Boomstick

You don't always need heavy cover to get bass to hit topwater. Even a hollow body frog which is well recognized as a fantastic lure to throw on heavy cover can be walked in open water to catch frogs. If the water is a little too cold for a frog, try a buzzbait and if it's too cold for a buzzbait, try a popper. I've caught bass on buzzbaits in water in the 40s, although more so at the end of the season and not the start.

If you get a 101 course on how to find bass and catfish, they're generally in the same spots. During feeding times, they will both like shorelines that have a decent slope along the shoreline.

I picked up this book based on your recommendation on a prior thread and I can't say how helpful it has been. I haven't got a giant yet, but I've increased the size of the bass I have caught and I credit it directly to things I learned in this book.

I bought some cheapos on amazon in bulk. They work for storing rods in the hull of my kayaks with reels. This year, I bought a Daiwa Steez AGS rod and that came with a real nice one. So I bought a couple of these Elite brand rod sleeves for the Tatula Elite AGS rods I purchased, since they stay on nice without a reel to hook onto. They are more expensive, but they serve their intended purpose. If you're interested, see the links below. Casting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/153809151245 Spinning: https://www.ebay.com/itm/163611869788?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2648

Generally speaking, no but there is some overlap. For example, a medium rod is good for weightless soft plastics, but you can also throw a 5" senko with up to a 1/8oz weight where you can throw the same thing with a medium heavy rod. The same also true with many finesse jigs, particularly 5/16 and 3/8oz. Really you would choose based on cover. You can also throw a jerkbait or squarebill on a medium rod.

I just ordered my fiancée an Advanced Elements Advanced Frame model AE1012-R. No idea if it'll be any good, but they're supposed to be a steip up from the competing Intrex so I figured what the hell let's give it a shot. It actually just arrived today. If you can afford a Bote and of course would use it enough to justify the cost , then that's the way to go. This also looks promising as well. https://www.advancedelements.com/inflatable-kayaks/straitedge-angler-pro-ae1055/

My doctor keeps saying they'll put me on it but hasn't yet.

I'm looking for a place to rent a cabin next April when the kids are on spring break in that area, and Smith Mountain lake and a few in North Carolina are in the mix - basically down south where it's warmer so we can go kayaking when it's often pretty cold up here.

This year is gonna be a good year. I got a lot of new toys for my arsenal, upgraded my YakAttack Omega rod holders to the pros so they sit higher so it's easier for me to access rods in the back, some nice new gear and I'm beginning this year with probably enough soft plastics for the season as well as a full arsenal of jigs (last year I was running low and couldn't find any because of the pandemic). And I got both the kids fish finders for their kayaks, so maybe they will find us some good spots. Last year before I put the kayaks away due to not being able to walk for a month with severe gout, I caught a whole slew of large fish so I'm hoping this trend will continue.

I always loosen my drag at the end of the year and between outings early in the year and late in the season when I don't get out regularly. Once I start fishing regularly, I will usually set it and leave it set for the season. I also made it a habit to check drag before going out so I don't lose any fish when I forget to set it.

Well I got my kayaks out of storage in my mom's basement today. Now I'm just waiting for a decent day where I can get out. Let the 2021 Bass Fishing season begin!

I think some of the SpiderWire lines are crap, but not all of them. I had spiderwire on a spinning reel for years without a problem, unfortunately I don't remember what variety I had

I have used a MH rod with 40# braid for frogs before. It works fine if you walk frogs in open water or throw them in small sections of lily pads where you don't have to pull them through a large number of lily pads to get them out. Eventually I ended up getting a Daiwa Tatula 7'1" H/F and later the Tatula 7'4" frog rod, the latter has crazy power to horse them out of anything. If you don't mind another inch above 7', the 7'1" H/F makes a pretty good all around heavy rod - you can use it for jigs and punching as well. For a reel, you don't need anything too terribly fancy. A higher gear ratio is usually good to take up slack quickly, but not required. I had 65# braid loaded onto a Tatula 150 and a Tatula CT, so whichever one is not on my flipping rod sees use on my frog rod.

My lineup for 2021: Daiwa Steez SV 7.1:1 with 16# fluorocarbon for jigs Daiwa Tatula SV (older version) 7.3:1 with 12# fluorocarbon for soft lighter soft plastics and finesse jigs Daiwa Tatula SV (older version) 6.3:1 with 15# fluorocarbon for spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and heavier T-Rigs Daiwa Tatula SV (older version) 6.3:1 with 10# fluorocarbon crankbaits and jerkbaits Daiwa Tatula 150 7.3:1 with 65# braid for frogs and fishing heavy cover Daiwa Tatula CT (older version) 7.3:1 with 65# braid for frogs and fishing heavy cover. Pflueger Patriarch 7.3:1 with 12# mono for topwater and jerkbaits Daiwa Tatula LT 2500D with 12# braid for shaky heads, larger drop shot baits and tubes Daiwa BG 2000 with 12# braid for drop shots and ned rigs

For most of those lures, I would prefer the 7.1:1 just so I could quickly take up slack easier, but the 6.3:1 will work just fine.

I carry pitching (arky head), flipping, swim, bladed, finesse and finesse football jigs. I probably use an arky head jig most of the time. As a general rule of thumb, I will use 3/8oz in up to 12 feet of water or so, and a 1/2oz jig in deeper water. For finesse jigs I will often go a little lighter, maybe 5/16 and 7/16 or sometimes even lighter. For flippin' jigs, I pretty much start at 1/2oz and will often use 3/4oz so it can get through thick cover (in areas with more cover than I have, some people will use 1oz jigs for the same reason). The hardest decision can be to decide between a football and an arky head jig if I'm trying to tie on just one jig. Sometimes I'll have a lake that is largely a hard bottom with rocks but there's patches of weeds and some wood in areas that is more suited towards an arky head jig. Also I generally prefer arky head jigs for working drop offs, as they are better for hopping off the bottom and for a vertical drag as opposed to a horizontal drag how I usually fish a football head jig.

For me, it was late November last year until early April this year.

I would if for no other reason than to keep the line out of the hooks. It's usually not too much of an issue with poppers unless there is wind.

I don't have the Matt Herren models, but I have several from Dirty Jigs and they're very solid. If I could have one color of jigs, it would be "The Go To", appropriately named. The Matt Herren model actually looks more like a typical arky head jig, more of an all-purpose jig than a flipping jig. Many similar style arky heads don't come in sizes above 1/2oz, such as the Tour Level Pitching jig which is a fantastic all around jig.

It's definitely beneficial to be able to rely solely on your thumb as well as in some cases to rely on your reel, but it's even more ideal when you can rely on your reel to cover for those times where your thumb fails you to make it not too horrible (or tough conditions like casting into wind, etc)

Yes, you will need the card to store screenshots and waypoints as well as ActiveCaptain.

Well I hope your wife forgives you, but the 93sv is a pretty sweet unit and you can get them at good prices right now. Heck no, you return the wife instead

A lot of it depends on what I expect the bass to be doing. If I see what looks like bass, larger fish, loosely grouped and I expect they may be holed up there, I may stop and fish that spot. If I expect they might be on the move - and this especially true with smallies I may mark the area and make a second pass on it and if I still see fish, then I'll work the area. And if those fish are in an area with no notable structure at all, then I will usually assume they are on the move. I will usually mark decent looking structure that can be worth coming back to as well. Sometimes you may find structure that has no fish at the time but if you come back to it later, magically fish appeared. I'm still improving my fish finding technique but this is what I'm figuring out so far.

If it storms on a Monday, I would wager Tuesday is going to be a tough day but come Wednesday the bite should be picking up again. Fishing before the storm is usually pretty good.

Grats on your fish. Even if your PB was 12 pounds, it's always nice catching a nice fish like that.