Jar11591

I’m supposed to wear glasses, but I can rarely stand them on my face. Only time I wear them is if I’m driving. Not interested in contacts. Maybe I’ll stop being stubborn and actually wear my glasses long enough to get used to them, but it drives me crazy to have them on.

Amazing. Awesome that you have some open water in NY in January as well!

My girlfriend is the same way. I can fall asleep in about 15 seconds once my head hits the pillow and she is so jealous. It takes her a while to fall asleep and she lets me hear about it. Probably why I wake up well rested most of the time and she doesn’t.

That 500 acre bog sounds very intriguing. No houses usually means less recreational activity and that usually means less pressured or educated fish. I also have a list of waters I want to try next year. One of them is a lake pretty close to home, and is known as a big bass factory. It’s relative small, only 15 minutes from my house and I’ve never tried it, for one reason or another. It’s a shallow bowl type lake, with minimal or no structure but lots of weedy cover. Summertime will probably be a punching and frogging type deal. Another one is a small, deep rocky reservoir that is supposed to have very abundant smallmouth populations. I love fishing deep rocky clear waters and this reservoir seems perfect. Probably won’t hold any true lunkers, but seems like a really fun lake to fish. The one I’m most excited for is one that’s been on my radar for years now but it’s a 2 hour haul into the Adirondack High Peaks Region. 2023 will be the year I finally try it. The lake is about 1000 acres, only a few camps, and absolutely loaded with downed timber, boulders, shoals, islands, points, humps, drop offs and lily pads. Has healthy populations of largemouth and smallmouth and a smallish launch off a dirt road that may deter a lot of people. Will be looking into staying at a cabin close to the lake sometime this summer so i can have a few days to pick it apart. Gonna scout a few more places before winter is over. Spring can’t come soon enough.

That’s a new one on me.

I generally throw them on a bare football head with no weed guard, but also Texas rigged and I’ll use them as a trailer on a skirted jig. Hula grubs are one of my go to baits for smallmouth.

Figured it was something shiny or thumpy. At least with the water that color, maybe the FOMO won’t be as strong ?

That is tough. Without a doubt my least favorite conditions to fish are chocolate milk clarity. Cold and muddy is even worse. Did you get the one through the mud on a jerkbait as well?

I think the pre-spawn period gets me more excited than any other seasonal period for bass fishing. I agree with those that say start earlier than you’d think. I hit the water as soon as the ice is mostly gone, and I consider pre spawn to be the period from ice out until spawn. The time period from thaw to spawning temperatures is often very brief in my waters. Right after ice-out, a warm day with sunshine can really get the fish fired up. I have my best luck during the warmest part of the day, when the sun is really hitting the shallows. Hard cover is a bass magnet after ice out as the water warms so downed timber is generally my go-to. Jigs with big trailers, T-rigged craws and creatures, and spinnerbaits are usually how I fish downed timber. As the water warms up to around 50° or so and up, I’ve found that an overcast, but warm and humid day can be great. Downed timber is still prime, but as the water gets into the low to mid 50s, they also start to stage around spawn flats, coves or any vegetation that begins to turn green. For my waters it’s generally the pondweed that starts to green first, followed by the milfoil and hydrilla. Don’t overlook topwater when the water gets into the 50s. I’ve had some great prespawn days fishing flats or slow tapering points with a popper or walker. Another thing I’ve learned that when the water temps are rising quickly due to warm weather, there is no such thing as “too shallow”. I’ve pulled some nice ones out of water less than a foot, and the catalyst for catching them that shallow seems to be water temps in high 40s to low 50s that are rising rapidly. Again hard cover like downed timber or even docks are prime for this period. Just a few observations I’ve had while pre-spawn fishing. I have serious FOMO when not on the water during the pre spawn, especially on warm and humid late-April or early May days. You can have some great days during this time. Hard cover, mild weather, fast warming trends, jigs, T-rigs, spinnerbaits, poppers, walkers, and lipless cranks is Jar11591’s recipe to pre-spawn success. Only a couple more months…..

Jerkbaits, small spinnerbaits, in-line spinners and the faster the better. I’ve found the slower the retrieve the less interest pickerel have. Which is helpful when bass fishing because pickerel can become a nuisance very fast.

Most of my lakes, including all my favorites would be classified as clear. Usually 6’ of visibility even on a poor day. Poppers are always a top bait for numbers for me even in clear water. Like @A-Jay, I have most success on poppers when it’s dead calm. Walking baits I generally prefer when there is a slight chop, and I’ve found that walking baits can also produce for longer after the sun is high than a popper. So I haven’t really noticed water clarity related to success with poppers. I have witnessed one interesting instance while fishing clear water at a mid-lake pile of boulders that came within 2 feet of the surface, surrounded by 60’ of water on all sides. I would cast a popper over the rocks, and every single cast would result in a half dozen blowups from smallmouth, but not a single one would even touch the bait. They were clearing excited over it but we’re unwilling to actually make contact. I assumed they were not liking what they saw at the last second, so I switched to a walking bait and worked it quickly as to not give them a chance to see it. Well that resulted in a complete shutdown of the topwater action. So there’s that. I was able to pick a couple off with a drop shot and spinnerbaits around the boulders but found no rhyme or reason to why they were unwilling to actually eat the topwater bait they were so excited over.

Something fast moving and with a lot of flash should get you more pickerel than you want.

I love seeing wildlife when I’m fishing, it’s one of the bonuses of this sport. But there is something about the loon specifically, that when I see one I know I’m where I belong. Truer words have never been spoken.

I doubt I’d be driving to the lake at 3:30am if I knew I wasn’t going to catch anything, but I’ve never wished I didn’t go or had a bad time on the water.

Won’t matter to a bass. If it looks alive, it’s a possible meal. Plastic lizards will be productive anywhere a bass swims, from Canada to Mexico.

Hawgs!

I use the Siebert Outdoors Morel heads and Button heads, as well as the Z-Man football ned heads. Never had much of a problem with Z-Man plastics using these ned heads.

The St. Lawrence river was recently ranked as top bass water in the nation, and while I’m not too familiar with Larry, it’s my understanding that it achieved that ranking from its brown bass fishery. So if I’m trying to catch the biggest bass possible, I would be after smallmouth. The couple times I fished the Larry, I caught a bunch of smallmouth, and a few pike. Didn’t run into any largemouth or come across any good looking largemouth habitat.

Idk man, looks like an absolute tank to me!

Man I’ve been so jealous these last few days. Nice New Years bass!

@king fisher looks like you have something to brag about after all. Nice fish

Lews SS LFS and Pflueger President XT are both solid reels for around or <$100

And another pretty gruesome wound.

Strike King Tour Grade 3/4oz double willow spinnerbait. Came late October. Got a few at the same weight but this one had the length to beat them out. 5lb 1oz and d**n near 21” long. I could feel a 6” perch or golden shiner in its belly. First year in many that I didn’t get one over 21”. Size was definitely down a tick this year. But the amount of bass I catch all at that 5lb even or 5lb 1oz mark is ridiculous. It seems that in order to go up in weight I have to jump right into the 6lb class.