MainelyBASS

The Strike King KVD jerkbait has always been in my box and been more than productive on most outings. I continued to try and find better jerkbaits, purchasing Deps, Lucky Craft, Megabass, Damiki, and a few others. When tournament time comes around, I tie on the KVD jerkbait because it's worked from day one, and im not looking to experiment with other baits when money is on the line.

With the water as clear as it is, dont be affraid to start at 40ft and move inward from there. Don't just pick random points though. Make sure that its a point that leads to something that looks like a spawning area. Including Thompson, there are a lot of lakes in that area that I fish very frequently. The water is so clear out there that in some areas the visibility is 20+ feet. Smallmouth will move out off shore to the areas that the light stops penetrating at its brightest. In darker water, they dont need to move as far to feel comfortable. I use roboworms to catch all my fish. I will say that I rely on my electronics to find fish, and then I drop down on them. Ive caught plenty without seeing them on my sonar, but it certainly is a big help locating them. Last year I won a tournament on a lake nearby with roboworms on a drop shot in 35ft of water. Don't be affraid to fish deep.

drop shot points. drop shot points. drop shot points.

What gives? Has anyone done a phone order with them recently and asked if they have them in stock? Im thinking about calling today. I wonder if its possible that they are not putting the inventory online, rather saving it for the retail customers, or people who specifically call and ask? Seems like other sites have had them for a few weeks now.

The RES mostly catches Bass and Pickerel, however I have caught trout, salmon, and pike with it. If you do decide to go with a RES, they also make them in a 1/4 oz size which casts a mile because of the internal rattle system. There isnt a need to go with the 1/2 oz for a youngster.

Fished Little Ossipee on Sunday. Fishing was insanely consistent. Lots of males moved up shallow cruising the spawning areas. High water gave them lots of new territory to search for best spawning spots available. Brought 5 rods in my friends boat, but only used 1 all day, never picked up the others. 1/2 oz Black and Blue Project Z Chatterbait with a Rage Menace Grub trailer. I rigged the bait on a rod with 50lb braid for a few reasons. One reason was I planned on fishing around laydowns, heavy grass, and other clusters of structure so I wanted the appropriate line for the situation. The other reason for 50lb braid was the ability to keep the lure above the grass and vegitation that i was fishing around. Even though the water was up a few feet, we were fishing the "new" 12-24 inches of lake water and sinking line, or smaller braid wouldn't have allowed me to retrieve the bait without snagging grass each time. We never landed anything over 4.5 but we did catch a healthy number of 1.5-3lb fish with a few 4's mixed in.

Well, it was brutal for us. Lost 8lbs of fish at the net, and had one bend a silver buddy completely in half and come off 10ft away from the boat. Finished with 11.4lbs for 5 fish and a 47th place out of 65. The fishing was on fire to start the day. Lost that big one on the second cast, tied on a new silver buddy and caught a 3.9 smallmouth, 5 minutes later another 3.8 smallmouth. From that point on, the sun broke out from behind the clouds and only managed to put 2 more fish in the livewell. Brutal day. Awesome lake! 23.9 pounds for 7 fish was the winning total. That bag had a 5+lb largemouth and 6 big smallmouth.

This weekend is my second tournament of the season. We are fishing Great Pond in Belgrade. Ive never fished it before, know nothing about it, so im sure I will get my rear-end handed to me, but it will be fun.

The story yesterday for the most part was how tough the bite was. Yesterday was the first tournament Sunday of the season. I don't have reports from every tournament, but aside from the Little Sebago and Silver Lake tournaments which had winning weights north of 18lbs for 5 fish, most tournaments were a struggle. Mousam Lake had a 21lb winning weight for 10 fish. Arrowhead Lake had a under 10lb limit for 5 fish, and Cobb Stream had around 11lbs for a 5 fish limit. I fished Mousam Lake and only managed 1 bite all day. I found out afterwards that I was just fishing too fast. I was throwing the same baits as the person who won, but they said they would let their bait sit motionless for sometimes 30 seconds to a minute. Lesson learned.

A few ponds south of Portland have opened up. Ive caught 10 fish in 4 trips. Biggest was a 4. All on a mop jig. Had to sell my boat over the winter due to having twin daughters and finances getting tight. This will be a discouraging season for sure without a boat. I have a friend who has a boat who said he might be able to take me out a bit this year, so I will hopefully get an occasional boat fix this summer. Im scheduled to fish 16 tournaments, all from the back of the boat unfortunately, but its better than nothing.

Thats more than appropriate for square bills. I throw mine right after ice out on 5.4:1 so I can get mine down a good amount deeper than with a 6.3:1, but it's not necessary to go that slow.

Biggest factor behind the size of the line is your gear ratio. How fast is the reel?

If your water is dingy and the water temps are in the 60's, you may be dealing with a lot of post spawn fish. In the lakes around me, we have a few that have less than 1ft of visibility and once the ice goes out the water warms SO much quicker in those stained bodies of water, so naturally the spawn happens a little earlier on those lakes. I realize that 60 degrees is 60 degrees no matter what the stain is on the water, but ive found that the darker water really entices the fish to spawn sooner. So IF that is the case, post spawn fish can be really tough to catch for numerous reasons. Big females will move deep and become very lethargic due to the stress from the spawn. Males will follow fry to protect them, taking them off of their normal structure patterns. This may not be the case on your lake, but im just throwing something out there that may have some validity to it. Most of the time we have the right baits and approach, they just aren't there.

If you snoop around the facebook fishing groups, you will find a few places to launch your boat in the Belgrade area. I've seen pictures of people fishing already, but they aren't giving up the juice on where.

Ive been fishing tournaments for 15 years and I would say more often than not, bigger fish will go upside down, or on their side in the livewell. Almost every tournament this happens, and I have never weighed in a dead fish. All my fish swim away after they are weighed. I use a live well treatment, and fizz fish that need to be fizzed. Never had an issue.

Some guy just won $300,000 using the space monkey, I would say that he had confidence in the bait before he threw it. He did not use it exclusively, but the fact that he was throwing it at all with 300k on the line says something.

If you are just starting out, I would stay away from a baitcaster. That may ultimately take away some of the fun that bass fishing really has to offer. The learning curve for baitcasters is quite steep. Starting off with a 6'6 or 7'0 MH spinning combo is probably most ideal. As far as line goes, there really isnt a wrong choice between 10-12lb mono/fluoro, or using a 15-20 braid. People will argue about the line choice until the cows come home, but they all will work. As for baits, keep it simple. Buy some senkos, some small swimbaits like a keitech swing impact fat and if you decide to use mono, or braid, grab a few of the medium sized top water poppers. Those baits will cover all of the areas of the water column, and they will also work on lethargic fish as well as active fish.

No doubt there are deals to be had, but people think it is similar to their other sales where most items are 10-15% off. My only point has been that you are only able to select from the specific lures they mark down and it's very rarely the most popular, most used products.

Ive tried telling people for the last 2 weeks not to bother getting excited for the TW Classic sale. It's always been just a clearance sale on baits and equipment that don't sell well. I saw a lot of people saying they were going to save their income tax money for this Classic Sale, and I continuously suggested either shopping elsewhere, or saving their money for the TW tax stimulus sale, which at least offers 10% off 97% of their products, as opposed to a discount on baits that don't sell well.

Im confused as to what people mean by "Exclusive" to Bass Pro. My current crankbait tray is filled with KVD rattling cranks that I acquired from Walmart, Dicks, and Cabelas. I know there are some colorways that are exclusive, but the rattling ones are in all the stores around me. I just couldn't understand why TW didn't sell them. The backorder issue that WRB mentioned made sense though.

I wanna believe that I am smarter than this, but all I can find are the 1.5 shallow, and the 1.5 silent. I have been shopping on TW for about 8 years now but this is my first time struggling to find something. Is it me?

Im a tournament angler that fishes 15+ tournaments each season and all of my rods that don't have braid on them have Red Label. All but a few of my spinning rods have braid, and those have Red Label leader on them. There's better line for sure, but when you are spooling up 20+ reels, it's nice to do it affordably and not sacrifice a ton of quality. If you are only using 1 or 2 reels, you'll find better line, but it won't be cheaper.

Lift the rod slowly until you feel the jig move, then you know you have already moved it too much. Now you are screwed, but you should probably let it sit for 3-5 seconds, lift slowly until you feel it move again. Pause 3-5 seconds. 3-5 seconds is a long time in the fishing world, a super long time, but the wait is the key in cold water.

Take this for what you will, this was last years sale. More of just a clearance event, not a sale. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/BMCsalepage.html It's been different every year pretty much. Never the same date. If you google search "tacklewarehouse tax stimulus sale" you can see all the sales from the past years. Some were at the end of April, some at the beginning.