Bird

He'll be fine but acclimate bass to the new water temp slowly, 20 minutes. Assuming he'll be in a bucket or cooler, set it at the waters edge and keep adding a cup of water every 5 minutes or so until temps are close to the same. I'd also set him free close to cover.

That was an unfortunate event. I've always bought mid level reels and look at design and functionality. Having a " mid level " mindset has led me to quite a few Lews and Abu. My favorite casting and handling baitcaster for the last several years has been an Abu Garcia Orra SX and really like the Lews Speed spool. Pretty sure Abu Garcia is swedish engineered if that matters.

Top 3 producers over the last 2 weeks after finally giving a Jerkbait some rest. Whopper plopper Spinnerbait Brush hogs on a shaky head.

Scariest for me by far was flipping a Jonboat at a low water bridge in swift current. I remember getting sucked under the bridge and being very dark but managed to come up on the other side unharmed. The boat didn't fair so well as it got stuck sideways in the bridge opening and was bent into a taco. Later in the year, making the same float when the river was much lower I noticed all the rebarb hanging out under the bridge where I went through previously. Could have been very bad.

Coon ?

Bass much prefer whatever I'm throwing but will eat other bass.

Myself and my much younger brother took to the river yesterday morning for a 12 hr float, I was exhausted. My very 1st fish was nice smallmouth on white 1/4 spinnerbait but as the morning went on I noticed how much fun my brother was having just catching whatever. I haven't thrown simple old school tackle in years but decided to tie on a Mepps #3 inline spinner and from that point on it was fish after fish after fish, nothing big but entertaining and a nice change of pace for the day. One thing I did do as soon as I got home is debarb the treble on the mepps, terrible on the fishes mouth, terrible.

Agree, Buzzbaits seem to attract bigger fish. They give you a workout compared to a plopper 90 due to the increased retrieve rate but still stands as my #1 top water bait.

Sorry to hear about your mom. Been around guns my entire life and learned to respect them early on. Hope your dad stays safe from this ridiculous human behavior.

It's replicating a darting crawdad and that darting action triggers the bass to attack......just like a Jerkbait. Tubes, once a fad are under rated today with so many imitations to choose from.

Honestly never met an aggressive Rattler, Copperheads can be grumpy.

Case closed.

We threw a ton of them growing up, they caught some big ones but missed a lot. Fast forward......I prefer buzzbaits and whopper ploppers for top water duty.

Been fishing for 50 years and the only time numbers mattered was back in the late 60's early 70's when I came home with a bucket of fish. Remember my mom asking " why did you only bring home 5 fish when there is 6 of us in the family ? ".

Wife and I live deep in the mountains of VA and are seeing quite a bit of snake activity......no I don't kill them.

I take horrible pics but return them fairly quick.......prime example. Lol

Hmmm, don't recall the fish bleeding but that may be the only explanation.

Not the fish as we all know it's a LM. I'm referring to this little red ball below the fish. It wasn't there when I landed the fish and I wasn't throwing C-rig. It just showed up in the photo.

2lbs is starting to get nice but will take anything on a slow day.

Caught more fish with a spinnerbait than any other bait, have one tied on year around. In the waters I fish spinnerbaits are leaps and bounds ahead of chatterbaits. Give both a try.

Weightless Senko is as simple as it gets, even catches fish.

Haven't used mono in over 20 years. Much prefer braid to Flouro leader in just about every application where I fish. I do admit though, I become less open minded when something works which doesn't equate to the holy grail of fishing technique.

The carp muddy up the shallows, still catching bass with spinnerbaits though. Gotta believe the bass don't pay much attention to them.

It's very believable to me. I have certain baits that I believe has a chance every cast and shy away from proven baits that has proven nothing. Confidence baits instill confidence. I can throw a spinnerbait and Jerkbait on land and catch a fish but throw a chatterbait in amongst starving fish and they'd rather die than hit. Possibly unexplainable.

The bait still catches with a leg missing, the Yamamoto creature does.