Bluebasser86

Have you ever fished one on a shakyhead? I started fishing mine on a football shakyhead instead of a jighead with a weedguard and won't ever go back.

Havoc Pitboss, Devil's Spear, or Rage Menace rigged vertically instead of horizontally are my main trailers. Also like a 4.8 fat impact style trailer when they're eating big gizzard shad.

Had another guide trip Friday in some nasty, cold front conditions. Highs 25 degrees colder than the day before, lows right at freezing, 20-30 mph winds, bluebird skies, everything you hope won't happen when you're taking someone fishing that is expecting you to put them on fish, especially on a lake that is already notoriously tough. I had a plan to point the nose of the boat into the wind and just fight the wind the best I could while doing a kind of controlled drift backwards down the bank I wanted to concentrate on. Took a bunch of waves over the front of the boat and almost took a swim a couple different times, but we put a hurting on them! No real monsters, but lots of nice fish. Richard was a good stick but old school so it took a minute to get the hang of fishing a Ned like the fish wanted. Once he got it down he was working them over with it. He was really liking the Flash Green Smackdown, made the bites a lot easier for him to see when he couldn't feel them. The real shocker was a smallmouth. There's be stories and they've almost gained a mythical status at this lake. In almost 20 years of fishing it a lot, I've never caught one or seen proof of one until this one came up attached to my jerkbait. I caught it and I still almost don't believe it.

Yes, when someone asks about catching a fish, and folks from a completely different region start bickering about whether a completely different fish should be kept or released when caught, that's pretty effectively derailing a thread, especially when it's getting down to name calling and borderline everyone getting warnings to play nice.

Spinnerbait through those trees would be my first choice. Colorado blades and reel it slowly. Second would be bumping a crankbait through them.

Welcome!

If you don't have anything to add to the OP's questions, keep it to yourself instead of derailing his post.

I guided in a cold front yesterday. Temperatures dropped from highs of almost 80 the day before, to 32 when I got to the ramp and only made it to 57. Bluebird skies, high pressure, 20-30mph winds, Whitecaps, only boat on the lake. We were able to fish 1 long bank effectively so we fished down it 4 times. I had to point the boat into the waves and control our drift backwards. Took a bunch of waves over the front and almost fell out more than once, and caught a bunch of fish on small plastics, Ned rigs, and a jerkbait. It was a prime example of you don't know if you don't go.

15 would be my choice for the all around size. I agree with @WRB though, Fluoro is not a good all around line. I like it for sinking baits, bottom contact baits like jigs, T rigs, flukes, stick worms and little else. It's just a waste of money otherwise when you could use a good mono or copolymer. To get the best out of Fluoro you really have to buy the higher end lines that are very pricey. If you're going to spool up all your reels with that you can drop some serious money on fishing line alone.

I would fish the edges of them for sure. I've caught far more bass from the edges of pads than I have from deep in the middle of them. The best thing to do is find areas that would likely hold bass even if the pads weren't there. Something like an area with a laydown, ditch, rockpile, ect. Those areas are already appealing to the fish and become even more appealing with the pads there and make locating fish less of a chore.

Gambler makes a good one.

I make a black and red, along with green pumpkin and red jig and bladed jig. Also do a kind of Rayburn Red bladed jig that works good in dirty water. A bladed jig bumping slowly along the bottom looks a lot like a craw scooting along the bottom I imagine, as much if not more than a lipless bait does I'd think.

The Strike King HTC 1.5 will get really close if it doesn't. It was by far my best crank this winter.

Usually leave them on and regret it later when my hooks have spots of rust on them.

They're so versatile, there's not reason to ever stop fishing them. They're an excellent shakyhead bait that I use during the middle of winter. The subtle wobble while they're sitting almost motionless gets me quite a few bites on a shakyhead in cold water I have no doubt.

I agree with @WRB, fluoro is a complete waste of money for cranking. Good mono or copolymer is cheaper, and more consistent. Big Game or PLine CXX are great lines for cranking. The Pline will drag a whole tree in too. I like 15lb for traps, but you could bump it up to 17 or even 20 from the bank unless you really want long cast. The added diameter will not only be stronger, but it will help keep the bait up higher with a slower retrieve. JAR gets a ton of shore pressure and along with quite a bit of wood, you're dealing with lots of fishing line in the water. You're likely losing a good number of your baits to heavy catfish line and braid along with brush. There's nothing you can do if you hang in that mess. Look at it from the other side though. Switch back to those flimsy stock hooks so you can straighten them when a bait hangs, then you hang a big fish and lose it because the hooks straighten. Is that worth getting some baits back? It completely defeats the purpose of going to me if I'm not going to be prepared to land the biggest fish I might encounter.

Is it possible the lakes just lack a good population of bass? Maybe you're doing great catching the occasional 3-5 pound fish and shouldn't change anything? I personally despise fishing lily pads and will do about anything to avoid them. If that was my only option, I'd be fishing a frog on top and around the edges, a beaver or other plastic down through them, or an unweighted stick worm on the edges and in holes in the pads. 100% braided line, no leaders, this is combat fishing with heavy gear.

It isn't for me. Summer can be 100+ degrees, winter can be single digits. I have a 100mph suit I wear in the cold, and a Frabill F3 suit for warmer weather. If it's really going to be raining in the winter though, I'll go with the Frabill suit and layer up because it's WAY better at keeping me dry than the 100mph suit.

I'm a big line watcher, and I like to watch my rod tip as well for those slight visual cues my hands might not detect. Line watching is a big reason why I was excited about Flash Green Seaguar Smackdown that just came out. I've never been able to see yellow very well in small amounts like thin fishing line, but I could see that bright green easily. It's already helped me catch quite a few fish.

Welcome!

The wind does not push bait fish, it pushes plankton that bait fish feed on and the bait fish follow it. This time of year when the water is warming, the surface warms the fastest. The surface water is also the water that is pushed around the most by the wind, so when you get a strong wind blowing it will blow the warm surface water to one side of the pond/lake and make it warmer than everywhere else. It can be more difficult to fish because of wind but the fish will often be noticeably more active. I'm going to try to make it out for a couple hours to a smaller lake at some point tomorrow in hopes of finding a big, prespawner. Got another guide trip on La Cygne Friday that the wind is probably going to make interesting to say the least.

The side the wind is blowing to is usually the warmest right now but those ponds are all going to be over 50 degrees so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Spinnerbaits and bladed jigs are usually good out there.

Fishing while the cold front is moving through can be great, it's after it's passed that it gets difficult.

My 5 year old gets a pretty steady helping of wacky rigs, ned rigs, and grubs. All of them catch lots of fish, none are difficult to fish, don't even need to know what a bite feels like to catch fish with them, and when he loses some of them it's not a big loss. Plus they're all single hooks so they're less likely to hook something or someone else.