Lottabass

@Swamp Girl Good topic! My folks retired and moved from Iowa to Mt. Home, Arkansas so I got to fish Lake Norfork on a visit. Deep, clear water and I couldn't catch em till I started fishing at night. I'm much more able to catch fish in a lake that is one step from becoming a corn field!

@Pumpkin Lizard I used the crush city pig stick yesterday and it's a great worm. Thank you for your tip. On the 4mm crossover ring like you suggested. Worked well!

Better to be fishing than setting at home watching General Hospital.

Peek-a-boo! I think I'm addicted to frog fishin! After the first hand grenade bite I won't put it down...even when I know there are other ways to catch 'em.

Only way I could get bit today was by bouncing a squarebill off wood.

Not an expert with electronics but here is a thought. I think the fish are aware of your presence even without any extra noise such as sonar pings, TM noise, etc. It would be fun to know at what distance the fish move from "aware" to "alert" to "get the heck outa here". It seems that FFS has proven that long casts catch more fish. I don't have FFS but have made it part of the way I fish to keep as much distance as possible from where I think the fish are. Never used to do that.

@GreenTrout Good stuff!

@HawkeyeSmallie Thanks for this topic. I have been itching to tell this story but without photographic proof it's just a story but here goes. This spring I was fishing a squarebill and hooked a good one. As I fought it I was thinking, "this is a REAL good one!" Got the bass in the net and it was the biggest bass I had ever seen. I have a lip clip (like you would attach to a fish in a livewell) on a rope tied to my boat. If I'm gonna take a pic I put the fish on the clip and get the phone set up for a photo and my scale out. I'm holding the bass and I'm thinking this is an "8", maybe bigger!!!! Could be a "9"......!!!! Big, beautiful bass with a huge mouth and huge belly! I clipped her on the lip and eased her down into the water. Now this is ironic, I thought "I think this clip will hold her?". She made one lunge and was gone! No photo, no weight. When I lifted her out of the net I was shaking. Maybe I didn't get the clip closed all the way, maybe she was just too big to hold....I don't know. I don't have to prove anything to anybody but I would sure have loved to share a photo with all my Bass Resource friends.

Data has proven that fish can smell. I use scent because I am confident of a bite with it and not as confident of a bite without it, which is most important to me.

Early yesterday, cloudy, calm, surface temp was 86. Started with a 6 inch Dinger on a wacky. First 5 casts hooked 5 bass and lost 5 bass. Cut 1/2 inch off each end of the worm and hooked and landed the next 6 that bit. All 14-16 inch fish. Alternated between 6 in and 5 in the rest of the morning and results were the same. The short worm worked, the long one didn't. How could that small difference be so important? But it was! Tomorrow? Who knows? Bass are funny!

@Swamp Girl. Congratulations on a great year! We all look forward to your great reports and photos! Keep us posted on your progress. Got out before it got "heart attack" hot. Froggin was guuud!

I think you could fish forever with those 2 rigs. Send photos of your fish and lakes, we would love to see them!

I do use thick (25#) hi vis mono for fishing square bills. I need the thickness to control depth. This is a pure reaction strike so line color is not important. I just deal with the frustration of my poor eyesight.

I use straight hi vis yellow Sufix 832 braid. It's the only line I can see anymore. I catch plenty of fish. The lakes I fish are always dirty. I use a black sharpie to color 3 ft of the line. I don't think it makes a difference but it's a confidence thing. It's hard to enjoy fishing if you have to try and tie a knot with an invisible line, or see the line twitch on a strike. Floro and mono (no matter what color) are invisible to my eyes.

Used a green box and then a Humminbird Super Sixty Flasher but when the Paper graph came out it really connected what I was seeing to understanding how the bottom of the lake was. I fish mostly impoundments so there is a creek channel, brush piles, humps, points, etc. The paper graph allowed me to see the contours and how the fish related to them clearly. Not a big electronics user but have a graph now and it is very useful but would be confident fishing without it.

It's so hot I saw a bunch of winos passing around a popsicle!

Like Chief Brody said, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Please Lord, don't let me buy any more plastics!

I use an 8ft pond prowler to fish small (80-150 acre) watershed lakes. Always used a manual motor but bought a MG Xi3 for kayaks when they came out. Love the spot lock in the wind but found electric steer poor for fishing close quarters in thick cover. I always wanted both so I did. Have a Min Kota hand steer and the MG on the bow and just switch back and forth as the situation calls for. Switch the plugs, slide the MK up or down and deploy or stow the MG. I thought long and hard before I did this as I like to keep things simple but spot lock is too valuable to go without. Switching while on the water was simpler than I thought it would be. I have a Power Pole Micro Anchor on the transom. I think boat positioning is critical. The lakes I fish have no boat ramps and are accessed via dirt roads or driving across pastures. I see where MK now makes a GPS motor with a 36 in shaft.

Added jig rattles besides other tricks but haven't tried bells yet. Tried to compare success with plain frog vs weighted frog and catch plenty on both so haven't seen any difference. Fun to play with though!

This frog will create more of a presence on top of a mat because the legs kinda grab on every wobble. Moves kinda like a jitterbug. Not any heavier. Single hook but I've never had any trouble hooking fish. You can trim the arms down if you want less "grab". I chuckle as I watch it wobble...until a lunker tries to take it away from me!

I like to think I'm tougher than I look but I'm not anymore! This heat is a killer. I went to the store and stocked up on food, water, and ammo. Got the A/C set to "ice age"! I'd rather be fishin', but....

Spot Lock day!!!!!!

@Swamp Girl I don't know. I've never fished a lake with that limited depth. Years ago I used a temperature probe to find the thermocline, now I have a graph that shows it as a fuzzy band across the screen, and most fish life is at or above this band. @Swamp Girl Here is 2 solutions to a thermocline. One lake has lots of standing timber and I catch summertime bass by bouncing a squarebill over limbs out over deep water. One lake has no timber and I troll a small squarebill over the old creek channel. There are still bass on the bank but I think a lot of them move out and suspend.

@Swamp Girl Katie, do your lakes thermocline? The lakes I fish develop this at 5 feet so I don't fish below that depth. It can change depth and location in the lake as well.