MIbassyaker

One of the first artificial lures I ever learned how to use, and an all-time great fish catcher. The #3 is 1/4oz. Not a surface lure - it's a type of spinnerbait. But prone to snags....a common problem with all in-line spinners. The trick is to retrieve close to cover, just fast enough to keep the blade spinning, but without getting hung up. Sooner or later, though, you will get hung up, so people who fish with in-line spinners expect to lose some. I usually only fish them in rivers, as they don't come through vegetation well, and still water here is almost always weedy. Standard river retrieve is a "quartering" cast upstream, about 45 degree angle, retrieve across and down to you as it sweeps downstream with the current, keeping it moving just above the bottom. They're especially good for rocky runs and dam tailwaters. They do rotate on the retrieve as the blade spins, causing line twist, so a lot of people like to put them behind a swivel. But they don't necessarily accumulate line twist, as the rotation can change direction from cast to cast, or even moment to moment if blade just bumps something. So I've never felt a swivel is necessary. Mepps still issues a catalog every year and you can download it on their site, or request a printed one sent to you.

Just checked my records -- this is actually a PB!

Day of the 5s -- lets goooo

Two more hours today. Two bass. The first, a10", up shallow on a D-shad. And then when I backed off-shore to a 10-15' shelf and begin dragging a zoom lizard, this 5.73 was waiting: That's the first bass over 5lb I've caught in probably 3 years.

Starting small this year. 4/21, from the riverbank: First largemouth a little better, yesterday 4/30:

Return of The Shrimp!

First chance this year I've had to get out onto one of the lakes with a kayak. Found a few 1-2lbers shallow, but that was all.

Well, I suppose it counts -- on the board for 2025 with a little tiny guy from the riverbank:

Oh no! Sad news indeed. I was wondering recently if he was still around -- he was such an engaging presence when he was active. RIP

I think I could get by with just these, everywhere I fish --rivers, gravel pit ponds, natural lakes, impoundments, bayous and backwaters; largemouth or smallmouth: 1. texas-rigged ribbontail worm 2. double willow spinnerbait 3. straight-tailed finesse worm + 1/8oz Jighead 4. topwater popper 5. Jig + Craw 6. Buzzbait 7. Ned Rig ~1/16oz 8. Bladed jig 9. paddle-tail swimbait + 1/8oz jighead 10. weightless t-rigged Senko

I use a palomar and improved clinch for line to lure, and an alberto (improved albright) for braid-to-leader. Arbor knot for line to spool, and sometimes double uni to tie flouro mainline to mono backing.

I'm not sure what mainstream even is these days, other than what I see on these boards.

Oof. Another bomb for me Nicely done, @gim -- 44th could be in the range of an individual tournament prize, depending on how many players there are with tied points. https://bassmasterfantasy.com/OfficialRules.aspx 7. TOURNAMENT WINNER DETERMINATION: Individual Tournament First Prize Winners: The Player that accumulates the highest number of points during each Tournament will be determined to be a potential Individual Tournament First Prize Winner. Individual Tournament Second Prize Winners: The Players that accumulate the second through fifth highest number of points during each Tournament will be determined to be a potential Individual Tournament Second Prize Winner. Individual Tournament Third Prize Winners: The Players that accumulate the sixth through tenth highest number of points during each Tournament will be determined to be a potential Individual Tournament Third Prize Winner. Individual Tournament Fourth Prize Winners: The Players that accumulate the eleventh through twentieth highest number of points during each Tournament will be determined to be a potential Individual Tournament Fourth Prize Winner.

You should ask them about their reasons rather than asking us about their motives.

A few years ago I lost an easy PB smallmouth on a breakoff, an arm's reach away. Sitting there, slack-jawed, a crushing realization came over me that the last time I remembered really checking the line and re-tying had been 7 or 8 fish ago.

I have 5 rods behind the seat in the kayak, one to right and four to the left (can kind of see in my profile pic) The right-side rod is almost always a spinning rig with a fluke or senko. It is there for quick access when I need a follow-up cast. The left-side rods are arrayed behind me standing in a row, generally with the ones I expect to use more frequently closer, although they're all close enough that order doesn't matter much.

Around here my go-to's are: Clear water = Watermelon-candy Stained/dark water = Junebug/Chartreuse tail

I am going to agree with Pat on this, despite being someone who persistently, every year, does exactly what he recommends against. I fish a loose rotation of around 40 distinct bodies of water or stretches of river, and only usually only hit 2 or 3 more than once a year. Last year I made it to 27 of them by kayak, bank fishing or wading, and only two places got more than one trip. This is what I enjoy doing, but it is definitely not for everyone, and it is not a recipe for maximum consistency or success. It's like playing on a higher difficulty setting, and you're not going do as well as if you focus on one or two places. When I started fishing for bass in earnest here, I spent most of my time on two bodies of water -- a little river bayou and small natural lake- and fished them both almost exclusively for the first 3 years. I would try a few other places here and there, but it was only after after I got to know those first two places pretty well that I really spent significant time branching out to others. Fewer variables change when you go to the same place compared to a different place. That means you can make more direct comparisons from trip to trip, moment-to-moment, spot-to-spot on the same body of water, and you more clearly see the effect of changing conditions on location and activity of the fish. What I found was that once I learned a few places very well, it was much easier to be successful when I showed up somewhere different, because I'd already worked out patterns for parallel situations on a consistent body of water. So if you feel the urge to diversify like I did, do it after you've learned one or two or three spots like the back your hand, not before.

No Shrimp?

Every smallmouth I catch from still water (e.g., a lake) seems like an accident. On rivers I mostly know what I'm doing for SMB. On lakes, I'm pretty confident about largemouth, as long as they are in there. But smallmouth in lakes -- both manmade and natural-- elude me persistently.

I can stop at the river sometimes after work, although even that takes me about 20min out of the way, and isn't the most productive stretch (there are better spots both upriver and down). Still, sometimes I can find a few biters in a spare hour:

Name checks out!

That used to be the case in Michigan as well until 2015, when year-round catch & release was approved.

There's enough open water around me now that I could be out there. Still about a month away from being able to spare the time, though.