everythingthatswims

If you fish braid, do a youtube search of the FG knot. It's awesome for tying 30+lb line to braid.

I love goose, we make jerky, grill some, and have even made country friend steak with the younger birds before. We brine the breasts for a couple days in a salt/brown sugar brine, then marinate it before putting it on the grill wrapped in bacon, stuffed with peppers and onions. Just as good as backstrap.

Trying to pick up the slack from a rough deer season...Plenty of jerky material to work with now Edit: My dog does have a full tail, he was just wagging it

WOW

I have tied jigs with them as well, but I catch way more fish, regardless of species, with the soft plastic bodies.

6lb fluoro, #2 drop shot hooks, zoom finesse worms wacky rigged and super fluke jrs nose hooked. LONG casts

I like to break it into three chunks: early, mid, and late pre spawn. This is just stuff I have made up, but it continues to apply year after year. Early is when they are just beginning to do away with the winter habits and a cold front could send them back into wintering, I usually do best with jerkbaits and squarebills during this time. "Mid" is when I catch most of my fish, they will be holding on cover and I almost solely pitch texas rigs at cover. It feels good to have fish eating plastics again! It's weird though because instead of setting the hook when they strike, I have to wait 5-10 seconds, otherwise I miss them or get baits back that are missing appendages. Late is when a few males are on beds, but most bass are still cruising the shallows. I cast weightless finesse worms and senkos at these fish, usually the bigger females have developed lockjaw by now and have other things on the brain. It's a good time to scout new spots since you get to see most of the bigger fish in a body of water. Once they get locked on to beds I will mostly fish for other species until they go into post spawn mode. I don't like the idea of making 50 casts at a bedding female until she eats. Besides, grass carp respond well to dry flies during this time!

Gamakatsu #2 drop shot hooks are REALLY light. I use them on a light action rod with 6lb fluoro. Gamakatsu > Mustad

So does the 'doah

Why do those slimy, finned critters control my thoughts?

Oregon Inlet NC got nasty one day when we were heading out. The seas were around 6-8' stacked very close together and STEEP. 23' Hydra sports and the prop was coming out of the water on our way down the waves. We had to go into the waves for what seemed like forever until there was enough space in between waves to turn around. Full throttle to climb up on top of a wave and bump it in and out of gear to surf it back in. Combination of an east wind and an outgoing tide had the inlet pretty aggravated, soon afterwords it was navigable again. Oregon inlet is quite possibly the worst inlet on the east coast, nothing to scoff at!

Good deal! But I have to ask......why red braid w/ no leader?

I got one too Deep, you won't be the only one showing them a hudd gill 'round these parts

Read the other posts. EST will be noon. I will be in study hall at noon . Last time it was hardgills that went up for sale when I was in there.

Got this chunky 15"er after school today. 2lb test, a tiny foam strike indicator, and a white trout magnet. A lot more fun catching him on that than normal bass tackle this time of year!

Sounds like the river I fish. If so, the smallies are many miles downriver. Start looking for them again in the spring when morel mushrooms start popping up, that's my indicator.

The first 15 minutes of Bobby's seminar seemed like one of those fishing infomercials like the banjo minnow so we didn't stick around. John Hutchins did a great job and talked with us for quite a while afterwords, I learned a lot! The guy from angling Virginia/ north Anna bait co. did a good job as well.

They will catch tons of fish. I like a 3/0 or 4/0 gammy EWG hook. I fish mine weightless on a baitcaster with 10 or 12lb line. If you want to use spinning gear, nose hook it with a 1/0 or 2/0 drop shot hook. Also, you need to make sure the hook is poking out of the back of the bait, not the belly.

Bull shads get bit. A lot of people don't like them because it isn't a 3:16 or they don't like mike Bucca. I have thrown mine a ton, it is very durable, swims well, casts well, and has landed more fish over 3lbs for me than any of my other baits. I don't see a reason to not like it!

In the places that I crappie fish, if you had a 100 fish day, you would be lucky to get one that size. I can't imagine what the outlier of that class of fish would be! Go catch the world record nuke crappie

Never shows the shoreline or horizon

Black and Blue Jig

Hmmm sounds like user error. (No offense, we are ALL guilty of it). I would bet that the problem is in the knot or drag settings, unless you fish some really rocky bottom. You should be excited about getting bites at all this time of year!

I was at my brother's lacrosse tournament in VA Beach this summer, there was a 15-20 acre lake within walking distance so I grabbed my rod (that I ALWAYS keep in the car when traveling) and headed over to fish it. The entire lake was 1' deep and there were no fish anywhere. Very strange. (Not a dream)

Since it was a nice day out, I headed to my neighbor's pond...Mainly to play with some new baits, I knew that there would still be some ice and normally I don't do well when there is still skim ice on the water. One of my new baits that I wanted to play with was a 2.5" Spro BBZ Shad. I saw it at a fishing expo yesterday and couldn't resist. It swam really well, but too fast for the cold water. I noticed that on the fall, it remained horizontal and fell kind of like a blade bait, just slower. Well this got my attention, because I have been searching for a way to present something like a blade bait in shallow water. I decided to fish it like a blade bait in a shallow area (3-4') that was ice-free. Within 3 casts I landed a little largemouth on it, and a few minutes later I caught a crappie on it. I missed a few fish that I assume were crappies, but no more bass. I can't wait for the ice to clear off the pond, I think this could be a really good technique! Later in the evening my little brother and I set up some float-n-fly trout magnets and got into the trout. We landed 12 in the last hour of daylight, as well as half a dozen crappies, lots of fun! After staring at hard water for the past two weeks this was a nice change-of-pace. Seriously though, if you own a BBZ shad, go try using it like a blade bait RIGHT NOW.