RichD913

I can only speak for st croix, I own a Rage and my new Premier Crankbait, my brother has the mojo bass. There is something about the mojo bass I don't like. I wish it weren't the case because it's so affordable!

I have a pack of havoc "the jerk" soft plastics, they look great in the water, but my question is, under what circumstances would I use these instead of my hard jerk baits and why, and while I'm at it, same for the KVD flukes, why those over a crank bait of some sort?

How do you get that info? I would have never known that and probably went with the avid!

I agree with this. I went midnight fishing the other night for the first time, couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Threw a Texas rigged 12 inch worm with a bullet weight and yeah your other senses wake up! Couldn't believe what I could feel through my rod! And did it for a couple hours, really was incredible. Since that one time it has made a difference. Truly awesome!!

Can you elaborate on this? Rising or falling over time? Over or under 30? And what's your method of figuring it out?

I see your logic but imagine being able to say "hm, last year I kept fishing at this depth with this lure" this year I better do something different. We're creatures of habit and like staying in our comfort zone and most of the time don't realize it. Being able to see it in black and white would help a lot!

So I want to start logging my experiences out on the water so I can see what worked when and vice versa with all different variables temp, skies, wind, lure etc. Can anyone share ideas or "formats" you've done for logging your trips? Or maybe there is a pre made log out there for purchase that is "the best". Thanks in advance.

Appreciate the motivation! I don't quit, especially because I'm not succeeding right now. The answer is out there, I'll figure it out. If I didn't do so well before summer than I might be more discouraged, but I've studied and tried and tested so much that I'm confident every time I hit the water that I can be successful, if I'm not, I know that I've applied everything I've learned and gave my best effort.

I never knew the cork had to be maintained. I have a st croix premier with a full cork handle. It's beautiful, I want it to stay that way. The little bit of cork on my brothers mojo bass is really dark now, not like when he bought it. I don't want that to happen to my nice full cork on my somewhat pricey rod. This U40 will prevent that? Will the change the color/look upon using it?

Thanks Tom. We were hammering them on lipless cranks during post spawn. They don't seem to be biting on them now so we've been experimenting. Also, with as good as the rattle traps are coming through grass there is so much more milfoil now it seems than when it was colder. Getting anything through it is tough, even if you shake it off you end up right in more. But that's where the bass should be sooooo

Wow great, shoot me a PM if you do!

Not off base at all, it would've helped to have a sonar unit on those really hot days. I've come to the conclusion that I need even a "low grade" one to start and learn on, where I can spend $100 and have SOMETHING until I learn and upgrade my boat and equipment.

Never. My brother found this little spot by our house that isn't on any maps or anything, you can't see it from the road or anywhere you park, and you have to walk a ways to get to it. When we started there no one was ever there and we would hammer them. Then we saw one or two people show up, thought nothing of it, gave the place a break for a bit because we wanted to fish the bigger lakes and came back to it and every time we go there are several people there and they always seem to say "I just heard about this spot."

Definitely made this mistake earlier on haha my mentality is that if you're not nervous about losing it on the way back, it's not a great spot. Problem is I think these spots scream "I'm a bass and I'm in here!" all day long and they get pounded.

Same lure, completely different presentation for about 5 minutes, then same lure different color, if that fails, go to whatever is the total opposite. Don't know if it's right but that's what I'd do.

Keith- great story! Not in our case but it got me thinking maybe next time we will go barefoot in the Jon boat! Big Bill- that's true, my brother uses a lews LFS, while my rods have a lews laser speed spool and a BPS titanium 8. I don't think those are the issue :/

Hi all, new user here even though I've patrolled these boards to educate myself for a while and watched countless bass resource videos, this is the first time I ever thought of creating a topic. As you may be able to tell by the title, fishing here has been rough!! Me and my brother fish together in central NJ which is pretty abundant with lakes that vary in size. We did pretty well during the post spawn here, we noticed that we would catch a handful of fish each every time we go out and many times others on the lake would catch nothing. Our confidence was at an all time high, this is our second year bass fishing, the first was spent throwing nothing more than Texas rigged worms. But we've educated ourselves since then and spent countless hours on the water. Anyway, once summer hit, BOOM, no fish. Not bank fishing, not out of the Jon boat, nothing. I can say that all summer I've probably caught 4 or 5 fish. That's in 3 months! And we go out almost every day. The only reason I'm not out right now is because I had morning errands to run. I don't know if it's because of the highly pressured waters, or not having sonar to find them deep, but we've done everything we've learned of what to fish and when, and have spent so much time out there to no avail all summer. We are either out on the water, or home reading books on bass fishing or watching bass fishing videos, otherwise we are at work. Anyone ever have been in this position? Did you figure it out? And how quick did you get tired of saying "well at least it's nice to be out with nature" after being skunked?? lol