Bluebasser86

They'll move fairly shallow during warmer weather, fish near deeper water when it's cold. You don't have to fish small baits. I've caught a lot of them on 4-5 inch jerkbaits.

My biggest wintertime pond crappie have all eaten suspending jerkbaits, especially around laydowns or over grass.

I cast off an $80 swimbait into an off limits area last winter, don't feel too bad. Hopefully the boat is nothing major.

Haven't been able to find them, but it's a cool bait.

They never want to visit during the daytime ☹️

Little Cleo, 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4oz. Gold, silver, copper, silver/orange, silver/blue, copper/red, and rainbow are the best colors for me. A Turner Jone's micro jig under a bobber is good when they won't hit the spoons. I won't fish powerbait for them, I don't need to catch them that badly. They're fun to catch, awful to eat, they make great cutbait for catfish though. One of the lakes I fish for them stocks giants.

Fish winter into spring when they weigh the most. Use bigger baits to target bigger fish.

Which one? I have several different ones, casting and spinning. There's lots of threads about them out there too.

A ML rod is best for a Ned rig. I use a 6' 10" ML/XF with a 25 size Pflueger Supreme XT spooled with 10lb KastKing braid.

One of my favorite colors, especially for big fish. I probably carry 5-10 of my black and blue bladed jigs at any given time.

A Ned rig deadsticked in their face will usually get them to bite, at least it works for me. Backreeling is also much more dependable than a drag in extreme cold, one of the reasons I do it. Pliers work real well to pry open frozen livewell and storage hatches too. I get to do that same song and dance so many times each winter

I fished in Indiana once in a regional tournament. You have my condolences.

A zoom magnum finesse worm on a 1/16 or 1/8oz shakyhead is one of my main fish catchers during the winter months.

I have several TCS, a couple EVX, and a Guide Select, all great rods.

It's been a great year for big fish for me, probably because I spent a lot of time on the lakes where they live ? 4/5 are from the same lake. 33.81 for my biggest 5. 7.43 6.72 6.63 6.58 6.45

Get a shad, a green pumpkin/bluegill, and a black and blue, you'll be set.

First day I fished this year was -2 when we launched and made it all the way to 22 for a high. Caught 2 of my biggest bass of the year that day though, so I keep subjecting myself to it.

I haven't, it wasn't presented as an option to me. Mine was work related, so I had to go on their recovery program unless I wanted to pay for it myself. It took almost a year, which was about the max timeline they presented, but I guess maybe it will be healed for good now instead of a temporary fix.

They wanted to try on my boots.

I should have saved the video of the whale of a buffalo I caught on my RLE Friday. Snagged in the side of the head in heavy current on a lipless bait, heck of a fight, especially having to bring it over a submerged cable. Reel performed great.

More of a walleye head than a bass head imo. Might be able to add a screwlock and make an interesting standup style shakyhead? If it were me, I'd sell it instead of modifying and potentially messing it up.

This is always a fun post. January through March were spent on the power plant lakes like usual, even more so with the cold winter we had this year. A homemade 1/8oz football shakyhead with a Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm in Redbug color was solid at the largemouth lake as usual, accounting for my largest bass of the year on January 2nd. A Strike King Rodent in watermelon/red flake on either a homemade brush shakyhead or swinging football head caught a lot of fish as well. When they were eating baitfish I did well on my trusty, and well worn, Redeye shad tungsten 2 tap in silver/black back. It was my first year fishing a Storm Smash Shad as well and the rainbow smelt #6 was a productive bait. I also caught a few, large individuals on a Savage Gear 185 Shine Glide in bone color. The jerkbait bite was off, but I had one good day with a KVD 300 in Sexy Shad. 7.43 shakyhead fish The Rodent on a brush shakyhead in the mouth of a 6.73, same day as the above fish. Shine Glide fish CHOKED KVD 300 jerkbait, fish was a little north of 6.5 pounds. Another Rodent fish, on a swing head this time. Early-mid April saw the jerkbait bite finally wake up. A Storm Twitch Stick caught a lot of fish for me to my surprise. Kind of fished it in nasty places and from shore, anticipating it's demise that would surely happen at some point, but it never happened and the thing just whacked them. Dumb pond fish sure, but it outproduced others I tried. A big winner for the year was the Duo Realis Rozante 77 in Neo Pearl. I caught so many fish on that little bait (and continue to), I wish I had tried it sooner. A Duo 120 in Purple Mist was a good bait for me also. Twitch Stick fish that was stupid fat. A 3 1/4lb smallmouth that choked the Rozante Fatty on the Purple Mist 120, this fish actually had a trout tail sticking out it's throat. Late April into May spring finally decided to show up, and then summer immediately followed. A black and blue, or grasshopper homemade flipping jig was good for then and both remained that way throughout the year. Another big player for me throughout the year was a War Eagle gold double hammered willowleaf 1/2oz spinnerbait with a chartreuse pearl YUM split tail trailer. I wore 2 of them out this year I caught so many fish on them. A YUM Bad Momma was bedding bass bait of choice this spring. That was just the bait that seemed to really fire them up. The first topwater bite started in May and another major contributor started producing, a Paycheck Baits Repoman. A 1/8oz slider head with a Croc-O-Gator Ring Craw in green pumpkin/orange flake did what it always does every spring and had a couple days when it caught a bunch of really nice fish. The big jerkbait bite fired up and the new Jackall Rerange 130 was just what they wanted. Grasshopper jig 5.74 on a the War Eagle 5.80 bed fish on the Bad Momma, big bass of the tournament. Paycheck Repoman fish Jackall Rerange 6.63 on the Ring Craw Summer was tough and also divided a lot between bass and time I spent in a multispecies kayak challenge. The Savage Gear Fruck was an interesting bait that proved it wasn't just a gimmick. A Booyah Popping Pad Crasher was a steady producer of solid fish. The Big Bite Baits Yomomma caught lots of fish like it has the last few years. Probably the most consistent bait was a solid black Strike King Ocho, either weight T rigged or wacky rigged. Had some good days on a homemade bladed jig in Code Blue color, and also got outside my comfort zone and caught some fish on a Strike King 6XD and the new Bandit Rackit. The new smaller size YUM Pulse swimbait was a solid bait for me also. Frucked Code Blue bladed jig Skinny 6XD fish Black Ocho jungle bass August saw a resurgence of the Rozante. A jerkbait bite in hot water is something I've never been able to achieve consistently. Maybe it was something going on in the lakes, but I really think it was this bait. Smallmouth, largemouth, walleye, crappie, white bass, wipers, drum, catfish, gar, everything ate it. The Whopper Plopper 75 was good for me also. 75 Plopper stud smallie September into October was pretty wide open with everything working. The homemade flipping jigs were really good again. I had one really good day with a Booyah Melee. The Rozante just kept on catching, and the War Eagle came back big time. My homemade bladed jigs really started working double time also, both sexy momma and code blue colors. Booyah Melee Grasshopper jig in a 5 3/4 pounders mouth Swallowed War Eagle Homemade bladed jig, sexy momma

Welcome!

Video from Thursday at La Cygne