wademaster1

Isn't the 40+-hours a week I spend at the dungeon far too much of a break? Anything more than that would be plain unfathomable.....

It definitely blows to have to wait any period of time to fish but I will say this: if there's a will, there's a way......lots of people don't go the extra mile to fish when they could've gotten at least a little time on the water......

Pickerel have that black marking at the eye, pike do not

How does it contaminate the other plastics?

They're cool fish for sure....what have they been hitting?

Keep throwing the top water lures until you stop having luck with it....I'm still getting some hits on top but plastics c-rigged have produced best for me lately.....cranks are still catching fish for me occasionally also

Maybe they aren't quite in sync with fall yet....they are feeding heavily here in nc, hitting plastics/cranks.....but I don't think a super slow retrieve is necessary right now.....

I'm in NC, and they're feeding nicely.....plastics have treated me well lately.....I've also caught several on cranks

Can you post a pic? I'd like to see it....

It reminds me of a plastic starfish bait....

I'll say picture on the trophy bass, but I'm not sure I'd stick to that if I ever catch one that large.... If a fish is already dead and it's something I want to eat then I'd keep it.....nothing goes to waste in nature, something would eat it anyway....

I don't use a pile of ziplocks, I get the big heavy duty versions so I won't have a bunch to deal with.....then, I open the bag and thumb through the tops of the packages until I get to the one I need.....very handy

Lots of guys use those binders that are designed for carrying plastics...I do lots of fishing in a kayak and I use a big heavy duty ziploc bag that I just kind of shuffle through like you would a file cabinet when changing baits....

It's eye looks a little abnormal to me as well....I've also caught healthy fish with less than perfect but I've also caught one eyed bass that were clearly struggling to feed normally for its size...

It likely wasn't hooked at all if you just started reeling with no hookset.....bass will grab part of a worm from time to time but you normally don't have that problem often if you were only using a 5".....when you see that line moving to the side, reel down and swing for the fences....