MassYak85

I've had this same issue, and TBH haven't really found a solution other than use another knot. But that being said, try actually using fewer wraps. After a certain point the additional wraps are not really biting into the line. Try like 15 wraps and see if it bites.

Got out yesterday in the afternoon. Winds were like 20-25mph out of the NorthWestSouth....yea, figure that one out. Incredibly difficult to stay put and fish a spot. There would be wind out of the North then out of nowhere I'd watch the wind just come down vertically in the middle of the lake and "bomb" out in all directions, or watch competing wind gusts rush across the lake in opposite directions. Never seen anything quite like it...but the fish didn't seem to care. Couldn't find the size but we got a few decent fish in the 2-3lb range and some smaller ones. Most came on jerkbaits but the pickerel were crushing them before the bass could most of the time. I switched to an underspin and put the hammer down on some crappie but the bass wouldn't touch it. A fun day minus the weather. Water temps had also dropped 5 degrees since the previous weekend. I think I also gained a pretty good appreciation for the weight transfer system in some of my jerkbaits. Makes fishing in the wind somewhat doable.

I know right? Amazing what actually holding the fish next to your torso rather than holding them out will do lol. Congrats to that guy though. He didn't just break the record, he shattered it! Almost a pound bigger than the previous record. Is is definitely a Northern Strain? I mean it definitely has that dark green, almost black back like a lot of bass up north seem to have. Also gets me a little excited to see a Northern Strain nearing the MA state record...I wonder if there's still hope lol.

Today is beautiful, I hope some you guys are able to get out! Looks like a bit of a cold stretch ahead for the next week, might set things back. I know fish around my area were just starting to get in the mood up shallow with the water temps touching 60. You guys think some cold rain will push them back off to pre-spawn locations?

Got out yesterday in the afternoon after Easter brunch. Water temps were in the low 60's up shallow....GAME ON! Tried fishing near a deeper channel that has produced good fish in the past and runs up against shallow sandy flats. My dad was trying out some new jerkbaits and got on a pretty good bite, with a few 2lbers in the channel. I got a few decent fish on a jig but no real size. In hindsight I was switching reaction baits too much and it definitely cost me some fish, should have stuck with a jerkbait as well but I don't have as much confidence in them yet. I was confident in the area we were fishing but the wind was blowing straight down the entire length of the lake like a wind tunnel and was making things really difficult. We decided to move shallow into a know spawning cove. Should have started there! Right of the bat I could see some quality fish cruising around. I stuck with the jig and a swimbait but no takers. We saw a HUGE commotion in the shallows. I just wanted to get a look at the fish but my dad cast his jerkbait to where the flat dropped from like 2ft to 3-4ft and got CRUSHED by what I assumed was the fish that made the splash. She was FAT and I thought it was at least 5 just by the look of it but she didn't quite have the length (19") so it ended up being 4.5lbs. I did manage a smaller fish on the jig but we couldn't manage any more fish out of the cove. I did see a HUGE fish on our way out of the cove though, had to have been nearing 6lbs. The southern section of the lake has a nice sandy flat too so we ended the day there. It was a good 5 degrees colder down at that end and they weren't ready to spawn though.

I hold mine the same way so I can't do it with a baitcaster, but I do it all the time with spinning.

It sounds like you have it set up really good. What I will say is that in the wind, I like my brakes set 1 or 2 notches higher than what I really need. This is more my own casting style, but I really whip my casts especially in the wind to get that bait up to speed and get some distance before the wind can knock it down, which means there's a lot of acceleration at the start which requires more braking. Once the bait slows down like halfway in the cast I'll lean on my thumb more than the cast control knob. For example with your spinnerbait, they catch a lot of wind so I really try to fling them hard into the wind but keep my brakes high. I find if my brakes are high I can put more "umph" into the cast without worrying about the backlash or using my thumb at the start. Then at some point in the cast the wind just completely catches it and they die out pretty quick. That's where you have to watch your thumb. I also do this. I'm usually actually pressing the thumb bar down with the joint of my thumb.

Two big things I see are the hookset was kind of weak and you kept the rod high and kind of lifted the fish rather than keeping it low near the water and keeping good tension by reeling constantly. You want to give it a good quick sweep to the side when a fish hits it to load up the whole rod and make sure the backbone of the rod is driving those hooks home. Then when you have the fish on immediately drop the rod tip to surface level of the water and reel as much as necessary to keep up with the fish. If you see them coming up to jump like that especially you need to be grinding on them to keep them down and keep your rod loaded up.

Same for me. My dad introduced me to fishing but I never had a "skill" mentor. His idea of bass fishing was chucking and winding a spinnerbait all day. It wasn't until I got really into it in high school that we both kind of learned together. Like you said, most of my knowledge has come from YouTube and the internet. Guys like Glenn, Tactical Bassin, and of course this forum. But I think my lack of someone to physically go fishing with that was more experienced than me has made learning slower than I'd like. I havent' really gotten to experience those days of someone kicking my a** and learning from it. Instead it's getting skunked and having to sit back and really think why...

Got out for a quick night session from the bank. Finally caught something lol. A modest 3.1lb fish but right now that's still my second biggest this year. Got it on a 9" slammer. The wind was killer and that was about the only thing I could cast lol. Got the fish cranking down the slammer just below the waves.

I lived there for a little less than a year but I fished Lake Smith and the Suffolk reservoir system from my kayak while I was there. I saw and heard of people catching good fish there...but I didn't lol. Suffolk doesn't have great shore access but there are some spots, Lake Smith has a nice public park and a fishing pier. Also, if you're from the bank...I'll just say that my most productive spot was a drainage ditch/pond. So don't overlook anything.

I haven't tried the CR80 so I can't speak to it's quality, but the fact that the Fuego has the mag-force system already makes it a better reel IMO, and you can find them on Ebay brand new for less than the CR80 retails at any day of the week.

You and me both man, this is the slowest start to spring I've ever had. Lakes around me are mostly into the mid-50s and I've got 1 fish over 3lbs to show for it and a bunch of dinks.

I'll probably get out one day at least, but that forecast is certainly rough. Had some time this afternoon so got out from shore for an hour at A1 again. Not a sniff. Bluegill were getting VERY active though. Surprised I couldn't get any takers on a shellcracker. It's getting personal now...

Put in a lot of time this weekend but unfortunately not much to show for it. After Quinsig on Saturday we decided to hit Whitehall on Sunday. There was a tournament going on when we launched so the lake was crowded. Started on the northern windblown shore outside of some coves we had seen them near the previous week. Hoping they might still be on those outside weed lines, before heading into the spawning areas. I think we were in the right area, but the size just wasn't there. Spent well over an hour in that area and had to downsize to some finesse underspins and reel quite slow to get bit, and the ones we did catch were dinks. Tiny pickerel as well but the fish wouldn't so much as look at a spinnerbait when I tried to upsize my presentation for some bigger fish. Did see a dead (?) bass on the bottom in that area that was probably nearing 5lbs. Sad to see. We moved around to try and find some size but not even a nibble anywhere else. Water temps were in the low to mid 50's. Went out from shore today at A1 with the swimbaits hoping for a little redemption. The levy there is almost always windblown and there are a couple spots along it I always seem to have a little interest. Tried a shellcracker and slammer for the most part. Tried slow waking it, fast waking it, adding pauses...nothing. Thinking they might not want it on top with all the waves I tried cranking them down but still nothing. My thumb slipped on the spool during a cast with the slammer and my spool blew up. Luck would have it the current going into the spillway today was quite strong. By the time I realized that my slammer had taken a plunge into the spillway. I was able to climb on top and get it out but that could have been bad lol. Had to trash about 1/3 of the spool of line but it was still enough to fish so I kept at it. Fished for about 2 hours in total....no even a sniff. Overall kind of a demotivating weekend. Has me feeling a bit clueless. One thing I wish I had tried was some worms. What are your guys' strategies for worm fishing this time of year? Straight tails and dropshotting mostly?

Got out on quinsig today. Water temps were all over the place, down around 45 on the main lake and as high as 55 in shallower areas. The males have definitely started their push shallow. Caught about 10 bass, all 1 and 2 lbers though. With the shallows up into the 50s I had hoped some pre-spawn females could be found just off the flats in the deeper channels but I didn't see or catch any. Some of the males were starting to get aggressive though. Most came on a spinnerbait. They were liking a red craw color earlier and a white later on. I managed to get one to commit on a frog near a laydown but I missed the hookset...that frog came flying back at me and barely missed me. Good thing too because the hook went straight into the seat next to me. Wouldn't have wanted my first time getting hooked to be a 5/0 frog hook lol. I'm thinking about a night trip tomorrow before the storm son Monday.

Seeing line swimming off on the surface of the water while fishing weightless worms is probably my favorite thing in bass fishing other than topwater blowups.

This, I've had hooks rust badly keeping them on for long periods of time.

Got out on Whitehall today with my dad. Water temps at the launch were in the mid 50's surprisingly so I was ready to hit the shallows. Started in a northern cove and immediately saw what must have been a 5 or 6lber dash away from us. About 10 minutes later I got a 3.5lber on a bullshad wake next to a downed tree in the same cove. I was thinking after that we'd be able to put together a nice pattern down that shore...but when do things ever turn out the way I expect lol. That would be the first and last decent bass we'd catch. Rest of the lake was about 50-52 so in hindsight we may have spent too much time shallow and I'm not sure they were really there, I think we just ran into a couple in a choice cove that had decided to move up earlier than the rest. Pickerel were killing jerkbaits in the weedbeds off that shore we but couldn't get the bass to do the same.

I was going to say, if budget is truly not a factor I think custom is the way to go unless you need it ASAP and want to avoid lead times.

I do everything in my power to keep my own trash out of the lake, even a 2" tag end of line I will throw in my bag or pocket. If I break off it's out of my control and I don't worry about it. I usually pick up trash if I'm bank fishing, or grab floating bottles if I'm in the kayak. If we all leave a net positive on the ecosystem every time we go all our lakes will be better for it.

Another day, another skunk (for me, my dad did get one small bass). Not even the pickerel were tempted by our offerings. Fished Monponsett for the first time, which was actually our third choice of the day so we got a late start. We were wanting to try snipatuit but we got there too late, there's really only 4 maybe 5 trailer spots there. Went to long pond next door but there were no spots left, I think there was a tournament. Or should I say there were no spots left that would fit our trailer due to some, *ahem* "creative" parking jobs (I'm always amazed how poorly people park their trailers and end up taking two spaces). Felt like we tried everything from jerkbaits, bladed jigs, jigs, ned rig, underspins, swimbaits, cranks. Fished shallow, deep, near the inlet, the outlet, tight to shore cover (this produced the only bass), near weeds, over rocky areas, windblown shore, sheltered shore, warmest and coldest temps we could find (varied 44 to 50 degrees). Just one of those days I guess. The wind was pretty brutal going into the afternoon so we left early. At one point there was about 8 other boats out but we were the second to last to leave, I guess everyone else wasn't having great luck either. I didn't see anyone land a bass all day other than the one.

Fished from shore this afternoon. I was on a mission to start the year off with a bang so I only brought the swimbaits. I recently picked up a bullshad wake so I gave that a go. I am VERY impressed with how versatile that thing is. I've always heard guys say it's on a short list of "must have" swimbaits, and man were they right! I was cranking it down reaaally slow and then giving it a couple quarter reel turns to get it to dart side to side and then pause. I saw it get pushed a few inches on one retrieve after doing this and set the hook. Fish on! Saw the belly immediately and it looked like a good fish. Got her to the edge of the bank and she popped off so I threw the rod into the grass and stepped into the water to try and grab it with my hands. Had both hands on it, tried making a circle around it's nose to prevent it from swimming away but it got free and swam off lol. It was probably 3 1/2lbs so more laughter than heartbreak but had to put the outing down as a skunk technically after that incident. Definitely learned a lot though. Last year I wouldn't have thought I could catch fish in March on a wakebait lol. Just about how you use the tools you've got.

I think some people hype up the T-wing too much but I think you would see a small distance increase just because it's pulling the braid off the spool at less of an angle so it will hang up less on itself if there's any dig-in on the spool. That said it's probably going to be on the order of a few yards. For what it's worth I have a couple tatulas and will probably buy fuegos going forward. I'm also a braid guy and use leaders a lot. The leaders knot does not always play nice with the T-wing when you reel it back into the reel.

@markvan The west side where you were is definitely pretty deep. I hear people do well along the esplanade side.