TriStateBassin106

I hate making threads like this because it sounds like I'm complaining, but I have no where else to express my frustration, weather here in NJ sucks recently plenty of rain and temps dropping back down into the mid 50s from the 70s we had back in late April and the bite stinks with it, the fish are supposed to be spawning but I haven't seen a single bed at my ponds and now the water clarity has dropped to like 6 inches and the water level has risen from the rain. I don't know what to do, I've thrown the kitchen sink at these fish the past week and to make matters even worst two of my friends yesterday managed to get on a nice few but I went home with a skunk. (Mind you this was after fishing brutally slow for like 3 hours) Anyone have any tips for this situation I'm in? Will I have to just wait it out until the weather gets warmer? Are the fish lockjaw because of the spawn or the fronts? I never thought the spawning period would be so hard.

When fishing from a boat low hanging trees and parked pontoon boats, with the trees the ones where the branches hang a foot ot 2 above the water, usually you can skip something under them and the tree itself provides a huge amount of shade. If the tree is in a cove pocket it's even better.

Same situation recently, cold front after cold front and the fishing has been taking a hit. We had a bunch of upper 60 and mid 70 degree days until last week and now the highs on most days is 55 to 63 with night time temps plunging down into the 40s. We aren't expected to get a 70 degree day until next saturday. Situation sucks. Those look pretty tasty!

I can't get on fish consistently this spring. One second they're there one second they're not. I'll trade places if it means I can get fish.

What would be some good baits for the staging females? I tried again today and simply couldn't get any bites, temps are supposed to stay in the 60s before finally reaching the 70s again next week.

When the temps dive like this I always wondered if the bedding fish that recieved eggs either retreat to deeper water or hold the fort until the water warms.

We're getting colder weather and rain here in NJ right now. Last few days the temps haven't peaked 60 to 63 degrees and night temps have been in the mid 40s with plenty of rain, went yesterday to my fishbowl pond and any beds I remember seeing last week when the temps were in the 70s are out of sight because of the water level being higher, what do the bass do in this situation? Do the spawners go up to the now half flooded cover like bushes or do they retreat to deeper water? How should I fish this situation?

Don't have luck on Maxscent like I would prefer, I don't understand the hype about them anymore, some tournament guys got really angry when MLF did that April fools thing last month about banning it, I don't know the whole story but I'm guessing they didn't get the memo that it was April 1st. Normal powerbait on the other hand goes hard. First ever texas rig bass for me was caught back in 2006 on Red flake powerworms. I love those things so much, OG powerbait is great.

The rise of finesse fishing, kayak fishing and social media having an influence on the sport, the big things being innovations in new tackle since then like others have mentioned and boats/electronics are more expensive nowadays. Long gone are the days of cheaper equipment. Crazy to think a 25 dollar price for a lure is quite common nowadays.

X2 any city that restricts basic freedoms like fishing of all things shouldn't have a population in it.

What crankbait brands have good bluegill patterns? So far I love the KVD 1.5s Natural bream and bluegill color.

Tungsten are 100% a better alternative to lead weights. Much more sensitive and you'll be able to feel bites and the bottom context more.

Ratio doesn't add up, no way they caught 21. X2 on classic fishermen lies.

Allergies kicked my butt today but I got some fishing in, saw 1 bed with a small bass on it and the fish got spooked easily, 2nd day skunk for me lol.

At my ponds the water temps are finally at 59 degrees and will probably reach 60 degrees today or tomorrow. the bite has pretty much died down from last week and earlier on, late pre spawn has been okay for me, getting most of my bites on texas rigs and lipless cranks but now that the spawn is days away what should I throw to get them to bite before the beds start popping up?

Right now I would go late afternoons, as the weather continues to warm up it will be preferable to fish evenings. Yesterday I fished until 7:30 Eastern time and couldn't get a bite passed 6 o clock.

Terminator Pro Series Jig.

I was pretty stoked to catch it on the squarebill but I never like bleeding fish. Especially ones that are a nice size. I always thought it was common knowledge that tongue hooked fish are goners. I remember other people on here making threads about the same topic.

Caught my first squarebill bass of 2021 yesterday, unfortunately the back trebels hooked the fish in the tongue which caused some bleeding after being removed. The fish started to bleed as I began to put it back in the water and it swam off like nothing happened to it. Even with smaller trebel hooks are tounge hooked bass still on death row? Is there anything I could've done to prevented this? What was even more surprising is the bass was caught on a 1.5 kvd with stock trebels. For a 1.15lb fish he basically inhaled my crankbait because now there's teeth marks all over the sides.

Hahahaha No i'm still looking, I just want a sinple unit that's easy to use but I can also see what's going on and maybe even have a GPS for mapping. I'm new to fish finders so I have no idea if GPS is standard with all fish finders.

Ned rig hands down, never thought a literal trd and a hook would catch many fish including big ones, glad it's apart of my arsenal, hopefully soon the drop shot will be on this list.

X2 and yeah they work everywhere, My favorite being the old Berkley Havoc Pitboss, they don't make the havoc line anymore but I still have them.. I did really well last year fishing this around parked pontoon boats and docks at my lake. Here's my pic of the last bag of havoc pit bosses I have left, gonna be a sad day when I run out of these.

Snapping turtle tried attacking a bass after it swam off from being released, also I've had cormorants try diving for fish I was still fighting in.

can't go wrong with black n blue, straight green pumpkin or Pb&J with a purple trailer.

Pretty interesting situation developing here, saw my first bed bass today but got spooked the minute he saw me approaching, cranked the shoreline with a kvd 1.5 shallow in chart black back and missed a small fish then immediately switched to a Texas rig craw and casted in the same spot and THUMP...for a 1.7lber he fought pretty hard. All my recent fish have had fat guts and I don't know if they're eggs or food hahaha. I'd give it a week and the fish are on beds.