Aaron_H

Sorry to hear about losing a big one, that never gets any less heartbreaking IMO. For what it's worth, my jerkbait combo is a M/XF and I do okay with them.

The new packaging looks clean. I'll be stopping by my local one here shortly to check it out. You notice any of the jerkbaits there?

Thank you! This is my 4th submission this year to FWC's TrophyCatch program. I feel like I'm just a dingus chucking lures into the void, but sometimes the fish cooperate.

Musky anglers: The fish of 10,000 casts! Hardest fish to find in the world! @T-Billy: Hold my hat

Thank you! I wasn't too sure about the conditions, but I couldn't pass up the chance to fish with my buddy. Virtually bluebird skies, hot (low 80s) and not a lot of wind, but it was the right conditions for that big girl so I'm not complaining.

If you do go with the SLX line, make sure it's the MGL over the XT for those lighter lures. You won't cast those ultra lightweight ones, that's BFS territory, but the 1/8-3/8 range will shine with it. The XT struggles a bit with lighter lures compared to the standard SLX, and the MGL is leagues ahead of both of them IMO.

H2O Xpress jerkbait strikes again! Buddy invited me to fish the pond behind his house for a bit today, we haven't fished it since late spring. Never caught anything big out of it but it's been there ~20 years and is (for most of the year) full of hydrilla with tons of forage. Kept telling him it was primo big bass habitat and I knew there were some big girls lurking in there. Well we got ~1.5 hour window to fish it a bit and about a half hour in I finally hooked into a really nice one on the jerkbait. She stayed down the whole time, never jumped, I thought I might have foul hooked the giant grass carp I've seen cruising around in here but about filled my britches when I finally saw her. She took me a ways down the bank before she tired enough to get her in. A handful of very strong runs, it was an excellent fight despite the lack of jumps. She came in at 8lb 10oz, had to weigh her a couple of times since the scale tipped just over 9lb when I first put her on there, but it settled at 8-10 both times. This fish brings my 2022 best five up to 45lb 6oz. Doubt I'll catch another upgrade before the end of the year but I couldn't be happier with it.

Shadow Rap Shad is a great one to throw, as well. It's a slow riser that does a good job of mimicking a dying shad. No weight transfer but it casts well. I would also suggest the H2O Xpress Ultimate Jerk Shad (if you can get a hold of it, I haven't seen the new H2OX stuff available yet since Academy clearanced their last wave of baits), for 6 bucks it's a very effective 110-sized jerkbait. Replace your hooks and split rings on both.

I think Jan-Mar is going to be Jerkbait City again so I can try and build a pattern versus 2022 prespawn, but I promise I will make spinnerbait a focus for 2023 (if only to rub it in a certain Tennessee moderator's face haha). I have a compact double willow that I like a lot, I'll look into picking up a single Colorado since all of mine are either double willow or Colorado/willow.

Lipless is my all-time confidence lure, caught multiple PBs on them. Excellent way to trigger big strikes year-round in my experience. As for the OP, I tend to throw the RES more these days as I tend to yo-yo or pop/pause more often than not and the RES has a better action on the fall than the Bill Lewis. But the Bill Lewis put trap fishing on the map and it's a hard one to beat, especially for chucking and winding up shallow. The ones I throw the most: RES standard and 2-tap Booyah One Knocker Thunderhawk Sergeant rattling and silent Rattlin' Rapala Rat-L-Trap Berkley Warpig My biggest two bass on a lipless were 9lb 1oz on the Booyah, and 8lb 9oz on a standard RES, both PBs at the time.

For me, it's less about the weight and more about the sound profile. In the colder months, I find a "softer" sound like the Rattlin' Rapala or Booyah One Knocker shine more than a loud rattling bait like the Rat-L-Trap or RES. I'll even go down to a silent model like the Thunderhawk Sergeant silent version, had some great winter days on that.

Just another day catching those giant Florida jerkbait bass: Did catch my 100th tilapia of 2022, though. Threw the chatterbait around some, too, only managed to get a few Zako tails bitten off by tilapia. I hate them

Wise choice. I live here in the lightning capital of the world, I don't mess around with that stuff, especially when I'm holding a 7 foot long lightning rod. Weather app I use on my phone (Weatherbug) has a great lightning radar map paired with it that I keep an eye on if the weather starts to look dicey, if lightning gets within ~10 miles of me I'm out of there.

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I'm not big on super long intros, give me the relevant information then move to the content. Lots of guys and gals do this wonderfully, but I'm not watching for some YouTube culture thing, I just want fishing content. I don't want to SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON AND HIT THAT NOTIFICATION BELL, if your content is good I'll sub. I know how YouTube works, I don't need to be screamed at about it every video. I can't stand the overly done screaming/jumping around. Excitement is wonderful, but I see a lot of guys bank fishing in neighborhoods right behind people's homes. Please be respectful of the people around you. I've definitely let out my share of quick "WOO!"s when catching a big fish, but some of what I see is just....very forced, and a surefire way to make homeowners put an end to fishing that spot IMO. Also see a lot of disrespect for the fish, cranked jaws, drug through dirt, herculean throws back into the water, etc. Sometimes less-than-ideal things happen to the fish, but at least make an effort to not drag them through the dirt. I've considered picking up a go pro with a chest mount, if only so I have footage that I can go back to personally. I think having another perspective like that could be helpful, but I'm not sure if I'd get into making videos out of it to share. You never know. Agreed, A-Jay's style avoids a lot of the things I find annoying about some other uploaders. Quick, informative intro, focused on fishing, not screaming like a yahoo or setting a bad example for younger audiences, and lets us know the pattern he's on, what is or isn't working, etc. Another big thing for me is the respect he shows each fish. Bluebasser, Glenn, lots of other people here uploading content that meshes well with my viewing style. I'm very grateful for the content y'all put out.

Trying to ignore the bait monkey like

TW Black Friday order showed up. Kept it simple this year, just a handful of purchases I was putting off for the discount. 5x Booyah One Knocker in flashy momma to replace the pile of them I broke off this year 2x Thunderhawk Sergeant rattling in bait color to replace ones I broke off this year (noticing a pattern? Also seriously if you enjoy throwing a lipless give these a shot.) A pack of SuspenDots and SuspenStrips to try out 2x Rapala Shadow Rap Shad in carbon and molten copper. No Halloween color in stock sadly. A CrossEyez chatterbait. Not a fan of the wire bait keeper on it, I cut it off my other one. But I like that O'Shaughnessy hook a lot over the standard round bend. A pack of Mustad fastach clips to replace the clip on the CrossEyez, no issues with it on my other one but it gives me the heeby jeebies looking at it. 1/16oz nail weights to try out with some Berkley gillys I picked up a little while back. Owner Hyper Wire and oval split rings 2x Mustad KVD 2x short trebles in size 2, 4, and 6 to try out. 2x Owner single replacement hooks in sizes 1 and 2. Have these in 1/0, but too big for some of the stuff I want to experiment with them on. 3x Fuji EZkeepers, look like a nice way to keep from getting hook rash on some of my rods, figured I'd try a few out with the sale price. And of course, who can pass up the promo hat/shirt/sticker. Shimano Caius is a gift for my little brother since his SilverMax is getting up there in years and saltwater use. Next up will be replacing this stupid phone, broken camera lens is driving me nuts with this photo quality ?

Weather was so nice today. You did better than me, brother! I managed 10 bass, a bluegill, and a 6lb tilapia but none of my bass were worth a picture. Nice job.

I was right about the bigger tilapia coming out to play soon. Not close to the size I'm after, but my biggest of 2022 so far. Came it at 6lb 1oz, got it on a 1/2 oz RES 2-tap in chrome sexy shad.

I've thrown a 130 sized Whopper Plopper on spinning. 7' H/F rod rated 5/8-2oz, Shimano Sahara 4000 spooled with 40lb braid. Handles them great in my experience. Not all spinning gear is finesse just because it happens to lean that way in the bass world.

Dang I haven't read this thread in a minute, y'all are killing it with the finds. Anyone know what the top lipless is in this picture? Looks interesting. Red-Eyed Shad is always a good find.

Got out yesterday, bass bite was okay numbers but no real size. Biggest one ~2.5lbs, but I did manage one nice 12" crappie on the jerkbait. I haven't caught as many of them this year as previous years, so it was a nice surprise even if it wasn't a spectacular fight. And culled a few more tilapia. I should break 100 for the year pretty easily at this point, really hoping to get into some big 7+ lbers in the next few weeks or so. I'm still hoping I can break the IGFA world record, my PB is pretty close and there is one pond in particular that I know holds a lot of huge tilapia.

Dude, that's a donkey! Congrats man, good to see you back at it. Central FL would be a no-go, they closed all the Whataburgers around here over ten years ago. We got Five Guys in the trade so it wasn't all bad. I do miss those triple Whataburgers w/cheese, though.

Hmmm, I may have missed that email, but good to know for future reference.

Believe it or not, also lipless. Try something like gold or chrome sexy shad. Also great conditions for a jerkbait or chatterbait. Gimme cloudy windy days any time and I'm a happy camper.