MassYak85

Rarely do I target true "spawning" fish so most of the spawn I am fishing near or around the first break near spawning flats. Before the spawn the vegetation is scarce and I'm fishing spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, jigs. When that vegetation grows in more towards the end of the spawn I fish spinnerbaits more heavily and start mixing in big t-rigged worms and fishing those newly established weedlines.

It always makes for a weird spring when they get sooooo close to spawning just for the entire lake to get dragged backwards 10 degrees like this.

Got out again today. Different lake the water was really low for this time of year, I think that was keeping them out of the shallows a bit. Did get a couple decent ones in a spawning cove but they seemed to be wandering not on beds yet. Water temps were hovering around 60, wind out the east made for a fairly chilly day. Probably ended up with 7 or 8 bass nothing big. Has to grind with a jerk bait for most of them but also mixed in a jog and spinner bait this time with some success. TOOOOOOONS of pickerel. I give up, I surrender to our pickerel overlords. My dad got two chunky ones over 3lbs one was just stupid fat for its length the other close to 25”. A good multi-species day I got largies, smallies, white and yellow perch, pickerel, sunfish, crappie and spotted a pair of bullheads in the shallows which I rarely run into.

I use Sunline System leader

Ha! Jokes on the bait monkey...I already bought some of these during their last sale.

I can almost guarantee your pinion gear is toast. When you engage the reel, the pin that goes through your spool shaft engages with the teeth in the pinion gear. They are ramped and come to a point. During normal engagement (the spool isn't moving with load) this happens smoothly. With a sudden stop like that you are slamming that piece of steel into the pinion gear and forcing it to stop abruptly. It almost always will cause slight damage to those teeth. Steel vs brass...only one is gonna win. I'd inspect the pinion gear first, and the spool shaft. If they appear fine it's possible the torque could have messed up something in the main crankshaft assembly or the main gear teeth.

Looks like their provoke series of jerkbaits and some of their creature/craw baits

Got out for the first trip of the season with my dad today. Water temps were 48 to start with a light breeze. The pattern we started with ended up being the pattern for the whole day. Jerkbait around the first drop to 6-7 feet near spawning shores. Could not get them to hit any other baits which was honestly kind of exhausting. I don’t mind fishing a jerkbait but fishing it all day in the wind is a chore. Got 9 bass biggest around 2.5. It had a 5 inch perch in its throat so stuck with perch pattern baits all day. Got a lot of yellow perch and pickerel as well. My dad got less bass but got a nice 22 inch pickerel. Warm temps this week should he things going nicely. The fish just felt a bit off still they would not touch traditional search baits. Wind was out of the south so maybe that had something to do with it, and the wind blown shores produced better. Solid start though I’ll take it.

A lot of the places I fish are small ponds or like you said, shallow lakes. Many of them do have points and typical drop offs you might expect them to hang near before jumping up on the spawning flats but it can be subtle. One place I love to fish in the spring has these huge expansive flats in 2-3ft of water. In the summer they're choked with lilypads but in the spring they'll spawn in these areas. Now the hard part is the "channel" that leads from the main lake to these flats is only like 3.5-4ft deep. So unless you already know where those weedlines set up in the summer it's hard to find that channel, but that's typically where they are moving through. And fishing the edge of the flats is usually pretty good. Every pond has some sort of inflow or old channel somewhere you just have to find it. Think ahead to the summer, where are those weedlines setting up? Even if they aren't there yet the subtle changes that allow the weeds to grow or not grow are significant enough for the bass to set up on, even if that ends up just being a "color line". It can definitely be a struggle. Like you said the typical explanation for the spawning transition is a diagram of a large creek arm coming off a reservoir where you have obvious main lake and secondary points to slowly work our way up until you find fish but there are zero of those kind of lakes around me.

I'll try to avoid getting into the politics of it, but in the wake of all the trade "negotiations" last year, China began implementing strict export controls on many critical metals deemed important to their national security, including tungsten. Like you said, probably doesn't hurt to stock up on the essentials.

I use this one from Jewel Bait Co. I have it on the end of some paracord that is on a marker bouey. I don't think it has ever failed me.

I use the straight shank heavy duty Mustad Grip-pins. They have a standard "Denny Brauer" series which is a beast of a hook on it's own. But they also have the 3X Punch Hook version which is a straight up GAFF. Like 80lb braid and a locked drag into a tree stump and some part of YOU is gonna break before that hook bends. I just like straight shank cause I feel like my hookup is a bit better than with EWG in those kind of situations.

Ah yes, my favorite part of fishing...removing treble hooks from netting material.

Also forgot but shoutout for Bl8nkt. The "Shiv" series spinnerbaits are really solid and have great color options. Built well to handle Delta fish.

I did the same thing. Bought some bearings to swap in for the stock bushings. Feels great during the winter tuneup. Not so great in July after a few outings in the rain.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

They're on my list to try jut wish their color selection was better

The Fuego CTs are my workhorse reels. I remember when I could routinely get them on sale for like 70 bucks 😢, now closer to 120 unfortunately. I think when I go to replace the next one it will probably be with a Tatula X.

Got some new spots around me I'm going to start checking out after work from shore. These warm days are promising just need the nights to stay warm too.

I've also slowly come to hate handle and levelwind bearings. Just another bearing to rust and grind and need to be cleaned/replaced. In my workhorse reels I've actually swapped in Delrin/Nylon bushings. Are they quite as smooth as a brand new bearing? No. But I don't have to worry about them and they end the season in the same condition they started it in. Give me high quality spool and frame bearings in a 5+1 bearing reel any day over these "11+1" reels with 4 in the handle and 2 in the levelwind that will rust after a day in the rain.

Not that it doesn't work but the whopper plopper (130). The first year I started using it was a year or two before it got REALLY popular and I swear I had that thing tied on almost the entire year I was using it and getting bit in just about any conditions.

I didn't grab any but they kind of remind me of the 3:16 Rising Son Weedless 6.75". I've fished them similarly just chucking them into submerged slop and fishing them over it.

Straight out of the package I like the Megabass SV3 and War Eagle Screaming Eagle

Wow what a money grab this boat safety course is. First it tries to charge you 18 bucks for the certificate at checkout by defaulting to a quantity of 2 (it's free if you change it to 1). And then it let's you "upgrade" to a faster version of the course that isn't time-locked if you pay a fee.

The main selling points of the Tatula are it's a reliable workhorse reel, the T-wing, and the magforce brakes. None of the features of this reel are competing with those points. I fish a lot of daiwa reels but I am hardly brand loyal. I have fished Shimano, Pflueger, 13, BPS, Lews. There's just not much this reel is offering that appeals to me other than the weight. Now their line guide...ALMOST intrigues me, as someone who fishes a lot of braid. My main complaint with the T-Wing is it hangs up leader knots. I have been waiting for someone to design a line guide that tapers both on the cast AND the retrieve. They seem to have only one.