BammerBass

it is, I think there is something about that tail when you twitch it that seems to really elicit strikes from bass, as well as that color they seem to really like, and with it being such a light wait, its much easier to avoid getting snagged, and I've hw d more than enough outings of snapping hung lines, than actually catching something..... very, very frustrating, lol. I had to go and grt a little different style jig head because that little "barb" just below the head was splitting the soft plastic of those things open and I had to keep going into the pack for another one, and now ultimately have just one left of that color in the pack. I've got black shad, electric chicken, salt and pepper, pumpkin seed, baby bass, and crystal shad colors, but they just dont elicit the strikes thst silver minnow color does, not from bass anyway. The salt and pepper has got strikes from crappie a lot, and the pumpkin seed has gotten a lot of crappie to bit too when the water was dingy, but none of em got bass to strike like that silver minnow.

Nice. Moat places in northern Alabama have a 15" minimum, few places in central and southern Alabama have a 14" minimum length requirement, and a lot of places in this state loo lmb and spots as "black bass" and designate a specific length for them as well, again 15" being the far more common minimum requirement. Last I looked at an alabama game&fisheries book, there isnt a single public lake, large lake, river, or tributary with anything less than 14" in length for spots, lmb, and smallies. Pretty strict here, but im sure they have their reasoning. 5 bass maximum as well, and that is a combination of spots, lmb, qnd smallmouth.cant per say, catch 5 spots, 5 lmb, 5 smallmouth and keep em all. Once that 5 bassmax has been reached whether it be like 4 large/1spot or 2 large/2 apot, 1 small, once the next bass of sny of those kind is caught, culling has to begin.

1/16oz jighead with 1.5 inch silver minnow panfish assassin attached to it. This has been a very, very solid set up for me this year, it is what ive caught the vast majority of my fish on so far this year even, and it elicited solod strikes whereas i could literally watch those fish just stare at a live worm. And though it is made for crappie/panfish, the largemouth bass have seemed to absolutely love this thing. Throw it out there, count down to about 8 or so, and then retrive it slow and steady to see if you could catch some crappie or some bluegill, which i did. And when i added a twitch to the retrieve, it just seemed to really get those bass absolutely excited. 4lb bass(my best guess going on length and girth) that snapped my line absolutely hammered this thing after the twitch, as did the bass that i posted a couple pictures of on here, it too juat absolutely hammered it. And I've caught some drum on the same size jighead, including a 17 incher, but with a "black shad" colored panfish assassin, also 1.5inches in length. Just something about these things that seem to work well when everything else doesnt. i have a variety of other lures that wouls probably work grewt too, but if i fail to even get a strike on this setup, that pretty much tells me to pack it in and go home.

Does this mean I grt to count that "likely" 4 lber as a catch since I got it up out of thr water held it on the line a for a good 5 minutes beforr it snapped the line as I had it halfway up the pier? I was gonna release it anyway.... orhow bout "unofficial" being slapped on since I ddidn't grt to hold hit in my hand but got it out of the water An "official" catch would be getting it up and getting a good hold of it....m at least in my worldnanyway haha. If this is th case i xan call that fish my PB

Beautiful fish!

Awesome. Sounds like I may have a shot after all, but may have to wait till the seasons chsnge and it warms back up again before I try the crank. Im nust looking to expand my arsenal, if I fail at everything else I d have a good fallback with the 1.5inch panfish assassin jigs. I said in another ppst I thought thst perhaps fishing with certain tackle, lures, and for specific fish was something that one is either good at or they are not, and thst no amount of practice would change that. But I got to thinking and said to myself, well one dang sure wont get better if they dont at least try, so im gonna try.

One thing that was especially encouraging about this catch was the hook set. Dad told me when he was down wt the water about to walk back up with it there was no way it was going to spit the hook because it hooked in a tough part of its mouth and it swallowed it a good ways. So to enable him to get back up, had to cut the line ans then extract the hook with a pair of pliers. So that tells me that it e videntily liked the way I was retrieving(slow and steady) and twitching the jig a couple times on the way (bit on the fall down after the twitch). So maybe if I can catch a day with similar conditions, I can find similar success

Happy thanksgiving folks!! Those of y'all grtting out therr today, bring us them 8 lb hawgs

Man Ultralight fishing is a blast!!!! Them 2lbers are fun as heck on an ultralight set up, and then you occassionally run into that rogue 4/5lber and you better pack a lunch in thwt case found that out the hard way a couple weeks ago. Hung one I am quite certain was a solid 4 on my special rod my mother bought me, and even though the line snapped as I was trying to grt it up the pier, that was one heck of a battle!! I thought given the situation i was in at the time (high pier, with a steep trail to get to the water) i did pretty well to keep it on as long as i did. It.actually gave my right shoulder out trying to reel it/hold it therr for my dad to get down to it lol. gah i wish i coulda landed it, im about as close to100% certain as one can be without a a scale that was a good 4 lber and no questtion would have been my personal best. There is just something specislnabout thsr rod momma bought me thst has lead to very good success. Even if it ends up breaking,I will not throw it away, it justmeans far too much to me for me tk do that if it bappens. I consider it a symbol of our shared passion for this great sport and pastime of fishing.

Ha!! Excellent answer, I like that a lot!! Happy thanksgiving everyone btw. To any of you whom may be out on the water today, I want to see some 8+ lbers posted

Oh yes, had PLENTY of those days. In fact I can guarsntee I have had far more of those type days than good days.

Yeah I originally thought white, but it was lacking the veerticle bars white crappie typically have. Either way its a crappie lol.

May not be a great idea for me then. Im strictly s shore fisherman. Cant afford a boat.

Sweet. Ill see if any of our stores have em, if not, ill look online.

As you all know, im alresdy decently versed in bass assassin/ panfish assassin jigs, and have had reasonable luck with that. Now I am going to try expanding my arsenal a bit and try a crankbait. What is a proper Re retrieve for a crappie crankbait? Its nt designed for deepwater so I figure 4-10 feet is what it will run. do I reel a little thrn stop, reelnmoderately fast, or rather fast? Or do I give It a little twitch as I retrieve it? Of course if I manage a bass in the process, that'll do just fine

Oh wow new2bc, sounds like iy was clesrly shipped with little csre by the shipper. Thst stinks.

choices choices choices eh? And forgive me mods if I have created a duplicate type post. Im just not sure whst to do. A lot of forums that I go to (non fishing related), dont like it when you post on s particular topic thst is over about 2-3 since its last reply. Im a newbie so itll take me a while to lesrn the ropes here.And i know not to take it personally if you do move something i post, bcauze the "read befoee you post" section says, moving a post will gwt it to the appropriate area and thus makes it easier on the moderators to keep up with, and that makes thst post much .ore accessible to other people and makes it more likely to get replies and /or answers.

nice, nice. Sensitivity and power are a rare combination in rods. My dad says that rod of mine is too light to land a real big fish, and while that may be true, the sensitivity it has makes it soooooo much easier to pick up hits. Ive caught crappie just by watching the line twitch or the rod jiggle ever so slightly, and by feeling the slightest of bumps. Just cant power anything with it, but still pound for pound, it is the best rod i have.

My favorite is this Zebco ZS1 5'6" light action rod and reel. My mother bought this for my birthday about 16 years ago, and it has been my "ace of spades" on several occassions, and espcially so this year. She died 6 years ago due to cancer, and this rod and reel will always be special to me. It has seen a good share of bluegill and crappie over the years, an ccassional bass here and there. And then this yesr, caught several nice bluegill on it, a handful of bass, hang a 4lber on it last month that snapped the line as i got it halfway up thr pier. And for some reason ive done far, far better with it then either of the two new light/ultralight set ups i just got recently. Only caught one drum on the new ultralight, and absolutely zilch on thst new light action rod. In fact that day I caught that bass I just asked "what does this bass weigh" in different section of this forum. Very first cast with that rod that day I caught thst 16" largemouth. There Is just SOMETHING about that rod that seems to make me do much better.Maybe im just so used to it is one thing, but its hands down caught a lt more fhan the fwo new ones.And now it has a fresh spool of 4lb test, so it is ready to go again.

Nice one!! Love that green coloration. Id say finesse worms, crawfish, and heck, even live night crawlers could get you some nice results. Now that I thi k about it, I've had a few catches in our local creek several years ago that would run a good 2 lbs easy. There sre indeed good bass to be found in creeks, heck a buddy of mine caught his biggest bass ever in that same creek. It was 8 lbs 9 oz on a black zoom worm. Id imagine once you get a good feel for that creek you'll be pulling 3 and 4 lbers regularly, and you'll eventually run up on a hog.

True. One of the times I went fishing a month ago, I tossed my panfish assassin out there ans had about 3 1 lb bass gather round it and one thst looked perhaps upward of 3lbs as well, couldn't get any to bite that time but yeah, goes to show largemouth bass aren't always loners, a lot of times they can be though.

Oh heck yeah, that waa an absolute blast!!! 5 foot 6 zebco light action rod and reel thst my late mother bought me years ago as a bday present, 4 lb line, silver minnow panfish assassin on a 1/16 oz jig, that was fun, fun, fun!!!! All the more specisl to me it came on thst rod my mother bought me. I wouldn't tske all the money in the world for it. She loved fishing too, and got excited about catching a nice bass like I do. So.I guess perhaps one could say she is doing her fishing theough me now.

Largemouth really seem to be more of "loner" type fish, whereas have heard smallmouth school more often. Dont hsve very many smallmouth in my area, so I dont really know for sure. But I've definitely noticed largemouth tend to do their own thing.

haha yeah, ANYTHING beats the skunk.The main reason why I had never even considered eating drum was because everyone around me had always said drum had tough, rubbery meat, and were chock full of bones. But im guessing by the posts here, those statements are far from the truth.

"Inflamed"...... just gotta LOVE auto correct huh?