PressuredFishing

Im going to make this oversimplified because its a rabbit hole. But your hook set strength is dependent on the thickenss (gage wire of the hook). For instance, fishing a light wire dropshot hook, you dont need to jack the fish because the wire is so thin just a light hookset will penetrate the fishes mouth. On the other hand if you are fishing a heavy gague jig hook With a weed gaurd, You have to really slam them to drive the thick wire hook into their mouth and push the weed gaurd down. A large reason a "heavy hookset" is If you are fishing a standard worm hook in that 1/0-3/0 or or are fishing a standard mosquito style hook, keep doing what you are doing. You only really need to jack the hook really hard when you choose to fish heavy wire hooks/jigs/swimbaits. And this is coming from a guy that 95% of the time using coplymer. mono is indeed a strong tool, and in the right hands it can be lethal, especially when you have the options to carry different size diameters to reach different depths, or to stay shallower, etc. I met a guy out here in socal at a tackle shop that cranks only with mono and has his reels set to 10, 12, and 15 pound to change the depth, similar to guys using floro but hes older and likes mono.

Yes, I just cut two feet off every 20 minutes or so and retie, I'm sure it's going to get expensive with floro, I may either go mono in shallower less windy conditions for sensitivity or floro to a mono bumper of 4 feet and cut it off and retie

Have not ran into one lure I fish that has not seem action, some get less bites than others, like my jig collection or swimbaits, but I have not had a lure that doesn't produce. I will say I stay away from buzzbaits, I seem to have better luck on almost any other topwater, I feel like they are very niche for me.

Would you say we get an early spawn similar to Florida, I was busy this spring and went out March 5th to see empty beds and few males lingering. Does mid February sound right for the spawn, that is my theory for us, maybe I'm wrong.

I was using 12lb floro first and was getting knicked up pretty bad so I bumped Up to 15lb floro and it worked much better

Perhaps after Thanksgiving

This is really good information, there are rip rap rock piles that I passed over and did not fish, I don't know why I did, I just was not thinking about any of this stuff. I will definitely try some of the riprap dock piles, especially the larger ones by the damns because you are right there are a lot of them I have always overlooked

I have noticed actually its 50 degree temps but the baitfish do love the riprap in the evenings and have been popping around like summer time, wish brought a jerkbait because even though they weren't busting mid day I got a bite on the same riprap on the jig I wish I thought of this, in the evenings there where baitfjsh popping all along riprap even in the 50 degree water temp, bass where not hitting topwaters but I'm sure a jerkbait would have been killer, didn't even come to mind ?

Wanted to say thankyou to all the jig fisherman and squarebillers regarding riprap and shallow chunk Rock piles. this is another animal to me because 90% of the lakes I fish are grass or dock oriented. This weekend went out for around 6 hours and while I only hooked up to one big 4lb bass because of the colder water, you guys made those six hours a lot more tolerable. I have not invested a ton of time fishing riprap and would usually throw a Texas rig or a bladebait on them. Not to say those lures don't work, but I lost a lot and it was frustrating loosing a jackhammer and a dozen Texas rigs each trip. I switched to jigs and squarebills and while they only occasionally got snagged and they usually came out, and I only lost one jig. So again, thankyou for helping me lose less lures in chunk rock/rock piles/riprap and even wood! The jig and squarebill will now be tools in my arsenal for this type of structure!

Yes it's pretty much the same here right now, maybe we should just switch to Salt perhaps lol, hundreds of miles of open beaches in the winter spring and fall, and in summer maybe the hype of fishing dies down from trout stocking. I agree 20ft is not enough, some guy said otherwise with shoulder to shoulder fishing and if that floats people's boat that's great yknow, I just fish to get away from people and enjoy catching fish, not dealing with others. Yesterday you will not believe it but a guy in waders waded right in front of me.... I've lost hope for society

Ah okay I understand the rules now, makes sense

Pfluger president Shimano Sahara Shimano Sedona Diawa legalis Diawa regal These are ALL good reels, pfluger is a doyo or banax (not sure) but a good reel, the diawas and shimanos are smoother, IMHO, durability on the pflugers so far have been their high point, fished one weekly for 4 years no issues. Just cosmetic scuffs and scratches. (Also p.s, the grease in the pfluger is crap so if you are winter fishing and you take it out and it feels grindy it's not the reel but the grease and after a few casts it will warm up and work fine

Wow, didn't know about all of this, interesting information as always Tom

Perhaps, didn't want to mention that spesific thing, they (the staff) usually don't like us talking about "that thing" perhaps you are right and "that thing" has caused fishing pressure.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems the last two years the lakes have had 2 times more people on them than before. It's getting to the point where I can't enjoy my local small lakes because there is a person on the bank every 30 feet and half the places with structure are taken. Then when it comes to boat fishing and your flipping and pitching they give you an evil eye. I hate to say it but I think I'm going to have to either stop fishing my favorite small lakes or go early in the morning on week days. I am not against new fisherman entering the sport by the way, It's just getting really ridiculous here in Socal when you can't even toss a lure out without walking a 1/4 of a mile for an opening, especially when trout fishing kicks on, then it's even more of a zoo. Who knows, maybe I'll just take up saltwater fishing, nobody can bug me when I'm on a surfboard

Im colorblind so I do not really care about color much, the only time I opt for colored line is when finesse fishing, Because when fishing low light I cannot see a clear floro or mono for the life of me, so anything that contrasts the background of the water works for me. Personally if it comes down to color to that extreme ill just switch over to a leader system or mono/floro.

Very good information, while most of my lakes are man made, this has also occured in certain spots that hold fish, I will try a swim and pause method or swim and twitch method!

good information, thankyou for this information, although my crankbait might not be as thankfull as I bash him into wood and rock

So when I have been throwing my squarebills, do you guys perfer to be dredging the rock and wood and bumping off of it like crazy, or to fish it two or so feet off the bottom?

not quite sure this is the answer you may be wanting, but whatever the fish want and the conditions that are on hands look at your conditions your fishing and match them with a bait.

Im not picky anything that's glass or soft bend in it, I really dont need sensitivity or anything because the fish hook themselves when they hit cranks, I refuse to spend over 100$ on a glass rod as well. just my 2 cents.

In my opinion, yes this all matters, but if you find the fish you are already golden, adjust from there and see what works better.

Anything terminal, it's worth the investment of money as an angler of any fishing style.

Fair enough, I would personally just pay a lot less for glasses of the same quality with a standard defect warranty and not be clumsy and be careful with what I own. Costa sunglasses for instance run 100-200+$ ish, I can buy Eye Surrender sunglasses which are about the same quality of lens and frame for 60$. so it depends how many times you think you are going to break your glasses. If I think I have enough money to replace a 60$ pair of sunglasses, Ill do it, but If I own a car, I will probably buy insurance because I cannot afford another one.

95% of products your getting especially from G loomis are not going to have defects, so the point of the warranty is d**n near useless, and even if it didnt have the warranty you would still be able to send it back to TW or BPS and they have their own policy's to take back lemons. The warranty does not cover stupid mistakes like Catt said, which I would bet 99% of the reason is why rods break, (E.G stress fractures from bending the eyes the opposite way, high sticking, boat flipping, etc.). Rod issues usually show their defects on the first cast or fish, or even in the shipping, so having a "lifetime" warranty is useless because manufacturing defects don't take a lifetime to show up, but stupid mistakes sure do.