Brew City Bass

Crankbaits can be killer! I love the KVD squarebills for shallower water like 1-5ft. If I am fishing deep, like 10-25ft I always have a Strike King 5XD or 6XD tied on. Sometimes I use a Berkley Dredger. All of those flat out catch fish. Your 7ft rod will work for squarebills and shallower cranks, it might be overworked on a deep diver though. The skeet reese cranking rods are affordable and fairly decent. Tons of other options too. Important thing about cranks is I always try to keep them in contact with something. If it's solid bottom like rocks and stuff, I am banging it off those rocks. If it's weedy like grass, I am ripping it through the tops of those weeds. Cranks are almost always a reaction bite and hitting stuff and ripping them through things triggers that strike. Another great (cheaper) option is to slow roll spinnerbaits deep. I've been killing em this year slow rolling 1/2oz or 3/4oz spinners in 20-25ft of water. Cast it out, let it sink, roll it along the bottom fast enough to make the blade spin or to keep it above the weeds. If they're not in the mood for a moving bait at all, I go dropshot. If the dropshot fails, I drag a carolina rig.

I lost one fishing buddy to this. Notorious for always "forgetting" to hit the tackle shop. Always "Just let me borrow it, I'll pay you back if I lose it". Last straw was this past spring. I was on a deep crankbait bite and he didn't have any deep cranks... He begged to use one of my 6XD's and I told him if he loses it (like he always does) he is paying me $10 right out of his wallet. He lost it not even 5 minutes later to a snag. I told him to either get swimming or cough up the $10. He laughed and said he'd buy me a new one whenever. I told him no, you're giving me the $10 like he agreed to. He copped an attitude and said whatever. I turned around and he was tying on ANOTHER one of my 6XD's. I told him it's not even funny, take it off. He made a big deal about it. I dropped his ass off at the ramp and told him to take a hike. It shouldn't have even been an argument. I take him out on my boat for free, he eats my food, drinks my beer, and never offers any $$ for gas or anything. Now he is actually costing me money with losing my baits. Unacceptable. His wife had to come get him from the ramp. I have a bunch of lures I absolutely don't mind letting friends use and even lose. It happens. But there are certain things of mine you don't touch (like cranks, ploppers, swimbaits) or if you lose em, you pay the cost and the gas it takes me to go get em. I fish with about 3 dudes fairly often, and every single one of them always have their own gear, and always offer up cash for gas or bring food. I never ask for money because I was going on the lake anyways, but these guys get it and they're a pleasure to fish with. That other guy can pound sand though.

Not a whole lot of specifics from me. Stop and go, pop it, straight retrieve. Top water is one of those things where it's on or its not. If I don't get a hit within the first 30-40 minutes of trying, I'll usually put it down and switch to something subsurface. I might pick it up later and try it again. I find it works best at first light, and last night. Some times when I night fish it's all they want, other times they want nothing to do with it and want a spinnerbait.

I've only been fishing the plopper for a little bit, but I've also noticed that sometimes the bass don't want that one type of retrieve. I've started experimenting with stop and go, popping it it like a jerk bait and it actually works. Try giving different retrieves a try, even if it seems stupid.

Back from the dead!

For some reason they never seemed better than some good ol high deet spray. Bugs still got on me and bit me with the cells. Never really have a problem with the spray.

It's hard to think about setting the hook in the moment as a bass smashes your top water. I always remind myself before every cast to pause if I get a hit, then slam that hook home. I have to constantly remind myself to do this.

Daiwa DXSB rod and Tatula HD. I love this set up. I can throw 1-6oz on it. Absolute work horse.

I find winter beautiful in it's own right. My state is covered in snow mostly before Christmas and well into spring. It sucks to shovel, yeah, but it's pretty and I enjoy skiing so it's a positive for me. Sadly, we lack mountains I've never dove really, so I wouldn't have any idea what a good diving spot is. I have a few friends who dive here and they have some quarries and lakes they go to every week. I am sure Florida is way better, though. Muskie, we do have em. They're called the fish of 10,000 casts for a reason though. I don't ever really target them, but I got two 45+ inchers to the boat last summer throwing spoons. They're cool, but so fragile. Most people stop fishing for them when the water temps get above 75* around here. I prefer fishing for northern most of the time if I am gonna target things other than bass. I feel they fight better and they can get just as big. Just a lot more of them around.

My God, we practically promote drunk driving here! I went to court last summer for a traffic ticket and the guy before me was in for his 4th DUI. He got let off basically with just paying the fine. He might have had his license suspended for a month or so. It's absolutely nuts. Of course, the judge gave me the third degree for going 10mph over and didn't knock off any points. What a joke. It's all a cash grab. If we keep them on the roads, it's an easy $5,000-$10,000 in their pockets and they love repeat offenders. My cousin got drunk last fall and drove into a tree killing himself. Luckily no one else was involved. At his funeral, my moms side of the family had the audacity to get drunk in the parking lot and drive home. Absolute horsecrap. These people treat drinking as a lifestyle.

This is one thing that I've always felt blessed about living in the north. Nothing tries to kill us up here. I mean, we have rattle snakes and brown recluses, but in my 23 years on this earth, I've only ever seen one rattler in my state and they seem to stay out of the lakes. If I had to deal with cottonmouths, widows, gators, and everything else you guys have, I'd probably never fish at night! This is the first year I am gonna try and give ice fishing a really good shot. I about went nuts last winter being all cooped up with no fishing. I've ice fished before, but never seriously. I am gonna get a gas auger, ice sonar set up and a decent shanty and see how it goes. It's gotta be better than not fishing at all.

It ain't all fun and games up here right now either. Water is low 80's and we've been upper 80's air temp, sometimes 90's. It's been rough by Wisconsin standards. I've been fishing at night a lot more lately and it's been paying off. I don't think our bass really like it when the water gets above 75*. Water has been pretty stained in quite a few lakes near me as well which throws me off my game. If fall wasn't right around the corner I'd probably get drunk and just cry instead of braving the possible skunk. But I know we only have a few more weeks of good weather and I'll kick myself in the rear if I don't at least get out for a few hours when I can during the day. Today was a rough one for me in particular. Went out from 8am - 1pm and only had 3 smaller bass to show for it. One came off a black spinnerbait, one on a whopper plopper, and one on a frog. I couldn't find a pattern and just started junk fishing. Going through spring and summer transition I thought I finally had things figured out. Then it got ungodly hot and humid and the water temps got scalding and I just lost all confidence I had. I've been contemplating hiring a guide and just picking his brain about fishing in these conditions and hopefully he is more than willing to show me how to find em in this weather. But that'd be an expensive lesson.

Well, it isn't terribly bad. I do have 3-4 crystal clear lakes that are spring fed within 20 minutes of me. I'm talking 20ft visibility most days. Added bonus is that they're fairly small with very few trailer parking spots. This means on weekdays I am usually the only one on the lake. One of those lakes got me two PB bass this summer. Another one is a pretty great smallie fishery that has yielded me two 5lbers this summer and more 3-4s than I can count. Plenty of walleye in that lake as well. The rest of the bigger lakes are dammed up use to be rivers. Those I try to avoid this time of year. Fishing in stained hot water isn't my strong point. Sadly, you are right about crowded waters. I can put up with it because when the weather is like this, I become nocturnal and start fishing at night. Usually am the only one on the water then and the fish really turn on. During the hot months, the residents seem to become a problem. Tons of people with the "I own the lake" attitude. I've had tons confrontations with owners driving over my lines, cutting between me and the shore when there is literally 10 yards leeway, or just trying to send massive wakes my way. I don't take much crap when it comes to that. I usually start off with chucking a 1oz jig at their boat and see how far they want to take it. Usually never goes further than them swinging around, yelling from a distance when they realize I'm ready to rip their head off. I did let the anger get the best of me once this year and chased a guy who almost clipped me when I was trolling the shore. I pulled up the trolling motor and chased him back to his dock, got off the boat and told him to throw em up. Then I saw his wife and kids and reality hit me that it was just dumb to try and fight someone like that. Nothing to gain, everything to lose. I just hate it when people put me or my family in danger.

Holy batman Jesus, talk about grave digging haha.

I've been dealing with the same crap down here near Milwaukee. One of my favorite lakes is more stained than it's ever been and the water temp just hit 81* today. I went out this AM for 4 hours and only got 3 bass. One on a spinnerbait, one a whopper plopper, and one on a frog. I couldn't find a pattern so I just started junk fishing. Wind was nowhere to be found and not a cloud in the sky. It's been rough. Thankfully, night fishing has been rather productive this summer.

In most cases, not at all. If they're lip-hooked there is a pretty good chance they'll start jumping and spit the lure. If It's further down, they may die, or they digest the bait / hooks rust out and they live.

This is my ultimate guilty pleasure. If I can cross a bass's eyes with a great hookset, I am a happy boy. I hardly even care about losing a fish if I got a great hookset.

Personally, not a whole lot compares to a bass blowing up on my topwater and the instant thrill it gives me. If I am out fishing for fun and they're hitting topwater, I'm gonna throw it. Even if I can catch double the bass on subsurface baits, I'll be chucking topwater. Fishing for me is about fun, not about how many I can catch. If I was in a tournament and cash was on the line, yeah, I'd sacrifice the topwater for more fish.

I couldn't even count how many big ass bullfrogs I've caught on any type of topwater up here... They're so territorial and aggressive. I've caught a few on buzzbaits, spooks, ploppers, but the most I've caught were on frogs. They're mean.

Indeed.

Haven't personally experienced this, but I rarely throw braid. Losing a $10+ lure absolutely sucks, this is why most people who fish swimbaits or heavy baits recommend co-poly or mono. A lot more give when something goes wrong. Less chance of your bait just flying off.

Same here. This is usually the case of the people running the website forgetting or failing to update their SSL Certification. Not usually due to "hackers" or the likes. I'd feel comfortable still ordering from them, they're pretty straight and have never seemed shady to me. I'm sure they're getting on it asap.

I just got a plopper last week. I've thrown it maybe an hour or two on a few different lakes. So far only 1 good blow up and it didn't even hook up. I think topwater is just hit or miss on certain lakes. I usually don't get top water action on any lake around me. Nothing worthy of throwing top water more than anything else, at least.

Yea I see that now. Thought it was fiberglass at first!

How the $%$# does this hold any amount of weight without pulling right out?