The Baron

Ouch. It's hard to know what hurts more - losing a big fish you never got to see, or losing one you did get to see. Largemouth over 5# are rare here, and over 6# are possibly once every five years if you're lucky. My son lost a 6+ pound (OK, at least 5) that wallowed and spit his frog last summer. Two years ago my buddy lost one that was digging and giving big headshakes, then after a good 30 seconds of battle his rod just unloaded and it was gone before we got eyes on it. My buddy still talks about his. But mercifully, my sons memory is pretty short. lol I did even worse in 2024. I never got bit by 100% of the over 5lbers I fished near. 😩😆

I’m planning a trip to the south-ish next March, to somewhere “less cold” and have a decent chance at a 6+ pound largemouth (a rarity up here). I’ve been looking at Lake Murray, which is about as far south as I think I can get with only a week off (would be about a 15 hour drive). But I’m not sure if Lake Murray would be too busy - seems like it’s a tournament haven. Is Murray a good option for mid-March, or are there any other suggestions? Instead of a place right on Lake Murray we could maybe stay somewhere central and do day trips to some smaller lakes? We’ll have capable boats (mine’s a 19ft. aluminum, my buddy’s got a 20ft. Nitro) but I’m not a fan of rough water so would rather fish smaller lakes or pick our days on bigger water. It’d just be nice to have an adventure with my son and catch some bass while there’s likely still ice at home. And my 15yo. son is super excited about the idea of a guys fishing trip, and renting a house with the boats right there at the dock would be awesome.

Compass directions are a relative term, eh @Swamp Girl 😆 I’ve decided we’re going to head to Lake Murray, SC next March break. Florida is too far to drive and roll the dice on it being not much warmer than home. Going a bit later ups the odds it will be “warm”, and also means my son can come on his March break. ❤️ About a 15 hour drive, so a big chunk but I’ll just hammer that out in one day so we gain 2 extra days fishing vs. a 20+ hour drive to Florida that needs two days. 👍🏻

My #1 priority would be to get away from sub-zero temperatures and frozen water. I’d rather not be wearing winter gear and gloves, but I doesn’t need it to be T-shirt weather either. Anything in the 60’s or more would feel great. I’m well aware the weather is never a guarantee, but it would be a real disappointment to drive south for 20+ hours and still need winter clothing. As far as fishing, I’d definitely be down there for big fish over numbers. That said, I’d rather not fish 8 hours for two bites. But if one of those bites was my PB I’d be very happy. My PB is only 5.5#, so not a high bar to clear in the right area. I’d be thrilled with anything over 6# which is a very rare largemouth up here.

I watched a little of the BassMasters Elite live stream yesterday, then looked over the leaderboard this morning. 101 pros fishing all day, in Florida, and many struggled to catch 5 fish with several only landing a few and many weighing in less than 10lbs. This makes me wonder about those days I go out and struggle to catch 5 fish, then come home thinking that was a poor day of fishing. And here I sit, dreaming of getting to Florida for a couple weeks in February (or any other southern state that’s warm and has bass) to escape from winter. Dreaming of the fat sacks of big Florida strain bass I could catch… then I watch the pros struggle and wonder if I’d even catch a fish. I’d hate to pull my boat 20 hours south, rent a place and catch nothing. I know they’re fishing in a cold front, but I wonder if that’s normal for fishing in the south in February? Is March a better both?

Caught on a 5ft. rod with 8# line (mono, I’ll bet) on a tiny paddletail. (looks at 15 rod/reel combos and a dozen boxes of gear… <weeps pathetically>)

A guy up here makes what he calls “just in case” leaders, because we have so many pike. I use his 6-7” leader of 40# fluorocarbon for moving baits when we’re in pike areas. They work great, bass don’t seem to care and they’ve saved me a few lures when ol’ Esox lucius attacks. I just started getting into cranking a bit last year. Had some luck, so will do more. The Rapala DTs are my favourite so far. I’m currently in the market for a couple of glass or composite cranking rods for shallow-medium and medium-deep cranking.

Anyone else chomping at the bit to get out on Lake Ontario / the St. Lawrence River for the early catch and release bass season? We’ve got a brand new boat and my son and I are eager to go. But this winter is a bad one, and it could be mid-April before we get out. 🙁

Yup, Lake Simcoe is just northeast of Toronto. There’s one called FishCrazy Guide Service out of Innisville, Ontario that I follow on instagram. I don’t know him, but he’s got excellent reviews and posts a lot of happy fishing photos on Simcoe.

Yup. I’ll bet the 7’4” MH/mod-fast would make a great bladed jig rod. I use a very similar rod with 14# Fluoroshield copoly line. Excellent hookup and landing ratio.

If Woody’s out there catchen ‘em, why ain’t he sharin’ with us? 🤷🏼‍♂️😢 Update from Canada… we got over 1/2 meter of snow on Sunday. I may start drinking again.

I’m gonna flip cover more. And fish a glide bait, looking for that big one. I said I’d do that last year, but didn’t. And fish jigs. I rarely do, so may force myself to throw nothing but a jig one day and see if I can build some confidence in that.

Yeah, I thought maybe I’d splurge on a 10” at the console but I looked at a couple different mounts and the prices were shocking. Cheaper to go up another +1 in my Amazon reading glasses and just pretend I got a 10”. 😂

I was going with a 9” because that’s the largest screen I think can be mounted in the dash of our Lowe Stinger 195. Our old Bass Tracker has a 9” Echomap UHD with the GT56 transducer and I was quite happy with it for down/side imaging when idling. I figure that at the stern like we had and then use the built in transducer on the Garmin Force for the bow unit for down/side imagining. 🤷🏼‍♂️ (this is what irks me, it’s not cheap stuff and everything’s so darn complicated/unclear 😒)

I’ve pretty much decided on Garmin, just need to pull the trigger. Thinking a 9” UHD2 in the dash, and a Force trolling motor. Then add a 10” at the bow as soon as our old boat sells. That should all network wirelessly. 😎🤞🏻

Whopper Plopper and a Spook are both great producers for me on smallmouth, especially in September when water temps typically start creeping down into the 60’s.

I like to try different brands. I’m also extremely frugal, so the majority of my gear has been bought used for 1/2 or less than retail. For reels I’ve got mostly Diawa and Shimano, but also a couple Bass Pro Johnny Morris and a Quantum Smoke that I like. I don’t have any reels I don’t like, but my overall preference for both baitcasters and spinning is Diawa. In particular, a cc80 I bought last year quickly became a favorite and I plan to get another. And I’m very impressed with the Diawa Revros LT spinning reels for the money, but the sweet spot of cost/performance for me is the Fuego. Early on in my arsenal build up I bought a couple Shimano Curado DCs. Great reels, but IMHO they’re overpriced. I’ve read before that Shimano is amazing at the top end gear, but for my budget I could buy nothing but Diawa and be very happy. I’ve got a few Lews rods I like a lot, so might give one of their reels a try sometime. Will just keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace. lol

I'm a fan of the copoly lines, for both price and performance. A big part of "performance" for me is manageability and low memory. I do run some fluoro, having most recently been using FC Sniper and that's been working well for me. I've not tried Seaguar Invizx or Tatsu. For copoly, I've been using Suffix Advance and Berkley Fluoroshield both with good results. I was going to try some YZH when I was looking for heavier line (15# and 20#) for glidebaits, but the fella at the local bass specialty shop suggested Fluoroshield and I've been happy with it.

Nice. I'll look forward to seeing the project come together.😎

With the cold temps and another 2ft. of snow forecast for tomorrow 😠 I'm not getting my hopes up until mid-April. Planning to pickup the new boat that first week of April 1 and take it over to the installer for a Garmin UHD2 and a Garmin Force install. So if the weather cooperates, maybe the maiden voyage will be April 5/6 and with any luck my son and I will both catch our first of 2025. If it's still cold, I'll push all that ahead a week.

Well that’s disappointing. 🙁 We’re still about 5-6 weeks away from any chance to fish, from the looks of our long range forecast.

I’ve thought about this more, and to build on my own opinion… I really think knowledge of where the fish are is the master key. So the biggest cheat code of FFS (yup… I’m going there. lol) is guys with less knowledge can find the biggest fish out in open water, fish that before FFS we wouldn’t have known were there and/or only the old masters would have the hard earned knowledge, confidence and faith to fish for. And the next component of skill to present the bait is also diminished when you can see your bait so steer it right to the fish and see how the fish reacts. Now, guys with FFS still need to have an idea where to look for fish at any given time of year, but they get real time confirmation so the search time can be a lot less and there’s no guessing. Give me and a better fisherman both FFS and I’m still gonna get whooped, but give me a season learning how to use FFS on my local lakes and I’ll bet I can catch bigger fish with a lot more consistency. I’ll learn where they are and how they act, so the knowledge gain would be dramatic. Just my extra .02 cents worth (CDN funds, so nearly worthless. haha).

Boy, lots to chew on here. I feel like catching big bass is about knowing where they live, so knowledge, and of course skill to know how to present the right bait to them at the right time. A little luck never hurt, but I rely mostly on the latter and my results show it. I’m working on the knowledge and skill though. I believe you’re right @Swamp Girl about size in the north. Talking largemouth, anything over 4# here is a very good fish but you can expect a good angler to catch one regularly. Over 5# is a really good one, but likely happens a couple times a year for an experienced angler. Over 6# is a once/season event for a very good fisherman who spends a lot of time on the water but could be a once in a lifetime fish for the average angler. Over 7# is a freak. The blessing for my area is the same weights apply for smallmouth. In fact, 4’s and 5’s are very common on Lake Ontario / the St. Lawrence River, with 6+ not at all uncommon.

Hey, that’s doubles digits. Just say you caught a 12 and leave it at that. 👍🏻

I’m really struggling to decide between Garmin or Humminbird for our brand new 19ft. Lowe boat setup. I want to start with a 9” flush mount in the dash (Echomap UHD2 or an Xplore 9) then will get the compatible trolling motor (Force or probably an Ultrex). No screen at the front for now but saving for a 10-12” there next year, possibly with FFS. I’m really torn which fork in the road to take. We have a local Minn Kota sales/service shop that’s great to deal with, but I’ve got a Garmin UHD on our current boat now and really like it so hesitant to switch to Humminbird. That said, the Humminbird side imaging looks nicer than my Garmin. GPS lock, waypoints and auto pilot routes are big features for me and both seem to have their own very functional versions. Any suggestions one way or the other?