DitchPanda

St Croix is excellent. Ive always been impressed by Falcon especially for the price..they don't get mentioned often enough.

Your discipline and dedication is truly impressive sir. I will admit I've been very lazy about working out...but I have been very good about sticking to my eating habit lifestyle change. I allow myself 1 cheat day a week the other 6 I'm very strict about what I'm putting in my body. Since Christmas I've lost 22lbs.

My two favorites are:1\4oz red eye shad and a 1\2oz Cordell spot. I fish the spot on a straight retrieve..there's something about the weight or buoyancy of them that allows them to be retrieved a little slower in shallow water. I fish the red eye with a yo yo retrieve...they have an excellent shimmy on the fall.

What rod,reel and line do you throw your shaky heads on? Currently I'm using an old KVD quantum spinning 7'3" medium fast with a 30 size pflueger President...15lb power pro to 8lb trilene XL leader.

Absolutely...I agree its a very special feeling. Like being engaged in a 3-4 month fight and you finally emerge victorious. Im fortunate to have a few very small ponds locally so I usually don't get skunked even on my 1st trip of the year unless the water is muddy .

I use a variety of 4 or 5 brands of casting reels anywhere between $50-$200. Honestly I don't think dialing in a reel is all that difficult and once your a decent caster its easy and fast to recognize how you want your reel setup. You have a very nice collection...I'd stick with em.

My 2 cents..at least how I rationalize it in my brain. I go white\shad with a spinner bait because the blades represent shad so I like the skirt to be close in color to get them to eat the bait not just the blades. The overall profile of a swim jig with a vertical rigged trailer is much stockier representing a pan fish so I go bluegill colors on a swim jig majority of the time. Now I'm in no way saying a bluegill spinner bait or shad swim jig won't work.

Members: @scaleface @Bluebasser86 @gimruis @Paul Roberts @Mobasser 6th man off the bench: @Team9nine Designated hitter: @TnRiver46 Pros: Jason Christie Seth Feider Gary Klein Mike Iaconelli David Fritts

Being completely wrapped up in fishing? Yep...I'm living that. Normal winters I suffer pretty bad seasonal depression... Bummed out, pissy snappy mood etc. My girlfriend says she instantly sees my mood change right after ice out. This year hasn't been as bad as I've been focusing on my diet and my new job...but now that we are creeping up on March I'm starting to get twitchy.

Lol...I got nothing bud

I've got a good buddy who fishes walleye and panfish...bass just aren't his thing. That said he doesn't really ridicule me for it...if he did he wouldn't be my buddy anymore. I like what I like..if somebody wants to give me crap for it they can take it on the arches.

Yep I agree. I used to be all about ice fishing..in fact there was a time I liked it as much or even more than open water. I haven't even gone once this winter and have no intention to. I'm creeping up close to 40 and I don't dig winter anymore.

Congrats...I'd say give me a month to 6 weeks..by then I should have my first bass of 2022

Yeah we got maybe 3 inches or so...had some sleet underneath it which is always an icy treat. In fact I found such a spot on the sidewalk at work..I promptly slipped and busted my a#$. As if being at work doesn't such bad enough. people always ask me how can you stand living there? I don't know...you just do. I mean everybody's gotta be somewhere. I grew up outside of Houston so now after living in a town of 2200 people the past 20 years I have no idea how or why anybody would ever wanna live in a city ...but somebody's gotta.

Its -26 wind chill here today...gonna be a while I'm afraid

Kinda my thoughts... Even if the hula part sucks 10 double tail grubs for jig trailers aint bad at that price

I've never used any Yo zuri stuff

That's a cool looking jerkbait

Yup

I'm getting ready to watch it now...not sure I'm ready for this.

I am truly jealous my friend. Pond started to open up today...would have been ice free in 2 or 3 more days...except we have a big arctic blast moving in overnight last 4 or 5 days. Lows below 0. Gonna lock us back up.

We had a warm weekend and my local pond lost a small amount of its ice which got my hopes up...then I looked at the weather. The next 5 days the warmest day is 30...gonna have several lows around -5.

Fair point. Will say one thing tho...if Iowa had a team I bet they wouldn't have a quarterback that would get his collar bone broke from a stiff breeze.

Yep I saw that...was looking for something more recent if it was available

Ric Flair wouldn't be caught dead in that hideous Packers looking junk on the left...he's got to much class!