AJ Hauser

Hey thanks @MGF - I appreciate the feedback. I feel like I'm in a similar situation - public lakes & ponds, pressured, bass are still out deep... I mean... they gotta be. Right?? I haven't seen any or had any taps in 3 trips. Saw a few tiny baitfish up shallow, but I mean WAY up shallow. In inches of water. What preserve do you guys fish? I want to make sure I get out there and pressure it even more!! (Just kidding) Thanks again for the input - really appreciate it.

Hey guys, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the best way to search for bass in early spring in Northern Illinois? So I fish ponds and smaller local lakes, and I went out 3 times last week to fish a jerkbait, drag a jig and also toss around a Ned with a "big TRD" on it - 6-7 hours total, no taps, no bites, no fish. I think it might still be too cold and these fish are just laying on the bottom out where it's deepest, but I'm not sure? 1. What do you think they might be doing? The air temp is still anywhere from 35 - 50 on a given day, not sure on the water but I think it's still pretty cold. 2. What is a good way to search for bass and cover water when they DO start to move up? Are there any signs that I should be looking for? Any insight would be really appreciated. Thanks fellas, tight lines and much appreciated!

Got it - appreciate the feedback @TBAG! Hey thanks @Bird - could you do me a solid and talk a bit more about what you mean with the tungsten weight and using it to locate fish? How are you rigging / working that? Thanks! Thanks @Fishes in trees - I appreciate that - I'm going to try out the "natural shad" Friday. Was using green pumpkin / black fleck previously. Thanks @FishinBuck07 and @Munkin - noted. Also appreciate the color and size info @NHBull!

Hey my dudes - got a quick question to run by you. I went out to a local pond yesterday and got skunked fishing a jerkbait. The water is still really cold in IL, and without all of the muck on TOP of the pond I was able to see just how shallow several areas really were. I assume the fish have congregated out deeper, so I plan to throw a jig and craw trailer and also a Senko this Friday. This time of year, when the water is still cold, do you downsize your Senkos or actually go with a larger size? Right now I have a 6" on and I'm wondering if that's overkill. I did see a lot of small fish swimming around up shallow, so I'm wondering if the forage is smaller. What do you think? Thanks!

@RyneB well with the country shut down for Coronavirus stuff I have the time... not so sure on the fat wallet though Tight lines my dudes!

Nice man - thanks - I'll check into those as well!

Awesome @slonezp and @bigguy24 - thanks very much!

Hey thanks @slonezp - I appreciate that and I'll definitely try that out. How do you fish jerks in summer - similarly with less of a pause (I mean traditionally, I assume you'll also be mixing up your cadence but in general, what technique do you prefer)? I have yet to develop the patience to deadstick a stickbait... MUST... SLOW...... DOWN!!! GAHHHH! IT HURTS!

DUDE - @bigguy24 - thank you so much for taking the time to share that with me! Happy Sunday by the way, finally able to get back into the forums and respond. Also, I see you're in my state - I am familiar with the DuPage river (never fished it) but you hitting up neighborhood ponds too? Anything worthwhile? I'm always looking for new small bodies of water. So to your points: I'm thinking about starting (hopefully in the next few weeks) with a jerkbait, a rattletrap and senko. Same thought: stuff is slower, and the 'trap is something a gut I talk to in GA is obsessed with - he starts fishing it right away and all season, so maybe I'll try it for a bit. Not super optimistic but curious... I think I'm going to go spinning outfit to start... oh hey, since you're in IL - have you been out yet at all? Looks like we should have a bit of sunshine today! Thanks again - talk soon!

Ok so let's talk about that for a minute because I was literally thinking about this last night. I was going to go out and swim a grub simply because it's something I want to get better at... but... that might be to fast a presentation as the water is still COLD. So @bigguy24, as someone who has never fished a jerkbait before... how do I start? I'm thinking spinning rod, 6'10", 8lb test fluoro? 8lb instead of 6lb test because there is a lot of muck and I'm fishing largemouth, and I need to get them up on the bank and don't want my line to snap while I'm kneeling down and digging them out of the shoreline debris. Whaddya think?

@fishballer06 that is EXACTLY what is going on... holy crap the sun is out today too but it's just barely over 40 and there is still ice everywhere... soon!??

Gotcha - thank you, @J Francho - that's perfect.

Good for you - we're actually looking to relocate to Arkansas... how's the fishing there? I see a lot of info on smallies and spots but not a ton of largemouth info - probably looking in the wrong places. What do you think now that you've moved? Also, thanks so much for the tips - I will be applying them - hopefully very soon. I have never fished the Fox Chain although I've heard so much about it... would love to try that this year but not sure where to start. For cover, there really isn't any that is visible. There are some overhanging trees and large bushes, there are some irregularities and such - I'll need to explore more. There is another lake by me with rip-rap, may have to go and try that a bit as well. Your point on "find the food" is perfectly said, I agree and need to focus in a bit more on what's for dinner. ** Sidenote: in this forum is there a better way to reply directly to someone on a thread instead of quoting them if I still want them to see the notification that I responded? I just want to make sure I'm not ticking people off or creating unnecessary clutter for everyone. Thanks.

Thanks Allen, I think you're right - no need to make this over-complicated for such a small, small edit. Thank you for the feedback.

That would be great - thanks, I'll do that! Thank you so much for the help as well. I really appreciate it.

I appreciate it - thank you - I'll have to try this out. I gave up on the jig because I kept getting hung up in the muck at the bottom, but maybe I'm just using one that is too heavy? How light are you going for your location? Thanks again!

I hate winter too. And cool - I'll be starting with this one this year. Haha, sweet - glad this helped a bit! Thank you kindly - what's your favorite color? Thanks guys. Really.

Awesome - thank you. What kind of bottom are you fishing those on / around? Are you dragging them or pitching?

Nice - thank you! Much appreciated. Do you think there is any need to scuff up the surface on a metal spoon to get the paint to adhere better? Powder paint with that as well? Really appreciate the insight - thank you.

Hey folks! I'm getting ready to start getting out in a few weeks when the ice is off of the large pond by where I live. It's got a real mucky bottom, reasonably clear water (although I would bet it currently looks like pea soup) and I'm thinking about starting with swimming a grub. I've never really done this and it sounds like a bread n' butter type technique that's been around for ages. What are your thoughts on that and what else are some of you going to throw in your local areas? Thanks!

Hey boys and girls! I'm going to post another thread to get some information on swimming grubs to start the season off (I'm in IL, it's cold - curious if any of you have any thoughts on that - I'm fishing a large pond with muck bottom and a max depth of maybe 8' from shore) but I wanted to ask if any of you had re-painted spoons or jigs, etc? I think some of the forage in the pond is pumpkinseed, so I'd like to put a green grub on an orange jighead but I need to get some little blue lines on there. YES... I know this is probably overkill and won't make much of a difference, but it will be a fun project I hope. How would those of you with more experience go about making this modification? Thanks, much appreciated!

You guys are freakin' awesome - THANK YOU!! I'll do that if nobody has any idea - thanks for the recommendation. YES! HE IS! WHAT!? LOL - thank you guys very much

Hey everyone! New to the forum but I've been creeping for years. Lots of good content here. I was hoping you could help me identify a crankbait? I got this out of one of the subscription boxes a while back, I'm not sure which one - but I have no idea what crank this is. I took a few pictures and I know that the font on the top is recognizable - but I have no idea. Does anyone know what brand / model this could be? The lip appears to be some sort of flexible composite, almost like a fiberglass as opposed to a hard plastic. Any help would be appreciated... my many Google searches were not successful... Thanks!