the reel ess

I have one of their Walking Boss walking baits. It had two sounds it makes. One sounds like a cricket and the other sounds like rushing baitfish. It worked well for me when in FL. But I haven't caught anything off it back in SC. It was about $14.

Fill in the blanks in your current arsenal with these. If you like a particular specialty, go that direction first. I take 7 or even 8 combos with me now. But 5 is usually plenty.

Aww shucks!

This was the only way I could stand to fish anymore when I had my fishing boat. Sometimes I'd spend Friday night at the lake, have my boat in and ready to go, get up with the chickens and someone would still be sitting where I wanted to fish when I got there. That's what changed the way I wanted to fish for the rest of my life. I'm not a pro. If I want competition, I'll take a buddy in my spare kayak.

Reel it so slowly that you can't feel the vibration of it when the water is below 50 degrees. As the temp increases, obviously, you can reel faster. I caught some fish in Jab-Feb reeling it so slowly, it was probably just dragging bottom. The big deep diving Shad Rap is a good one for cold water as well. It will dive on a very slow retrieve. I like the lipless better because the water is always muddy in winter here and they can hear it coming. You basically have to put it in their mouths because they won't be chasing it.

I've caught more bass on the gold/black CC Super Spot than anything else this calendar year. The runner-up has been the black/blue T rigged craw.

I know it's selfish of me, but I really like to be alone when I go fishing. I seek out and ask permission to go places that I can do that. I have access to three private ponds and a reservoir that has very limited pressure. The most boats I've ever seen there is 4. I'm usually one of 2 there. My days of fishing crowds are hopefully over.

I was told by a guide to absolutely not do it. Ever. But then I see pros doing it. Now that I usually fish in a kayak, I either net or lip the fish or, if it's being difficult, I get my hand under the belly and hold it against the side of the kayak until I can lip it. It's amazing how this calms them. It's also a good tactic when they have a face full o' trebles. I don't even care if I lose small fish at the boat. I was going to toss them back anyway.

I've been into baitcasting gear since I was a teen (1980s). But I do own a 7' MH-F spinning rod that has whooped a bunch of good bass. It's a BPS Viper combo rod I bouth about 15 years ago. The reel wore out a few years ago, but the rod keeps ticking. Use a pretty good reel. The one on my combo is a Pfleuger Trion size 40. I use 20 lb. braid on it. If I didn't own a BC combo, this is the one I'd use for jigs/T-rigs. Matter of fact, it's my go-to for dropping Trick Worms into spawning bass beds.

Berkley Big Game 15 lb. But I've just about switched to all braid except for leaders. The only rod I have mono on is for spinnerbaits.

They must be black with blue flakes. ? Because that's what catches more bass for me than any other color.

I want a vintage Jointed Pikie and I want to try this method

I don't know them either. What I do know is that weeds won't grow on the bottom where they cannot get enough sunlight. Therefore, the "mats" of scummy cheese-like vegetation are not productive most of the year for me. Bass tend to greatly prefer weeds that they can use as pockets to hide in and ambush prey. So those are the ones I target the most.

The scar or the tattoo?

LOL. Except we don't have red crawfish here. But their lips are still red. I guess they could be raw from munching on brown craws. Either way, red just isn't productive for me.

You should be able to get near a few big'uns soon during the spawn.

I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't been skunked this year. And I usually get skunked a couple times in late winter. This year is atypical.

Big bass in ponds are generally loners. I can't think of ever catching many in close vicinity except during spawn. Smaller fish are more likely to congregate, especially in a smaller body of water. You could possibly need to leave the smaller schoolers and look elsewhere. I'd catch up that school of dinks first. As for lures and tactics for bigger bass, I just fish the usual lures. But I don't use much in the way of small finesse lures until fish won't bite anything else. And then I usually catch dinks.

I stand corrected. It looks like the Pescador 120 has gone up in price. I'd still take the one with the stadium seat.

Get the one with the better seat. You'll be glad. I have an older Pescador with the molded in, padded seat and I just bought the Pro 10 for the seat upgrade. It's much more comfy. The Vibe is also the better deal. You can still get a new Pescador for $500. The new Sea Ghost goes for $1K. It's probably just the Pescador. The Pro debuted with a stadium seat.

See what you can do to get them removed.

We have cormorants in our local watershed. There are 2 residents, maybe mates, and 3 others that come and go. One of the two residents has suffered some kind of injury where it can't fly. It still tries, but fails. The other stays with it. But when the other 3 are present the healthy resident flies around the lake with them. Interesting little social network they have. They're usually sitting in a pine laydown and as I approach, they hop into the water like a bowling ball. A cormorant doesn't need to fly to eat, so it seems to be doing fine. And I haven't noticed any differences in fish populations.

A family friend told me otters cleaned his pond out. It's a pretty large pond. I guess if your pond is hopelessly overpopulated with small bass you could just let them finish they're work. I guess they'll move along when the fish dry up.

Just for sunglasses, I like amber Calcuttas. They're good enough for someone to steal them, thinking they're high dollar. But they're cheap enough you can just go get another pair without waiting for payday if someone does steal them. You can tell someone swiped mine once. But I need readers now. So I bought a pair of Orvis amber polarized glasses with 1.5X readers. That's usually what I wear when I'm fishing unless I forget them. It's either take the Orvis or take readers along for knots, clips, etc.

This looks like it came out of Forrest L Woods' museum.