Jar11591

Lots of lily pads around here, both silver dollar and dinnerplate. But we also have water chestnut, which forms similar style pads on the water surface. They choke out a water or shoreline even more than lilies. I do great fishing lily pads with frogs and plastics. I’ve never caught a fish off the water chestnut.

Decent looking spinnerbait. I don’t know about the clear wire, seems gimmicky. But for triple what I pay for a SK TG, I wouldn’t even consider it, clear wire or not.

In NY… Ice out: anywhere from late March to mid April. I usually do okay right out of the gate fishing deeper water with moving baits. Early spring: a couple weeks after ice out up to prespawn. Once the water warms to the magical temps of 45° the fishing gets hot in shallow timber and that’s where I focus. Lots of years my biggest fish come during this time. Prespawn-postspawn: usually early May to mid June, water temps in the mid 50s to mid 60s. Fishing is still hot, they’re hitting top waters and still in shallow wood. Milfoil and pond weed starts to grow in as well. Summer: July-early August. The fishing is the most predictable. The fish seem to mostly vacate the shallow wood. I spend most of my time fishing 8’ or deeper, mostly focusing on structure with milfoil or pondweed. Big ones mixed in often, but almost never shallow this time of year. Early Fall: Mid August-Mid September. By mid August, the nights and mornings are cool, the milfoil has mostly disappeared, and things start changing. The big girls stay mostly deep, but they move to the pond weed that is still green. Walkers replace poppers. Lots of fish of all sizes this time of year, including my NY PB. Late Season: Mid September until freeze. Fishing can be unpredictable. Some good numbers days, so bad numbers days. It can be big fish, or a dink fest. Pond weed stays green through October, and lots of fish come from that. Shallow wood can be great on a warm sunny day, just like spring. It’s my favorite time to be on the water. The fall foliage, hot coffee, distant gun shots from hunters, the loons are usually still here and calling.

@casts_by_fly I love a ribeye too, just prefer the tenderness of the filet. Either one has gotta be med rare, but I’ll take the ribeye on the rarer side. But honestly I’ll go for brisket, rack of ribs, or some chicken wings above all.

I think humidity is understated on how it can affect bass fishing, especially seasonally. In early spring, I do the best on warm, sunny, and humid days. Seems like humidity when the water is still cold can really get the fish going.

Shaw was on BTL last week talking about it for anyone interested.

Call me crazy, but I prefer a filet to a ribeye.

I would, and have chosen Rapala. Only cranks I throw are the DT series. Not the most durable but they’re inexpensive and fish just slam them.

Ribeye

@Joedodge congrats on the PB. That is a toad.

Saw a stoat a few weeks ago

@Aaron_H you are correct. I was still going by 2022 prices. Didn’t realize they had jumped so much. Maybe I need to fish my Aird-X more to see what everybody else is seeing.

@Scott F that’s too bad. They’re so destructive. Every morning I do a walkthrough of my garden to make sure the tomatoes are free of these guys. You should make river smallie bait out of them. What’s cool though is they are often the host of parasitic wasps. If you see white balloon looking things sticking out of them, those are the wasps eggs.

Growing 4 different types of tomatoes this year. Flavor Bombs, Sungolds, Pink Cherries, and Romas. Already harvested over 500 and have dozens and dozens more ripe on the vines still. Just means I have to give a lot away, but sharing my harvest is my favorite part of gardening

If it’s a tough bite and even finesse can’t buy one, I start spamming the spinnerbait. Over and over. If I run it by enough fish, eventually I’ll get one. Spinnerbaits are the anti-skunk.

Bass Pro opened. I wasn’t able to meet KVD, Roland Martin or Jimmy Houston because I had to work. And during the day the line is out to the parking lot. So I’m gonna give it a couple more days before I go inside.

I’m of the opinion that spinnerbaits can’t be too heavy.

I see these rods recommended a lot on here. I bought one a few months ago and I can’t stand the thing. Feels like a dead, whippy noodle. I must be Aird-Xing wrong, because the general consensus is certainly that they are great budget rods. But with Fenwick Eagles around the same price, I can’t justify the Aird-X

Berkley Trilene XL. Supple, manageable, strong, and inexpensive.

When you see the blowup, the fish has already turned and is diving back down. Don’t wait on frog hooksets. I know conventional bass knowledge says to wait, but in my opinion it only causes lost or missed fish.

I throw a lot of topwater lures. Poppers, spooks, crawlers, frogs….I don’t throw a buzzbait very often. It’s more situational for me. I’m usually fishing buzzbaits around specific cover, like rows of docks I can cast between. Or timber that I don’t want to risk throwing a treble into. On most of the lakes I fish though, throwing a buzzbait as opposed to another style of topwater, is a good way to increase your esox:bass ratio. That is something I don’t want.

@Bandersnatch I would guess coontail. Milfoil usually has its leaves more spaced out on the stem. I’m not 100% though.

Same family, different genus. Like the others said, this is a warmouth. Lepomis gulosus.

I thought WHAT manufactures who. Not the other way around.

Im a northerner so “bream” is not a colloquialism for us up here, but I’ve always taken “bream” to be any species belonging to the genus Lepomis.