everythingthatswims

I catch piles of bass on blades in the winter, they are an excellent bait when the conditions are right, as with anything. If you're fishing shallower than 15', a blade becomes much less effective. My guess would be that it's because they just fall too fast at that depth, but I have no way to prove that. If you're fishing vertical, your boat is really close to the fish at that point too. For me, a 1/4oz blade is best in the 15-20' range, and deeper than that I go with a 1/2. However, I have caught them as deep as 35' on a 1/4oz. When the bass get moody, the shift from 1/2 down to 1/4 can make a BIG difference. I think it's almost solely the slower ROF that triggers the bites when the 1/4 is outfishing the 1/2. I don't do much yo-yoing with lipless cranks, I probably should. Usually when I do well with them in the winter, it is fishing them as slow as I can on a steady retrieve, and popping them whenever the bait comes into contact with anything. Like @Bluebasser86 said, lipless is the way to go in 10' and less!

I use a firm side sweep, I find that winding really hard while doing that is more important than the rod movement. Usually they're coming towards you when they eat it so you need to keep up with them. I'm not sure why people think they don't need trailer hooks, there are days when 75% of the fish I catch are only hooked by the trailer hook. I can understand not using one around weeds/wood because they get hung up, but even in those situations I still tend to use a trailer hook!

The bass were not doing it today, but my friends and I got on a big school of crappies in 35'. Dinner was pretty cheap too

Just make sure you don't look at them the wrong way, they'll die Gotta have them for stripers though!

Fighting a bass is a delicate process that varies greatly depending on as many variables as lure choice does. With a spinning rod, the fight on 6lb test with a drop shot hook is vastly different from 10lb test and a shakey head. Crankbait fishing calls for a different style of fighting too, but even in that, depending on what you're fishing around, your line, and your hooks, it could be a long and drawn out fight, or a relatively short one. The list goes on and on! My main goal is to get the fish in my hands for a picture. If I get her to bite I have earned it, I don't need to give her any more chances to get off by letting her "fight" more!

Yeah I think most people don't get that. Even when they are in big boats, when I kayak fish, typically people slow down to the point where they are making things a lot worse on me, I'd rather them just keep running! If you're gonna slow down, you gotta slow WAYYY down!

Several old baits and though I don't think they're worth anything, I figured somebody on here will know for sure! I will say that the descriptions on the back of the producers are hilarious.

I'm just playing man. I'll never know how much the fish weighed, but the measurements put it almost half a pound over 10, so in my mind I like to think that it probably was. Either way, it's one I will never forget!

"My PB is probably the world record"

My brother lost one today that looked like that!

Slow day but caught a couple nice ones! Too bad the largemouth was all sickly looking.

What? There aren't any bass in VA! East Tennesee is really neat as far as lakes and rivers go, there are lots of them and they aren't too spread out. VA is very diverse, but the fisheries are really spread out so there is a lot of driving time.

Got some border patrol smallies this evening

All relatively small fish, but a very fun A-rig bite today. We caught 13 total, including this triple hookup!

You ever hear about the kid who caught a DD from his kayak on that lake?

Today, I got out of class at noon, headed back to my apartment, and hooked up the boat to take her home for Thanksgiving break. Unfortunately, my brothers will be keeping her in VA for the winter, so I will once again be kayak-bound! On my way home, I drive by a place called Mount Storm. Mount Storm has a power plant lake on top of a mountain, at 3600' elevation. It is a very unforgiving place, all the flags up there are tattered from the wind, the trees only have leaves on one side, and the gas station up there has the windward side door blocked off to entry. My route happens to pass within 2 miles of the boat ramp, and even though the conditions were less than ideal, I had to give it a go! Dropping the boat in was a task, I pulled the keel up on the bank, but had to get a rope and tie a cleat to a tree so it wouldn't drift away while I parked my truck. Air temps were in the 30s, and although the forecast said it wouldn't get below freezing, the ice on my reel would say otherwise. I don't know what the wind speed was, it was no less than a sustained 20, and the gusts were pretty intimidating. I stuck to the protected side of the lake and stayed close to the ramp. When the fog would clear, I could see waves hitting sea walls on the far side of the lake and launching whitewater a pretty good ways upward. I ended up landing 5 largemouth and 2 smallmouth, all of them in the 1-1.5lb range. I used a SK 1.5, a vision 110, a 1/2oz jig, and a ned rig. I only had a couple hours of daylight so I didn't really have time to put together a pattern, but the wind was blowing so hard that my pattern was just to fish what was fishable! I've fished in 30 degree temps a pretty good bit, but the wind made today absolutely brutal. I started with fingerless big wool gloves, but had to switch to full fingered gloves, because the wind would suck the heat right out of my fingertips. I like getting out in extreme conditions, because since I do fish tournaments, it's nice to have some experience in rough water and nasty weather for when the time comes! @Bluebasser86 fishes in these conditions every time he goes in the winter but it's a big deal for a southern boy like me. My fingers barely made it through holding those fish for a photo! And that's a smallmouth in clear water on a 1/2oz black and blue jig. (it was too cold to even think about putting a trailer on another jig and retying) That smokestack is probably the best visual I have for the wind (I was idling that's why my trolling motor isn't locked!)

We have caught smallmouth, largemouth, spots, walleye, catfish, yellow perch, and white bass in this lake on a spinnerbait

I have seen a buzzbait catch them in 53 degree water. I tend to put away topwaters once it's below 60. Yes you can still catch them on topwater below that, but IMO, other baits become a better choice at that point.

I am headed home to Charlottesville and plan to fish! Football takes a huuuuge backseat to fishing for me, I haven't been to a game this year.

I think this guy was about 15' deep but I'm not positive. SLOOOOOOW roll

Today was the last day for my boat in WV for this year. I'm taking it back home for thanksgiving and leaving it there so my brothers can exploit some fish this winter. My friend and I caught a bunch of bass today, we found a school of them on some brush in 40' and got to work on them with ned rigs! It was an interesting bite for sure, they wouldn't eat the 1/6 neds so we were using the 1/10th size and letting them fall FOREVER to reach bottom. It was a huge shift from the slow rolled spinnerbait bite we have been on for the past couple of weeks, but the water temps are dropping, and the lake is being lowered to winter pool at a fast rate, so the bass don't want to be on the banks anymore. 47 degree water today.

I'm going to do some fish prints of it and get length/girth before I filet it. Maybe one day when I'm not a broke college student, I can afford a replica!

Don't worry I will too

Broke my PB walleye today on Cheat Lake, WV. I was slow rolling a 1/2oz war eagle spinnerbait and at first I thought I hooked a rock until it shook its head. 30", and 9lbs15oz of MEAN.

Nabbed a 12lb limit in 2 and a half hours this evening. Water temps ranged from 42-47. Blade bait, ned rig, and a slow rolled spinnerbait.