the reel ess

I had a FeelFree Lure kayak with a motor and fish finder. I mostly used it to know water temp in cooler months. I sold it and used the money for a simpler kayak and some other things. It's really unnecessary for the kind of fishing I do. I suppose it could help me find crappie.

I caught a barely 8 pounder in the middle of the day in July on a spinnerbait in about 3' of water. The best time to go is when you can. On deeper lakes they'll tend to relate to deeper structure. I don't fish deeper lakes anymore. I start looking for them in heavier cover or shady areas. Lilies, laydowns, under docks or overhanging brush are my summer daylight favs. But you can find some shadows and I will almost always try a topwater there any time of day. The outer edge of weeds can be pretty good as well. I went on my birthday, August 8th, several years ago and was rewarded with two bass over 6 lbs. in the sticky afternoon. I think that's all I caught that day. One was so far under trees, I had to go in with my kayak and get it. I was covered with spiders. Summertime is also a good time to catch them schooling on bait.

The Cover Scat. I guess because it looks like a turd. LOL. It seems needlessly more expensive than the BSE.

Has anyone used this bait or the similar one by DEPS with success? It's getting hot here and that's about time for me to start skipping baits way under the brush.

Don't feel too bad. I lost a $30 Mattlures crappie swimbait in a similar way. Now it's straight braid for me. I know it's not the right line, but if it's more than $15, I can't really afford to lose it.

Try some new techniques at the places you're very familiar with. That will keep them interesting. I flog a 30 acre private spot. I enjoy other places for variety. But this one produced most the big bass in my pictures, so I can't just move on.

I carry a bag each of Yum Dingers (Senkos), Rage Craws, Rage Bugs, lizards and whatever other worm I think I might use. Usually, I leave the Yum Dinger on. I just occasionally switch it up. The Rage Bug is good for skipping under limbs. I might use a bigger worm, like an 8" ribbon tail or a large lizard if I'm fishing open water. I haven't used a regular jig in a couple years.

I settled on Gamakatsu EWG superline hooks and only get away from them for finesse applications, like a Trick or Finesse worm or a 4" lizard, and that's usually on a medium spinning combo when I can't buy a bite on all the usual rigs (the dog days of summer). I like the Superline hooks because I'm usually using straight braid on my pitching stick. The superline EWG can stand up to big fish in heavy cover. Regular hooks will straighten out. Also, on a regular hook, the braid line knot will find the area where the hook eye is rounded at the end and tighten up there, leaving your rig crooked. There are people nowadays that swear by the straight shank flipping hook for nearly all T-rigs. I'm not a fan because they dig through plastic easily and will hang you up at the worst times. Nothing sucks worse than getting hung up on a promising piece of cover on your first cast. That's my $.02.

You can replace the skirt with a toad if you wish. It's really just something for the bass to home in on to strike. A dark one for very low light conditions and a light one for brighter. I like the Cavitron. I'm not going to go out and buy 10 different brands to see which works best.

My H-F pitching stick has a nice, flexible tip for skipping baits and making quiet presentations. My XH-XF frog rod could double as a pool cue. But they both got some tip.

I think all 3 of mine are black and blue Yum Dinger (Senko). I bought a 100 pack from Amazon. Maybe my PY was a lizard, same colors. I only bass fished twice in 2024. My New Year's resolution was to fish more and I'm keeping it. I don't really love fishing worms. it's slow and sometimes quite boring. I'd rather fish topwaters all day every day. But sometimes you gotta do what the fish want.

I have the Bucoo pitching stick. I've had someone on here argue with me when I said it was a great all-around rod for T-rigs. It really does have a great tip for skipping and making a light presentation. It can cast lighter weight quite well. It feels like air in my hand, but has the backbone to drag up to 8 pounders out of cover with the drag tightened down. I caught this gal on it and she was wrapped around a log. And I have an older Lowrider Trap Caster. I usually keep it loaded with 30# braid. I bought it 2nd hand from a coworker for $50 about 15 years ago-a testament to its durability. He was trading his bass fishing hobby for a custom motorcycle build hobby. When I first got it I used it for everything from frogs to cranks. Now I use it for lipless cranks, 110 size Plopper and in winter, the Sonic blade bait. That bait gets hung up enough that I use straight braid so I can bend the hook and save it. Otherwise, I could go through a couple per trip.

Mine was a crappie angler too. Had a box full of hooks, bobbers, split shot, a few jigs, a couple of those inline spinners that came on the card at the mom & pop store and maybe a pack of Mann's Jelly Worms. I probably stole the few bass lures he had.

My mom worked for a dentist for about 20 years. He's like family to us. He is an avid fisherman and hunter who takes several trips a year for both. He knew I fished mostly for bass and would ask if I'd caught any lunkers lately. He retired a few years back. A chain bought him out. He tried to pass his customers along to them. But they overcharge and hold your credit without notice, squeeze insurance for more than necessary, etc. When we left we had to apply to their home office to get our credit mailed to us. Not the point. I really miss talking to him and his whole staff. I do occasionally see him around town and chat when we do. We got a new dentist since we felt we were being taken advantage of by the chain. She's quite young. I saw her the other day with no mask on and thought she looked about 16. LOL. I doubt she's into fishing of any kind.

I think I'm becoming the Old Guy now I gave a guy three spots on my home lake that he had never fished for his club tourney. He won it. I guess by today's standards that's cheating. This was 20 years ago.

I started out trying to use jigs with craw trailers. And I caught fish with them. But they hung up too much in heavy wood cover. I started using T rigged craws and tried several before I landed on the Rage Craw and Rage bug. They're the only craws I've used in quite a while. The bug skips better. They're a big fish killer. They also work quite well and weedlessly on a slither rig. https://www.cabelas.com/p/strike-king-slither-rigs Zoom Ultravibe is a good small craw and the Berkley Powerbait Chigger Craws smell so strongly bass will hold them all day. Eliminating unproductive waters. Sounds better when you say it that way.

In warm weather, camo shorts and one of two long sleeve, sweat-wicking fishing shirts. If the forecast calls for overcast all day, then it's a short sleeve t shirt. I wear flip flops and try to cover exposed skin with SPF 30 or whatever the females int he house have around. I ain't looking for a tan. In the cold, I wear a pair of thick sweatpants and layer the shirts. I have a Cabela's Guidewear hoodie that's good down to freezing. I have some good long thermals. I'll wear muck boots because I usually have to step in shallow water to get in the kayak. The Cabela's hoodie served me well in Ireland where the weather 90% of the time is cloudy, misting rain and windy. It almost always feels 15 degrees colder than it is. One day it was in the high 50s and sunny. People were dressed for the beach. LOL.

I can't remember the names of friends' kids, sometimes even extended family members' kids. It's shameful.

The log book was a gift from my wife and daughter. I thought logging bass would reveal techniques and patterns that would help me catch more big bass. What it really shows me is seasonal patterns. One thing I've come to realize is it's not so much the bait as it is simply locating the big fish and that fish being in a feeding mood. So I put less stock in giant baits for bigger bass. But it's nice to be able rank a big bass in my history as well as take out the log and relive the moment. I have nearly a photographic memory for locations where a good fish was caught, always have. So I look at the log and see the bass weight and the lure and I recall the location. If I caught a big bass on a twig, that twig is going to get a couple casts every trip. I think a lot of fishermen have this kind of memory.

I think 5 and up is "big". But I keep a log of everything 3 lbs. and up. So I guess 3 lbs. is where "good one" range starts for me.

I dislike: Finesse, chatterbaits, swimbaits, deep cranking, jerkbaits, expensive boats, electronics, spending money unnecessarily, pressured waters, crowds, fly fishing (I may still come around on that one). I like: Lures with the paint rubbed off, tactical snaps, T-rigs in any color as long as it's black and blue, trying old lures that people forgot like the Johnson Silver Minnow, straight braid, hazy IPAs and mid-lower shelf whiskeys.

Me either. It's black, blue, black/blue or blue/black around here. Really junebug, purple or any darker color seems the be the deal. I've all but stopped buying green pumpkin. I still have a lot of it leftover though.

I gave fluoro a try and hated it. It's strictly braid or mono for me. But as I mentioned, I don't fish deep. I settled on PowerPro 30# for baitcasting and 20# for spinning gear. Except I use 50# for frogs in heavy cover. I LOVE the way braid sings when you set the hook or when a big fish is taking drag. 😉

I use straight 30# braid for T-rigs, jigs, flukes, etc. I don't fish a lot of finesse the dog days of summer when I can't buy a bite. Then I will use something like a light Carolina rig or s splitshot rig. Then I will tie on a mono leader. I should point out that the water here is stained nearly year round. Also, I don't fish around rocks much. I also have a rod that I use for big topwaters like the Whopper Plopper and lipless cranks that I use braid on. I just set the drag pretty loose and play the fish, using my thumb for drag sometimes. Braid is not the right line for this setup, but it casts so further than mono, covering more water. That's what these baits are for.

I gave her the fishing report. I definitely owe her a few favors. It was flooded way back in the 60's I believe by the Army Corps of Engineers to be one of two town water reservoirs. There are a total of 9 landowners surrounding it. It's big enough to be like a lake with various patterns working, but small enough that you know you dragged your lure by some fish. It's a special place. I missed it like a dear friend the couple of years I couldn't go.