Lottabass

How low are they? Lakes I fish are 4 feet low.

Your ponds and bogs sound like fish habitat, not boat habitat, and that's a good thing!

WHAT? You are not a bass angler if you ain't got a metalflake snob rocket! Bright orange like a tangerine with a trolling motor! With an outboard bigger than an Amana refrigerator! One of those super robot controlled trolling motors hangin' off the front! No, Swampy. You need #5. Then you'll be a "real" bass'n gal! 🤣🤣🤣

Yes, I accumulated a stack of them in my early years. Work well on a BFS setup. I put a larger hook on the rear and remove the front hook. Works better than the 2 tiny hooks they come with. I like to use big baits and I like to use little baits, there is a time and place for both.

Beautiful! I love that art. Thank you for sharing. Right up my alley!

@pdxfisher Congratulations on a wonderful day on the water!

Katie, I would LOVE to see those photos!

You are welcome, Katie. If an exceptional writer like you enjoys it then I hope everyone does! You started a great post for this time of year when we all get the ITCH!

This thread seems like an appropriate time to share something with everyone. In 1979 a fellow Iowan, Rick Taylor, wrote a book titled "Guide To Successful Bass Fishing". At the end of the book he penned the following. (Which is especially pertinent to those of us who experience the hard water season.) Winter's End You haven't seen water in months. Memories have been your only sustenance, but lately they've become fuzzy and stale. Both you and your August trophy have put on weight since then, and cabin fever has you washing the landing net. Your fishing buddy called the other day with nothing to say. Then something strange comes slowly rolling up from the south. There's an odor on the winds once again, it's someone's barnyard thawing out, but it smells sweet just the same. The earth is humming. A billion feisty bass begin swimming up your veins. Winter wasn't so long after all. Out comes your gear. Fifteen spiders run for their lives. How good it is to see all those cherished, bass nabbing lures again, 80% of which have never been wet. Your favorite rods and reels, abused all year then thrown behind the den door, are now cleaned with so much loving care that muffled laughter is coming from the kitchen. Undaunted, you retrieve your fishing cap from the kids toy box, your patch jacket from the closet, and boots from the back porch. The door doesn't quite close. The car starts. Tires squeal. Your wife shakes her head. Another revolution completed. The cycle goes on.

Wow! I thought I threw large baits but nothing like @Swimbaitstud uses! I believe in larger than normal baits. I use SK 4.0 and 8.0 crankbaits, MB Kanata jerkbait, Mop jig with a #1 pork frog, spinnerbait with #7 blade, etc. They all catch fish but I have not noticed any real difference in size compared to "normal" baits, but I'll keep trying! Those are great photos of big fish and big baits!

That is a disgusting photo! That's all I've got to say about that.

When my grandkids were small we used to fish a private pond that was close to home. I took them there because they could catch dozens of 10 inch, paper thin bass, and had fun catching them. The owner would not allow any fish to be kept, in fact he would catch bass in other ponds and release them there. I explained to him that there were too many predators and not enough prey and he was just making it worse. But what do I know.

I get a lot of bites on this bait but too many jump off. Many of the ones I land are just barely hooked. I bend the hook out a little ways but does not help. I think a larger hook along with a larger fin would help but I have no control over how the bait is built. I use a stiff rod and jack 'em hard but still have the problem. What are your experiences with this bait? Has anyone fixed a stinger hook to this lure? Thank you for any input!

When I set the hook I'm trying to break the rod!

"I understand that it wouldn't be Heaven for most people, that they'd be lonely or afraid." YOU have a lot of backbone. I admire you for that.

A young lady I took fishing painted this for me. I treasure the painting and the time we shared on the water.

@Swamp Girl Katie, you have had some great adventures! I'm glad you forged ahead with your dream trips. I've said before; If you got a dream, do it. Don't wait until it's too late in your life.

I had a lot to learn about fishing back then (I still do!) but I was catching much more on bright baits rather than the natural colored ones so I attributed that to the fact that the lakes I fished were dirty water lakes. I put the natural colored ones away and eventually they disappeared. BUT last year I caught way more bass on subtle colored cranks than I did on bright ones even in the dirty water.

I just read a story on Bass Fishing Archives about Rip Nunnery. I knew of his record catch many years ago but was not aware that he sold lures. I made a lure I called a jig 'n blade and have caught good fish with it. Turns out to be a copy of Rip Nunnerys "Twig Pig".

Bear with me as I have a story to tell. I was born and raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa where Lazy Ike had a plant. I don't remember the year but it must have been in the late 1970's I went to a small lake north of town to fish. As I was getting ready to put my boat in a man carrying a big tackle box and a long spinning rod approached and we started talking fishing. It was Tom Seward. I had no clue who he was but I invited him to go in my boat. It was early in the spring and I was fishing a grub and he was throwing his newly designed bait, the Natural Ike. We each caught several bass and he told me he worked with Lazy Ike and designed this crankbait. I was clueless as to the influence this man had on bass fishing until many years later. Of course, I bought some of those Natural Ike's but never caught much with them. I was ignorant of crankbait fishing back then and was not sharp enough to learn from Tom Seward when I had him in my boat! I think they would catch bass now that I've learned how to fish a crankbait....if I only still had them!

No "wind chill" in Florida either!!!!

Bill Lewis Floating Rattletrap. I bought 2 of them a long time ago but never used them. Was catching bass on a spinnerbait on a flat on an early spring day with warming water and a strong south wind. The bite died so I put on one of these floating traps. Caught two 6 pounders and another big one jumped off. A FLOATING Rattletrap? You gotta be nuts!

Thinking outside the box is good! Last year I bought a Snagproof Zoo Wake and fished it under the weeds with a slip sinker. Worked very well on those times when the bass don't want to break the surface to eat a bait.

Love these great stories! I fished as a kid all the little creeks in town with my rod strapped across the handlebars of my bike. My Dad and Mom owned a gas station and would work 7 days a week but every summer my Dad would take me to a lake for a weekend. We would pay the farmer to camp in his pasture a dollar. The lake was a shallow, dirty water lake that was one step from becoming a cornfield and was full of big, yellow bellied bullheads. I would catch them by the buckets as my Dad would set and drink coffee (he didn't fish). The farmer would clean them for a penny apiece. Early one Sunday morning I was awakened by a cow sticking his nose in the door of our pup tent. Scared the heck out of me! This was back in the 1950's when I was a young boy. It was a "wilderness" trip for me.

Now that is the way to use social media!