DitchPanda

When I was 18 I moved from a suburb of Houston...the greater Houston area had a pop. Of 6 million at the time...to small town Iowa with a pop. Of 2,000. My high school had more students then my town has population. 25 miles to the nearest wal mart or fast food..45-50 miles to our nearest sporting goods stores. Wouldn't change it. Yeah we don't have all the big stores and modern conveniences..but we have a pharmacy,grocery store, doctors office,hospital,hardware type store,small mom and pop resteraunts,gas stations..considering I buy my fishing gear primarily online what else do I need.

I used Abu reel grease...worked like a charm.

Right on..had a good friend of mine relocate to Shelbyville Indiana last year. Think he said he lives about 40 miles from Indianapolis.

@ironbjorn where you from? I'm in Northwest Iowa right on the South Dakota border. I'm predicting ice out here in about that same time frame.

In early spring which means cold water I use either Zoom super chunks or yamamoto double tail grubs.

I throw weightless flukes on an Abu Garcia Ike medium heavy...and that rod is a for real medium heavy maybe even a light heavy....on a revo with 15lb copolymer. Haven't had much issue.

Went out ice fishing today...it was sunny 45 with no wind and it was actually very pleasant. There was a good 3-4 inches of slush on top and the ice was varied in depth in certain areas of the pond we fished.

Wow man. I've caught thousands of bass on spinnerbaits..if I could have only 2 baits it would be a T rig worm or jig...that ones a toss up...but without question the other would be a spinnerbait.

Say whaaaaaat?

So we have ice out coming soon here and normally with snow\ice melt plus spring rains that means dirty to downright muddy water. So in a spring muddy water situation are you reaching for a bladed jig or a spinnerbait?

If this is indeed a thread about backreeling I can't get involved. Last time I thought I may have my life threatened. Just kidding.......kinda. In all seriousness people here get crazier about the debate of backreel vs drag then politics and religion. There are some things you just don't bring up!

Ha...ewwww

Got one of these and was wondering what's the best way to stop the squeak? I read petroleum jelly works well...one thing said olive oil but that sounds strange and messy to me. Could use WD40 but don't want my bedroom smelling like a maintenance shop!

I've caught lots of fish on lipless the last few years in spring...as early as a week or two after ice out. Red colors work good this time of year but honestly I've done better with a gold black back. Ive tried various retrieves burning...stop and go..yo yo...my best by far has been just a slow steady retrieve just fast enough to keep it from digging into the bottom. Caught my biggest largemouth of the year in early April last year on a chrome blue back Cordell super spot.

Shad raps Berkley frittside Redeye shad or Cordell super spot Bomber square A

Ditto...nothing to be afraid of if you aren't careless.

Agree with @WRB its hard to define green pumpkin. Lets take a few popular bait:pit boss-green with almost lime hints....D-bomb-plain old forest green almost...zoom trick worm-pretty much brown.

Its tough as a kid. I remember growing up we lived about 50 miles from Galveston Texas and I waited all week for those overnight pier trips with my Dad on Friday or Saturday night. I remember several times the weather ruined our plans which was tough but what really sucked as a kid was going and not catching. Just didn't seem fair to me to wait all week...the fish owed it to me to bite!

How did I not mention the yamamoto senko? I held off buying them for years but one time I caved and wow I can't get away now. They live up to the hype both ways: catch fish when nothing else does and if a fish even farts on it they come back ripped in half.

Well here we go...yes I know its winter! We all have those baits that we bought that really let us down or in some cases maybe even pi#$ed us off. But its Sunday Funday and lets go the other direction...what is a soft bait that lived up to the hype? Ill start with 3- Zoom trick worm and ultravibe speed craw....and the biggest one for me the rage menace. Heard for years how great it is and thought oh yeah ok...don't think I even threw another swim jig trailer last year..no reason to. What say you guys? What impressed you?

Line thru swimbaits and glide baits...soon enough will be ice out and ill give them a try

That is indeed Zark!

The bad part is I think these YouTube channels that are inappropriate are also the most exciting from a pure entertainment standpoint for teens and young adults. But there are plenty of great bass fishing channels that are straight forward and educational. @Glenn does a solid job of making great instructional type of content... I have never seen a cigarette, joint or single sip of alcohol that I can remember on either of these channels. If your kids are into fishing maybe show them these more pure channels and explain the difference to them see if they take to it.

Well yeah I mean everyone is aware that we all have our problems and shortcomings. But if you've admired someone forever and the one chance you have to meet them they are a jerk no matter how subjectively you look at it and tell yourself it isn't personal it would still be hard to not be let down and let that color your perspective of that person at least a little. Have a buddy that loves Bob Dylan...saw him in concert a few years back said he was awful and not very friendly and wishes he never saw him. I guess I still hold people accountable for there actions even when they have failures they are dealing with. If I get reprimand at work for making mistakes that doesnt give me the right to be a jerk to the guys on my crew and just blame it on something that has nothing to do with them.

We've lived in our house for almost 7 years and we've never had cable. Netflix,Hulu and prime are what we pay for. Otherwise I watch alot of YouTube guys.... Randy Blaukat, Jeremy Siers (whiskey reviews and EDC videos) and Debos Fishing (Iowa guy like me).