Bankbeater

Wow! Congrats!

Good job! Congrats!

Made it out yesterday for a few hours. There was fog and drizzle when I got out on the water. Started using a pop-r and boated 8 bass between 1 and 1-1/2 pounds within about 2 hours. The bite was very light. When you chugged the bait and it didn't splash I either had weeds or a fish. When the fog lifted the drizzle stopped, and so did the bite for a while. Over the next two hours I picked up one more on the pop-r, and one on a senko knockoff. Still in the 1 to 1-1/2 pound range. Right before the rain came in I went back into the vegetation where I had luck with the topwater, and started using a chatterbait. That got me the big one of the day. A skinny one that went 2-15 on my scale. When the rain started the wind really picked up so I called it a day.

Most of the bass I have caught this year have been shallow and in vegetation. Over the past couple of weeks I have had some luck with shallow running crankbaits, and poppers, worked over the salad below.

That is a busy 4 hours, Congrats!

I guess that water doesn't have muskie in it.

We use to have a coon hound that went fishing with us. Never took the dog out in a boat, but she went with us a lot when we fished from shore.

Try to find a bait that is not being used a whole lot. I think big bass get leery of hitting certain baits when there are a lot of people out on the water. I also don't use braid on heavily fished lakes, I stick to copoly, or fluoro. It seems to work better.

Way to go! There is nothing that beats a good day of pond hopping.

It all depends on what you like and what you feel good fishing with. I have some 6'6" and some 7' rods. I hardly ever use the 7' rods.

I haven't used one in years. My daughters use to fish with them, but they started using spinning reels a couple of years ago.

I can't use an exposed hook in some of the lakes I fish. Way to much vegetation. On those lakes I usually fish the bait on a t-rig.

You've got some nice ones!

Nice fish. Get a scale. It's easier than doing math, at least for me.

Sweet! That is a great looking place to fish!

They are all my favorites!

My first bc was a Daiwa round reel that I got about 36 or 37 years ago. I like todays reels much better.

I use black, black/blue, or junebug. I start with those and go from there.

It's been slow around here as well. Hopefully with the warmer weather, the action will pick up.

I drift a lot on a couple of the lakes that I fish. What I look at when drifting is wind speed, wind direction, cover or structure I'm drifting over, and depth. If the wind is really blowing I use a crankbait, or a spinnerbait. If there is just a gentle breeze I will throw a t-rig, or a jig.

You need to fish more.

I tried using a jig as a weight a few years ago. I got hung up a lot, and picked up moss with the jig. I went back to using a bell sinker.

I wouldn't call 10 fish a fishkill. It might have been something local and the fish got too close to it. I have seen entire lakes wiped out to the point where they close the lake to fishing.

That is some fishy cover right there.

Good going! That's the way to start the year!