Bankbeater

I set my drag by feel. I like it a little on the heavy side so I can set that hook and turn the bass before it realizes it’s been hooked.

I try to retie the night before, but I learned the hard way it’s not a good idea to start tying late night when tired. Now if I have something going on the night before a trip I retie earlier in the week.

The longest I have gone with a skunk on me is 3 consecutive trips. I don’t count trips down to the local park to practice a new technique, or to check the gear.

I don’t catch very many on buzzbaits and even less on ploppers. I prefer spooks and jitterbugs.

Mann’s baby 1 minus.

3” BPS Stik-o, 4” Zoom finesse worm, 1/8 jig and craw.

Cut up green sunfish, minnows under a bobber, catfish dough bait, chicken liver, shrimp, and worms. Catfish will eat just about anything.

Wow. That has to hurt.

Have a good trip!

As long as the bite is regular I stay, but if it turns off or changes I move. If I'm in a spot where I'm catching say 3 lb bass, and I start catching dinks, or start getting bluegill taps, I move on.

I use it on my spinning reels. A good spray midweek and let it soak in, then a quick spray the night before the trip. It does help.

T-rig with a 1/8, 3/16, or 1/4 ounce weight, and as a trailer on a jig.

I’ve had a thunderstorm form over the lake before. I’d go Friday.

Jig and craw Mann’s One Minus Jitterbug 4” plastic worm

I lost my forceps one day and I looked everywhere for them. About 6 months later my wife found them in the sofa seat cushions. I still don’t know how they got there.

If that last cast doesn’t catch a bass then I’ll be loading up the car for the drive home. If I catch one on the last cast then my wife will probably call wanting to know where I’m at and what happened to me.

The heat doesn’t bother me as long as I have water. Most of the fish I have been catching has either been in deep water or in the grass. I’m not looking forward to another cold winter. Sometimes a drive out to the lake to look at ice doesn’t cut it for me.

Best advice I ever got was to go to a body of water where you will catch bass. Doesn’t matter how big they are. That taught me what a bite feels like, and different ways to retrieve to get those bites.

I would fish that spinnerbait at all depths and retrieve it at different speeds.

Nice looking bass congratulations!

I have to tell myself to slow down the retrieve. If I didn't, I would be burning everything across the surface.

Creme 6" grape scoundrel.

That's a great story.

After much trial and error, I fill all of my spools up 1/2 way with backing. That leaves me with more than enough line to cast into close targets in cover, and make long distance bombs with heavy baits.

I like to use either a spinnerbait, chatterbait, or a lipless crankbait. I retrieve slow until I feel grass then I speed up the retrieve until I'm not hitting anything any longer. In water 3' or so I like a Mann's one minus.