Lottabass

Yesterday caught good ones on a DT 4 with Owner j hooks. Well hooked. Had 3 bites with no hookup. Crappie was hooked outside the mouth. Fished thru area with a similar bait with circle hooks and got 2 bites with no hookups.

You are blessed! BEAUTIFUL!

@TOXIC Great photos of a great bird! Look around on the ground and see if you can find any pellets It's a cool trophy if you can find any, BTW they don't stink.

@Swamp Girl Beautiful Bass Katie!!! Get an X Large box of band aids for your thumb...your're gonna need it!!!!

@Darth-Baiter You did good!!! Patience x 3. Some good advice @Swamp Girl gave me: Don't try and teach everything, just a little at a time. Keep up the good work!

No hook info from yesterday. Everything I caught came on a swim jig. All of 'em.

Yesterday surface temp was low 60's. Cloudy and windy. Air temp was warm but dropped sll dsy. Visability wa 12 inches. Fished a Maverik jerkbait and a Speed N with Owner J hooks (not circles). Caught 7 crappies and 5 small bass all hooked well. Had 2 bites that I missed. Caught 4 good ones stroking a bladed jig in 6 fow.

Fished on Wednesday. Surface temp warming into the 60's. Cloudy and breezy. Good spinnerbait bite. Caught 2 on a Maverik jerkbait with Owner J hooks as pointed out by @Dwight Hottle. Used 17# mono as I felt the bass were higher in the water column. 1 on a Frittside with J hooks. Many on a spinnerbait, so that's what I threw the most. The J hooks (not circles) worked but didn't give them much of a test as the spinnerbait was getting wacked.

As far as locating bass in high water I agree that can be challenging. I don't think all the fish follow the water up. The "normal" shoreline, which is now under water, can be productive. When I read your post I thought of all the fresh nutrients available to the bass and also their forage which seems to supercharge a lake. Making a conclusion from observation and experience only, I have no hard data.

I retired in 2016 and started fishing 3 lakes in my area. In 2019 I had amazing fishing on these lakes (lots of bass and 52 over 5# that year) Then the fishing went down to "normal". Looking at Google Earth Pro and using the historical feature it showed that 2016 was a high water year on these lakes. 2024 was another high water year. I think the high water produces excellent spawns so I'm excited for the future!

I read that if Ron Lindner was catching fish on a certain lure, on a certain pattern, or certain location he would change. "How are ya gonna learn" was his reasoning.

@Harold H I'm confused. Please report your experience with Circle hooks. 1. The Gamakatsu Circle Hook for Crankbaits already has the eye in line with the shank. 2. If he is talking about the Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Offset Point Hook then, yes, it would have to be twisted, like he said to be inline with the shank. The hook in the video looks like the Crankbait Circle Hook. 3. He says the catch rate is "tremendous" and "phenomenal". 4. I'm not naive. I know he is a salesman for Gamakatsu. He is also Bill Dance and I give everything he says due respect and consideration. But I question his description of the catch rate. At the onset of this project I had pretty good success hooking fish, and I was happy that this project was looking promising. In the last few days I have had trouble hooking fish to the point that I am considering this project a failure. That being said I still have some Owner Replacement Hooks to try (they are not circles) and I will continue using the circles to see what happens. I can't explain why the hookup rate went from acceptable to unacceptable. The only thing that has changed is the water temp has warmed up. I'm using the same tackle and the same way of setting the hook which is pulling into the fish, not jacking them like you would with a jig or a frog. So, I'm still learning.

@Swamp Girl I close my eyes and can hear that plopper in the dark.....you stroke your paddle and the plopper goes "brttttt', you raise your paddle for another stroke and the plopper goes...." "! And then, KA-BLOOEY!!!!!!

@CasketSix Welcome! Pros and Youtubers are mostly trying to sell you something (not all). With BR you get hardcore, honest advice and opinions. I love it and have learned so much since joining.

@Crow Horse Mainstream or not, if it ain't working I'll do something else.

@GoneFishingLTN The deeper ones can be good when the water is below 50 degrees. As the water warms in the spring they are still good but you have to move to the shallower ones. Keep in mind there are swings that you have to find with a depthfinder, not all butt up to the bank. Also the ends of the swings are not to be overlooked, and the same with the drop or flat that is opposite the steep bank. Depending on the seasonal pattern it may be that the swings are not gonna be the best area to fish. Many times if you are fishing the steep bank of the swing there may be more fish behind you. If you have fished several swings and not caught much you gotta do something different. Bass are fairly easy to catch but sometimes difficult to locate.

Yesterday a small SB with circles caught 2 on rear hook in corner of mouth. Then 2 bites without hooking up. Then a good one grabbed a jerkbait (with circles) right near the boat. I witnessed the bass engulf the lure and when she turned the bait popped clean out of her mouth. Switched to a SB with trebles and had no problems spankin' 'em the rest of the day.

@Dwight Hottle YES! I have some ordered! Thank you!

@Bazoo I've got some Gamakatsu Octopus Offset Circle hooks to try. The offset is negligible so I may have to work on that with pliers. The hook eye is very small so it will be a challenge for me. I will have to use another split ring to get the hook to ride up. The hook size is comparable to the crankbait circle hooks. I fish squarebills in wood often so I was hoping that circle hooks on those would slide through brush better. I will continue to play around with this circle hook project and report my results and would like to hear any others results as well. I have never had a hook in the face, only in my hands, except one time I had a squarebill pop out of a fish and catapult over my head and stick in the middle of my back. Couldn't reach it so fished all day with that plug hanging there! Not fun! @RRocket @JHoss @scaleface @GRiver

@JHoss I think it does, i also think that I wouldn't have had a 100% failure rate if I had been using trebles instead of circles on those baits yesterday. I don't want to keep using these hooks if I have days where they fail to work a majority of the time. I haven't decided yet what failure rate I will accept. The last 2 days I fished were bluebird days, north wind, and the water temp had dropped since the last time I was out (from 59 down to 52), but I still caught fish. Always a challenge...even though this challenge is self made!

Yesterday I found a wad of bass on a shallow channel bend. Fished a jerkbait and a small sqarebill both with circle hooks. Several fish hit those baits but I hooked NONE of them. I fished a trap with circles over a grass bed. Same results. Several bites but NO hookups. A hybrid hunter with trebles and a swimjig in these spots produced lots of fish. I expected to have some misses with circles but 100% misses is not acceptable. I will keep trying. @GRiver @JHoss @scaleface @RRocket

As always, listen to the fish and your confidence level Many times I'll take a 3/16 skirted jig with a weed guard and take the skirt off and put a small stick worm on, call it a Ned Jig.

Not all pigs in Iowa have curly tails! 🤣

I think when you are fishing a crankbait and the lure changes direction as it gets close to the boat or bank that direction change triggers the bite. So, yes bass follow our baits more often than we know.

@GRiver @JHoss @scaleface @RRocket On my last trip I was catching them on the Ichikawa Flat Shad 45 on channel banks with a drop into about 5 fow. I would make a pass with the white one and catch a few, then go back down the same bank with red and have some slaps but no hookups, then go down again with the yellow, get slapped but no hookups, then go again with the white and catch a few more. The fish were so "on" that little, white bait that is what resulted in the tongue or throat hookups even with the circle hooks.