herbu

I used the 6.75 Kut tail a lot this year. A lot. Almost always simply rigged it w/ a 3.0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. No weight. It's heavy enough for a good cast and you can literally cast it anywhere. You can twitch it through wood, crawl/skip it over weeds, anything. And it caught fish reliably all year... until now. Water has dropped into the 40s. But I'm still not sure if the bait quit working or I just haven't found the fish. Likely the latter.

Hmmm... I bet there is a lot of "Rock Bass fishing" during the closed LMB season.

In NC, your license is good for a year, starting the day you buy it. We went away from the calendar year. I like that. Just got an email reminder from them that my license will expire in a few weeks. Renewed online. Painless.

Although this video and thread go back to May, I just recently saw it. Ordered the jigs and trds from TW. Went to BPS looking at new rods & reels for this and regular drop shots. When I mentioned the Ned Rig to the guy at BPS, he said there had really been a run on them lately. He commented somebody must have won a tournament with it, or featured it on a TV show. Said he could always tell when one of those things happened because of a sudden run on a particular bait or rig. I got my stuff because of this thread and video(s). Anybody aware of something more recent that could have spurred this activity at a BPS in NC?

I don't understand how any place could have a "closed season" where you can't fish for bass. What if you're fishing for something else and happen to catch a bass? They can say, "throw it back", but how can they say, "don't fish for it"?

Truth is, I need to improve on everything... except maybe weightless worms. After a hiatus of ~25 years, returned to fishing about a year ago. There are 2 big differences now. (1) This wife doesn't mind. (2) I have a lot more $ to buy stuff. So I bought a bunch of stuff... boat, rods, reels and baits for everything mentioned so far. Kinda cycled through them until hitting on the plastic worm. Did well, so stuck w/ it all year. Not quite exclusively, but almost. Now need to grow. I'm thinking Jigs and Dropshot will be my focus this year. Starting now w/ cold water. Good idea?

Went back out yesterday. Caught 1. It seems winter has finally caught up w/ the bass, and they've moved out of the grass & weeds... I suppose into deeper water. So I guess now we try to figure out our winter spots. Here is a picture of the weeds. Paul, thanks for your help here. If I know the name of these weeds, I can search and learn more about them and when/how/where the fish like them.

I'll try to get a pic of the weeds today. The leaves look kinda like clover. Grass is around the islands and along the southeast coast of the point. Water depth is 2-4', and I can see about 12" down into it. I guess I'd call it stained.

Water temp has now dropped to ~49-50deg in central NC. Between 50-60deg, we were doing real well right next to cattail/reed beds on a sunny bank. Still a few fish there, but now we're finding them under patches of floating weed beds. Don't know what kind of weeds they are, but they have long woody stems and small leaves. In the wind, you can see some patches moving across the water. Catching fish both along the big stationary beds and the small slowly moving beds. I don't know if the big beds along the shore are attached to the bottom, or have just been wind-blown and accumulated there. They're usually in about 4-8' of water. We're throwing 6.5" weightless Yamamoto cut tail worms on top of the weeds, twitching them across the top of the weeds to the edge, and letting them fall off. It seems the bass are either patrolling the edges, or sitting in the edges and waiting for something to drop. Most are between 2-4lbs. I'm a bit surprised because most of what I read tells me the fish should be in deeper water. And in fact, most of the fishermen we see are working deeper water off the points. Also, I would have guessed the fish were seeking sun, not shade from the weeds. So I don't understand it, (which is to be expected), but can't deny we are slaying 'em, (for us). Have both caught our personal best in the last couple weeks. 6lb 11oz for me, 7lb for my partner... and usually 10-15 fish per afternoon.

Yamamoto 6.5" Cut Tail worm, weightless, watermelon w/ red & black flakes. Catch 'em all year w/ this. Plus it's an easy "old man" bait... cast, rest, twitch, rest, twitch, etc.

Spent a couple hours on the Ned Rig sticky... then placed an order on TW for a bunch of Z Man TRDs and Shroomz. Bass have been biting weightless Yamamoto Cut Tail worms near the shore, in 50deg water. But another cold front now. Will give the Ned Rig a try later this week.

I think this thread is preying on the uneducated. None of us know what caused this, how long it's been happening, or even if it's normal. Funny how many people can reach a conclusion with so little information. Perhaps it is just a new sub-species... Micropterus salmoides jennerus.

Heels for sports since the 2nd grade. Was a big Dean Smith fan... now Roy. Outside of sports, State is much less liberal-minded than UNC or Duke, and I like that. When a friend returned from Nam, he was treated like a pariah at UNC. State welcomed him. Same culture still exists today.

I remember one year ECU made Playboy's list of top 10 "party schools". Don't think much has changed since then.

No, but the Neuse Sports Shop and Wilber's BBQ used to be mandatory stops on the way to, and back from the beach.

No way!!! Might not end well for me!

I got into plastic swim baits this year. Experimented w/ 3-6" lures from a bunch of different brands. Used a Quantum Smoke real, (~$180), and a Quantum Smoke 6.5' Med rod, (~$140), for all of them. The combo worked well casting all sizes, but found I had to really rear back to set the hook. Perhaps a Med Hvy rod would have been better, but the Med was great for casting the lighter weight 3-4" baits. And BTW, the smaller baits worked a lot better than the larger ones.

If you're stocking up on stuff you already have and like, I agree. But if it's something new, I say go for the cheese. (FWIW, my wife agrees with your approach. Always. That's why she handles our money and I get an allowance. )

"Waiting for a sale" seems to me like "Waiting for an excuse to spend some money". If you really want something, buy it. Look at the money you expect to save, divide it by the number of days you'll do without it waiting for a sale. If it's worth the wait to save pennies a day, you don't really want or need it.

To me, this is a bigger problem with plastic swim baits that come in hard plastic trays. They take up A LOT of room in the tackle box. But I'm afraid putting them in a bag or loose in a hard tray will bend the tails and affect their straight swimming action. What do y'all do with them?

How about making it a bit more specific to your audience? Before Jordan, Harris and Falls, what was the culture in this area? Mostly ponds and rivers, with a very special day-trip to Kerr or the coast. How have the big lakes changed the local fishing culture? What does it mean when one or more of them go away, like the current Jordan flooding? And how about those @$#%& ski boats, jet skis, and especially the wake board boats? How "should" we act to share the lake with them? What about the people we call "nature lovers"? I mean boats with stereos loud enough to hear for MILES across the water. Loud, obnoxious, destroyers of the peace. How do they fit into our culture? I'll be at the expo this weekend with my fishing partner. And I'm sorry, but if I wander by and hear somebody talking about the environment or take-a-kid-fishing, I'll keep walking. Have heard it a million times already. But a discussion about how the fishing culture can deal with the recreational boating/skiing/wakeboarding culture? Or how the fishing culture evolved w/ our "big" lakes, and where it's likely to go from here? I'd probably stick around and listen to that. Just my .02

Bill Dance certainly pushes products from his sponsors, but he's still informative and fun to watch. His bloopers are hilarious. Saw an interview w/ Jimmy Houston. He called Bill, "a walking blooper", and said when Bill and Roland get together it's like watching clowns at the circus. He said Bill makes so many bloopers, sometimes they will reenact them to get a better camera shot. I notice a lot of his fishing is on the same lake. Never any other boats. I suspect it is stocked and managed just for the show. And I suspect you could probably catch real nice bass there just about any time and on any thing. Even knowing all that, I still like his show. He seems like he'd be a fun guy to fish with.

Yes, it did. Went again yesterday. Same thing. Water temp ~57deg. Sunny banks on reed/cattail edges. Yamamoto 6.5" cut-tail watermelon w/ black & red flakes, weightless, cast right next to the reed edges. Slayed 'em again. I caught 7 or 8 w/ four of them over 4 lbs. Partner even caught a 6# catfish. Bites were extremely soft. Felt more like worm hit a little rock or stick. Every time I felt ANY resistance, I'd give it slack, then ease up on rod a bit. If still felt resistance, would give it slack again, then ease the rod tip up again. If still felt resistance, would lift rod tip just until a little steady pressure, and wait about 15 seconds. If no change, then increase pressure to pull worm over rock/stick. If any movement felt, bust him. But coldfront today. Temps in the 20s-30s the next couple days. Suspect it will drop water temp to 50 or below. Next time we go, I think we'll start at the reed edges again, and slowly move out deeper to see if we can find them.

Went fishin' yesterday in a lake near Raleigh, NC. Air temp was 50deg. Water temp was still ~56deg after a real warm week. Most boats were fishing deeper water off the points. My buddy and I hit the north banks w/ grass and reeds, in the sun. We slay'd 'em. Probably 18-20 between us. One dink, the rest from ~2 - 5lbs. Used weightless Yamamoto 6.5" cuttail worms, cast right up next to the grass/reed edge. They were soft hits. Often felt like the worm was just a little stuck on a rock or stick. Put very little pressure on the rod and just held it. After 3-4 seconds, it would move slightly. Give it slack for a second, then bust him. Only lost one fish during the day, and he was a MONSTER. Fought him for ~15 seconds and the worm came out. My take-away was: Think. Exceptionally warm weather and water temps recently. Have continued catching far up in the coves. Then air temps dropped 20deg and lots of rain. Figured fish may be moving, but that's different than moved. Dance with the one that brung you. If that doesn't work, then start moving. Going back today and will begin w/ the same strategy.

Suggestion: Try to keep your mouth closed. When I was young, bought a new motorcycle. Had 4x wisdom teeth out later that day. Of course, the next day I went riding. Infection. Pain. But worth it. Dad was convinced it was germs in the wind while I was riding. So just in case, keep your mouth shut.