gulfcaptain

Great AJ, play tug a war when they hit the 100lb mark and they give you a whole new outlook on pain, but then want more. One of my fav fish to catch.

Rods don't brake unless there is a flaw to start with, other then that it's normally user error from something stupid we shouldn't have been doing.

Need a 8" Huddleston or Savage Gear Line Thru.....the Savage Gear is a little less expensive. Pro Cure Rainbow Trout sent, here is the cost effective swimbait set up. I have 2 of them btw. Go to BPS or go online, order the 7'6" Graphite Musky Rod H, a Cardiff 300, some 40lb power-pro, topshot of P-line CXX 25lb or FC about 15ft long and leave the rest of the gear at home and go fishing.

8am to 2pm......the hrs my son is in school and I have time to fish and relax before Daddy duties call.

A Jay, do you take her fishing or does she take you fishing? J/K, got a great partner. My ex's learned I fish and that's my time to be alone and think. Wanted to take one to El Soto and she wanted to know if I was going to fish the whole trip?........Ummmm, yeah I think so.

pliers, sissors, scale, thermometer, cell phone for the photo I may want to take. Thermometer is a great tool for bank beaters as well....I use it to give me an idea of what sort of activity the fish may be in and what baits. This is a great way to figure out what not to use during the late fall to early spring. Most under used item someone from shore can have but normally don't. From a boat.......see above post^^^^

Football jig = deeper water, rubble, where you want to keep good contact with the bottom and drag. Swimjig = anywhere you think you would throw a spinnerbait, but a more suttle presentation and less flash. Burn it, slow role it, swim it and kill it, Casting = can be used like a swim jig, but can be flipped into heavier cover due to a thicker weed guard, used around cover (grass) that a footbaill jig would get hung up in.

the senko for sure, and a slower topwater....popper, possibly a hollow body frog. Can't forget a swim jig. But honestly if you are going to have her fish a spinnerbait and/or buzzbait, fish your strenghts and your confidence baits.

I'd say probably close to 3lbs, not a lot of fish this year, but manage a few each time I'm home over the 4lb mark and most are in the 2-3lb area.

I know when I lived out by Lake Thuderbird they had just stocked some Florida Strain fingerlings that they had in a stock pond by the marina....that was in 1991, so there may be mixed fish there now. Believe there are a few SE lakes that have Florida's stocked in them as well but are probably F1 fish in there as well now too. Just have to look it up and see where they have stocked them. Most lake records over 13lb are more then likely home to Florida's and F1's.

Fall bite on crappie can be really good as they stack up in certain areas. you catch one you normally can catch a few more as well.

I try and avoid bed fish. There are plenty of pre-spawn females stagging that are willing to eat. I think I caught a total of 3 bedfish this year with a total fishing time on all three combined maybe 5min. If I threw a bait and found a fish willing to attack what I was fishing then I pitched a jig or a jerkbait, no more then 3 casts. 150 casts at a bedfish is A LOT. Let the poor girl be and let her handle her business......she said no, and no means no....lol

I don't stop, but then that's S Cal. And if it snowed here, I think that would only stop me from fishing due to the many drivers on the road that could be a major threat to my safety. They are bad enough when it rains. Might want to do some research and look for Power Plant lakes, or areas that you can fish with discharge channels which normally stay warm. Did this in Oklahoma in the winter. Fished the discharge channels when it was -3 and hit a high of 9 degrees. Only bad part, the constant dipping of the rod in the water to remove the ice on the guides.

I used the twist locks, but also the Mustad Ultra Lock EWG and the Gamakatsu Deep Throat Wide Gap. Also may want to invest in some Mend-It to prolong the lives of these baits as well.

Speedbead his the right idea. Speed it up. They are just like a cat. You pull a toy from them they quickly pounce where you stop it they loose interest. Predator insticts take over. If the fish is right at the back of the bait and you speed up or give it a quick jerk the bass reacts thinking its meal is going to get away at which point their instincts take over and they inhale the bait. Also try swimming your baits closer to the bank. Like mentioned above, the closer to the bank the bass may rush in quicker to try and take advantage of the shoreline to pin it's meal.

4" worm on a dropshot to start, then a rattletrap, and possibly a swim jig.

Broke my PB this year. Was I pumped....of course I was. Every fish over 6lb get's your heart racing. IF and I say if i would have caught her in the spring I would have more then likely broke the 10lb mark. Does that make it less of a fish.....nope. Took a pic, got a quick weight, and returned her gently back into the waer to fish for another time. Another angler that was there had a picture of the same fish from 2 weeks prior that was caught by his friend. The next mark for me is 10lb, then I figure I'll shoot for 15lbs.....anything better then that if I ever get one that large will always be a special fish and all will be treated with the respect they deserve and released for someone else to enjoy.

Caught an Oscar when I was 10 from a pond on a plastic worm.....was gonna keep it and it got off when I put it back in the water to fill the bucket up.....as for endangered fish, well it's almost impossible not to catch the endangered Baccacio AKA Samon Grouper off of S. Cal when you're trying to catch quality rockfish. There are more of them then ever and have to move to try and find other bottom fish. But hey those studies that came from the Newpaper fish counts of what the sportfishing boats were keeping must of been right because we stopped keeping them when we were wanting something else. Now they are protected and can only keep 2. And if you fish in the Gulf of Mexico you have to move to try not to catch the overfished and endangered American Red Snappper.

If you're looking at the line thru get the floater and a pack of nail weights. You can alter the bait, make it suspend as well as sink slowly if needed. You can't make a slow sink float. And overall, if it's a hard bait....floater, slow sink......soft. Less hooks for them to see IMO. Besides if I'm gonna spend close to a $100 on a bait, I want to be able to retrieve it if I happen to have my line break during a cast without having to get a mask and fins on.

Yes, just the other day had good frog day where the only color they wanted was a platnium frog (ISH Phat Frog). They were keyed on shad and wouldn't look at any other color frog. 3 other guys fishing frogs and not a blow up on the colors they were fishing where I had a few over 4lb and some smaller fish to go with them as well as the usual misses which are still fun to watch although it would have been more fun to catch every one of them. The days you find what they want, why switch it up, give them what they want.

SK Rodent, Rage DB Craw, Big Show Craw, Biffle Bug, Zman Punch Craw, D-Bomb, V&M Hula Bug, and Netbait's Paca Baby Paca Craw

Well considering mainly fish city park ponds that get lots of pressure, if you manage 2-3 fish a day consistantly you're doing something write. So my normal outing is around 6hrs (fish while my son is in school) so if I get 6-8fish druing the day it's a pretty good day of fishing. Normal day, 2 fish and then there are always days where they don't want to bite and you get zero. Those days you look back and hit the reset button and go at it the next day with a different approach by what you observed the prior day.

Go with a puch jig set up if you're wanting to fish a jig style bait around moderate heavy grass. Sebiert has some good ones and are priced well, get the wired collars though, the rubber banded ones after a few days of fishing slipped down so had to atler them a bit with some braid and re-enforce them.

Can't catch them all the time. Some days are good and others not so good.

I would go with an Academy set up with their H20 brand. You can get a good rod for about $60 and then their Mettle for about the same price.