billmac

I fished a small natural pond in the Adirondacks today. While most of these photos look similar, they are all separate fish. I caught them on a meeney spin, chatterbait, and whopper plopper knockoff. Absolutely my best day bass fishing ever (in terms of outcome at least). I didn't have a scale but I judge the largest to be 5+lbs, making it my PB. This pond has virtually no cover except the little vegetation that overhangs the banks. With the meeney spin and chatterbait, I had to put the bait within inches of the shore. Once I switched to the topwater that drew them out. I lost one other big bass.

Should I be embarrassed that I don't know what high sticking is, outside of hockey?

I don't think I ever caught a bass on a spoon. Lots of pike though. I don't think I've ever caught a bass on a buzz bait. Lots of pike though.

That's interesting. I always use a trailer with a buzzbait, but I'm usually using them for pike.

I too have always avoided snap swivels, but honestly, having seen the Tokyo rig, I'm not convinced that extra hardware scares the fish away. If it is interfering with the action, that's one thing. But a little extra bling probably isn't hurting anything.

I had just gotten through running some rapids in my canoe, in May, when the canoe flipped. It was swift current and I didn't want to lose the canoe so I hung on. I tried to move the canoe toward shore but the current was too swift, and I was getting very cold. By the time I decided to abandon the canoe, I knew I was too cold to make it to shore. No life jacket in those days. I swear my thoughts were "If this makes me late getting home, my wife is going to kill me" and then "but I'm making good time". Eventually the water got very shallow and I was able to stand and pull the canoe to shore.

I remember sending a letter to Al Lindner about muskie fishing when I was a kid, and he did write back, which impressed me. For sheer fishing knowledge, you couldn't beat In-Fisherman.

I've watched several catch / clean / cook videos on bowfin. The eaters all seem to like it, but I'm not crazy about eating fish in general, so I probably won't try it.

I don't know the BR members well enough, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. As for pros: Roland Martin Al Lindner Jimmy Houston Jacob Wheeler A player to be named later.

This isn't so much a superstition as a shortcoming. I'm a cast and reel guy, always have been. It is incredibly hard for me to force myself to vary my retrieve, even though I am absolutely convinced it is effective. It's like a mental block.

Agreed, I said something similar to my wife a few days ago. I hate winter, always have. And as much of a fishing fanatic I've been all my life, I've only been ice-fishing once. It's a bit too stationary for me. Having said that, my children and grandchildren live near me, so we won't be going anywhere.

It happens. I've often come home wishing I'd caught fish, but I've never come home wishing I hadn't gone fishing.

My bias is that I'm pretty skeptical about a lot of things, like lure/line color, relative advantage of really high cost lures vs low cost. I have a bias against FFS that I can't really defend adequately. Part of that may be that I'll never be able to afford it. I'm sure I'll think of some more.

It's been awhile since I rode a bike. When I was a kid 10 speeds weren't quite a thing yet. We had banana bikes. There was that little open bracket between the seat of the bike and the back tire. Perfect for inserting the handle of a fishing rod. We put hundreds of miles on the road with our fishing rods sticking out the back of our bikes. Anyone else?

I don't remember when I started fishing (born '62). I remember going fishing with my parents while camping when quite young. But I latched onto it and took it farther than my family ever did. By my teens I was fishing every free moment. The first fish I remember was a walleye, I don't know if I fully caught it myself or if they hooked it and I reeled it in (something I did with my kids and still do with my grandkids).

This just in: My 4 main BC reels are a 7.1:1, 7.2:1, and (2) 6.4:1.

Some people follow the fashion, others set the fashion.

I love being unique! I couldn't tell you what the ratios are on my reels. I don't use buzzbaits much anymore, but don't remember having trouble keeping them on top. I wouldn't mind diversifying by gear ratio, but my biggest consideration is cost at an acceptable quality.

Who doesn't care about gear ratios on reels?

Most of the time, I'm just targeting fish, but I catch mostly smallmouth because they are plentiful and aggressive. If I'm on the St. Lawrence, I'm targeting deep smallmouth and don't catch much of anything different. As far as non-bass species, it's pike, walleye, and various species of panfish.

Just curious, when you rig a curly tail grub on a jig head, do you rig with the tail curled up, or down? I always rig mine curled up. I don't have a good reason for it, other than that it looks good to me. I've noticed that when they are pre-rigged in the packaging, they are often pointed down.

I'm not going to switch fishing locations without telling someone where I'm going. I'm going to try not to tear off my lower unit, especially when I haven't told anyone where I'm going.

Basically I buy things based on 1: What I can afford, and 2: What looks good to me. Most of the stuff pros endorse is beyond my budget.

I use spinning only when I have to: Drop shot, ned rig, etc. I don't like spinning reels, never have. In fact, since a lot of drop shotting that I do is vertical, with a heavier weight for strong current, I'm not sure why I don't use a baitcaster for that too.

Biggest bass (smallmouth), KVD Dream Shot. Biggest fish (pike), Chatterbait