Bankbeater

Good to hear!

I fish the jigs that come with skirts already attached. I replace the skirt when it becomes too beat up to be fished any longer.

6'6" MH/F Casting - Jigs 6'6" MH-F Casting - Heavy T-Rigged Plastics 7'0" MH/F Casting - Spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, Heavy Topwater, and Large Crankbaits 6'6" M/F Spinning - Light Moving Treble Baits, Small Spinnerbaits 6'6" M/F Spinning - Split Shot, Weightless Plastics, and Light T-Rigs I can usually find the bass using one of these 5 rigs.

I would try fishing with a small paddle tail swimbait in the early to mid afternoon time-frame after the pond has had a chance to warm up. If that didn't work I would find some deeper water to fish.

The punch rig gets 65lb braid. Everything else gets Big Game.

For many many years I fished Zoom finesse worms, and Creme scoundrels on a 1/16 or 1/8 ounce Texas rig. Sometimes the bass wanted the worm and sometimes they didn’t. This year I started using the 4” and 6” worms on a split shot rig, and I cleaned up. Next year I’m definitely going to start with a split shot rig first.

I’ve never owned a supreme, but a few Years after I got my first president I got rid of my other spinning reels and replaced them with presidents.

Most of my hard topwater baits either have a white bottom or a black bottom, but I'm starting to think that it's more about the bait than the color. I'm finding that certain topwater baits work better on certain lakes and ponds. I change out the baits in my tackle bag depending on where I am going to fish.

During the fishing season I change line when the spool gets low. Some reels need new line faster than others. Around January I start cleaning the reels, and strip the line off down to the backing. It makes cleaning them easier.

I'm off today so the plan was to go fishing. 20 mph sustained winds and gusts over 40 mph have changed that. I'm going to stay home and look over the bait and tackle websites.

I don't, but a number of my friends do.

You are in our thoughts and prayers.

I inherited a bunch of crankbaits that run at different depths. I use the shallow running crankbaits the most, but I’m holding on to the rest since I never know when I will need them.

I would say I’m at a 9. I’ve been casting crankbaits from the bank since I was a kid. That being said there are still days when I still get ahead of myself and forget things. Wind direction and gusts being the main ones.

In winter I fish more around cover than structure. I can’t reach the deep structure from the bank. Lipless, crankbaits, flukes, jigs, plastic worms, chatterbaits, and swimbaits are what I use the most.

I’ll second do things slowly. What blew me away in physical therapy was when they told me that I could hurt my shoulder if I lifted a carton of milk the wrong way. Its not how much you lift, but how you lift it.

Last year I picked up one of the egg crankbaits from BPS. I’m really surprised that I caught bass on it and it was only about 4 bucks.

Man that’s a nice smallie.

The first books I ever read about bass fishing were put out by Bassmaster. They were Seasonal bass fishing, and Advanced bass fishing tactics. Very general but they did help me get started.

I use the same rod I that I use to cast spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.

I can't believe I missed this back in June. The vegetation in your pic looks like what is growing in some of the ponds that I fish. What I like to do with a shallow running, or mid-depth crankbait is run it right up to the edge of the slop and then stop reeling. Sometimes the bass will bite as the bait is floating up toward the surface.

As long as the water is not frozen, and I'm not freezing, I will be fishing.

Cherish all those new memories.

Lipless crankbaits, small paddle tail swimbaits, bladed jigs, and jig and pig.

Nice going. That is a hawg!