Bankbeater

About 15 years ago my dad and I were fishing out of a jonboat in about 12 to 15 mph winds. My dad turns the boat into the wind and tells me to go forward and drop the anchor. I drop the anchor but the wind is still moving the boat. My dad makes a remark that the wind doesn’t seem strong enough to be dragging the anchor. I look forward out across the water and see the anchor line floating about 30 feet away. I had forgot to tie the rope to the boat before I dropped the anchor. Lucky we were only in about 10 feet of water.

I was catching a few bass yesterday on jigs and plastics. Nothing on topwater, or moving baits.

I use a St. Croix premier mh/f for all jigs up to 3/4 ounce. Jigs over 3/4 ounce are fished on the punch rig.

Try tying off the line to something that won’t move. Then press the button and walk off the spool. When you come to the end of the spool start winding the line back up and walk back towards the end. Make sure you hold the reel level as you wind the line back up. If the line keeps piling on one side the pawl in the reel may need to be replaced.

Years ago I would leave right after work. The drive would take 5-1/2 or 6 hours depending on where I was heading. Since then there have been many smallie trips where I slept in the car. As I get older I prefer sheets and a nice mattress.

A lot of the local water I fish sees very heavy pressure on a daily basis. It isn’t practical to go there and target large bass and expect to catch one. Better to go for numbers and be happy that I didn’t get skunked, and hopefully catch a nice pic worthy bass.

I’d try a jig and craw, t-rigged plastic, or a crankbait.

Going to be staying home doing yard work over the holiday weekend. I’ll head back out on the water Tuesday after the fishing pressure thins a bit.

Water is still warm in the ponds I fish. Doesn’t look like it’s going to cool down any time soon.

Those weeds can either be a blessing or a curse.

I downsize with the same type of bait. Plastic worm to smaller plastic worm. 3/8 jig to 1/8 jig.

I've been using the camera on a smartphone for years. If anything I'll need to shrink the pic down. I don't think I have ever needed to enlarged one.

A spook has been my number one bait this summer. I start with a bone colored super spook jr, if the bass don't want that I switch over to a bone colored zara puppy. As a last resort I will try a baby bass Zara puppy. If that doesn't work I stop fishing topwater baits.

I figure I'm going to get snagged so I bring my lure retriever along with me.

Abbott and Costello have been my favorite since I was a little kid.

Spring was a bust. I expected it to be bad in March, but when the bass didn’t cooperate in April and May I almost gave up. Luckily things turned around in June, and hopefully I’ll find the hawgs in the fall.

I have caught bass sometimes before and sometimes after storms. It depends on the bass and what they want.

I fish a 4" Senko on 10 lb Big Game. I fish the larger size Senkos on 15 lb Big Game.

Jig and craw

I’ve had two shoulder surgeries, one on each side. Some of the recovery depends on what they had to fix and some depends on your condition before surgery. I had a major tear in my right shoulder. Hurt like heck to move it and I couldn’t get my elbow raised above my shoulder. Recovery was 5 weeks in a sling and 3 months of daily PT exercises. It took a month before it was strong enough to lift anything over a pound. My left shoulder wasn’t torn as bad and I was able to work it out before surgery about every other day. The left was in a sling for 5 weeks, but I hardly had to do any PT after the sling came off.

Prayers are with you. Stay safe.

The past few years September has been pretty good here. I can’t say the same for October. During the first or second week it’s like somebody flipped a switch. You’d swear these lake didn’t have any fish in them.

When I was growing up we were going from paycheck to paycheck also. My parents grew up during the Great Depression so they didn’t waste anything. When I buy something new it’s because I need it, or to replace something that is on it’s last leg.

I change baits if I haven’t had any luck with anything tied on. If the bite has been going good and just shut down then I keep fishing. There is no way to tell how long the bite will be down. It might be 15 min or it might be an hour.

Cloudy days I start with maybe a blue/black or a brown. Sunny clear days get natural colors. Rainy days get a blue/black or black. I start on top of the water column and go down until I find where the bass are. That’s my rule of thumb but sometimes you can just toss it out the window because bass aren’t following it.