the reel ess

And apparently feral hogs.

If there's one population you can't decrease it's squirrels. Yeah, jet skiers are some of the least considerate and downright obnoxious people you'll ever encounter.

It's usually a good sign. But in the southeast we had a very warm Feb. Great for getting the fish to start moving. Things started blooming a month early, then we had a hard freeze. Dogwoods are bloomed out and I still have only seen a few beds with no bass even cruising nearby. I'm still catching prespawn bass on wood cover. OP: Try dragging a lizard.

I was at the local service station and a guy came by with nice size bass in his cooler. He asked me what I thought it weighed. I said maybe 6 lbs. He told me I was crazy, it had to be at least 7 and went on to weigh it. He works for a local utility so I see him around. I asked him later what it weighed and he said 5 1/2.

I just make a guess, then subtract 1 lb. min from it. Every time but twice that I thought I had an 8 pounder, it was a 7 pounder. And on the two occasions it was barely an 8 pounder, I thought it was more.

No, but I would pay for some really good bass fishing if I lived near some pay lakes. The clemson extension manages 3, maybe 4 lakes with the purpose of determining stocking strategies. I understand they implement different rules. Sometimes you have to take a slot, sometimes there's a max size you have to take. By entering into the agreement you're required to take your catch within those parameters. If you catch a limit in that slot you must take them out. But this place is 45 minutes away and I have good private fishing about 2 miles from my house. Other than that I have 3 other private places I can get into and there is a great wildlife preserve not too far with at least 6 ponds.

The best lessons are the ones that hurt, either physically or financially.

My dad started me off fishing as if I was his equal. He showed me knots and left me to figure things out and didn't do everything for me because he was busy trying to catch fish. My most cherished moments were days spent fishing with him. He got to where he enjoyed me doing the work while he just cast from the back seat. He would get tired quickly. Eventually, I couldn't even drag him along. He went to a pond with me the fall before he passed away and he caught a couple. I had to rig his rod for him like I was the parent and he the child. I miss him every day. When I lost him it was like losing both my parents at once because he was the link to my mom, who passed 5 years prior.

I fished with a guide in So FL two days, just him and me. He sat in the boat and rigged up rods for me all day to keep me casting something they wanted. He ran the trolling motor by remote and had the spot lock feature. I had the front deck to myself. In that scenario you can both be on the front.

Where I fish most of the time it's very unusual to catch two or more good size bass off a spot. They just don't school up there. I've only done it a handful of times. So I won't waste much time at all. Sometimes I go back to a spot I feel good about though. A couple years ago in May I caught one 7.93 lb and another 5.75 lb on the same spot, both on Plopper, but hours apart. If I'd more time to kill that day I would have returned to the scene again.

I got this young lady yesterday. Almost a carbon copy of the one I got on the 23rd. 4-10. Only 2 oz less than the other fish and not caught far apart. Now that I look at them side-by-side, they're not the same fish. I don't worry much about the background. This place is private and only a handful of people fish it. I had all 35+ acres to myself yesterday.

I fish in winter. I got one 4.75 about a week ago. Went yesterday afternoon and only 4 dinks. I had to resort to the weightless Speed Worm to get those. Talked to my buddy and he only got one crappie. There were beds, but no fish on them. Nights have been cold and I don't believe the crappie have spawned yet.

^^^^ This right here.

One of the pros I follow on YouTube once said he NEVER pegged a bullet sinker. He thought it cost bites and was completely unnecessary unless heavy punching. The last video I saw from him had a pegged sinker on the T-rigged lizard he was pitching to laydowns. They have to present everything as if they know it to be a fact because they're the experts. What's conventional wisdom one day is history the next. I remember watching a video of Gerald Swindle giving jig fishing advice. It was winter and he didn't get a bite the entire time. He said, as I always say, if you're fishing in cold water, two bites can be success. That's refreshingly honest.

Lately I've had one tied on a swinghead football jig for deeper water and one with a 3/16 oz. T rigged.

Yeah, those who think kayak fishing is not exercise didn't do it in March. I'm sure I got my cardio and them some in that day. But as my dad would say It beez like that in spring. We used to crappie fish on Lake Wateree, SC a lot and the spawn usually coincided with lake wind advisories. There was a spot on the lake with no houses and a tiny cove with a sandbar almost all the way across it, leaving just a small mouth. We walked in to fish there to get away from howling winds and filled the bucket. It was awesome. Some of my best days were spent there with my dad and his fishing buddy.

It's a sort of entry level job. Most of us are kind of fanatics. Most of them aren't. I walked into Cabela's about 9 days ago and the only people interested in helping me were pushing time shares.

It didn't even occur to me to put it in that thread, though I have before.

I have an older MH Lowrider "cranker" that I've used for everything from frogs to lipless cranks. It was my pitching stick until I bought one. Honestly, it's a bit too fast backbone for cranks. I've made it an all-around MH stick. I only bought it because a friend was getting out of fishing and into motorcycles and he asked $50 for it. It's still my most sensitive rod.

Months. I tend to think I need to replenish something. But really, I have other baits close enough to get by. For instance, I went through a bunch of black/blue lizards so I bought a bag of black/blue and one junebug/chartreuse. I totally forgot I have several bags of different watermelon color combos until I went to put the new ones in my bag.

You can't rig one wrong. I read @Mike L reply. Good stuff. I like to rig it with a 1/16 oz head. That way you can either swim it slowly or skim it along the surface with a fast retrieve. This is an excellent bait for hot summer when they don't seem to react to any of the old standbys.

From Thursday. 4-12 on a black/blue lizard on a 1/2 oz swing head jig.

I keep a log of the "big bass" I catch, anything over 3 lb. In 2021 I caught 18 over that mark. In 2022, only caught 3, one of which was 8 lb. Thursday, I went a coupe of hours without a bite, struggling with a pretty stiff breeze. Then I cast my black/blue lizard on a 1/2 oz. swing head jig to some stumps on the bottom about 12' deep. I pumped the rod a couple of times and suddenly there was no weight on the line. Set the hook and was rewarded with this 4 lb. 12 oz. female loaded up with eggs. I'm hoping this is a sign the big bites will be more regular this year.

I don't see how that could not work. Until it gets destroyed of course.

LOL. Aren't you the kayak hater anyway?