PhishLI

They've almost all been caught low and slow so far, obviously belly down in the flattened out decaying veg and algae. While it doesn't show up well in the pictures, their normally white bellies are yellowy-green. Below is a pic of the darkest early April fish I've ever caught from a grass lake that's unusually deep for around here. Old school Arbogast Hawaiian Wiggler in perch slow rolled on the bottom in 12 ft of water.

Good morning, BR.

Cool looking chunk!

On the auction site search this term and you'll see the link: "40kg 10g Portable Digital Hanging Luggage Fishing Weight Scale" Choose the one for $8.89 with free shipping and returns. Ditch the hook and replace it with the 6" Rapala fish gripper. Amazon.com: Rapala Floating Fish Gripper 6", Lightweight Floating Design for Easy Retrieval and Safely Landing and Releasing : Sports & Outdoors It's accurate and small. This is the same scale: "Luggage Scale" / Digital Scale - 1 Year Report - Fishing Tackle - Bass Fishing Forums

That's perfectly fine. Just try to understand that these northeastern, shallow, dammed ponds I fish are quite similar to what Katy fishes. Basically swamps. They might not be quite like where you fish. A particular lake's culture can be fickle. After this type of cold winter and these frequently cold windy nights, the bass are relating to the bottom still here. Every bass I've caught so far and every bass bite I've gotten except for one has come from fishing low and very slow. Dragging a fluke. Super slow rolling a soft swimbait. Ultra slow retrieving a hard swimbait right above the bottom. They're not chasing much. Not a lipless. Not Jertkbaits. Not chatterbaits. Not yet anyway. My brother goose-egged again today throwing those baits. I didn't. Ultimately, who knows exactly how Katy's fish will behave after a winter like this and what they'll want within a few days of her OP. I suppose we'll find out. In the meantime, I doubt she'll burst into flames throwing what she suggested earlier which included a wacky rigged senko or what I consider to be a better alternative to that for the moment anyway in the Neko rigged senko. Peace.

Windy as you know what and cloudy today. Snuck in a quick pre-easter-feast Jon boat session. Ended up losing the 6" Swag LT to a huge pickeral, but got a good bass on it first. The 5" Bullshad did the rest of the work. Time for mama's lasagna with the fam.

It's not about the fall or getting hit on the fall. It's about getting to the bottom and staying there, right in the strike zone where they're going to be at this point in the season. Tail up. Slow and low. I've tried it. It works well after ice out.

Will do. Maybe next weekend. We're scrapping today's trip altogether. 19mph wind with 30mph gusts. Torture in a jon boat.

Most slings that easily rotate to your back aren't in the way, while fishing, including the TW sling. Watch the Vid on it: Tackle Warehouse Sling Pack Product Overview with Kyle and Tom - Tackle Warehouse Product Video Some, like the one I posted above can remain by your side while casting if you cast right-handed because in that position it's under the left arm. Don't even know it's there. The TW pack can be configured the same way. The question for me with any sling is how heavy it might get fully loaded. My Spiderwire sling gave me a headache, literally. Pressure on one side of my neck from the strap did it. Ultimately, that was my fault. It holds a lot of stuff and I couldn't resist filling that void.

Personally, the ARK is an easy choice. Easily outperforms the Curado/SLX BFS and is the equal of the Alde BFS in casting performance. Yes, I said it. As far as rods go, you have a number of choices up to $200 on TW that'll keep you in budget and meet your criteria. I'll have my new BPS Carbonlite Super Finesse 6'9" out today. Just got it on sale for $109. Feels very crankbait friendly. If the wind cooperates, I'll be throwing BFS cranks down to the Bill Lewis Gnat.

As an alternative to the WR, or maybe as an addition, try the Neko rig for a slower very castable-for-distance bottom presentation for the belly-down-fish who're yet unwilling to chase much. There should be a bunch of those up there this close to ice-out. I like this hook: VMC Weedless Neko Hook 5pk - Tackle Warehouse

Perhaps it's time to consider a good set of outriggers for one of your parked-at-the-lake vessels? @Motoboss has an awesome setup on his canoe. No way you'd dump with those installed, which means you could go whenever you want without worry which also means the collective "we" wouldn't have to worry about you either.

100 or 150 doesn't really matter. Most choices come with a 34mm diameter spool, and since you'll never really cast any of the baits you mentioned past 150' on a good day, IPT isn't an issue.

I could've gone fishing in a speedo on Wednesday, but it's spring in the north, so spring does what spring does. It's crazy. Brrrr. I'll take rain, evil NE winds, and cloud cover over fishing under a nearly full moon which is typically a bust. Two shake-offs and a blown hookset, but then I got a solid one the 6"ZedMan Swag LT. Hit at the end of a bomb cast and fought like nuts. Even went airborne a few times. Cool. My hands were frozen, so I called it a win and slid on outta there.

Take a look at this one. Easily rotates from behind to forward to access the boxes, etc, then back. No problem casting with it rotated forward on your side though. The model in the link replaced to the one shown in the pics and in an improvement AFAIK. H2OX 3500 Ethos Soft Camo Sling Pack | Free Shipping at Academy

Yes. I beat my Fuego CTs for years frogging. Still going strong. Yes, a plastic side plate like the Fuego, but with hyperdrive gear cut. It should be more than fine.

For me it was the fluke. Unless I hit a fish on the nose with it during splashdown and got a reaction strike, then I had zero luck fishing it back to me when I treated it like a hard jerkbait. Jerk-pause, jerk-jerk-pause, nothing. Ever. During that time, I just used it for throwing at targets, which is something I could've used many other things for. Eventually it dawned on me to start fishing it way, way slower. Like let it soak a tad on splashdown, then a slow drag, then pause, then a slow shake like a shaky head, etc. All slow. No popping either. Basically, letting it follow the contours of the endless weedbeds here while looking alive and an easy meal for grabbing the attention of bass waiting in ambush but otherwise unlikely to chase much which is the norm here during the day. Instantly I began catching fish at any point starting at splashdown then anywhere in between that point and me. These days I have a hard time putting it down, especially on those daytime missions. I now have total confidence in it.

Bravo, Man. Good sense of humor!

Since you're not averse to changing your username, as you've done before, please change it again but this time to WetBlanket. Gee whiz, man.

You forgot to begin with "I hate to be a party pooper"...

Goodies. @Eric 26 Have you had a chance to fish with your Carbonlite yet? It's been way too windy here when I wanted to go. Seems to sling light baits nicely with the ARK BFS in the back yard.

Freezing overnight temps and crazy winds this past weekend really chilled down the water temp. The moon was up, so things were tough until some nice clouds rolled in. The bites I got were super subtle and only on the bottom, so I missed some. I un-skin hooked the Keitech Noisy flapper I was missing on and slow rolled it over the black death for one hookup. Tied on a 2.5" Mayor on a VMC jighead for the second one. Both scrapped much harder than they bit. Didn't expect much after this past weekend's cold front, so I'll take it. About this time last year I didn't know how much time I had left, and I still don't. Then, the outlook was truly grim though. I was also just five days past back surgery a year ago today and it took some time before I knew it had worked. Luckily it did, spectacularly. Thank you, Dr. Caplin. Even so, due to the bigger issue, I missed most of the season last year, so I'm beyond grateful to get to fish the prespawn this year, even in the cold and especially at night. It's tougher, slower fishing, and I love it. Nothing like it. It's truly its own thing.

If you'll be doing heavy duty fishing, then consider choosing a brand that has parts support. Meaning, you can call them and get any part for a reel in a reasonable amount of time.

I don't post pics anywhere but here as I don't have any of the common social media accounts and never have. My brother has a FB account and made the mistake of posting one of my better fish catches there a few years ago. Didn't mention a weight, just basically said something like "My brother got a good one last night". Well, some nut and a conga line of his stupid friends started in right away saying that "there was no way that bass was caught on L.I"., and that it was from down south somewhere which caused my brother to defend the truth. The goon's reasoning was that he'd been fishing here for 30 years and had rarely ever caught more than a 5lber and neither had any of his cabal. No matter the people on the group that knew us personally and who came in to rebuke the crazy guy, he wouldn't relent. In our defense, one of the heaviest hitters on this island who knows of us ended up attacking the goon and got himself banned from FB for a spell. My brother finally deleted the post. Talk about a waste of energy. Good times. P.S. While I failed to mention it when I wrote this, I'd like to take the time to thank @Glenn and the other mods for keeping this forum free from jack-wagons, D-nozzles, and fargin iceholes. Thanks!

Fishing on the first day of trout stocking usually doesn't go well, and it didn't. Chucked all sorts of trout baits without a sniff. Just as the rain started really coming down I tied on a white Shellcracker G2 and got a hard bite on my 2nd cast. Fought like a nice pickeral, so that was cool. Called it a win and booked.