Dorado

Caught a nice slab Crappie on my B day! White Roadrunner paired with a Lake Fork Live Baby Shad (Bar Fish color). Vertical jigging artificial crappie trees. 12 FOW from the yak

Tubes - no hesitation

What this gent said. Totally nailed it. My response would’ve been the same too, just not as good. Power to the Grub. Then master the tubes and ned rig. You will catch bass in any pond, and catch other species so there’s a lifetime bonus.

I’d hit that ?

X2

Thanks for sharing! That was extremely fascinating. Especially sight fishing, understanding that currents provide conveyer belts of food sources to fish, where they want to expend as little energy as possible in one spot, is critical. I remind myself lately to think about placing the presentation in that particular belt, rather than hastily throwing the flies directly at the fish. Just in time for my San Juan River fly fishing trip this weekend. Quality waters here I come!

3” Grub.

The fishing gods are going to strike me with lightening after this comment, but I’ve been in a new relationship and need I say more lol? I did lay it out last week that the spawn is upon us, so I told her, “you’re going to have to accept this lifestyle” and she’s all about it! She passed the most important sniff test so I’ll be starting this month! Only been bass fishing once this year and I tore it up at Barlett from my kayak. Hula grubs and drop shotting kept lines tight all day. Going fly fishing next weekend on the San Juan River near NM/CO border. Can’t wait Prespawn/Spawn Crappie fishing is a must at Alamo which I s going down this March, along with the amazing striper fishing in the northern coves of Lake Pleasant is also mandatory. Speaking of mandatory, we need to hit your spot man! Trust me, I’m not on social media and I’m super tight lipped. I just want to share the experience at least once Arizona fishing pride all the way! Sorry for highjacking your post, but keep the reports coming!

Awesome post! What another year you’re having!

Spinnerbait

@brgbassmasterit’s been cold in AZ lately.... and you’re getting those hogs in shallow water??

Nice!!!!!!!

Local Wal-Mart had my confidence baits at $1 a bag!

Ned rig is a killer shallow water lure. So are Finesse tubes and my favorite to use sight fishing. Try it, you won’t regret it!!

Bait money alert! Picked up a couple of these guys yesterday since they were finally on sale at BPS. As a squarebill fanatic, I must say the details and profile of these baits are phenomenal! At only 2”, they dive 3’ according to the specs, which is perfect for our local ponds and forage size. Note: they do make a 6’ diving range model too Can’t wait to hunt for aggressive prespawners with these bad boys! Anyone have any positive experiences with em?

Jigs and jerkbaits

Junebug and Cali 420 are my two favorites for ribbontails in fishing stained waters.

Dude, we need to fish together this year!

Junebug Zoom Finesse Worm on a drop-shot at night. This worked well during early summer for me last year Junebug Zoom Fat Albert Grub is killer at night too on a darter head during pre-spawn

Tom- your article is an all-time classic in my book. I’ve read that old thread so many times that I’ve lost count. One of my biggest takeaways is that you use your reel to slowly (sometimes painfully slowly) retrieve jigs and never by lifting the rod.

https://www.pistolpeteflies.com/how-to-videos

Fill a clear casting bubble up with water (no air bubbles whatsoever) and have a 5’ leader from your bubble to the Pistol Pete fly. My favorite colors are Christmas Tree (John Deere green, White, red), Olive Green, and Black. Cast it in in the middle of the pond and count down to 3 seconds. Slowly reel the handle and lift the rod up quickly on bites. This presents your lure in the strike zone at a longer window and is more subtle and natural appealing to both reactionary and opportunistic feeding trout. Crazy effective on a damselfly hatch too. Trust me on this set up.

Blue, what do you use as a trailer for your black and blue bladed jigs?

Casting bubble with a Pistol Pete propellered-fly. Will catch more trout than any of those inline spinners.

I live in the desert, so the crawdads camouflage in lighter browns, sandy tans, and beige colors when they’re young. I’ll use finesse tubes, 3” grubs, and Ned Rig to imitate that profile, mostly in urban highly-pressured ponds. This is mostly my pre thru post-spawn ritual fishing for me. The mature crawdads turn into darker watermelon with orange/copper to blueish/purple craws (depending on the season). I’ll use hula grubs, larger tubes, and trick worms, powerworms, ultravibe speed worms. Mostly in lakes and in the summer. With all of this said, I’ve narrowd down my colors to: -California 420 -Pumpkinseed -Oxblood with red flakes -Watermelon candy -Watermelon with black & gold flk -Brown Craw with S&P (thank u Gitzit -GP Orange (most productive Ned Rig color last year) -Roboworm makes a Desert Craw patten that matches the hatch -AZ Custom Baits makes a Patti’s Craw pattern that matches the hatch too