Bluebasser86

Thanks, she's my good luck charm too.

On my way to the lake Monday morning. That's not snow on the road, it's hail.

I drink water while I'm fishing, maybe Gatorade if I'm feeling fancy. I don't drink beer, but I do enjoy whiskey.

Jerkbait wasn't just catching bass this weekend.

Table Rock has a bunch of those 12-14 inch fish, but there's certainly plenty of bigger ones in there too. We won our club team tournament there last March with 30 pounds for 2 days and had the big bass of 4.5 pounds. Sad thing is, before the tournament during practice we caught a 21lb bag (I use the term "we" loosely, as all I did was drive the boat and net fish). They were all off the same spot too. It was such an impressive feat that @gardnerjigman retired from fishing shortly after that, I guess figuring he had nothing else to prove

None on their website, probably not a good sign. The new Carbonlite looks really similar and for about the same price though. I have one of the Titanium 8 rods, I believe the 7' 4" MH? I tried to sell it locally and nobody was interested.

Chartreuse black back Fat Jon

#2 and #3 are what I use for a majority of my baits.

The BPS Speed Shad makes a good trailer. Get a bait with a wire keeper on it and the trailer will last much longer. I buy my keitech style swimbaits in bulk from custom bait makers. Makes the price per bait about half of what it is for a Keitech, they're more durable, and they still have good action.

I have my preferred brands, but I'll buy whatever if I find a good deal or see something I like.

Just peg a 1/16oz bullet weight to the top of a 4/0 hook.

Air temp isn't nearly as important as water temp. It can be 75 degrees out but if the water is 45, a lot of baits aren't going to work. Sounds like you figured out something that worked though. You might try a black and blue bladed jig if you normally have success on a spinnerbait and they have stopped working for you.

Mine are done and packed up ready to be packaged with everything else and shipped. So I don't have exact pictures, but they'll look something like these.

It happens often in the lakes I fish where they both live. A few years ago I was night fishing one and caught a 3 1/4lb smallmouth and 4.5lb largemouth on back to back cast to the same dock corner on the same jig.

Wife and I did a little fishing Sunday at the neighbor's pond. She was able to get her first fish of the year along with several others on a little X-rap. I caught several including one decent one that about swallowed my Storm Twitch Stick. Also caught several really big crappie, the biggest being in the 15-16 inch range. Monday I went to settle the score with a lake that is usually good to me, but wasn't very nice my first trip out to it this year. It was much nicer this time, although the weather was pretty bad with a cold wind and drizzle almost all day. We caught lots of largemouth, couple smallmouth, bunch of super fat white bass, couple crappie, several trout, and several drum. My biggest bass of the day seems to know what to do with all the tiny trout they stocked in the lake a few weeks ago. She was only 18" long and 3.81 pounds with about a 10" trout in her throat/stomach, so don't think "there's no fish big enough here to fish big baits".

Welcome!

I'm sure you've probably seen it, but this is the whole fight minus the bite and hookset.

I mainly fish 3/8oz, but I make my own so carrying a variety of sizes is easy and I have them from 1/8oz to 1oz.

Most of them have skirts that are very easy to remove and replace with a different color. I doubt the blade puts off much flash in most situations, but it's a confidence thing for me. As for painting your own, don't heat them very long and make sure you dip them very quickly if you're dipping them in the paint. I paint my own, but I use a powder paint gun to get a nice even coat without making it too thick.

I suggest you buy her something nicer if she's going to fish much at all. I started out buying my wife (then girlfriend), a cheaper combo and the reel would constantly get line twist, which resulted in her getting frustrated and giving up, which resulted in trips being cut short because she'd be bored and tired of fighting with the reel and having to have me untangle it. I bought her a Quantum Energy spinning reel and St. Croix Avid Pearl rod and now she no longer has problems with her line tangling and will fish much longer. The Pflueger Trion is a fine reel though if you're set on one of those two. Not sure about the rod, but I had a Pflueger Trion combo many years ago and the rod was actually pretty decent.

I have one that works the same way. Very nice reels for a spin casting reel.

I used to use Gulp! spray all the time and actually felt like it did help quite a bit at times. I spilled a bottle in my boat once and stopped carrying it after that.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Wow that's a fat one! Congrats!