DitchPanda

Wade in the water when the temp is ok? Yes sir. Dive down to retrieve a bait...especially a treble hook bait? Not a chance. Lets say you dive down to retrieve a stuck crank bait and you get wrapped up in braid or stuck by the bait...your a dead man

I'm almost 100% menace grubs on my swim jigs. For shad/baitfish I'd use pearl, pearl flash or bluegill

Big bite baits swimon flamethrower

Is there a bait that's got a good long time reputation as a producer you've never thrown? If so why? For me its a wiggle wart. The reason is simple...I'm a bank fisherman so I don't have alot of use for a bait that dives that deep. Also I don't have much around me for sloping rock banks...more wood and weeds. Lastly I just started cranking seriously a few years ago and its a bait I haven't gotten around to.

I grew up in Texas so I'm used to 90 days straight of 100 degree weather. Yes hot sucks but if ideal temp is 50-70 it only gets so hot from there. It gets way colder than that...next Thursday the wind chill is gonna be -30.

Think I'm gonna tie up an Okeechobee craw swim jig to compliment my moon juice menace grubs.

Sure Red works anywhere...and I'd bet your pond has craws even if you haven't seen them. Ill be the first to admit that I haven't done great with red but have caught some on it...gold black back however has killed them for me when red is "the deal". That said I am gonna try some red\orange baits this year besides traps...mostly square bills and bladed jigs. Maybe tie up a spinnerbait with a spring craw skirt.

What in the F is going on here? A T-rig, a buzzbait ,a red eye and a chatterbait? So 2 of the most classics lures...a lipless crank that KVD won a classic on...and the biggest lure craze outside of the NED that helped win the classic last year..oh and the year before... I feel ill!

Whopper plopper...to be fair I finally got one last year and only threw it a few times. I havent caught much on a drop shot....I'd much rather throw a Ned.

That's rad

So everybody has seen the millions of variants of whites,shads,black blues ,browns and green pumpkins. But what about those more unique skirts? The past few years the fire craw color has come on like crazy for chatterbaits. Two patterns that I'm intrigued with that don't get alot of mention is spring\hites craw...kinda of a half green pumpkin half red with maybe a few strands of black thrown in. The other which I'm most interested in is Cajun crush\ Mardi gras which is predominantly blue with some pink,purple and a little black mixed in. Its a wild looking color that is unlike anything else I've seen. Anybody throwing either of these two? Do you have any other strange color patterns you make?

Yep kinda funny that you can buy a 3in dinger 12pk for $2.99. Ned dingers are also 3in for $2.99 but only 8pk.

Agreed. I remember one time I was ice fishing on a big lake back in my 20s. Anyway we got stuck in snow coming off and I had to shovel and push for hours to get us off the lake. I ended up getting a horrible headache and even worse stomach/side cramps and pain...almost thought my appendix was gonna burst. The buddy I was with was a nurse and he asked how much water I drank that day...when I said none he said I had bad dehydration. He stopped and got me a couple gatorades and a big water. By the time we got home several hours later I felt almost normal.

This is always something that kills me at my job. I'm a plant tech 3 at a biorefinery. We work 12 hr shift work...all of our admin people aka management team work Monday - Friday. When we have a storm roll thru our GM sends out an email suggesting all non essential personnel roll out for the day. Obviously ops and maintenance are all that's left...you know the people that actually do the work to make the product. So if we are so essential why is his wage 2-3 times more than ours? I said this to him one time when he was busting my chops just messing with him and he got ticked even tho I was just doin to him what he was doing to me. He responded well our wages reflect our job skill level suggesting that anybody could do my job. I said your right all I had to do was learn how our entire plant\process and all the associated equipment works. Then I said I probably couldn't handle sitting thru meetings constantly only coming over to tell people what to do or criticizing mistakes while doing no actual measurable work of my own and then leaving early every time a slight inconvenience came up. Needless to say he was not impressed and looking back I shouldn't have done it...however I received no reprimand for these comments...possibly because although rude and unprofessional they also had alot of truth in them.

Amen...the wind chill tonight is gonna be like -25 here. For me prespawn is about big moving baits my favorites being spinnerbaits and swim jigs. For bottom baits its hard to beat a lizard in prespawn.

What do I do that other anglers don't? Well one thing I do that my buddies don't is catch big bass aka largemouth 6lbs and up. Again shout out to @walt-14. Sorry couldn't resist.

I've run into a few guys in my travels I'd call sticks. Well usually they are jerks so a more accurate description would be stick...just drop the st and add a d.

I don't night fish bass as much as I should...never really have. Therefore all my night fishing stories revolve around catfish and 30 racks of miller high life!

Well we have several days the next week that the wind chill is gonna be -30...ill trade you if you want

I'm gonna pick up one of these and on @Bluebasser86 recommendations I'm gonna pick up an optimum baby line thru 4inch.

Oh it feels plenty cool...downright cold

What size hook on the BLTs 5 inch? I may try one of those...also do you know the weight on those?

So I've been going back and forth on S wavers...big keitechs on a beast hook...top hook swim baits...you name it. Finally think I've settled on getting a line thru as my first foray into the swim bait game. I'm thinking something in the 5 inch range around that 1oz weight give or take a little. I need some bait recommendations? Also what size treble for a bait like this? Last but not least rod,reel and line suggestions?

I store all mine loose in a big Ziploc and have for a few years now...I've never noticed any color bleed.

Booyah one knocker or strike king 2 tap...which do you prefer?