galyonj

Last summer I did that flipping a brush pile. Set the hook and this little bass came flying up out of that pile like a tomahawk missile.

This mirrors my experience. Naturally, my presentations change – smaller plastics, for example – and everything is worked more slowly, but that's about it. In some ways winter shrinks your decision tree down. You're mostly chasing warmer water (or water that's got quick access back to deeper, more stable [in terms of temperature] water). As @Bluebasser86 mentioned, rocky banks and riprap are good because those rocks hold more warmth than just about anything else in a given body of water. And rocks provide a lot of hiding spots for forage species like crawfish. Bright, sunny days are your friend in winter. The surface warms up, and the fish will come shallow chasing that heat (and the food that'll be there). I don't have any data to support this, but I feel like fishing banks that are out of the wind might be a good idea, all other things being equal. Checking my notes, this is what I catch on in winter: jigs (of course, because they catch every day) the usual finesse plastic suspects lipless crankbaits suspending jerkbaits I kind of want to try a small, slow-sinking swimbait this winter because I kind of think it'll be a banger at the right time.

You know what? I just realized I was thinking about a completely different LFS reel this entire time. I'm so sorry, and I'm going to reverse myself. I'd take the Lew's for $200 over the Abu at $150. The P2 gear gets a lot of love every time I hear about it, and Lew's customer service is fabulous.

I think Doyo manufactures for both (among a whole slew of others) based on specs provided by the brand(s). I use a bunch of Lew's reels – I have two of those LFS reels in heavy rotation, and I like them okay. They do a good job. You're comparing it with a reel that fights at a higher price point for basically the cost of a LFS, though. That's kind of a no-brainer to me.

Last time I made jambalaya I used gator tail instead of chicken. I thought I'd overcooked it because of how chewy it got. I kinda want to try smoking it low and slow one day to see if the meat'll loosen up, because the flavor is pretty good.

Ooooh. I like that.

This advice I really need to take to heart. I'm real bad about beating an unproductive spot to death.

It's funny – a lot of my more productive days since I got back into it have been cold weather days. I feel like the fishing pressure dies back to the point that the fish that are still in range of the bank are a little more game if one is willing to slow things down for them.

Totally. I think it's easy for me to forget that this is supposed to be fun, and I get too wrapped up in the grind of bad days. Luckily, I live in the south where hard water's not really a thing, so the season's only over until I pack my stuff for next time.

A 6'10" MLF with a 200 size spinning reel has been my most productive combo since late-summer, regardless of the color of the fish. 15lb power pro v2 to a 6lb leader. I use it for wacky rigs and ned rigs, nosehooked flukes, stuff like that.

I wish I'd stuck to my guns better. Mentioned this on @Luke Barnes thread in the tackle sub, but earlier this year I made a commitment to myself to bring (and throw) less junk into the water in an attempt to get bit. That lasted about three trips before I put everything back into the bag and went right back to panic fishing, just desperately trying to get bit. I gotta learn to control myself and trust the process.

Mister, you'd have a lot of people jostling to be first in line to buy that book.

Place I used to fish a lot when it was convenient to my last job used to give me bass that looked all different kinda ways. Didn't get a lot of dark patterns out of that water, and I suspect, like @slonezp mentioned above, that it's because there isn't a whole lot of vegetation in that pond – it's a rock/mud bottom bowl with the wood and trash you'd expect, and that's about it otherwise. This is the most interesting one I've ever caught out of any water, though.

I guess all I can add is this general advice: If you feel something when you don't expect to, or you don't feel something when you do expect to, you probably ought to set the hook.

I remember seeing a video a while back in which Matt Allen went into detail on the line class record fish he and his wife caught in Alaska. The story was good but it sure seems like something that doesn't happen barring a lot of specific planning.

I wasn't gonna jump in on this because I'm the absolute last person that that needs to speak up with fishing tips, but right here you could as easily be describing how I approach fishing – especially how I approach having a bad day on the water. I stew on it. Earlier this year I made a commitment to myself to drastically cut down how much junk I bring with me to a sesh, and that lasted maybe three bad trips before I put everything back in my backpack and started panic-fishing. Even when I do have a good day (by my standards), I could have had the same day if I had saved myself a lot of setup time and just brought the one lure I was getting hit on that day. Thank you for speaking up. I, at least, needed a lot of this advice, too.

The grips feel amazing to fish with. Easily my favorite.

I'm seriously thinking about the Revros for an ultralight build.

I can respect that. I'm debating on ordering some stuff, but I barely have time to use what I got.

TW's website is getting hammered right now, yeah.

I'd say that there are a lot of days where minor adjustments like that are all it takes to get a bite fired up. My problem is that I don't have enough useful experience on the stick to know what adjustments I should make, so here's what I do: I walk up to the water, draw back as hard as I can, and throw everything I own into it in the hopes that a fish bites something.

FWIW, I take the split rings off just about all my cranks and jerkbaits because I use a snap*. I've got a whole collection of split rings now. Reason I do this, when I start throwing hard baits my ADHD kicks into overdrive and I do a lot of swapping baits to try to find the one they want that day. Notes If you do this, DO NOT use garbage snaps with the pot metal keeper section. Treat yourself to a nice snap that locks to itself like VMC or whatever. Don't use a swivel because too much extra mass off the nose of the lure will get you tangled up in the hooks and, with jerkbaits, will really affect how it sits on the pause. Also check your knot, like, all the time, even though I personally think that it's easier on the knot to tie to a snap instead of trusting that the split ring cut ends won't chew it up.