Bluebasser86

I'm in this same boat. I'd love to have a new truck. Find myself looking at them more and more often, then I see those monthly payments ? I can buy a lot of tanks of gas for what 1 truck payment cost with what they're asking for them right now.

I caught several from a cove that was partially frozen over on Sunday. The back and edges were skim ice but there was a little ditch that went from 2 to 4 feet of water that had patches of grass. Picked off a couple pretty decent ones from that grass.

I'd love to see the pros who are good offshore smallmouth fishermen come here and try to catch them. I could be wrong, but I think they'd either have to adapt or they'd leave very frustrated. Mostly, they'd probably just come away disappointed with how many small bass they were catching from most of our lakes I'd guess. I don't think they'd have any problems catching them though.

Pretty close. Rozante is a little fatter and heavier, but I fish both on spinning gear so it's not an issue for me.

Not fun. My wife and kids are always getting sick in the winter months with something. I credit me working in the environment I have for so long with building up my immune system so I don't seem to get it nearly as often as they do.

08 Tundra with 185k miles on it. Gets about 13mpg without the boat, 11 with it. Rods ride on the boat to the lake if I'm in the boat, or in the passenger seat if I'm in the yak.

Big fan of the 6th Sense Provoke and Berkley Stunna. The Strike King 300 has been my big fish jerkbait the past several winters though and the Duo Rozante 77 is great when I want a smaller bait, although I've been using the Megabass Nanahan a lot this year also with great results.

I know a couple of guys that make pretty popular swimbaits. They make them in their shops/garages by themselves or with the help of a couple people. Making a batch of 50 baits is a 2 week to month long project. When they do a "drop", they sell out in less than 5 minutes despite being priced at $140-$160 each. They're not underproducing them, they just can't keep up with demand with their small scale operations.

Got out yesterday in the yak again and had another really solid day. Didn't get quite the numbers as last week, but put over 30 in the boat from 8am-2:30pm. Air temps were 21* to 41* but it never felt that warm with the breeze blowing all day. Water temps started just below 41* and "warmed up", to just below 42* by the end of the day. Caught fish on a blade bait, jerkbait, Savage Gear sleeper gill type bait, but Ned ruled the day again. The size was a little better this time too. I spent almost the whole day fishing 1 point.

Hadn't ever found a Bull Shad before, now I've found 2 in 2 weeks, the exact same one too. Just the cheap, baby bull shads, but still pretty good finds. Both were way up in trees. One was tied on probably 8lb mono, the bottom was tied to what had to be at least 50lb braid.

Last Sunday was a rare day that I spent most of the day at home just hanging around the house. Spent a lot of time on the couch trying to get over whatever stomach bug kept me out from Wednesday evening on. Watched a lot of football and our younger dog Chloe doesn't ever want to leave my side when I'm at home. I'd eaten a sandwich in 4 days, muscles were cramping from dehydration. I think she was trying to make sure I was okay.

Heavy vegetation calls for straight braid. Nothing else is is even a decent option. If it's sparse grass that can be moved with brute force, you could try heavy flouro, but I'd still go straight braid, and I'd rather fish flouro of the 2.

They're fair game for bait here also, anything is really. Just has to be keeper sized and count towards your daily limit of that species of fish. Most of our smallmouth lakes have an 18" minimum length limit though, so I doubt many are being used as live bait. Many largemouth lakes have slots that allow keeping fish under 12", and bass are pretty popular bait fish on some of those lakes.

I prefer the RES, the 2 tap specifically. There's lots of good lipless baits on the market anymore though.

They really only offer a big advantage if you're fishing them really slowly and allowing them to flair while at rest IMO. Otherwise, there's not much difference between them and a standard jig other than potentially some bulk in the profile.

Not many. The Suspending Quake is a pretty good sized bait, similar sized to most other companies 3/4oz baits. That particular fish just happened to really eat it, but it still came out easy. I don't have an issue with them swallowing 1/4oz traps at all.

This is very true. Don't know how many times something has caught my eye that wasn't a lure, but after looking around a little I find a bait nearby. It's almost like you just get a feeling that there is a bait there.

I love the #5 shad rap for cold water bass fishing, have not had the same success with the Flicker Shad. The Flicker Shad Shallow has been a very good bait for me in the winter months though. The #7 is a bit larger and cast better than a #5 shad rap. They also have rattles, a plus in our stained water, are considerably cheaper, and more durable.

Jerkbaits and flatsided cranks are my 2 main baits of choice during the winter months and account for lots of big fish into the 7lb range. I'm also in the group that my numbers go way down in winter, but size goes way up.

YUM Craw Papi 3.75"

Not anything I'm really looking forward to fishing more other than an A-rig. Only real reason for that is Kansas is going from allowing 2 hooks on the rig, to allowing 5 on January 1st. So I'll be actually able to utilize it quite a bit more effectively now and pretty excited to do so.

I have a lot of success with the 1/4oz RES right after the shad spawn. Fish it over the top of submerged grass, stop and go on shallow, wind blown flats, or over rip rap. The bites I've had on them are pretty violent.

Flatheads eat next to nothing during the winter months. Lots of video evidence of baits bouncing through large winter congregations, even hitting them in the face/mouth and they don't even flinch. When they do eat, it's normally something small. I'd be shocked if they're preying on the smallmouth at all until the water warms up.

Welcome!