everythingthatswims

Unless I am in heavy vegetation, I will NEVER throw braid without a leader. EVER.

Not as good as a hard jerkbait

Looks like he got you too! Did he flip you sideways?

Got into some fish on the pier this evening, a triple header with my brothers on what were either juvenile amberjack or adult banded rudderfish (they look very similar and I couldn't tell), a nice spanish mackerel, and absolute bluefish mayhem when the sun went down and the glass minnows got schooled up under the pier in the lights!

I don't use live bait typically for bass because I can't make it do what I want. However, in the winter on a local lake I LOVE freelining live blueback herring for largemouth and stripers from my kayak. A lot of effort goes into catching the herring and keeping them alive but it is worth it. I will throw a swimbait in the early morning and late evening but once the sun gets up and the bass can see pretty well, they won't touch it. Free line a herring anywhere near them and you'll crush them. It puts into perspective how many fish you are truly dealing with in one area and I have learned a lot about how they set up on structure and current breaks by doing it. I have seen largemouth schooling on the surface in 48 degree water in January. That tells you how much they like those darn herring.

I am very impressed by the pause you guys gave topwater fish before setting the hook. One day I hope to have that sort of self control

The problem with a minnow that size is that the line, hook, and split shot tend to make it drift unnaturally because it is just such a small bait. Back in my elementary school days I was known to net mosquito fish for crappie bait, and did well with them, so it is possible.

Between 6 and 7lbs is my guess. I'm only guessing because I assume you have the actual weight though! Nice fish!

Private 2-300 acre lake? I'd live there

A Mother

Walking the dog while sitting is no problem, like @MIbassyaker said, I fish out of a kayak and have always been able to throw a spook. May take some practice but it will be second nature after a while!

Got tags?

I have been since Saturday around noon, so far we have been doing pretty well but still figuring things out. We caught two gaffer dolphin 8lbs & 11lbs and 4 king mackerel trolling within sight of the beach, east wind pushed the warm blue water in along with their food and the fish themselves. Plenty of these hook bending-tacke busting guys around

Throw the frog and when a fish misses it, follow up with a punch bait.

3 years ago, a house down the road from me was bought by an older couple from Boston. They have now convinced all of the people who let me hunt on their land, that I have hunted all of my life since I shot my first deer when I was 10, to make my brothers and I hunt "archery only". We can't even squirrel hunt with a .22 or hunt turkeys in the spring with a shot gun. These yuppies from Boston hear a gunshot 2 miles away and they think we are out there mowing down the forest and trying to shoot them when they walk on the trail through the woods. Seriously. We've gotten phone calls from them about shooting too much when we are out of town. Get out while you can

My little cousin got started up on a dock demon too Wait til your son gets upset if you hand him a closed face reel because "I want to use the nice one".

My buddy had a rowing boat with 6 or 8 people in it plow into his trolling motor during a tournament. We never pay attention to them because they are always going up and down the lake and it's not uncommon for them to get close. He said the only reason the whole trolling motor didn't head to the bottom is because it was hanging on by the battery cord. Almost knocked him out of the boat! I think they were in a race at the time but it's pretty surprising that they didn't see his boat.

The fridge at my house is pretty empty since we are going to the beach soon and don't want to leave anything behind that will spoil, so we just go catch lunch!

The bass were not cooperating so we made some makeshift crappie jigs with a piece of a trick worm on a 1/8oz swimbait head, and fished them on baitcasters with 12lb line. We would pitch the baits into laydowns and the line would jump on the fall, just like bass, it was crazy

Just use whatever you use in shallow water and make it heavier!

In kayaks we have landed speckled trout, redfish, flounder, sheepshead, spadefish, striper, grey trout, black drum, bluefish, and spanish mackerel. We also have a boat that when the water is calm we take offshore and troll for tuna and mahi. One year I got to catch a bunch of little mahis on my smallmouth rod with 6lb test and an x-rap. And the vendor for Nikko Baits that I am friends with just invited me to go to ICAST and work at his booth with him, so if I can figure out travel and lodging, I may just have to leave the beach a couple days early and head to Orlando.

I'm about to stay in the Outer Banks for 2 weeks straight. I'm not sure how long my body can handle being up before daylight and fishing until after dark because I've only stayed for 1 week at a time before, but it should be a pretty wide open week full of fish. No bass down there but if there were I wouldn't notice them anyways!

I don't think big ones are supposed to eat a tiny jerkbait in water with 2' vis this time of year, but someone forgot to tell her that. I was actually fishing a laydown that is usually loaded with crappies, with the intent of catching crappies and maybe a largemouth on the jerkbait. My rod stopped and I thought I had connected with the laydown until it rolled!

Pro: "Man, I want to become a (insert job X)" "Dang I'm really good at bass fishing I'll just do that!" I bet that's how it works

Chum with corn!