MassYak85

Welp, night time temps back down into the single digits for a couple days....looks like I won't be fishing this weekend.

This is what I did this winter and it got them pretty darn clean.

I use 15 for all my spinning setups

Spinnerbaits, Swim Jigs, Jigs, Swimbaits, Lipless Cranks, Flukes, Jerkbaits, Chatterbait will be what I look to when I first hit the water.

An Irod Gen II Bailey Swimbait Rod (3-10oz) and a Diawa lexa 300. Whether or not I actually get it or not is going to depend on what I do for work this summer. I have some gift cards stashed away and I might wait for a sale to mitigate the cost.

WOW! Almost 50 degrees already?! Nice to see people are catching them though. I probably won't be able to fish for a couple more weeks still. This week we're supposed to get some warm rains and next weekend looks like we might get some skim ice again in places. Overnights back into the teens.

I have both and prefer the 130. It seems to call fish from farther, and has a much more consistent action in rough water. The 90 tends to get swallowed up and frankly "lost" in any kind of chop. That and I can cast the 130 insanely far on casting gear.

I fish mine braid to leader. In clear water it gives me peace of mind, in cover it gives me abrasion resistance, and in any situation it gives me a little shock resistance vs straight braid.

Man this warm weather is killing me inside. Making me want it to be spring that much more.

I've got three I'm going to try and stick to 1. Catch two fish over 6 lbs 2. Learn how to better use a jig 3. S L O W D O W N That last one is a personal struggle of mine, but I saw it payoff last year a little so I have more motivation this year.

When I first started seriously bass fishing I was mostly using rubber worms weightless. I would cast out and watch the line as it sank. I grew to dread ANY wind since it would make seeing line twitches extremely difficult. As I've grown my arsenal of lures though I've come to LOOK for windy days. My two best days last year were on terribly windy days and I learned a lot from them. 1st day: Early spring, typical prespawn conditions. The wind was howling down the main channel and there was a shallow flat we were in a little out of the wind right next to the channel. We had caught some dink bass which I took to be the little males starting to move up and look for bedding spots. Temps were still just above 50 so I assumed it might be a little early for the larger females. I made a cast really far out towards the channel and all of a sudden *tink*, set the hook and landed my PB of 5.4lbs. So as far as wind, the takeaway there was there was a nice transition from rough wind to calmer water. And that was about where I hooked up with the fish. So on windy days I look for those transitions....ESPECIALLY if they also coincide with a change in structure or the bottom contour, like it so happened to be in this case. Unfortunately that day our battery died and blew us into shore, we had to call it quits on what was shaping up to be a killer day. 2nd day: This time it was mid summer and I had caught a nice one up shallow earlier that morning but as the day grew the wind really started to kick up and the shallower bite died out. So we decided to brave the wind and head for open water. There's a very large shallow area that drops into deeper water and the wind was blowing across the whole lake right into it. There were whitecaps and I wasn't getting bit at all. Changed to topwater (whopper plopper 130) and started killing them. First day I had ever landed two fish over 4lbs. My takeaway there was while it's nice to be out of the wind when you can, don't always avoid it unless it's a safety issue. Also I gained a whole new confidence in topwaters in those conditions. As far as casting. It is a challenge but I tend to go with heavier and more aerodynamic lures if I can. The whopper plopper will still let you bomb it upwind. Paddle tails can also be nice in that regard. I like spinnerbaits on windy days but usually I use them when picking apart structure along a wind blown shore. Casting them upwind can be difficult if they have a tendency to helicopter.

Tried from shore for a couple hours. No bites, water temps were about 40. I did manage to snag a nice rock and lose a tungsten ball jig. Oh well. I am pretty excited to use those though. Little 1/8oz ball jigs and some 2.8 keitechs.

If I was home this weekend I'd definitely be looking to launch my kayak too. I'll be fishing from shore tomorrow though.

I do something similar, 15# yellow 832 + a leader is what's on my finesse setup. Actually that's what I've been doing on any of my spinning setups lately although I do mix around the braid a bit.

For line I'd say anywhere from 40-65lb braid depending how thick the cover you fish is. I like the 4 carrier power pro braid for frogging as it slices through vegetation a little better than the 8 carrier braids. The most important part of a frog reel is probably going to be a good solid drag. I usually have mine locked down pretty tight. I like a high speed reel for frogging so I can get it back to me really quick if I see movement in the vegetation and need to make a quick cast to that area. For the rod I'd go with a heavy power at least 7 feet, fast action is my preference. Good thing with frogs is you really don't need a sensitive rod as the bite is almost always visual. I use a 7'6" Abu Garcia Vendetta HF (more like brromstick XF but hey it works). Hey in your budget a cheaper Abu rod and the Pro Qualifiers being on sale for 50 bucks right now...that's my setup currently. Recently replaced the drag on my PQ since it saw so much abuse the last few years being used only for frogs.

That's a pretty solid list of reels you have there, I don't see you being disappointed in any of them. I have the LFS Speed Spool and I really like it. I'll also second your idea of having multiple spools of extra line. I've done that on two reels now and it's very handy and cost effective.

New Hampshire has some pretty clear waters depending where you are fishing. I'd probably be using something like a ghost bluegill, ghost perch, or some sort of chrome for when they are really keyed in on that flash.

I'd probably have to agree with Tom. I won't say never use braid to leader because there are some really great swimbait fisherman that swear by it but it's not a very forgiving setup, so it might not be the best choice if you are just getting into it. If you insist I'd second using 25lb mono as the leader material.

I'll be fishing from shore after class that day for sure I did the rest of mine yesterday to scratch the itch. Probably not the best idea with fluoro but shouldn't be anything some KVD L&L can't manage.

Wow that fast huh? I was thinking you were doing like 10-15 second pauses.

The nice part about spring fishing is I'm used to ice fishing in 20 degree weather so that first 40 degree open water day I'm usually not cold. Assuming we have open water by mid march (I can't see how we couldn't at this point) I'll be spending spring break in my kayak.

Oh man that's tough, I'm gonna go with a 7' MHF rod, 6.3:1 baitcaster Jig (assuming I can change trailers), 4.3 keitech paddletail with weighted twistlock hook, frog

That's interesting. While not conventional I guess it would make sense. Fishing it so slow you're almost deadsticking it would imitate a "winter kill" fish dying on surface pretty well.

First lures I'll be throwing in that 40ish degree water is probably a jig, pointer 65, or a hudd 68.

The only time I take them out of their original packaging is when I buy something like a 50 pack of stick-O's when they go on sale. I usually take 10-15 and put them in a sandwich baggy to take with me.