Black Hawk Basser

The playoffs have been awesome; way better than expected.

I think the "leaders" you are talking about are wire leaders with a snap at the end. You won't want to use those when bass fishing. If you want to change lures without tying another knot, use duo lock snaps or Mustad Fastach. I use the duo lock snaps with crankbaits, and sometimes topwaters. One way to try different lures without retying would be to put on a extra wide gap 3/0 hook for a Texas rig, and just change plastics until you find something that works at that moment.

Up until Sunday afternoon, I had been having my worst early spring fishing that I can ever remember. I don't think any factors besides very inconsistent and cold weather are to blame. But, Sunday afternoon, I had a fantastic day, catching multiple quality fish on cranks, jerks, spinnerbaits, & jigs.

We see the same thing here in Iowa. When the spring temps are really up and down, it really stresses the bluegills. I have been seeing some dead bluegills here as well, but at a 900 acre lake, that never has 'winter kill' problems.

Perhaps that is clouds of plankton. When night fishing through the ice, sometimes the flasher screen gets so full of clutter that it is rendered unusable. That's what I've always been told.

Try putting some Storm Suspendots or Suspenstrips on the body, maybe that will weight it enough to keep the body stable.

To the OP, thanks for sharing your work, and shedding some light on topics that are not often discussed here. All we can do as individuals is try to do our part in keeping the Earth and its inhabitants in good shape. We can all do more for the environment, willingness is the hard part.

Yep, reel a few turns to get it down. Or, sometimes when the fish seem aggressive, I will make 5-10 jerks at the beginning of the retrieve to get it diving down to depth. I am not the most proficient jerkbait guy, I'm sure others will have some input better than mine.

Already having the ability to pour and paint jigs, I decided to go in with a friend to buy all we needed for bass jigs. We chose the Do-It Poisontail mold. It seems like a great all-around jig. They are already producing some nice results. The bass were on a major crankbait bite the other day, but I had to bust out one of the jigs to give it a test run.

My best tip would just be to fish your heart out. Whenever you can, even if just for 15 minutes, get some casts in. I caught my PB last year, and that day I only planned to make a few drops around a few docks with a jig/craw. It only took one dock next to a pontoon, and bam, had a monster. If I had just said "screw it" that day, I would have not had an awesome fish and a great story to tell.

I have tried this, sort of using it like a popper. I haven't had any luck this way. All of my strikes have come from a steady retrieve, with some little hitches or pauses added in occasionally. Sometimes just the steady retrieve works fine.

Looks like a guy could rig something like that up pretty easily, but $15 for a dozen is reasonable enough to buy them instead. Thanks for sharing.

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I've seen a little group of baby ducks get blown up on at dusk. I've also seen a duck that must have been injured, couldn't fly well, get repeatedly harassed by a fish. The duck just kept on swimming and trying to fly away, but couldn't get far. Soon enough after landing, something under the surface was messing with it. QUUUAAAACK QUAAACKK!!

I prefer the 30 size on my bass spinning setups. I like 25 size for walleye/crappie. I have a size 35 President Limited Edition on a MH spinning rod, and I'm not a fan of the size. But as mentioned, if it seems comfy to you, go for it.

Be careful with generalities like this. There are plenty of us "northerners" who respect other's space, and in my area I rarely see "shoulder to shoulder" fishing, even though good fishing spots are at a premium. Even when ice fishing, most guys I know would rather keep their distance. I don't know what you mean by lack of proper driving habits. I could mention regions of the country that are laughed about where I live, but I'll take the high road.

I've never been a add-on scent user, although I do believe that baits like Powerbait do help catch fish, at times. However, I am a big fan of the Berkley Havoc line, and they have no scent or salt, and have caught me a ton of fish.

Trolling spinnerbaits over the weed tops; don't laugh, it works!

Make sure you buy hooks that have a large enough eye to work on split rings.

Awesome. I just bought a Poison Tail jig mold. I did the math and it's just too cheap per jig to not make my own. Thanks for the ideas!

I'm hoping for prolonged colder weather than normal here, I have some vacation days in mid May and I really hope the big mamas arent on beds and tight lipped!

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule to this; I feel like during the weeks before, during, and after the spawn, there are shallow AND deep fish wherever I go. I don't exclusively fish deep water until its really evident that I am not catching any in the shallows. And even then, there still will be some fish shallow almost all year, especially at peak feeding times, and where there is thick weed cover or laydowns.

The first thing that comes to mind when you mention finesse topwater, I think of the Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm. That's one of the finest finesse topwater baits I've ever used. Soft plastic buzz toads are awesome, too. There are a lot of really small topwater hardbaits, but none I can think of that are like the WP. Rebel makes quite a few little poppers; they have a really accurate looking grasshopper popper.

I fish from shore most of the time, and I would recommend not getting too heavily invested in crankbaits. Having some squarebill and lipless cranks is a must, because they catch a lot of fish. But, I find that I largely put them away after about mid-May(Iowa), except for when I go to the local river. Anything (except topwater baits) that has treble hooks fouls up way too much in the near-shore vegetation, making you spend time after every retrieve picking stuff off of the hooks. When that begins, I primarily use soft swimbaits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and topwaters for my "power" fishing. Lipless crankbaits like Super Spots, Red Eye Shads, Rattle Traps, & Rippin Raps all catch fish for me in the prespawn, so I fish them hard until the weeds make it a lot less convenient. The Rapala Shad Rap is also a pre-spawn bass sleeper that rarely gets mentioned.

I have never really thought of it before, but two of my biggest fish were caught with a Lucky Craft Sammy. I can't recall catching any monsters with poppers, although they may produce more bites in my experience. I fish Storm Chug Bugs a lot during high percentage topwater time periods. They have an action that's a great mixture between walking and popping.