LrgmouthShad

Love it. I know this: I love the PopMax

I trim it so that when I fold the weedguard down, it just touches the hook barb. No rhyme or reason; it’s just what I do. I will also sometimes take away strands. That’s pretty much it. I never fan out a weedguard.

Spinnerbaits I keep in categorized boxes: - 3/8oz and 1/2oz tandem - 3/4oz and 1oz tandem - 3/8oz and 1/2oz single blade - 3/4oz and 1oz single blade Jigs including bladed and swim jigs I don’t label at all. When I pick one up I generally know how heavy it is. Buzzbaits I just throw together. Rest of my tackle looks something like this.

This is some serious strength! I wish. Good work on a good lift.

I ran track and cross country in High School. One of my teammates suggested a few of us should try fishing. The three of us went fishing for whatever might bite, but we didn't catch anything. I wasn't deterred. I liked the peace and quiet. My Dad had me hunting deer with him for many years, so I took naturally to the patience fishing requires. The assistant XC coach liked to fish, and he lived on a lake. So when he heard we didn't have much luck, we were all invited to fish there. The lake was overpopulated with bass. When I started researching about fishing, bass fishing had the most readily available tutorials on YouTube. They also were fun to catch. It didn't take long for me to start fishing whenever I could. I took to it fast. I still enjoy hunting, and my Dad still doesn't like fishing all that much 😆 . I owe a good bit to that friend back in high school who encouraged me not only to try fishing, but to lift weights. He was older than me and a good guide for me. This was back in about 2016. I've fished consistenly since 2017 or so.

Be thou at peace. I hope his family finds some comfort. We sure will miss having him around here.

Cast or drop next to boat. Let sink to bottom. Let it sit. Shake it here and there. Drag it a little. Reel up and repeat.

I’m with @A-Jay. Spinning tackle with light braid to a heavy monofilament leader casts far, avoids tangles with treble hooks, and fights fish well at distance.

If rocks are large with many wedges, you will lose bottom contact lures from the bank. My advice is to use anything that you can keep up off the bottom.

You called it

Can't think of too many but bad drivers and bass boats gunning it to stop within a cast distance away from me in a kayak are both fairly annoying to me.

Happy Birthday A-Jay

I use a lot of braid to leader on spinning tackle. My personal preference is to use light braid ~10lb test and adjust the leader diameter as necessary to deal with abrasion. By contrast, I adjust the braid diameter to change the overall strength of my lines. To answer your question directly, yes, the strength of your braid to leader system is only as strong as its weakest link. My experience is if you use a careful FG knot, it will almost always outperform the knot you choose to tie on your bait or hook. That is why I have so much confidence in braid to leader. If I tie a good FG, I haven't made a new weakest link. The only knot to outperform an FG for me, so far, is a doubled improved clinch knot.

Nah. The story is about me. I was the fool using a shaky head with 8lb test around lily pads 🙋‍♂️. I didn't have stout leader line with me, but I wanted to fish a shaky head. So when a decent bass bit and dove into the pads, we went over to the pad and netted it while it was wrapped around the pad. I guess it worked but it was messy. If I had more gear with me, I would have been pitchin or froggin more than likely. Great Northern bass by the way. Well done. Now you just need a catch a big rock bass for the season and you'll be set.

DT for me

Thank you for posting your rock bass

Barometric pressure reflects in the weather conditions. If barometric pressure is high and it's post-frontal, I like to fish quite tight to cover. All of the other 'secondary factors' I couldn't care less about - except for the moon phase. The percent illumination gives me an idea of how well I can see while night fishing. Agree!!

@FloridaFishinFool bass aren’t line shy and (I think) Pat doesn’t think so either. Dude uses 20lb big game. I’m messing with Pat a little bit here. But we can talk about fishing lily pads while we’re at it.

Now I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret. Once upon a time I saw @Pat Brown fishing lily pads with a spinning setup and 8lb leader. He was fishing a shaky head. He said bass are line shy and this is the only way you could catch a bass. Now when he got bit and the bass dive into the lily pads, he said, “No problem, we just gotta go get her.” Took about 5 minutes but we got it done. And that folks is how you catch bass in lily pads. Disclaimer: What I said here may not be true and you should not try this at home.

Yes. On Stillhouse Hollow the bass would hole thick in deep cedar trees. These trees have many limbs - making it difficult to free these bass from their homes.

I like somewhere around 1/4oz for a small jig, usually

If they ain’t biting over here, I’m gonna go over there. If they ain’t biting there I’m gonna go here. I’m gonna throw a brown jig. If they don’t want the brown jig I’ll throw the black jig. If they don’t want the black jig I’ll go back to throw the brown.

Enjoy your break from the uploads A-Jay. I still very much appreciate advice you’ve given me. Currently what works best for me is a legs-back-push-arms+shoulders week split, with accessory workouts sprinkled on the 1-2 other days and 1-2 “rest” days every week. Plenty of time for muscle recovery and quite sustainable. Started this routine at the start of June and been at it for 2 months now. I enjoy it. I like to get my workouts in before most people are awake.

@Pat Brown

Thoughts on it?