Jar11591

I thought you were gonna say you caught 58, and 50 of them were on a Flashboost poppper haha! Well done!

You consistently out-fish pretty much everyone on here! We should be taking suggestions from you!

I am currently planning an island camping/fishing trip for next year in which I’ll be taking my Jon boat to an island for several nights. I don’t have all the details ironed out yet, but I have some rough ideas on how I’m gonna go about it. Feel free to message me. I may not have much info to offer as it’s not something I’ve done before but I have been planning and pondering for a few weeks now.

NY and Sinaloa EDIT: I guess I’ve fished the Vermont side of Lake Champlain and the Canadian side of the St. Larry, so I’ll add Quebec and VT.

Creme worms, Red Eye Wigglers, Daredevles, Jitterbugs, Hula Poppers, old school Rapalas…and he had a ton of these soft plastic craws that had the body of a finesse worm. Like a 6” long finesse worm with claws on one end. Similar to the Zoom Cross Craw but thinner. He had this old two-toned Plano box. Filled with large bobbers, split shots that barely worked from decades of being chewed on, a spring-loaded scale, nail clippers, metal stringers, and all the lures mentioned above. I can picture it like it was yesterday. I spent more time messing with his tackle box than he did. He would only open it when he was fishing, but I wanted to open it all the time and just look at the lures and imagine what I could catch with them!

I would put this spring as my toughest I can remember in the last decade. Maybe the fishing gods determined I was getting a big head and need to humble me? Tough springs have never equaled tough whole years for me though, so I know I just gotta keep at it. The fishing will pick up. It will for you too. One day of good fishing or one bite from a PB will make you forget about the bad fishing you’ve had.

Awesome

This may be related to the diameter of the braid as much or more than the manufacturer. I’ve found that 40lb braid and above is less likely to dig into itself.

I almost always have my utility knife on me. Somehow between pocket knives, utility knives and buck knives, I’ve accumulated a few dozens of them. I’m not a collector. I guess they are just easy gifts for a guy who loves the outdoors.

In my mental bass fishing handbook for my home state of NY, 2-3lb = not bad or nice 3-4lb = very nice or chunk 4-5lb = big or tank 5-6lb = huge 6-7lb = monster or beast and possible domestic PB territory 7-8lb = fish of a lifetime NY is giving up bigger bass than ever. Both the SM and LM records have fallen within the last couple years and huge specimens are being caught all over the western portion of the state and slowly making its way eastward. Since I posted this, NY put out another 10+ fish.

They’ll never be a micropterus!

“Big” to me is a fish in the 4lb class, which is usually between 19.5”-20.5”.

I fish clear lakes that can get weedy. I generally stick to natural colors. Natural prey like perch and crawfish do blend in fairly well to their aquatic environment and like @Catt mentioned, a bass’s lateral line does a lot of the “sensing” of prey.

Nice. Should be an awesome trip! Alaska is the number 2 spot on my fishing bucket list. If it were me, I’d devote some time to go after grayling and dollies by fly in some wilderness streams.

Braid will never touch a spinning reel that I own. I know braid on spinning gear is the norm and a lot of better fishermen than myself will only use braid on spinning gear. But personally, I will never allow a single strand of braid to touch my spinning reels again. I’ve never hated something more while fishing than trying to use braid on spinning gear.

Body of water, time of year. And I’ll make adjustments on the water based on what’s working.

@Swamp Girl I hope! It’s been an uncharacteristically slow spring.

Another cold and gray morning, but this time the wind was ripping on top of it. Got some on the Megabass Pop Max, both on main lake points and back in protected coves. When the topwater bite died, I went to pitching the Rage Bug to trees. Managed a few more bass on the Bug, and dumped a lunker next to the boat. Once it started blowing around 9:00, I braved the worst of the wind and fished deep, main lake structure for a couple hours but nothing. Most fish came from areas out of the wind. This week has been very cold and the water temps have dropped a few degrees. Fishing has been funky. Best fish of the day came on the Pop Max, way back in a cove. A stout 18" fish. No lunkers today. Saw something cool that I hadn't before, a bald eagle attempt to grab a canada goose right out of the sky. The goose was flying over the lake, when the eagle swooped down from its perch and stuck its talons out attempting to grab the neck of the goose. The goose evaded and immediately flew down to the water and the eagle didn't follow, instead returning to its perch. It was a loud commotion. Pretty cool.

@gim monster! Nice fish man. If my reading is correct, that puts you .5 behind @Pat Brown for the lead.

@Joedodge it’s probably because Googan Squad group of YouTubers, who founded the brand, rub people the wrong way. I’ve never used Googans baits, as my soft plastic game is pretty dialed in and there is rarely a new plastic that catches my eye, but I just assumed they are similar to any other soft plastic brand at their price point.

That was an exciting return for Acuña. Braves are keeping me hopeful

I use 6lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid for those applications. Can’t stand the lack of slack-line sensitivity of braid for finesse applications.

@IcatchDinks when the fishing stinks, getting to fish in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world is a great consolation prize! Luckily in the Adirondacks, the fishing is good more often than not, so I get to have my cake and eat it too!

Cold, drizzly, gray morning on the water. Cooling trend has the fish a little funked up. Been several days of highs in the high 40s and low 50s. At least the night-time lows haven't dipped too much so I thought the "steady" weather may work in my favor. Nah. Launched in 39 degree air temperature. Water temps have fallen to 54. I started with a Rapala Skitterwalk and kept getting lazy boils and no hook ups. Switched to a Megabass Pop-X to see if that made them more committal. Well it made the bluegill interested. Hooked several of those before I got my first bass of the day. Nothing special but the day was severely lacking riveting moments. It hit the first or second pop after I got done picking out a slight backlash. Best fish of the day was a streamlined 18.5". Gorgeous morning in the mountains as usual. Can't complain too much, even though today could be described as "casting practice" or "peaceful float with the loons" as accurately as "bass fishing" would have summed it up. The forecasted steady rain moved in so I moved out.

Haliburton is a killer. Dude is stone cold. He has made me a fan.