blckshirt98

These sell used on eBay in good condition for $60-80. Does this place have any left handed Citicas and do they ship?

4am too early for my blood but when it got light at 5am late spring/early summer I'd get to one of the local lakes at aroudn 445-5am. Nowadays I'd probably shoot for around 530am just because although they say night fishing can be great I'm not a fan because I don't like having things with hooks swinging around in the dark especially if I need to pull a snag free (I once took a 1/2oz dropshot weight right between the eyes, thought I shattered my nose and glasses...one more inch to the left or right and it would have been bad news). I picked the south shore because I think it gives you access to fish both shallow early and then deeper as the sun comes up. If you go to the far far right of Wolf Run you'll probably just be fishing shallow the entire time especially if the water is down (although that actually might be one of the better areas in the Spring when the bass are spawning). The dam on the left is probably going to be the deepest part but it also looks like it's grassy with a dock and easiest to access so it's probably the most fished/heaviest pressured spot on the entire lake. I'd avoid the east shore because that's the first place the sun is gonna hit as it rises in the east and it's gonna be on your face and the water the entire time with no shade. The north bank looks like it has some good coves/points to fish but I noticed it's an airport so there's probably no public access. If you do have access to the north bank I'd put that as my second option. The south bank has that one big cove by the first star marked "A" and a few smaller coves that will provide some shade as you work your way west towards the dam. Also the south bank gives you access to a couple of main and secondary points on the lake. You'll be able to fish the shallower water in the coves but at the same time be near some of the points to check deeper water. As you go west you'll be closer to deeper water as you get to the main part of the lake by the dam. Also any fish that's been hanging out in north and east arms of the lake that wants to spend the hot part of the day in the deeper water by the dam will HAVE to swim through that choke point in the middle. As you walk east to west you're gonna have to see what's in the water and what kind of structure/cover is along the shoreline. Look for crawfish/crawfish carcasses, baitfish running along the shore or dead fish on the shoreline, fish jumping for insects - anything indicating things bass eat are active in the area. Look for tulies or lilypads along the shore or submerged grass/vegetation a few yards out. If you cast out and you bring back vegetation on your lures like grass or milfoil(but not moss) that's a really good thing because it provides cover and oxygen and you can guarantee there's bass chilling in or nearby that stuff. I'm still pretty new at this (bass fishing for just over 3.5 years) but i'm 100% shore and I've figured out what works for me and what I'm confident using from shore - dropshotting 3.5"-5" plastics, and squarebill crankbaits in the KVD 1.0-2.5 size range. I can't emphasize fishing a dropshot enough - I started out using a Carolina Rig and Texas Rig with very little success but as soon as I started to dropshot my catches went way way up.

InvisX, Sniper, and CFX is what I use for leaders and they all work great. Got just over a dozen spools of InvisX at over half off when Sports Authority was closing out their fishing sections, haven't had any issues with it.

+1 on the build and quality of the tactical angler power clips. Only wish they made them in a smaller size, they seem more for saltwater!

I'm horrible about fishing in the rain (i.e. I never go) but for shore fishing in general I try to get to any lake as early as possible, before first light where you can just barely make out where you're walking and need a light to tie knots. If you don't mind getting there when it's dark, even better. Once the sun comes out the bite seems to slow down near the shore, so by 11am I'm usually back in the car and heading home. Looking at the map and knowing nothing about the place or current water levels, I'd probably try the south side, east working west as the sun comes up. Park in the circle, start casting into that little cove at point A and walk along the shoreline towards the dam to point B -

Usually the larger fish spaz out just once or twice once they're out of the water. It's a healthy strong spaz but not a crazy manic flopping one. The smaller fish definitely spaz out more, usually several times where I sometimes talk to the fish "chill out I'm trying to help you dude", and it's very manic full body flipping around in the air. Lot of times I'll just unhook them with pliers right over the water and let them flop in.

7'6" Heavy Extra Fast for frogs/toads/other topwater.

I've found some Facebook/Instagram custom pourers and while many just copy molds of existing baits, the advantage of using them is that they usually can make them to order in any custom color/flake combinations that you request. My favorite custom pour person is Paul Krew who has some unique and amazing color patterns, as well as a good variety of molds. My favorite "buy online" small company is Western Plastics which are sold through Angler's Arsenel. Their sweepers and drop shot lures are awesome, and offer unique colors you can't find anywhere else (especially if you like translucent plastics with subtle color). They also offer custom colors but their stock colors are more than enough. Also I like to visit local mom and pop tackle shops whenever I'm travelling because most usually carry small locally made plastics/lures I'll have never heard of and I always try to grab a couple of those and throw them in my "secret weapon" Sterlite bin back home.

I think a part of it is because some bass fisherman hold bass in such high esteem as a sport fish because of the challenge/recreation it provides, they can't fathom that someone would kill it for food. It's almost like someone is killing and eating their spirit animal.

Mono for sure. I tried using electrical tape and the braid was slipping on the tape! Maybe I just wasn't spooling the braid tight enough, but for me it's just mono from now on. Unless of course I was supposed to put the electrical tape over the line after tying my arbor knot.

Wait, when you grab a fish by the lip you're supposed to press down on the tongue? I've NEVER done this, does it really work? Does this apply to all fisH?

One of the first bass I caught using a "reel and retrieve" method was on a Panther Martin holographic rainbow spinner while at a Sierra lake that stocks trout. Was the only fish I caught that day.

I see shore guys bringing 4-5 setups and wonder how they manage as well. I usually see them just lay their rods on the bare ground, which is something I don't like to do (I baby my gear). Sometimes just bringing 2 setups annoys me because I'll leave one setup leaning up against a bush, start casting and walking along the shore to cover water, and next thing I know I need to walk back 50 yards to retrieve my other setup.

I just read threw a few of your threads on the RECreation Lakes - a lot of those lakes look really small/shallow/narrow, and if you're hitting the ones by the road (easy access for all) they probably get a ton of fishing pressure. The water looks pretty clear, are you or your brother able to see any bass? All of those little fingerling lakes might not have bass in them either. Have you tried Wolf Run Lake? Being from shore can be kind of a disadvantage if you don't have full 360 degree access to the lake but if you watch the boats at any given lake most will be casting towards the banks so you're casting the same targeted water much of the time. It's when all the boats are in the middle of the lake fishing deep where you're at a disadvantage. As a 100% shore guy myself, I like to fish something with bottom contact so I can get a feel for the contour/depth/bottom composition of the lake, and also see if you run into any structure (bump into any boulders, get hung up on treestumps, etc). Try to walk along as much of the shoreline as possible and try to find spots where bass will hang out - coves, dropoffs, channels, etc. If you need to get uncomfortable in finding better spots just think of it as one more obstacle someone didn't try to get past to find a better fishing spot. Sometimes you find nothing, sometimes you find a gem. During the hot period I'd stick to the larger lakes where you know there's bass, and in the springtime when they start spawning and get more active, hit up some of the smaller bodies of water just to see if there's bass in them. Use a dropshot with a small 3-4" plastic nose hooked, if there's anything swimming in the water, it should hit it.

I always see the Elites grab bass on the body by gripping it from the top/back and pressing in on the sides near the gills to keep it from thrashing - I tried this and felt it just took off too much of the fish slime. I've also seen the Elites cradle the fish from the bottom like a baby but haven't tried this because this looks like it even takes off more slime.

+1 to Sierra Trading Post, you can find some good deals there if you sign up for their email flyers and are patient but also ready to buy as soon as you find something you like.

Exactly what S Hovanec said - nosehook on a dropshot, size 8 Owner Mosquito.

One more comment about fishing - it helps identify if something is really bothering me. Most of the time when I"m fishing I'm focused on fishing and the fish - finding the fish, presentation, what to use, etc. My focus is singular. However if there's something else going on through my mind that's not about fishing - deadline at work, argument with someone, home maintenance I've been putting off,etc, then I know it's something I need to address as soon as possible when I get back to the real world.

If double trebles are hooked I'll always unhook the "lower" treble by grabbing it with pliers and shaking the fish. The remaining treble I'll either do the same if the fish is going crazy, or I'll grab the treble with the pliers and then grab the lip of the fish with a Vader death grip to make sure it doesn't thrash around too much. I've been lucky so far!

For me a bite is a "hit" 90% of the time, if it's an aggressive bite I'll use "crushed it".

Whether or not it makes a difference to a bass, I've read a lot of things from the science side, and have read a lot of instances of real world examples of how a color change turned a bite on. Which one holds true and when, who REALLY knows. There's probably times when a color change triggered a bite, but you can't say for sure it was THAT color was it because once you get a bite you don't want to start changing colors. All I know is that I have my personal confidence colors that I like to throw, and those are the colors that give me the most confidence when fishing, so those are the colors I like to use.

Odd I'm reading this post because the last time I was at the local tackle shop I held a R2S Bubble Popper and a Bubble Walker and couldn't tell the difference for the life of me because the back of both packages had the exact same print. Note that the 88 will be fairly big for a popper, larger than a hula popper or LuckyCraft G-Splash. The only difference I saw was the Bubble Popper had a line tie in the middle of the mouth, more like a classic popper, and the Bubble Walker had a line tie on the top of the mouth where it was more meant to be walked like a zara spook. Also just confirmed with a friend who's a rep for R2S that the walker was meant to splash and spit water while being walked like a spook, and the popper was meant to spit and bubble like a classic popper (it'll walk too if you work it but the walker is the better option for that). TL;DR - If you're looking to replace the Pop Max, go with the Popper, if you want a bubbling water spitting zara spook go with the Walker.

Great recap, marshall assignment of a lifetime!

I use PP 15 on most of my spinning reels and that stuff does not break with 15 pounds of force. I was able to rip a lipless crank from a tree 30 yards up by breaking off the branch it was stuck on, and I had the PowerPro looped several times around my fishing hat when I was pulling really freaking hard. Disclaimer here is that it was like the 2nd cast on a newly spooled reel, so the line was brand new with zero fraying.

Yeah that double plopper is one of those things where you tie it onto a rod and you leave it there and stay committed to fishing it, like an A-Rig.