BigAngus752

I used the seat at first too but now the front seat stays home. Working the TM has become almost second nature and not having the seat there makes it so much easier to move around. I do keep the one on the back so I can move it up if I'm out for more than 6-7 hours and my back starts hurting. I fish man-made reservoirs almost exclusively and very clear water for me is a foot and a half visibility. If I don't hit one or two trees per hour of fishing then I'm doing something wrong. I will admit, though, that this has caused me to do the gunwale dance on numerous occasions. I've been really, really close to going in headfirst. The closest was when I was on the front deck while my wife was taking us in to the dock...

You should check out VRBO. Lot's of places available near Dale Hollow. My wife and I used VRBO when we took a fishing trip to Center Hill a couple years ago. Just make sure that you search the reviews and/or directly ask the owner if there is satisfactory boat parking.

I use a leader only for the purpose of breaking off if I'm going to fish in someplace snaggy with braid on the spool, otherwise I'm using straight braid. When I do use a leader I use the lightest I feel I can get away with for the technique I'm fishing. What size braid I have on the spool isn't what I use to decide leader size. You definitely don't want to try to match the braid and leader test size. 20lb braid and 20lb mono probably won't be your friend. If the technique is something I can do with 8lb mono then that's my leader. If I need 16lb mono or flouro then that's my leader. I'm not saying that the size of the braid doesn't matter because it matters for the technique and the leader should match the technique also. So no 65lb braid on a frog rod with 6lb mono and a Ned rig...

Have you caught fish using this type of bait before? I ask because it can be difficult to discern when a bass has the bait in it's mouth. You said you got a "nibble" but no "bites". What do you feel the difference is between those two terms? A bunch of small pecks at your lure is probably a bluegill or other panfish. A "bite" can feel like a hard tap or it can feel like your bait has floated up from the bottom. Did your bait fall to the bottom? Or did a bass suck it into his mouth as it was falling? Again, communication is difficult without a baseline so I'm going to assume that when you say "jerked" it's the same thing that I think "jerked" is. The baits your are using are generally most useful when fished with patience. I don't "jerk" plastic worms and creatures. It takes very little movement of the rod to impart action and sometimes you DON'T WANT ANY ACTION AT ALL. Sometimes you want to just let it sit. Keep working! You will eventually get every bass in that pond!

I'm sorry that you're struggling with your move. That has to be tough. Going from a bass fishing Shangri-La to "average" may seem to be making it even worse, but let me try to give you some perspective. What you are describing for your current fishing conditions are my only fishing conditions. I live in central Illinois. The closest lake for me to put my boat in that has any fish at all is 30 minutes away and that is a tiny lake that I can only use my trolling motor on. The closest lake of any size is an hour. Experienced fisherman here have regular skunk days and I have two friends that are tournament fisherman who drive half a day to fish half a day. If a fisherman around here catches a 6 pound bass he puts it on his wall (hopefully in replica form). Every single time I go out it is up in the air if I'm getting a bass. Days when I put five in the boat are great days. Five in the boat that are over the slot limit are SPECTACULAR days. But I still sit and dream about the next time I get to go. I can be miserable driving home after a skunk day but by the time I'm heading to bed I'm wishing that I could go again tomorrow. Why? THE CHALLENGE. I LOVE trying to figure this stuff out. This time of year I get up at 3:30AM so I can be on the water at 5:00AM and I'm pumped from the time my feet hit the floor. It's me against the fish. I started fishing a new lake this year (it's an hour and fifteen minutes away) and from March to June it was a skunk and dink fest. But my last three trips have been great. I've gotten 5 to 7 fish each time and one of those my top five went over ten pounds which would have been enough to put me in fourth place at the last tournament on that lake. I'm doing so well on that lake that the next trip I take will NOT be to that lake, I will be going back to a lake with much bigger bass that every angler struggles on and I regularly get skunked on. Why? Because it's me vs. the fish. Let's go. What's the point of this? You're going from easy to hard. You can give up or you can find the joy in the struggle. In the words of Patches O'Houlihan, "You've gotta get angry!"

A scrap yard, truck stop with full service shop, or someplace they sell water for irrigation/cattle will have a scale. It's easy here in Illinois because you can stand outside of town and look around for the nearest grain elevator. Please read and absorb what @Way2slow has written for you. A 3500 pound towing capacity is almost nothing. Heck, a 2 door Jeep Wrangler has a towing capacity of 2500 pounds! This minivan you are thinking of purchasing is NOT meant for towing. It's not about "can it pull this" or "will it damage my transmission/engine/vehicle". It's about the driving characteristics of the vehicle once it's on the road and rolling along. If you must have something that carries a lot of passengers then how about a Yukon or other large SUV? A Jeep Grand Cherokee isn't even a "large" SUV and it would get you more than double the towing capacity of what you are looking at and that's with a V6. My 2014 Grand Cherokee is rated for 7500 pounds.

I agree with you and I do much the same, but only with some treble hook lures that I run on non-braid. The heavy hooksets get some properly adjusted drag from the reel. Clearly you are successful at what you are doing but I wouldn't personally go to such extremes as to never use spinning gear. I love fishing with both casting and spinning. It's much more pleasant for me to fish Ned rigs with light line on spinning gear. What I'm saying is...I've seen people tie mattresses to the roof of their Honda Accord...so I know they don't NEED a truck...

Tom, how much do I weigh?

I know what you mean. On slow days when I'm not catching it's hard not to stick with something tried and true.

What’s too long? If your goal is to catch fish and you’re catching then it’s what you should be doing, right? But I am the exact opposite of @jimmyjoe. What I enjoy the most is the challenge and working toward becoming the master of all techniques. If I catch five bass I will literally stop doing what I’m doing and do something else. It’s a rule I have. Once I’ve hit five then I change to a technique that needs improvement. If it’s a slow day I may drop my limit from 5 to 2 just so I can practice something I’m not good at. I would rather catch one good bass using a technique (or in a circumstance) that I’ve never has success with than 10 bass on a lipless crank. I’ve caught a lot of fish on a lipless already. I’m 50 years old. I intend to be a better fisherman than KVD by the time I’m 65. I don’t mind if you laugh at that, but that is my mentality and my work ethic and it’s what makes it enjoyable to me. Do what makes it most enjoyable for you in the long run.

I use this on my 2016 Merc 115 Four Stroke. Works the same and less expensive. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009TOBVG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

On the lake when the sun comes up. Truly blessed.

This is good advice. I'm 6'4, 235 pounds. My dress shirt size is a tailored 18/37. My wife bought me a Huk long-sleeve in XL and it fits perfectly. That is unheard of for me. I'm always at least and XXL and usually need a tall size. I also highly recommend Huk. We have a heat advisory right now. I started fishing this morning at 5am. At 10am I was dripping sweat in a tank top. I put the Huk shirt on and it felt like it was 10 degrees cooler out. I also have the neck gaiter I can pull up over my face. That plus my boonie hat can keep me out on the water much longer in the heat.

I can understand the theory of "match the hatch" and when baitfish are schooling I have no doubt that it's critical to do so when trying to catch bass during a feeding frenzy. However, my lake has no white, bullet-shaped fish that float and have little propellers on their butts, yet from 5:15 to 5:25 this morning I caught four bass on a Whopper Plopper. I try to pay attention to what is on the menu for each season, but in the end you can tempt them with almost anything...or they won't be tempted at all IMHO. Keep in mind there are a lot of experts on here that have helped me vastly improve my skills so if their opinions differ from mine I can tell you who to put money on. ?

And here it is: This looks very easy. Definitely worth trying IMHO. I also like his idea for testing knots to find what works best for you. Thanks for mentioning this.

My initial thought was the Owner hooks also. I wondered if the odd shape of the hook was causing leverage when the fish pulls that was too hard on these knots. I may experiment a little with different knots and the Yo-Zuri just to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks for the info.

It was definitely the knots and not abrasion. Two of the three breakoffs weren't near any obstructions. I use 6lb Trilene XL on another rod with the same ratings. I cannot tell you the number of bass I've caught with that rod and I've never had a knot fail. I could very well have done something wrong with the knots but it also has to have something to do with the Yo-Zuri Hybrid in addition to how/what I'm tying. I tie the same way with the Trilene XL. I love the light line stuff! That makes it more challenging!!! I have 20lb Sufix 832 on two other spinning setups. I love the stuff. I use those for T-rigs, Carolina rigs, etc. I'm going to use the 10lb for this because it will be all weightless stuff. Plus I already have two spools of 10lb so I don't have to buy more LOL! ?

I posted awhile back that I was putting together a spinning set-up just for skipping weightless plastics under docks. I bought a 6'6" spinning rod and a new 2500 size reel. I was going to use one of the spools of line I already had but instead of using mono or braid I decided to order some Yo-Zuri Hybrid. That has been my go-to line for my baitcasters for three years now. I have never, ever had a problem with the 12lb Hybrid and I have it on multiple baitcasters. This time I bought 6lb for the spinning setup. Today was my first trip out with the new set-up. I was on the water before the sun came up. I tied on an Owner Mutu Light Circle hook using a Palomar knot and I threw it wacky rigged. The first fish that bit was 2lbs or less. The fish started to run and with only a slight pull the line broke. Closer inspection confirmed it broke at the knot. I tied on another Owner Mutu Light hook but this time I used the Trilene knot (this is my favorite knot and it is extremely rare that it fails me). I skipped another wacky deep under a dock, got a bite, and again the line broke. Again confirmed that it was the knot at the hook. I couldn't have been more stunned because I love the Yo-Zuri Hybrid. I thought maybe there as something with the circle hooks so I used a Palomar knot to tie on a VMC Neko hook. Again, wacky rig but this time on a shoreline under some shady trees. Again, good bite, fish runs, line breaks at the hook. I'm interested in hearing opinions, but there isn't much that will change my mind at this point. I am switching to 10lb braid. I would, however, like to know what everyone thinks about this. I've always talked up Yo-Zuri Hybrid and I still love the 12lb on my BCs. Never had a problem with it. Of course the title of this thread says FOUR breakoffs and I only described three. Here is the end of my unlucky day. I was headed back to put the boat on the trailer and decided to throw a T-rigged U-Vibe at the docks before I loaded up. I got a good bite and set the hook. This was about a 3lb fish and she immediately did a 360 around one of the metal dock posts. I pulled too hard and "snap" went my 10lb Sufix 832. I had a good day of fishing. I boated five fish (four were "keeper" size) and that's a good day around here, but I really, really, really hate to leave FOUR fish swimming around with hook/worms in their faces. In the words of John Wayne, "That causes me great annoyance and displeasure".

I've tried a few different types and I was religiously using Megastrike with indefinite results. This year I tried MaxScent baits from Berkley. This is as close to a "gamechanger" as I have found. I recently fished the same spot with two different wacky-rig set-ups. Both rods had 6lb mono on them. Same VMC weedless Neko hooks. I put a Berkley MaxScent General on one hook with an o-ring and an identical color Senko on the other with an o-ring. I fished the same spot. I caught three bass on the General and lost a fourth at the boat. I had a single bite on the Senko and couldn't get the fish hooked. Scientific? No, but I felt all spring and early summer like the MaxScent was making a difference and this only reinforced it. Am I giving up all my other plastics? Not yet. Am I going to burn through more bags of MaxScent because I am now highly confident in them? Absolutely.

I own 2 Pfluegers (one President and one President XT). I own one Fuego LT and one KastKing Sharky. I will not buy any more Pfluegers. I liked them when I got them and thought they were smooth and dependable. The KastKing is better than either of the Pfluegers. The Fuego LT is significantly better than either of the Pfluegers.

Oh my salty people!!! LOL! Hey @ChrisD46, go catch a state record with this rig and show these Grumpier Old Men what's what. What a crowd today! The Flex Seal Tape was good but I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Shake Weight. Now I'm headed out with an 8/0 hook and a bag of chili cheese dogs to catch my PB. I don't care what you think.

I fish Ned rigs and weightless Senkos on spinning gear with 6lb Trilene XL with no problems at all. If you are using a reputable, name-brand mono then I think you might want to take a look at what knot you use and how often you retie if this is happening in open water.

What I use to pull my Ranger RT188 (or haul my little Jon in the back) is the same thing I drive to work every day. I bought it after I bought my boat and as @Fishes in trees would say, I decided to go "matchy-matchy" LOL! I like to be organized and having my truck and boat match seems more squared away to me for some reason. I have a mental disease.

Is one digital and one analog? Are you properly translating from tenths of a pound (digital) to ounces? If your digital scale reads 5.5 pounds you need to correct it (.5 x 16) to determine the fish is 5lb 8oz. You won't know if your scale is accurate until you follow @Scott F 's advice.

Looking for some info about Green River Lake in KY. I saw that this lake made the top 25 for this year and when I was showing it to my wife and she saw the floating cabins at the marina she told me to make reservations immediately. I know this lake draws down from Sept. to Nov. and we would be going close to the end of draw down on a weekend in November. Can someone tell us what we can expect for boating, ramps, and bass fishing in November at this lake? Thanks in advance.