the reel ess

Your 12 footer weighs less than my big kayak. But I also have a trolling motor and batter on it.

If it was 9.13 lbs, you can change your PB in your profile.

Absolutely

Whatever gets you the cast you desire. You don't need 3' of line hanging off the rod to sidearm a bait under a dock or hit a specific target. But it helps is you're after a long cast for search baits or covering water. Also, consider those around you. I fished with a guide a while back and he kept sitting in the driver's seat going through tackle. I kept checking before I cast the walking bait I was using and he said "Let it fly, you won't hit me." I said "You want to bet on that? I'll just make sure I don't." My dad once hit my mom in the head with a Norman's DD22 crankbait and never lived it down. She probably reminds him of that in heaven.

About the Trick Worm by Zoom, don't be afraid of the bubble gum color when using the "floating worm" or wacky rigged presentations. It looks like a gimmick, but I can assure you it's not. For me, it and the limetreuse color outfish all the other colors by a long shot. If you go into WalMart in the spring, bubble gum is the color they'll be out of. They won't even stock limetreuse. It's one of the best kept secrets in bass fishing. I've been so many times to find the store is out of bubble gum color that I just order them online now. This color works in the Super Fluke as well.

Ours sucks. There's an Academy close by that kills them. If that's not bad enough, there's a Cabela's (BPS, Jr) a couple exits up the interstate. But the wife and daughter like to go into Ulta, which is next door to Dick's. So I will usually saunter in there to see what's on the clearance rack. There's always some stuff on clearance because they have no idea how to purchase for bass fishing. They stock up on the latest gimmicky stuff like bat and duck-looking lures and then they're on deep discount end of summer.

The actual Trick Worm by Zoom doesn't float, at least not rigged on a worm hook. But it's almost neutrally buoyant and when retrieved like a jerkbait, it will come near the surface. So if you cast out and let it sink, it sinks really slowly and the tail wiggles a bit. I've probably caught more fish on it this way than the jerkbait retrieve.

The best winter advice I can give is, unless you live in Florida, don't get discouraged. I fished with a guide in FL Dec 27-28 and probably caught 100 fish. I came home and zeroed twice. I did finally get one on a jig. When winter fishing, often you're fishing fr just one or two bites. Maybe zero bites. Hang on, it'll warm up at some point.

Catfish, white bass, crappie, white perch, all kinds of bream, gar, stripers, a monster gold shiner, turtle and just recently, oscar. I feel certain I've forgotten some.

The idea is that bass think it's a crawfish and the skirt is a an added attraction, not the other way around. Therefore, if you made me choose between the skirt and the soft plastic craw, I'd just use a plain weedless jighead with the craw. That's what I did when I wanted to learn to use a jig. I wanted more bites so I got more practice at feeling the bite and setting the hook. I was fishing with a guide a bit back and we were flipping grass. We were catching one at almost every patch of grass. He handed me another rod with the same type lure but it had a punching skirt added. He said it was to try to get a bigger bass to bite.

I ordered a Falcon Bucoo 6-10 Hvy flipping/pitching rod with a gift card from work. I was using a 7' MH Falcon Lowrider that was really meant to be a heavy cranking rod for this technique. I can't wait to get out and give it a try.

A size 20 Pflueger Trion reel with 7' medium spinning rod spooled with 20# PowerPro. I'll use a mono leader if needed. I was going through my dad's rods and reels after he died. He had a bunch of retired rods that were either too light or too heavy for general bass fishing. There was a 2-pc 6' ML baitcaster in there. I want to give it a try at my buddy's dink factory pond, but I haven't yet. I'll fill one of my smaller BC reels with 10# mono someday and get around to it. That will probably be the day I finally get a bite from the biggest bass in the place.

It's in the 60s today, but there's some winter on the way tomorrow. Here, winter gives the false impression that it's just not coming this year, then BAM! it's winter again. And these cold snaps really give the bass lockjaw.

I with you! I had a fishing boat. I used to go to my parents' place on the lake, launch the boat, run it to make sure it was in good working order, go back, sleep and get up with the chickens and go fishing. No matter how early I went there was someone already sitting where I wanted to be. I'm not a tourney angler and I don't enjoy the competition or grinding out 2-3 dinks. I got my first kayak about 7 years ago. A Perception Soprt Pescador 120. Now I still ahve that one for really small places, but I bought a Feelfree Lure that has a transom mount 36lb trolling motor kit. I have about 6 private places I can fish as well as several public if I wanted to fish them. I sold the boat recently and I'm so glad to be rid of it. I don't have that lake house anymore either. The only downside is fishing in cold weather. That's just easier, more comfortable and safer with a real boat. But winter is not very long here.

7.92 lb on a Plopper. this past summer.

It's fascinating.

I liked the MB model so much I bought two more. It's an excellent reel for jigs. But I think it has been discontinued. I guess the Tournament MP replaced it. But that reel is $20 more. I bought the top of the line Academy store brand reel, the TAC-40, for my pitching combo. I like it a lot too. It seems to be very good quality for $99. It's very light and low profile. That took a little getting used to. I don't think it holds more than 70 yards of line. A small capacity spool just feels right for pitching and skipping to me. It feels like you get a $120-130 reel for under $100.

I had to yank a Pop R away from an owl twice one evening. It's rare to even see an owl here. They're here, you usually only hear them.

My largemouth bass goal is always the same. A new PB. I wanted to catch some peacocks in S FL and I got that out of my system. Back to the new PB!

On an earlier trip in the same vacinity, I had another big one come flying out of the water like Shamu with its mouth closed. It was trying to stun the bait. I made a lot of follow up casts with different baits to no avail.

Whopper Plopper 110. The bass was 7.92 lb. and a PB. I don't really know if it had anything to do with the bait as my last 2 PBs bit as soon as the bait hit water. It wasn't an explosion as you might imagine from a PB on a topwater. The bait just disappeared and I set the hook. It was July.

While in FL recently, I caught the same bass twice in the same spot on the same lure about 30 minutes apart. There was no mistaking it. It appeared to have been injured. It was shaped like a question mark like it had a broken back and somehow healed up and had sores all over it. It was even stiff. I told the guide it must be trying to commit suicide, but we kept throwing it back.

I bought one off Amazon with a gift card, so no cost to me. It's a $17 bait. But to be honest, there are more expensive walking baits. If nothing else, it rattles. The standard Spook and Super Spook (larger size) don't. You can tell it's a very quality piece. Shake it and the rattles continue to bounce around a while. It has 3 settings for sounds and another for no sound. The first sound resembles a cricket or frog. Second sound is supposed to be a craw, but its more of a tapping noise. The third is a shad sound like the Hydrowave device makes. Either way, I slew the bass in FL with it. At the very minimum, it's the easiest walking bait I've ever used. BTW, Roland Martin has a YouTube video catching big bass on the Helicopter lure.

A. I don't own anything that nice B. I'd have sooner thrown her in. She wouldn't have known how to use it anyway.

Fishing tournaments