Bluebasser86

The term weedless is misleading for sure. A majority of jigs are a poor option in weeds (none are a good option in moss). There really aren't many lures that can combat moss in fact. Fishing over or around that stuff is going to be your best bet. A lot of bodies of water will grow heavy weeds or moss that will die off around early summer time.

Did you happen to measure the length? That helps almost as much as a picture unless the fish is super fat. To me it looks like you're right on the money with your 5-6 pound guess.

The H2O line of rods and reels from Academy or a Pfluegar Trion spinning combo.

It's still early in the year and most people that fish out there are catfishing or just don't have a clue. Drew and I caught between 50 and 75 last fall in a fairly short trip. There's not many big fish left but it's not Douglas State Lake either.

Yeah you guys got it bad down there. We were just wrapping up our Thursday night tournament when it started flashing to the south. Got some pea sized hail on the way home and a little rain and pretty strong winds but we were right on the north edge of the storm. One of the guys that fished lives in Louisburg and he got hailed on the whole way home.

This is the exact reason I mentioned being concerned about your line. Everyone backlashes, if you do it with a heavy bait and braid you also get to lose a bait in the process.

My best suggestion is to not take large bass like the OP mentioned. The bigger a bass is, the more likely it's a big female that could be full of eggs. Time of year is also a good tip off as to whether it may or may not be full of eggs. Keep fish that are just an over keeper size to 2 or 3 inches over keeper sized, they'll taste better anyways. Better yet, if you have any slot lakes nearby, keep the "unders". We have several slot lakes nearby that I try to encourage people to keep the fish under the 13" mark as they're overpopulated. 5 12-13 inch bass should be more fish than a couple people can eat anyways.

I'd fish them.

That's a great looking fish!

Most expensive tackle storage system I've ever bought.

Bladed jig

Be careful, my dad just bought his first Megabass Vision 110 this week. Caught a trout on his 5th cast with it, then this happened when he tried to grab it.

IMO, there has to be some kind of physical aspect to a sport. Poker takes a great deal of mental concentration and skill, but I couldn't ever recognize it as a sport.

The puppy is very finicky. I fish mine on a spinning rod with 6 or 8 pound mono, using very quick, short snaps. It's a small bait, small prey items don't make big movements, so I don't want my bait to make big movements.

Here's the crappie that DJ caught on a jerkbait, 18" and 2lbs 10ozs. Not very thick as we think it was a very large male black crappie.

Peter said the place he booked sleeps 7, so we can split it up 5 and 5 or 6 and 4 however we want to do it.

I'll book one of the big cabins at Riverview that should cover everyone else that isn't staying with Peter? I can cover it and just figure out what everyone owes me. Or we can just fend for ourselves and get a hotel in town or whatever.

Bass also don't have mirrors to look into and have no idea how big they actually are. Only way they can find out if they can eat something is to try.

Baitsmith Magnums

Nice fish! Good to have you back and reporting deep

What techniques do you primarily plan on fishing?

Welcome!

First win of the year! gardnerjigman and I teamed up for 14lbs 11ozs and I caught the big bass at 4lbs 14ozs. They were slamming my bladed jigs, which is always a good time. Took us about 30 minutes to get a fish, which feels like an eternity in a 2.5 hour weeknight tournament. Then I got my heart broke by a 5lb channel cat that slammed the bait 15' from the boat. Finally got on them good in the very back of one of the main lake arms in less than 2' of water. Both my bigger fish were right on the bank in less than a foot and hit the bait almost instantly. The biggest fish had a massive gizzard shad tail sticking out of her throat. I fished a few different colors but 2 of them were by far my best producers. Had a few on a spinnerbait also but nothing that got weighed in. \ The big girl fell for Bream with a Zman Diesel MinnowZ in Houdini Our other two biggest fish choked the T-rock with a black and blue YUM swim 'N dinger on the back. Coty snagged a massive grass carp with his bladed jig for a few seconds, looked like a scene from Swamp People with muddy water and weeds flying everywhere when it exploded the surface when the hook dug in, thankfully it popped loose. Had a massive 18" crappie caught by another team, never seen a crappie that big in person, it was a giant! Second place had 9lbs 7ozs and were both also fishing my bladed jigs. We watched them catch their kicker fish, 4lbs 12ozs. Kind of bittersweet to have someone else doing well with your baits when you're fishing against them

We had a 18" crappie caught last night on a suspending jerkbait during our weeknight tournament. Biggest crappie I've ever seen that wasn't swimming in an aquarium.

That is one of the fattest bass I've ever seen!