IndianaFinesse

What he said.

With the cold front the bass are going to be very lethargic, so it is going to have to be very slow. The two best retrieves would probably be the drag and deadstick, and the swim shake and deadstick. The drag and deadstick iswhere you slowly drag it about six inches to a foot and a half, then let it sit dead still on the bottom while watching your line for strikes. Experiment with different lengths of deadsticking between two and thirty seconds. The other is the swim shake and deadstick, where you slowly reel it just above bottom for about a foot or two while lightly shaking the rod tip, then let it fall on a tight line to the bottom and deadstick it for two to as much as thirty seconds. Hope this helps, once you figure the Ned rig out nothing will be able to catch nearly as many fish as it does.

Looks like It's a black crappie, white crappie usually have vague vertical bars. The only way to tell for sure though is to count the spines, white crappie have six and black have seven to eight.

Although the mushroom head jig is better, a one sixteenth ounce football jig or even a small ball head jig will work. I have used the 1/16 oz. swinging football head before and they work nearly as well as the mushroom head. Any old jig head with a short shank hook in a light enough weight will often work to.

The most realistic plastic craws are probably the yum crawbug, savage gear crawfish, and the z-man crawfish. Even though they are the most realistic, they aren't my favorite except when bed fishing when a realistic presentation is vital. The rage crawfish, the paca craw, and the chigger craw are usually my go-to crawfish imitating baits.

I was able to get out for a few hours this afternoon again, and started out fishing for largemouth bass without any success. After about an hour we switched to white bass, and had another awesome day of white bass fishing. The grand total of two hours of fishing was 31 fish, plus a bonus three pound spotted bass. They had moved up shallower on the steep rip rap banks, this time in only one to four feet of water. My guess is they were starting to spawn, since the water temperature is fifty-four degrees. A bummer the bass weren't hitting, but still a great day of fishing with mid seventy's degree air temperature.

Try a jerkbait if the water is clear, and the ned rig specializes in poor conditions, it is my best cold water and cold front bait. I have caught bass on the trd in water as cold as 36 degrees, and a lot of them.

Strike King and Z-man, my pb was on a strike king bitsy tube.

I know you have already decided, but next time you are looking at purchasing a rod/reel try looking at Fishing Factory Outlet. Right now they have lightning rods for 18$ and a president For 35. They don't have a huge inventory, but what the do carry is hugely discounted, usually at least 50% to 60% off. And if you watch them close, occasionally their are some great deals like a Abu Garcia villain I picked up for fifty bucks.?

I agree a medium lite would be a good addition for shaky heads and ned rigs. it can be done with a medium power rod, but a medium lite would be better. FFO has a medium-lite abu garcia verdict spinning rod for 54$ instead of the normal 130$ if you are looking into purchasing one.

Yes, one was a day last fall where it was overcast sky and wind, I caught eleven bass on a green pumpkin texas rigged zoom u-tail, and my buddy caught six. But every body of water is different, some are the other way around, so you will have to make your own conclusions. Black is nearly always the best color for topwaters.

Lindy little nipper and a few hundred wax worms are all you need to catch sunfish all day. Tipping with gulp instead is cheaper, but if they aren't very active a wax worm is the ticket.

You could do ok with just black, but I have had days where green pumpkin will outfish black two to one. I would recommend trying at least one bag of of green pumpkin to see if they work.

A deep diving jerkbait, Ned rig, and blade bait should be all you need.

Ned rig, jerkbait, and a small grub will cover just about every situation.

Hands down the ned rig for sure, nothing else even comes close.

Z-man trd for sure. They are only four dollors for a pack of eight, and I have never got any of them to torn up to use. I have caught sixty fish on the same trd before finally breaking off on a snag, and Ned has reported over two hundred bass on a single trd.

Those are very, very good for your first try or even your hundredth try! They look just as good or better as the hair jigs you can buy from experienced custom tiers like grizzly jigs.

Looks like a juvenile musky to me. Tiger muskie have larger bars and pickerel are usually darker and have smaller, but more numerous spots.

Black, and you can never go wrong with green pumpkin

I am just starting out crappie fishing with jigs, what is your favorite brand of tubes? And I totally agree about the jerkbait, I caught a fifteen inch crappie last fall on a 4.5 inch jerkbait while bass fishing. I had no idea a crappie would go after something so large.

Probably four to five pounds from the picture, but it's awfully hard to guess from a photograph without the measurements. I held my 10.3lb. pb so badly for the picture it looked like a six to seven pounder! Luckily I was able to get a better picture when my buddy held it, otherwise nobody would have believed that it actually weighed 10.3 lb. In order to get an accurate estimate, you really need the length and girth measurements. So it might be larger than everyone's guessing, but even if it's not, it is still a great fish!

Yes, I did so well over the weekend, I was hoping the weather would stay the same for next weekend for a similar trip, but at least some great pre-spawn fishing is right around the corner.

It's a great budget jerkbait, probably the closest knockoff to the megabass, but without the twenty five dollar price tag. The hooks and split ring are kind of junky, so you will need to replace them. But besides the hooks the action and casting distance are pretty much he same thing as megabass. There is a good article analyzing the differences and similarities on BIB showing how similar they are.

Thanks for all the replies guys, I was also wondering what size and what kind of hook would you recommend?