BASS fisherman

I was reading another post, and read where the smallmouth don't shut down in the winter in Pa. I have heard from others that they are in fact just like their green backed cousins, and they do indeed slow down and get lethargic in the winter time. Not many lakes in the area of Pa that I live in, have smallmouth in the lakes as well as largemouth. Well, I found one with both large and smallmouth bass. My question is do smallies get lethargic during cold water periods in the winter?

I hope your not calling that little bit of white stuff a good snow. You can still see the ground. ;D ;D

I prefer the Cache Custom baits Thunder Frog. The frog puts out tons of vibration, it is very light compared to other topwater buzz type frogs, and has a better scent/ attractant than any other frogs on the market. It is also softer than the other frogs, which means more hook-ups with the thunder frog.

Thanks RW. I have been advised by another expert angler to get some live bait. I almost hate to do it though. I went fishing this morning as well, and didn't get any bites. I had to leave and go to work, but just as I was walking back to get my gear and head up to the car, I spooked a couple bass that had moved up into the shallows to warm up. This weekend I will be getting some live bait and hopefully getting atleast one bass. Drumr, Welcome to the forum!

RW said a while back he likes dark colors for soft plastics, I agree. My best producing color is watermelon for plastics. For cranks, I like natural colors, meaning colors that mimick natural forage for bass. But, I have also used very bright colors with good success such as a bright green crankbait that was crafted by Whittler. I have a wide array of colors for jigs, and it seems the dark colors play the role again as being the best selection. Same with spinnerbaits. If you can find the fish, most of the time color matters very little. Like you said, it is the presentation that gets the bass to bite.

ha ha, very funny.

Where the heck are you guys fishing to be catching bass over 5lbs like you are? Man Im moving out of Pa, forget this place. My biggest bass was caught on a Rebel Pop-r. Second biggest was on a 4" watermelon dinger.

Howdy Blake, Welcome to the forum!

You Cali folks shouldn't even respond to this thread. :-X

I will always choose to fish for bigger bass over numbers. But this time of year, I'll take the new world record bass that Raul posted about a week or so ago. I can't catch anything but weeds, trees, and rocks.

Ya LB, let me know how you do. A buddy in my bass club is going to lend me his smartcast fish finder, so maybe I will actually get a few bass hiding in the depths. He named a couple ponds that have been productive within the past couple weeks, and either tomorrow morning or wednesday morning we are going to meet up and do a little fishing before work. Never give up!, as one famous angler says.

Sufix all around. I too have tried other lines but Sufix works the best for me. Although I have yet to try the "famed" Yozuri Hybrid. Sooner or later I'll give the hybrid a try.

Lookin' good G!

ummmm, it was a joke. ;D But catching bass in the pond is very hard, and extremely rare.

I agree about the Ika being magic. I have fished this small pond where one of the members of my bass club goes to test lures. It is a great day if you can catch anything out of this pond at all. The first trip there, I tied on an Ika and caught a bass. Nothing since though. The pond is so small it is like the bass remember the lure, and the description gets around to all the fish before you even cast again.

When I was heavily involved in the Yahoo Answers forum, people did that all the time. From reading those other responses, I made sure to never do that, or if needed, as little as possible. I have been irratated on this forum to the point where I almost went back and quoted the culprits, and then thought about asking if anyone could actually ANSWER the question. I decided not to though. LBH, she must of been smokin to be with a ditz for 3 years. Atleast I call someone who talks with nothing good to say a ditz. No offense.

Guys I am about ready to giveup and accept the fact that I cannot catch fish this time of year. I have gone out Nov 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, and 27th and of those 6 days, I only had 5 bites, and I missed them all. I was drop shotting like a crazed drop shotting drop shotter. I tried jigs, slow rolling spinners, senkos, and everything else I possibly could to locate some fish. When I did get a bite in an area, I switched over to a Cache custom baits 4inch diamond back finesse worm which I worked on a drop shot rig, then I tried the same worm on a spot remover, then a ....... I literally tried every basic bass fishing rig under the sun. And the most productive (if I can even say that) rig was texas rigged weightless, I had 2 bites off of that. In those 6 days, I fished 3 different lakes, and a river all from shore without any fish to show. I fished points, rocky areas, laydowns, and any where I could find green weeds. Most bites came from weedy area and points. Yestersday I went to the Allegheny river in the morning. I started fishing near a launch ramp that is shut down due to high water. I got snagged every other cast, and lost 2 drop shot rigs. I also slipped on loose gravel and dropped one of my reels which slammed down hard, which now clicks when reeled in or cast. Then I moved over to a creek that runs into the river. I ended up loosing one of the lures for Bass Hunters Custom crankbaits that I am testing. Since I bought a plug knocker, I decided to give it a try. To make a long story short, I got the stupid plug knocker lodged in the Y of the laydown, and ended up pulling the knocker off of the line and loosing it too. I switched to a jig and ended up loosing that as well. I went up to a small pond that had alot of green milfoil still lingering. I had one bite all day off of a 4 inch dinger, and that was most likely a blue gill nipping at it. I don't want to give up for the year untill I figure these fish out, but yesterday was a huge kick in the teeth. Im not going to give up until I have gotten a couple fish at least. I'll be so happy I plan on posting a pic no matter what size the bass is.

From what I understand the Fork trip is for all bass resource forum members and their family.

I'd try lures with big profiles that are noisey, and have lots of vibration. Try darker colors, and also bright colors. Senko 77 is the one to answer this question though.

I love custom crankbaits. I've caught more fish with custom cranks, than big name cranks like Rapala for example. These 4 were made by whittler: They are great crankbaits that just plain catch fish. These are from a company named Bass Hunters Custom Crankbaits: I'm testing these lures for the company, and will post a report of my findings when the testing is complete. I really like these 2.

Sounds like a great time!

You always here bass anglers talking about having "confidence" in this lure or that lure. What does that mean to you? Or what do you think it means?

Hey Tom, What were the temps when you were throwing a buzzbait? I mean both water and air temperatures. I've been wanting to go real early, but I figured the bass would be biting more when it warmed up more, like around noon.

I agree with both of you two, the game is quite annoying. Makes fishing alot harder than it really is. I've decided to practice fish all the levels that I can,and then the river tourney should be easier.

Unfortunatly I don't like eggnog either. But thanks for sharing the recipe. And it isn't a secret anymore. ;D