MassYak85

Tried a spot here in southern NH after work from shore. Wind was blowing the right way into shore. Got one bass on a spinnerbait then tried a crawler for a bit hoping for an upgrade but no dice. Seemed like a promising spot though. Gonna hit it again for sure

Made it out today and fought the wind. Water temps were around 50 and I was hoping to find a shallow bite. The water was pretty churned up but we did hit a decent window in the shallows. I got all fish on the windblown side of a spawning flat wirlth a chatterbait. Only 4 bass but all healthy and feeding up. Biggest might have been 2.5lbs. The highlight was actually the pickerel. Hooked one around 24 inches and a couple others around 20 inches.

I recently picked up a 7'1" MH Phenix Feather and it has been great for jerkbaits. Very light and responsive.

The 795 is perfect for this bait I use it a lot in the summer.

I got humbled today, not a single bite. Spent half the day fishing for a reaction bite and half the day giving bottom contact stuff a fair shot with a hair jig, and blade bait. Not even a sniff, not even a single dink perch or pickerel. I saw some giants caught today on Facebook too 🙃.

22nd might work! I'll keep you updated.

I really need to get familiar with deep bottom contact baits and comfortable fishing jigs in the wind. This time a year if the jerkbait fails I generally don't do well.

This. They made it unnecessarily more complicated.

We got out on a local lake for the first time. Even with the wind it was still fairly comfortable, especially this time of year. The bass didn't show themselves but I managed a good size pickerel and a fat perch on the vision 110.

Took a few casts from shore today to get warmed up. We're taking the boat out for the first time tomorrow, not sure where yet. Feels like we just put it away lol.

The long term forecast is looking juicy 😎

Any of you guys ever try using an ice rod and jigging for bass? I feel like I do better through the ice with tiny little swedish pimples than I ever do open water in the cold months haha. It amazes me how subtle the ice jigging bite can be. It's almost all visual for me I rarely actually feel the bite, just the rod tip deflection.

I got on the ice the last two days. Had pretty consistent action on the tilts and did good jigging too. Lots of pickerel and crappie the first day, almost all bass the second day. Biggest was maybe 3lbs. The ice was 3-4 inches. I wanted to take advantage because the weather looks like it's trending warm again, with 50 degree rain Thursday Friday and then back in the 40s after that for the foreseeable future. Not loving these 1 week long winters lol. But if it means open water fishing in early March I can't complain.

I don't fish much when it's that cold. This is counterintuitive but the times I have...dip the rod in the water and give it a quick shake. The guides are gonna freeze but you can do that quick for each cast and it works to "reset" them. The real issue is the line guide to your reel.

Shallow cover fishing in the winter huh? Way to get them I would have never thought to try that. Was it a wind blown shore?

A tip for this....if you get a grapnel style anchor. Tie the rope to the "head" of the anchor, not the shank, then zip tie the rope to the shank. If it gets snagged you can break the zip tie and then you'll be pulling the anchor out of the snag backwards.

The storm Wednesday should nuke most of the ice. Looks like the middle of the month we might start making some progress if there's any hope of an ice season lol. Not holding my breath and I'm perfectly fine if Spring wants to start in early March or late February like it did last year haha.

I played around with the FG knot for about a year. It does what it advertises and is very strong and slim. My issue with it was the finishing knot never sat right with me. I saw it move around or come undone too much to have confidence in the knot. That's just me though. I mainly use the Alberto knot for most of my braid to leader applications, and the blood knot for heavier lines (65lb braid, 20-30lb leader for swimbaits).

Braid is fine as long as you don't have your drag set tight, the hooks are light so bigger fish need to be played. I use braid to leader on jerkbaits without any issues. But I'm using 40lb braid. 10lb is way too light IMO, even on spinning gear. If you backlash/get a wind knot you can kiss your bait goodbye. My current setup for jerkbaits is 40lb Daiwa Samurai braid to either 10lb or 16lb leader depending how many toothy critters I expect to be around.

What drift sock do you use? I've debated trying that I think I coukd rig it to my anchor trolley.

Nice outing! I made it out as well but did not fair too well. Got a couple crappie and a big perch on jerkbaits and float a fly.

I'm loaded up for tomorrow. I've got a game plan, hope it pays off. Also hoping the wind stays low so I'm not getting blown around in my yak haha.

Been a couple years since I added a new setup. Finally pulled the trigger on a dedicated "cold water" setup for jerkbaits mostly. Diawa Alphas 800, Phenix Feather 7'1MH with 40lb Daiwa Samurai.

Vermont has also taken a real pounding. Hurricane Irene did a lot of damage in 2011 and they've been seeing flooding on that level more and more frequently unfortunately.

Yea you only have to spend 999 dollars 😄 But 40% off at 299 dollars is still pretty good.