the reel ess

Yes! I like to apply pressure sideways, against whichever direction the fish is going. A cool thing about the kayak and I guess the canoe is that a big bass can't get under it if you play it right. If it tries, it just turns the kayak. The only times I get in a bind are when I'm in the cover. If you get hung up you can easily drag yourself to the cover and reach it. It's a major advantage over a bigger boat. It's also a lot easier to land a fish when your hand is at the the water level.

I have a Bandit flat sided squarebill that works great. Pretty sure they don't sell it anymore.

When fishing heavy cover use a reel with good drag, heavy line, heavy rod and give them as little slack as possible. Turn the fish's head and get it moving in your direction and don't stop. Fish will bury in weeds quickly and use them to leverage the hook out. Use superline hooks on T-rigs. If you lose a big bass on a regular hook that straightened, you'll never forget. If you use good quality superline hooks with heavy braid you won't lose many and they last a long time and take a good sharpening. Conversely, when fighting a good fish on trebles with little or no cover around, give them loose drag and play them lightly. They will jump less and you stand a much better chance of landing them. I will often loosen my drag after hooking a big bass and just use my thumb to turn it if necessary until it's tired. Then I will tighten a little to land it. I use braid on my topwaters and some trebles, so adjusting the drag looser is a must. Don't play the bass with the rod up in the air like Bill Dance. That's for the camera. I lost many a bass at the boat doing this when I was young. When fishing with a single hook in open water, I try to set the drag somewhere near 2/3 of the test of the recommended line. I say recommended because I use 30#braid on BC and 20# on spinning instead of the recommended mono line. I'm not telling people to use the line I use. You do you. This works best for me.

I'm blessed to have access to a private lake that has up to 8 pounders, which in SC is a big bass. But there really are no giants there. It's almost routine to catch a 5-7+ pounder. I caught a 7-4 two Saturdays ago on Super Spook, Jr. But for some reason thy simply stop growing around 8. I can't really explain that. The state record is 16-2 and was caught in 1949. That's a very long time for a record to stand so it tells me giants are an anomaly. I know people who have caught 10 pounders, so I'll call that a Carolina giant. As for how I target bigger bass, it's mostly by fishing a body of water that has a healthy population of them. There are gold shiners there, so that's a good source of forage. All the usual rigs work. Of course, the bass prefer gold hardbaits and spinnerbaits. My PB, 8-2, as well as a bunch of other larger bass, was caught pitching a 5" Yum Dinger. I almost never go finesse. I don't enjoy it at all unless I got skunked a couple times in a row. This year the Whopper Plopper 110 has been money for big bass. I've caught another few big bass (the profile pic and another 8-0) in spinnerbaits. I have come a couple ounces shy of an 8 pounder in 2025. I know some people don't respect big bass caught from a private reservoir. I simply don't care. They would enjoy the opportunity if they had it. If you go to Okeechobee or Mexico and catch a big bass, you still caught that big bass. I'm not relying on forward facing sonar or any electronics or a guide. My hand is how I know the water temp. It beats competing with a bunch of better equipped bass boats for 2 pounders on the local hydro lakes.

PS: I have learned I'd rather cheap out on rods than reels. I have 3 rods that were better than $100 new. One of them, an older Falcon Lowrider, I actually bought used for $50. But I don't need to spend a fortune on a rod to cast a spinner/buzzbait, a lipless crank or a Pop R. I can save that money.

I used to be more susceptible to the latest fads. I sold the boat and started with the kayak. That earned me a lot of capital with the wife. So I amassed 8 or so updated combos. But I have to admit I have about all the equipment I need now. I buy the occasional replacement lure when I lose one or some hooks here and there. I could be sending a fortune on Yum Dingers, but I bought a 100 pack off Amazon. Wish I could find bulk packs of Rage Bugs and Craws. I use PowerPro braid, which is expensive. But it lasts a long time and you can simply turn it around and use the other end. It can last 3 years. I started fishing smaller places like a private lake and some ponds. So the deep divers are rarely used. I can get by with the basics-soft plastics, some topwaters, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks. All the tried and true seasonal favorites. There are some rabbit holes I could go down like big swimbaits. But if I did, I would want a new expensive, specialized combo and a small fortune in expensive lures. And I'm not convinced I would catch more big bass. Trying oversized lures in the past has not produced for me. So all things considered, I feel like I'm doing it on the cheap now.

I use less than 20%. I caught more bass on Yum Dingers and Whopper Ploppers this year than any other lures by far. Some days I could have simply taken two rods.

In the kayak with a paddle and no electronics, you have to be more deliberate. You paddle to where you think they might be and cover that spot pretty well. I carry anywhere form 3-8 rods rigged with whatever I think they might want. I try whatever is appropriate for that spot. No bites, moving on.

I use 30# PowerPro on a Lew's LFS 7.something:1reel with a very tight drag and a Flacon Bucoo pitching stick. I use Gamakatsu superline hooks and set them very hard to turn the bass and get it moving up. I fish from a kayak when I'm not in my buddy's jon boat. The kayak is light so I drag it to the laydown pretty quickly. If the bass gets pinned or wrapped, I keep the pressure on until I can reach for it. Sometimes they will break off branches and get free. Try to target the deep end of the laydown first. Fish there have a tendency to instictively try to head for deep water, away from the tree. You'll still lose some. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. When the water cools, I also rig my frog rod with a jig or T rig. It has 60# braid.

Try the Heddon Sonar

I suspect they'll adapt and it'll work itself out. This can't be the first time.

I wish this was the trend where I live. Since I mostly fish private waters there have been some years I didn't buy a license. I just checked and mine's expired. LOL

I feel the same. Seems like fishing exploded during COVID and didn't fade. Not disagreeing, but what were these states doing before the number of fishing licenses increased?

The shorter, the better. The tip rod eye tends to snag it all day and annoy you. I eventually ditched the leader and never looked back. I didn't notice any dropoff in catches or size.

This guy makes custom gator tail worms. They aren't on his website, but if you email him he'll make them. You can see them on his YouTube channel. He may actually be on a member here, not sure. https://oldguycustomlures.com/grubs https://www.youtube.com/@oldschoolbassin

I quit using jigs for this reason. I just pitch T-rigs now. Nothing worse than pitching to a laydown you know often holds good fish just to get hung up on the first cast. But if I was to use a jig for heavy cover it would be the Trashmaster. I have a couple so old the wire tied skirts and paint on the heads are almost gone.

I would add that the paddle tail type feet like the Stanley Ribbet toad have a louder sound than the curly tail feet like the Zoom Horny Toad. The Horny Toad is heavier so you can cast it further. I like to use a lightly weighted hook for the Ribbet. Then there's the Teckel Sprinker Frog. It's a sort of hybrid. It has the hollow frog body with a single paddle tail that gives a bit of a buzzbait gurgle. It's good around emergent vegetation edges and more open water. It' a little less weedless than a regular hollow body frog because the hooks are a bit more exposed. It's heavier than either of the other types and you can cast it a mile.

Toad pros: Gets more open water bites Triggers reaction strikes Works well around sparse weeds Sinks, so you can kill it when a fish misses and they may still grab it as it sinks. Cons: Doesn't crawl across lilies as well. Works better along edges. Requires bass to be a little more active. Frog Pros: Floats Very weedless and comes across vegetation well Cons: Not as good in open water where fish can get a good look at it If a bass misses it, and this happens a lot, it often won't try again

Don't hit anything with it while casting. The lip can break off. Rebel minnows are a little more durable.

That picture is about 6-7 years old. The old gal looks like it ate any and everything that swam by. No wonder I believe I caught it twice. I wish I had caught it again because it had the potential to be my PB eating like that.

She's a beaut!

Maybe. IDK. I fish from a kayak and I think that stealth has something to do with the amount and size of the bass I catch. Sure, you can basically chase a big fish with FFS. Does that equal more bites? Hard to say. But I don't even have a depthfinder. My temp gauge is my hand or foot. And I fish a lot of shallow areas that are grassy in warmer weather. But what kind of chips? I caught the fatty in my profile pic after the first night of freezing temps. I had to dip my hands in the water to keep them from being numb. I had a feeling about a certain spot and I paddled straight to it and caught that bass on a War Eagle spinnerbait as soon as the first cast hit the water.

I go out with anywhere from 4 to 8 rods with what I suspect will work already tied on. I switch rods throughout the day unless one is really producing. I'm pretty impatient if something's not working.

There are tons of possible variables. But I can tell you the stick bait is the best bait ever. I caught my PB on one and it's my leading lure for bass over 3 lbs. It's not even close. Some other big bass lures: Whopper Plopper, especially on less pressured waters, buzzbaits, spinnerbait, lipless crank, frog/toad, jigs, T-rigged craws/beavers/creatures. I don't doubt that really big lures work. But if the main forage is 2" bluegills and you're throwing 10" swimbaits, expect a good interval between bites. It can just be a case of getting the bait in a big bass's face. They will be in shady areas and gnarly cover. I think that's far more important than a supersized bait.

Whatever these are. I found one of these hanging from a dock piling. https://6thsensefishing.com/collections/lipless-crankbaits They're the best hooks I've seen that come on a lipless crank. They do look one size larger than usual. But they work great.