scaleface

I feel for you.I cant imagine how painful that is. I just had it in a big toe and even the wind hurt. I take medicine and its been dormant for several years until last week. I missed bowling because a finger was swollen and painful to the touch. It felt like gout. I rubbed some veterinary ointment on it a couple of times and its back to normal.

My thoughts are with you. Its devastating news. I've been through it more than once but lucky to have caught it in time.

I use to consider a 6 lb bass a big bass. I caught several a year, even though I wasnt as competent as an angler as now. Now I get excited over 4 lbers. I say 1 percent of bass caught now are 4 lbers. Its not just fishing pressure that has caused a decrease in large bass , its that there are a lot more really good fishermen out there .

How is the hookup ratio with those ? You are using light line?

When I was young , me and a friend would drag a 10 foot jon boat over a levy into an oxbow lake.

I do. I know some culverts and bridges on irrigation ditches that are often good for a bass or two. Also rip rap dams can be fished effectively from bank . I use inexpensive lures fishing rip rap because in order to fish them right , baits will get lost. Inexpensive jig heads with various plastics get the job done.

I troll some. There are people that say catfish dont show up on sonar because they lack an air bladder. I have trolled crankbaits through fish arches many times and caught channel cats.

Same here.

I started making bugs for river smallmouths because they preferred soft plastics with appendages over straight worms most days. I had 100 fish days with them . Then I started using them for reservoir largemouths. Caught a few nice channel cats with them.

McKinney Blaylock Hackney Christie Martin

I use to buy cards of jigs for less than a dollar per jig. There would be 10 or 12 jigs in a plastic slip stapled to a strip of cardboard. I forget who made them. Someone here in Missouri.

If the conditions are right I would like to throw a Bomber Long A Minnow with the tail prop more. It gets big bites .

It changes year to year. Crankbaits might be hot one year then non-existent the next. I'll just list this past years. Texas rigged worm, Chatterbait spinnerbait Bomber Long A minnow tubes neds

I have two of those floating snake heads. I dont recall using them.

Slow speed reels for crankbaits. I dont carry enough combos to justify a dedicated crankbait reel . I'm back to a more versatile 7 to 1 ratio reel.

The snow has stopped . My driveway is clear but now I have 2 foot of hardened snow blocking the driveway left behind by the snow plow . Thats always the hardest part. I'll take a little shovel and chip away .

I shoveled the drive way twice today and may do so again before bed. I'll have to shovel again tomorrow, possibly twice . I'm getting to old for this.

I dont have real vegetation to fish in. All there is around here is algae and gorilla snot. I fish the edges with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits , buzzbaits and various top waters . I fish through it with frogs , toads and weightless soft plastics.

I usually sharpen a hook or two every trip . The diamond file on a Leatherman is what I use.

Ive been doing this for years. I recommend not using white or red strands. Panfish will nibble on them. I posted a photo here of some years ago. I like half a stick worm on a jig head. I called them a bug.

Would a pic of two five lbers count?

Other than spooks I havent used a lot of Heddon lures. My favorite spook color , I dont know the name but its a silvery shad.

I remember well enough to have an idea what to do when I get there. Last year I arrived at my destination only to discover I forgot my battery. Drove the 30 miles back home , returned, then got skunked. I would like to forget that trip.

Larew Salt Craw , double tail grub, but most used plastic's on the boat floor will work. Half a plastic worm catches a lot of fish for me.

The largest spotted bass I have caught came on a Rebel maxi PopR fished like a wake bait. There were no such category of baits then. I was retrieving it straight , just under the surface with a slight wiggle and pushing a big wake in front of it . Brought it by an emergent tree and a four lber jumped all over it.