Bluebasser86

Right, I've never seen one but the pictures I've seen they look rusty brownish/orange with blue streaks and small spots.

Mostly middle and lower, it didn't want to run fast without rolling.

It looks good. I think you might be better with your base color being the color you're using for your spots now, and then doing streaks of blue instead of spots. An extremely difficult pattern to do on such a small area.

I should add I'm in no way saying the brightly colored baits don't work because they clearly do and I have some myself that have accounted for plenty of fish, but guys going for the "match the hatch", look with a bluegill bait would be better off looking for more of a plain old green pumpkin or watermelon colored bait.

They have to follow state regulations. If a state requires them to be hooked in the mouth, then that's what they follow (like Steve Kennedy on his crazy swimbait day in California many years ago having to turn DD fish loose that were hooked JUST outside the mouth, great video on Youtube if you've never watched it). Otherwise, it only applies to sight fishing. I can clearly remember KVD boxing a fish hooked squarely in the back on a crankbait in a tournament once before I understood that rule and I had to look it up. Figured he knew what he was doing since it was on a televised Bassmaster tournament, but I wanted clarification for myself.

I have the Fury 795 and use it a lot. It handles baits in the 1.5-3.5 ounce range the best.

I took my divider out. Never has any fish in it, but it gets used a lot.

Bluegill patterns are always overdone imo. Juvenile bluegills, the ones that a majority of bass eat, are very drab, at least around here. They're typically a few shades of greens and browns, some iridescent lavender, a touch of white on the belly and some chartreuse highlight on the tail. All the bright orange and blue is overkill unless trying to imitate a spawning green sunfish or longear sunfish. They're not bright colorful fish at all like the color patterns often used to imitate them, not too far off from a shad really.

Hart made one awhile back. I tried it, never caught anything with it.

I think I switched stage 3 and 5. Once I learned how to catch lots of bass, I wanted to show other people how to do it. I still enjoy teaching and showing others almost as much as I enjoy catching them myself, and I'll go back to the "I want to catch lots of bass", stage once in awhile. For the most part these days, It's big ones how I want to catch them.

6-9 months to get all the way better, or much longer because you pushed it and really messed something up and had to have surgery? I get that it sucks, but given the 2 clear options, it's a pretty easy decision. Get that clear bill of health and okay from the Doc before you push it and really hurt it.

Every lake in the midwest with a big dam supposedly has catfish the size of a car that have divers scared to work on the dams. If this were true, we'd have swimmers coming up missing all the time.

Mine didn't catch any fish, it had to be faulty ?

I've got some of the A-A-ron colors of Duo Realis jerkbaits. They're sweet colors but I didn't buy them because of the name on them.

I fish a lot of the same lakes Ned does, I doubt it's an exaggeration, there's just a TON of tiny fish and every bass counts when you're counting every bass. Many of them have slot limits to allow anglers to keep bass under 12" because they're overpopulated and stunted. A couple of them, it would be an embarrassment to catch under 50 fish on an average day if a skilled fisherman was just after numbers of fish, but there might not be a 2lb fish in the whole mess of them. I've also fished with one of his friends that helped develop the Midwest Finesse once. Never in my life have I been beaten so badly from the back of my boat in numbers of fish. It was easily 10-1, and I wasn't doing badly, it just seemed like he was setting the hook every cast he made. My only saving grace was catching a 5lb smallmouth at the end of the day. That was my introduction to the Ned rig many years ago.

Welcome!

If I could pick a month here, it would be March.

Learn the lake first before you just go out and start slinging a big swimbait. Throwing a big bait where there's no big fish does you no good except knocking down your confidence. You need to learn high percentage areas, spots where fish come to feed and hold all the time. I've never fished it, but it sure seems like a lot of big fish get caught there on a jig, so I wouldn't be wandering too far from it just yet.

I don't know. I picked up my last few Duels for $7 but the Yo-Zuri look the exact same. I wouldn't be surprised if the Duels didn't sell at that price point so they rebranded them and put them out under the Yo-Zuri name to see if that helped. I haven't used the lightning pointer. I have very few Lucky Craft baits left in my box. The Duo Realis Rozante 77sp is the best smaller jerkbait out there and the Duo Realis 85 is really good too.

Packers and Bills are my SB pick, I think the Bills win it. They have a more complete team, beating teams badly on both sides of the ball. I know the Chiefs beat them earlier this year, but they're trending the wrong way and I hate the extended break. You can only do just enough to win for so long before it comes back to bite you, and there's no second chances in the playoffs.

What'd they do? Stock 10 of them in a kiddie pool? It takes a couple months to catch them all back out of the lakes here. Even the small lakes that get tons of pressure will take 2-3 weeks before they get fished out if the catch rate is high.

I went out there Saturday morning but it was early and the temps were 35-37 everywhere I went. Pretty sure I had a bite on a Ned rig and I think I hooked one for a second on a blade bait but everything I wanted to fish was under ice and I wasn't feeling it so after a couple hours of fighting icy guides I called it a day. Wish I could have fished the evening instead of the morning but anytime you can fish soft water in late December you have to take the chance when you can get it.

I like my St. Croix rods, but the Triumph is no bueno. I've owned an HMG or two and they're nice rods, I'd buy another over a Triumph no question.

The Yo-Zuri has been out for a couple years but in the Duel-Hardcore lineup (sister company). They whacked a lot of that line and redid them and offer them under the Yo-Zuri name now it seems. Unfortunately, my most productive color was one of the colors they did away with. I had a nearly 20lb bag of smallmouth this spring, in which it accounted for 4 of the 5 fish that day. I'm holding onto hope for the 100 KVD. I'll get it weighted right and I think it'll be good, but it's taking more work than it should for the price.

Most of my big bass are caught during the cold water period ?‍♂️ Plenty of good 4-5 pound fish during prespawn, but those 6+ pound fish are almost always winter time fish for me.