txchaser

Green Pumpkin/Red is different enough, and productive enough, that it is worth having...at least in TX.

I usually want to go slow and pick apart really good spots, so I feel you on this one. 1) Ask him to teach you to fish at the pace he fishes at. You might learn something. 2) Ask him if you can pick one spot to pick apart on the next outing. Just be right about the spot so you can put enough weight in the boat that next time out he asks whether you have any more of those rest stops.

My #1 criteria is no-fade. I can't stand the idea of fishing with white braid, nor do I want to replace it all the time, and I'd rather be fishing than coloring with a sharpie. So I tried FINS based on some recommendations here. Windtamer, then bought some Sling Braid which was smooth and laid really well. But the green color in the sling braid just didn't look right in the water to me. Way too light green. Next up on the no-fade list was Vicious No-Fade, and it is outstanding. It doesn't fade, lays great, relatively quiet in the guides, is the right shade of green. It is pretty expensive, but the story I tell myself is it'll last nearly forever; a year later and I still haven't re-spooled or had a major trim-back on any of the reels I have it on. I'd try something else but unless I'm ready to cough up for japanese braid I don't think there's an upgrade. I suggest the 40lb as the diameter is smaller than most braids at that test.

I did it a couple of winters ago, because I was out of ideas at the time. It works, sort of. And like I've heard some complain about the float-n-fly, it caught fish but they were mostly tiny. If I'm at that point I should probably go home. Fortunately because of the kind people around here I have more tools in the toolbox now.

Last weekend the water was 60 degrees in north Texas, with a heavy cold front coming in a couple of days. Cloudy, windy, I was thinking it was going to be lights-out first big move up out of the deep, and last year in nearly identical conditions I got a couple of big fish (13.0, 8.5). I was dead wrong. I caught fish, but nothing of size. Which was wild, because the weekend before in 50 degree water I was killing it on the drop-offs from feeding areas to deeper water. One of my better bags in a while actually. Big fish was in 3fow, rest of them around 8'. I didn't realize it until the drive home, those bigger fish nope'd out and went back deep and face-down - it was the second cold-warm transition, which was different than last year. The smaller ones were up more shallow (mostly 6' deep in 6-10fow).

Jerkbait is close for me. I'll reach for it, make a few casts, catch a dink, and put it back up. It's like the dink curse... happened again today. Wouldn't bite any kind of crank, paddletail, and were too far off the bottom for a jig or t-rig. Cast it out, caught a dink. Stuck it out and caught ... a second one.

How big would the fish be that you wouldn't be comfortable using that?

https://fishbrain.com/explore?lat=28.126979781252714&lng=-80.6848799128145&water_id=apdWSihG&z=12.32759330091848 Link to your location in fishbrain. Has both satellite imagery and catches shared.

I catch more fish on the 13 fishing jabber jaw, which is pretty much the same thing but a little smaller. I suppose I should try Axis when they are biting big squarebills.

SItting here replacing jerkbait hooks - I just double checked the model, @Dwight Hottle was right, they are STX-45ZN 2x size 6, not the 58's

And split rings. Pretty sure they are a 2.

One of my fishing buddies is pretty good about reminding me to back off the drag after getting a big fish moving. I think it is decent advice especially for boat or shore-side surges. But sounds like your drag is really light already. Fish getting leverage banging up against something like the bottom of the lake? Only other thing I can think of is because of your early run-in with poor hooksets, you've started thumbing the spool on hooksets. IMO DD's on jerkbait hooks not in open water is just this side of terrifying. Everything has to go right, and you pulled it off twice. I bought some of these for jerkbaits - Owner Stinger STX-58 - they are expensive, but I think the zowire "20% stronger" thing is real. Gamakatsu has some similar "20%" finesse trebles but the reviews suggest they are a bit brittle.

Water was 48 degrees at the surface today, 52 at 10'. I've never caught as many big fish on an a-rig at this spot, was fishing the 3.3s today. Threadfin shad is the primary forage. Fished in similar conditions last year too. I didn't A/B test, maybe the 3.8's would have done just as well, but I don't think so... the bite was "snacky" - they weren't slamming it, they were just putting their mouth around it. Oh and I ran a 3.8 as the middle/trail bait and only had one bite on that bait.

Ok so I caught my first livescope fish last weekend. It was pretty dang cool. Didn't have enough skill to dial in to see my lure, but anyway I got the gist of it. And we've had two top 50 texas bass caught in the past seven days, one on a lake that's, on a good day, not known for bass fishing. Gotta do it. Thanks in advance! 1) I don't understand the garmin head unit models at all, so I can't really tell what changes across the different models, and whether those models are worth the upgrade? I won't be able to run any other electronics, so mapping matters to me, if that has an impact. 2) how much battery will I really need to run one all day with an 8" head unit? 10" just won't fit. My helix is only supposed to draw .8 amp so a 10ah battery should run it all day, but that's really not how it works out, and drawing an AGM down that low kills it off pretty fast. But it is impractical for me to just overkill it and throw a giant group 28 at it. Any advice here? So I'll need the 8" head unit plus whatever the transducer draws, any advice on how to turn the mfgr rating into a practical size? 3) considering pole mount vs on TM, I'm often in 15mph+ wind, so being motor mounted seems limiting. 4) what else do I need to know?

Couple of things come to mind Google Earth (the download version) will show older satellite images, and often you can find one or more with a low-water view of the lake. Compare that to a topo map, or if on a bigger lake there's a web app linked around here somewhere that has free maps. It'll help you translate the topo maps to the real world. Most of the time bass don't like sameness, they want something different, be it a hump/road/saddle/etc. When you hear people talk about bass relating to something, think of it like they have vertigo sometimes...probably most times... this means they need to see or otherwise be aware of something to keep their point of reference. If you can figure out a good spawning spot you are halfway there, just keep looking deeper. Find the changes/differences and fish those. While there are some guys who can do it without a depthfinder, that makes it really hard. Even the simplest depthfinder gets rid of a lot of guesswork. Name-brand depth finders start at $100 and are a bigger upgrade than any rod you can buy. If you can get one with mapping, even better.

Ok so I caught my first livescope fish last weekend. It was pretty dang cool. Didn't have enough skill to dial in to see my lure, but anyway I got the gist of it. 1) I don't understand the garmin head unit models at all, so I can't really tell what changes across the different models, and whether those models are worth the upgrade? I won't be able to run any other electronics, so mapping matters to me, if that has an impact. 2) how much battery will I really need to run one all day with an 8" head unit? 10" just won't fit. My helix is only supposed to draw .8 amp so a 10ah battery should run it all day, but that's really not how it works out, and drawing an AGM down that low kills it off pretty fast. But it is impractical for me to just overkill it and throw a giant group 28 at it. Any advice here? 3) I considered the h-bird version, but I'm not hearing anything anywhere that it is as good and certainly not better, but let me know if I'm confused. 4) what else do I need to know?

I have one that I used when I was mostly casting it. Upgraded to a mounted helix with sidescan, and won't look back. If you were on the bank the deeper is an A+. From a kayak, I'd strongly recommend something mounted, you can get there at the same price. The iphone screen is really hard to see with sunglasses on, and by the time you get the deeper, the kayak mount, a phone mount, etc etc you'd be in for roughly the same money.

These are really different than a regular bandaid. Won't slip off.

I get excited about wind, it's big fish time. Great tips on treating the water like there's some current and looking for breaks, I haven't been doing that.

Still winter-ish water so they aren't eating much. Close to pre-spawn but not yet, and this last cold snap will push it out a little. If you can see them, they can see you, and I'd guess those fish are getting a good bit of pressure. Maybe try sneaking up on them. If slow-moving isn't doing it, try really fast moving.

With some extra commentary about wet vs dry.

That would have been the clincher for me.

Where (and on what) were the 11.11 and the 10 caught? Fishing nearby Fork on Monday in similar color water. Hunting for that one big prespawn bite vs a big sack. Water temps today were 51 in the AM and 54.8 late day, 1 foot down. Didn't feel like early prespawn yet, more like late late winter, in that the fish were biting mostly the way they have been (places & presentations) for the last three or four weeks.

How did I not see this thread! @Chris Catignani these are hilarious

The comment above about looking for flats was good advice. Also if you can figure out depth, there's likely to be fish hanging right off the dropoff at that depth, and crankbaits crashed into the wall can be really productive. And that bite can go on all day long.