MassYak85

Ditto. I know some guys change out every bait they buy. I don't go that crazy, but if I'm changing the hooks I'm changing the rings while I'm at it. Or if the stock rings are obviously junk, which happens more than it should for what lures cost these days...

I haven't pushed the limits of my season until the past few years, but low 40s seems to be the end of the "Fall Feed" but it depends on weather trends. Water was 44 today and crushed them on a tail spinner. They were near their winter spots but were pushing shallower still feeding pretty heavily. Once we get a couple weeks away from ice skimming the lakes I usually switch to more bottom techniques like finesse jigs, or hopping a blade bait.

This may not be what he means...But if you have a backordered item sitting in your wishlist already, it will let you add it to your cart and checkout. But if you just go to the item and try to enter a quantity the field is blocked by a question mark. That said I'm not too fond of their backorder system. I've had baits I've backordered before seemingly get "forgotten" about, where they'll come back in stock but I'll only get them after sending a reminder email that I ordered them a while back. Which is fine, but it's a pain to have to track what baits I have on backorder and then go back and try and find the order #.

I felt like I learned a lot but felt like I spent too much time trying "new stuff" and not sticking to my strengths. It's always a balance of branching out vs putting in the time with proven baits/spots. I'm optimistic about next year I feel like I'm more dialed in on a lot of things. The two biggest downsides to this year was I took a break during the first surge in Covid, which meant I kind of missed out on the pre-spawn. The second was the fall transition. I had some of my worst fishing ever in September into October. It was demoralizing to watch videos about "The Fall Feed" and then go out and skunk or catch like 2 dinks. It wasn't until almost November I finally capitalized a bit on it. My goal for 2021 is to try more night fishing, and to try and key in better on the spring and fall transition periods.

In many lakes I'm sure human intervention via stocking or bucket biologists has something to do with it. Many ponds in the Northeast are interconnected via streams so small fry have lots of opportunity to travel while they're small.

The only time I'm not bass fishing is the couple weeks when there's 0-2.5 inches of ice.

d**n that sucks! Some people just suck! Maybe get one of those camo nets to throw over it?

I've heard it said it takes 10,000 hours to master something. I'm sure there's a lot of people on this forum that have put more time into this sport than that. Like Glen said you can never stop learning with fishing. I'm not even sure what an expert would really look like tangibly. I feel like it would just be you're so confident in your experience and knowledge that you can go out and grind out a day with 100 percent confidence that what you're doing is the right thing for the conditions, not doubting yourself if it doesn't come together right away.

Jig is probably the most versatile but my confidence bait is a spinnerbait. I usually put them away once the water gets into the low 40s just cause of the way I fish them.

I thought this weather might be a good thing but I just went two straight days of skunking ?‍♂️

Ditto. These are tried and true staples that don't break the bank. And you'll keep using them even if you do decide to step up in price later on. Add a couple Hudd 68s and you're all set to go. Give it a season to see if you like it and go from there.

I fish until either my guides freeze or the lures start bouncing off the lake. Usually I'm calling it quits around Thanksgiving sometime depending on the year. But we've had 60 degree christmas days before so it's always good to have the rods ready to go.

I used to growing up eat 2lbers occasionally. Not really anymore. It's just not worth the effort to me I don't think they taste that great. Just a generic white fish.

Those are some really cool images @DogBone_384 The first one's I might have said some tree limbs but that last one almost seems man made. It's quite large though not likely something someone sunk as artificial cover. Got out today just to experience fishing with the snow covered shorelines. I thought there might be a decent jerkbait bite but couldn't manage any of that. I did get absolutely CRUSHED on a Hudd 68 though. I was just creeping it on bottom in maybe 12 FOW over some small rocks and I mean this thing got hammered. I missed the fish but I got the bait back and it had gashes on it's cheek and a decent chunk almost got taken out of the side of it's head. Not like pickerel teeth marks though which are usually nice and clean. To me it was like a bass tried to absolutely freight train it into the bottom to kill it. I've never felt a bite like that though. I was barely paying attention at that point cause I was fishing so slow and it kinda scared me back awake haha.

I always take trailers off even if I'm gonna use them the next day. The water and salt isn't good for hooks.

@Styguy922 Good to hear! Personally I can't stand Cochituate. I'm sure there's good fish to be had but I've never caught them. I've never done well for size OR numbers there.

Same here, I figured right before the front, overcast, windy, crashing barometric pressure would be lights out. That's why I'm so stumped. We tried shallow coves with typical power fishing techniques like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, I had some swimbaits going too. We tried the deeper areas where we usually see baitfish schooled up thinking they might be deeper. I avoided the skunk with a decent pickerel but other than that nothing. We marked some bait balls but not much activity around them. I dropshotted and used a tail spin around those areas with no interest other than pesky perch. Idk we missed some detail I just don't know what. Idk it was just one of those days where you think you've got it all figured out and a solid plan and then nature hands you a big ole heaping tray of humble pie.

My dad and I hit webster today. 9 straight hours...not even 1 bass. I'm honestly at a loss. Our worst day this year, and the first time ever on that lake without a bass.

Same here man. Seems like that "hot bite" just hasn't happened yet, at least for me. But the timing and water temps are getting right down to where it should be happening. I'm split between investing in the swimbaits for the next month to try and end the year on a couple big fish or to try and dial in some sort of fall pattern and maybe have some killer numbers days on spinnerbaits or something. It's supposed to be cold next week and full moon on Halloween (spooky haha). I wonder if that will really fire them up?

7.29 lbs exactly.... But seriously, it depends first on the line and lure I'm fishing. I obviously don't want to break lines or bend out hooks, but also need enough uuumph to set the hook and get fish out of cover. There's too many variables to just set it at something it's more of a feel thing. Then there's frogs, punching, and big swimbaits where I run a locked drag more or less. But that's because the hardware I'm running is so over the top that I don't worry about that failing, the goal with those techniques is muscling in fish.

Green pumpkin stick worm, spinnerbait, and in the summer a 10 inch power worm t rigged.

What I don't get is most swimbait fisherman choose and trust their lures carefully. Hudd is probably the most established one out there. It'll probably be the most popular big soft plastic swimbait until they're not made anymore...and probably still for 5 to 10 years after that from the secondary market. BPS can rip it off all they want its not gonna attract the people that actually fish them and buy them. Its a completely different group of people its not gonna eat into Ken's pockets. Sure its not cool of them to profit off his design but Id think the lawsuit would be a huge hassle compared to what he'd gain out of it, unless he can prove and get awarded lost sales damages.

Action over color any day. That said I've fished spinnerbaits side by side with my dad too many times to know that some days it can also make a big difference. One of us will have like a white and silver the other a more bluegill looking one and usually one will outperform depending on the day and what they're after.

Lol this I don't hunt so the pursuit of bass never ends. Whether it's throwing jerkbaits in 39 degree water or dragging the ice sled out.