maybe it's because I don't like the super lightweight reels. Whatever it is, their rods work for me, they last, they're sensitive, and made in the USA is always a nice bonus.

I have done several trips with kids. It's a different animal when taking kids. It helps to find someone who has done it and has the patience for it. I would suggest maybe not targeting bass specifically. I usually do multispecies trips and it's great because the kids catch fish and get to learn about different fish in the process. Catching a bass can be so much more work than getting on a windblown bank with a small crankbait or grub and catching whites, crappie, walleye, drum, catfish, or whatever else mixed in with some bass.

51.5 pounds

If you're fishing lakes that don't get hit by a lot of wind, or aren't overly shallow, then there's not a lot of need for power poles IMO. I fish lakes that are both shallow and windy and I still manage to catch a few fish without them. I had a 16' aluminum Lowe for my last boat. It had a 60hp 4 stroke Mercury and would run in the low 30's. Unless there's a hp restriction on the lakes you're fishing, you'll never wish you had a smaller motor. I'll pile on and say you'll want at least a 70lb 24v trolling motor and make sure it's a variable speed and not a 5 speed motor because the differences between speeds, especially at the higher speeds is so great and they go through batteries faster.

Maybe this will help answer your question.

My wife and I have talked about it quite a bit. I'm too far along in my career to relocate now. We don't want to go somewhere that gets completely miserable for a large portion of the year, just somewhere that it doesn't get routinely subzero temps like it does here. I enjoy winter fishing. Fishing in 30 degree weather while it's still outside with fat snowflakes falling, it's magical.

I think he'll probably do pretty well behind that Oline they have. He's way more mobile than Rivers is and they kept him clean enough to make it to the playoffs. If he could get his confidence back with Reich, he could get back to close to his near MVP season form.

My little kitty from a week or so ago. Trying to warm up fishing a jigging spoon for whites or wipers, I wasn't cold anymore after fighting it.

If this warm weather coming is any indication, maybe by March. Should have given the lakes a good chance to clear up finally.

I like a walking bait with a slower, steadier retrieve than I use during the warmer months.

Only 3/4lb off our state record largemouth. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught a 5lb spot. A DD is just hard to wrap my head around.

Welcome!

As always, catch a bass over 8lbs in my home state. Compete in kayak tournaments. Get my family out fishing as much as possible. I want to be a more versatile angler this year. I fished for almost nothing but bass last year. I want to do better targeting more species of fish in '21.