Trox

That may be the case as well... It's very possible that I'm just overthinking this - definately wouldn't be the first time! ?‍♂️

You hear it all the time in bass fishing... "Timing is everything"... In fact, they wouldn't shut up about it these last few days during the recent Elite series event on Lake Fork... But what I don't hear much, if at all, is the different timing strategies that anglers use to figure out the feeding windows on a specific day, or during a specific weather trend, in a given area... Anyways, I wanted to share my strategy in hopes of hearing others, because I really feel like I could be doing much better in this area... The only way I have come up with is to find a number of areas where I have located fish with my electronics. Maybe some brush piles, a couple clumps of grass, a few secondary points, whatever really... Now, let's say I have maybe 15 of these areas marked on my graph... How I would approach this is to sit on each spot for no longer than 20 or so minutes while tossing some high confidence baits given the conditions. 20 minutes pass without a bite, but fish are present? Move on... repeat this until I finally get bit, let's say, at 10am... then reset my timer for that spot. If I get bit again within my 20min window, then I have likely found an area where the fish are actively feeding... Take note of that time, 10am. Now, if I was really out to get the big picture of a certain lake (instead of wearing out a spot all day), I would move on to the next spot that I had marked and see if the bite can be repeated, if so, move on... repeat this process until I am no longer getting bit... At this time I think it would be a fair assumption that the fish, given the current conditions, are actively feeding between 10-11:15am in this area of the lake given my observations of the day... Now that the major feeding window is over, the process starts over and I begin rotating between my 15 waypoints until the next major feeding window occurs... then once it does, take note... etc... I know that if most of us just got a single day to fish, then we are just going to go out and catch fish, not really worrying about this stuff too much... But for those times where you do have 2-3 days to be on the water, pre-fish for a tournament or guide trip, etc... How do you do it?

I always forget to check my FG knots until I end up throwing a bait off or having the knot fail on a hookset... As great of leader knots as they are, a full day or two of constantly going through your guides will wear em down.

Electricity in the air helps keep your bait higher in the water column

The surplus of money I had from quitting my pack-a-day smoking habit last year [that went towards my fishing habit] now ends up in my gas tank... which is kind of sad. It was a good run.

Maybe.. I never quite finished the book so I must have missed the trolling part... and my understanding of the word was what Google shows when "what is a spoonplugger" is typed in: "Spoonplugging was the word that was coined by Buck Perry to describe the basic knowledge needed to become a successful fisherman. It means being at the right place at the right time, presenting your lures in the right manner to arrive at the fish consistently." ?‍♂️ If it truly does mean trolling then I'm dropping it from my vocab though... I had no idea

A "spoonplugger" would inch out a tad bit deeper for those bigger bites. Outside of the spawn, those bigger fish don't like to move as much as the smaller ones, and prefer to stay a little closer to their "preferred depth" There's always the exception though

You can't catch jig fish if your combo isn't at least $600

Nothing better than when you can catch em like that on your terms!!

I lost the key to mine a long time ago. One less thing to worry about ?

Went poking around the BFL site... Clicked to sign up for an event just to see what the prices were like... So I'm seeing $300 + the $85 membership for the last event in the Cowboy division, but no option for boater or co-angler... Are they the same price? Or what's the deal to become a boater...

Oh yeah, I've pulled one out of my livewell before that could have been used as a 2x4

I don't know about you, but I get thrown into a slot lake and everyone starts chasing me...

My UPS driver told me today that he's never seen someone get fishing poles that required signatures before, which reminded me of this post... We'll just leave it at that...

Last time I visited my mother I was fortunate enough to meet her new pet... a beta fish... She told me that they blow bubbles when they are happy... So now when I see bubbles floating up in a lake, I know the bass must be happy there too.

well, you're friend wasn't wrong... Fishing a frog with straight braid is typically something that is done with your drag locked down to force fish away from cover, and as WoodyB said earlier, that 30lb braid may of had some abrasion issues for it to break like that... For what it's worth, I won't throw a frog on anything less that 50lb braid

I've had livewell issues cost me big time before too... It's the worst...

"yeah, the stripper came over" or "yeah, the strippers came over" would likely yield very different results if overheard by my wife... Both don't end well, but at least one "might" allow me enough time to at least grab a few clothes before getting the boot! With that in mind, the correct pluralization of "striper", is "stripers", and you can't tell me different.

I used to not worry about my drag much until I had it set way too high with 8lb line and lost what I still swear was the biggest fish I have ever seen... I now always know where my drag is at... I used to not worry checking my line every few casts until I lost an 7-8lber during a tournament... I now check my line constantly. Not what you did this time

It's the rec boats that think it's ok to pass within 50ft of my vessel that absolutely blow me away... I can deal with a lot, but that stuff will have me ending my day early for sanity sake... At least the bass fishermen know they are being a-holes. It's the complete unawareness that gets me

Throw the ned - It's a technique that is known to work very well out there year round. After that, dropshot. Remember, not all of the bass are spawning at the same time. If you can't get the spawners to bite, target the pre or post spawners in the area. Report back

Well, that concludes the 2022 Legacy season (January-March)... There were 24 legacy class catches submitted to the program compared to 23 in 2021! I know of a few other 13+lbs bass that were caught by a guide (Hill Country Hammer) but just never submitted to the program at O.H. Ivie in late march, so the season was actually better than what is documented If we are to stay true to the title of this thread, we would now retire it until next year. I'm not opposed to starting a "Toyota Sharelunker: Legend Class Catches" though. Might be fun to keep track of the 13+lbs bass caught between April-December ?

Yup. at that speed, looking down for even a second can be very dangerous. Even though you may be aware of your structural surroundings, land, bridges, etc, the water is always changing. And at that speed, you have to CONSTANTLY be watching the water and what it's doing. Look down for a second, then look back up, and there is a 4ft swell from a house boat that you didn't see before that throws your plane all out of whack and next thing you know, you're in the water... Now as far as the killswitch thing, when this specific accident happened, it was not yet a law, but more of a common sense thing... and funny enough, today almost marks the exact 1 year anniversary of that law passing (April 1st, 2021)... why aren't we celebrating? lol

My wife loves the water, and I love fishing, but not vise versa... so what we like to do sometimes is tie up a tube to the back of the boat, give it about 50 or so feet of a leash, and I pull her around the lake as I fish from the trolling motor... She gets to relax and read her magazines out there, and I get to fish... It's rather comical. But it works for us.

I use a carolina rig when the bite is slow and I need a more natural presentation on the bottom as it allows the soft plastic to move more freely/unrestricted. I can see how an egg weight would snag a lot, but I've never had any more issue with a bullet weight than I have with a normal texas-rig or a jig...