rboat

Praying for you. Stay strong, new cures and technologies come out everyday. We are here for you!

I always hate the idiots who think those large PVC pipes at the ramp, marked and designed to recycle fishing line, is their personal trash bin. If they turn around, there is a trash can on the opposite side of the ramp. I guess they are too lazy to walk across the ramp. It is sad when people can't read or act accordingly.

I got mine at the optical store in the walmart. Found some frames I liked and gave them my prescription, told them I wanted polarized lenses in a certain color, with scratch protection. They took a couple measurements and told me to come back and pick them up in 5 days. Work great and I now have 2 pairs I have had for about 4 years. Check first if they take your insurance, some will. Good luck.

Unless you are in a tournament, I don't think weight should matter. A 2lb bass is beautiful and a 6lb bass is beautiful, both can be really fun to catch. I hate to see anglers taking the time to stop and weigh every fish they catch. It is stressful to the fish and really unnecessary. I think we as anglers put too much emphasis on fish weight. In the deep south people think all there is is giant bass, simply not true. We have all sizes of bass and more large bass predators like gators and raptors. Granted percentage wise we have more large bass simply due to a longer growing season and strain of bass. That being said, most bass caught are smaller younger fish because those are the ones that want to come out and play with lures. Most of the really big fish you see in photos were caught with a guide using live bait, like wild shiners. To answer your question: I consider a big bass 5lbs or more. My percentage to catch that size is really only about 3-5%. I only do just fun fishing so that may skew the numbers. Some guys are truly just trophy hunters with special gear, and like the musky guys up north it takes patience and perserverance, sometimes just to get one bite.

Technically no trolling, but if the breeze is light enough, I have drift fished soft plastics and at times it can be very productive.

1. Fluke 2. soft stick bait 3. spinnerbait 4. lipless crankbait 5. spook or popper

I think most lures are gimmicks depending where you live. Some areas things work great, other areas the fish wont even look at the same lure. We as anglers buy all of them hoping for that one that is magic. A few I fell for: 1. When I was younger I thought the short pistol grip rods were the ticket. Now I do not use one. 2. Dance's eel 3. Live target crank with the 2 little minows in a clear body. - nothing 4. Flourocarbon line. I know some swear by it, I swear at it. 5. Tiny lures and big giant ones. 6. Drop shot/shakey head, caught mostly moss and mud. 7. A-rig, - still trying but nothing so far. I am sure there are many more, since I have more lures than I could possible fish with.

1. 4 inch megabass spark shad on a jighead 2. zoom super fluke 3. 4.8 Kietech on a flashy swimmer Topwater tied: clear super spook jr. / berkley choppo MF shad

Always, just for some bulk. Sometimes it is just a tail of a plastic worm or a small grub. This is where my used plastics are recycled. Cut off the ripped part and use the rest.

Advantages: retired, years of experience, year around fishing, small bass boat I can handle by myself, a friend who goes along sometimes, I love to be on the water catching or not, health is good. Disadvantages: fixed income, house fix up and honey do list, I avoid crowds and heavy traffic if possible, I avoid windy days, extreme temps. I tend to get stuck doing the same thing over if it worked once.

Hopefully more time on the water. I believe gas prices will stay under control and I can venture a bit farther from home, explore some other lakes, etc. I know I am late to the party, but I plan on trying some BFS stuff this year. Also want to go the opposite direction and try some of the larger glides and swimbaits. Time will tell. I wish you all good health in 2025, so you can make your plans and dreams come true.

Most of my plano 3700 boxes are in great shape and are clear just like the day I got them. Some, however, have turned very cloudy white and you can't see through them. Anyone else have this? What causes it? Anyway to clean or polish them to get them back to clear? Thanks.

Fishing was real good before Hurricane Milton. That storm shut down many of my local boat ramps and the ones that are open, it seems the bass have gone into hiding. I feel blessed if I catch one each trip. Those big storms seem to really mess up the normal fall bite.

Thanks. I will keep chucking those. Maybe if I catch one on a swim jig it will give me more confidence.

Same here, I know they work, the bottom composition here is soft muck and I believe the jig gets buried and hidden, at least that's my story.

I like a good quality clip and no split ring.

I think as bass anglers we are all guilty of going through phases of different styles, lures, techniques, the newest thing out of Japan, old reliable, etc. Is there any technique you have kind of moved away from for one reason or another? I have a couple. 1. Soft stick baits, I know they work great, but just moved on to other lures. (still have a ton of them to come back to someday) 2. Crankbaits and hard Jerkbaits, shallow weedy lakes make treble baits a bit more difficult and I am trying to improve on flukes, topwater, swimbaits, bladed jigs. (still plenty of hard baits to come back to later).

No matter the brand, Senko, Dinger, Stick-o, Fat ace, etc. I was always under the impression that they were made to be fished weightless so they have that sinking shimmy action. I am seeing more and more videos with guys using a bullet weight on the nose in the traditional T-rig method. I thought that would make it dive straight down with no shimmy action. Am I missing something, what gives? Thanks.

I get being bored at work, done that myself. You can't really compare saltwater tournaments to bass, totally different animal in my opinion. Sorry if I came across defensive, but bass fishing is my big thing. I have fished for other species, but it does not have the same appeal. When you ask a question like that on the best bass fishing forum ever, you will get some hard core answers. Especially when these guys spend most of their disposable income on this hobby. There are some really good sticks everywhere who do not fish tournaments, but could clean up quit well I believe. It looks like you have gotten some really good and varied answers, and that's what this space is all about. Tight Lines.

Let me flip the script on you. Why are most all major tournaments for bass? You said yourself they are not the best fighters and you are not keeeping them. Why not national tournaments for Pike, Gar, Snakeheads, Muskies, etc. Bass are at most times hard to figure out. They move on daily and seasonal patterns. Some school, some are loners. Some go deep, others do not. They can be found throughout the entire country. They will at times hit every lure ever made, if it fits in their mouth. ---What's not to like? I believe the big draw is trying to solve the puzzle. Personally, I do not like bass tournaments. I have seen first hand the damage done to some of the finest fisheries in the country, and I am not alone. You are very close minded if you think only tournament guys should fish for bass. The entire bass fishing market would collapse without the weekend warriors. Bass boat companies would not survive if they could only sell to tournament guys. Johnny Morris, TW, and many others would go broke. I find your question kind of silly, and when you start by saying not trying to offend anyone, whatever follows is usually offensive.

I would like to see what most prefer for soft plastic storage. Do you keep them in their original packages, or do you remove them and put them in boxes like plano 3700? I have tried both and each way seems to have it's own pros and cons. I have also tried the bags in those binders, but for me they don't seem to store as neatly. So lets hear your preferred soft plastics storage? thanks.

In an emergency can you jump start your engine if the starter battery is a flooded lead acid and you want to jump it using your trolling battery which is a lithium Lifep04 battery? I did this years ago when my battery died, but my trolling battery back then was a regular deep cycle lead acid. I was just wondering if it would be possible with a lithium battery without doing harm to anything. Thanks.

Thanks Tackleholic, I will check it out.

Looking to try a BFS setup. What size and kind of line do you guys use? Straight braid? Braid to leader? Mono? Fluoro? Let me hear your BFS line use. Thanks.

Bulldog spinnerbaits.