LrgmouthShad

Guinness Extra Stout. Great for the colder weather.

Nice. Another good one is Maker’s Mark Cask Strength if you ever want something super strong. I don’t drink a lot of that stuff at one time but it’s great

So around $35? I like Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses Small Batch, and 1792 For just sub 50, I’m told Basil Hayden is really nice stuff

We found the bait monkey, fellas 😂. I don’t disagree. A lure retriever might be able to save me some. I don’t want to lose $40-$50 in a trip. I swap all my crankbait hooks to the 1x strong, 2x short mustad triple grips, so it’s losing about $9 a bait. I’ve also heard of removing the back hook? Anybody tried this? How’s the hookup ratio?

Merry Christmas!! I ran a small lipless yesterday in a pond with quite a bit of wood. Was pretty nervous about it. I tried to parallel any wood I could see and tried to stay above any wood on the bottom. Yet, I hit wood at least half a dozen times. Here’s what surprised me. The crankbait deflected every single time. I never got hung. I am wondering if this is a common occurrence. I haven’t used these baits enough to know if I should be careful around wood or fearless. Would appreciate any help. 1/4oz red eyed shad. Started playing around with those last winter in MO

2 acres. Max depth is 7ft. Max 6ft in most places deeper along the dam. There’s just this one hole that reaches 7ft. I graphed this pond years ago. Got lots of timber too. Funny thing is, when I first fished this pond, I was convinced there was no bass in it. It was that tough. And it can still be really tough at times. What we know is that they really love plastics, and especially senkos, and especially black ones. Those weren’t working great, so I had to think outside the box this break.

Educated guess 👍🏻. Most bass we pull out of this pond are 5-6lbs. Hard to find a small one and they do not seem to get much bigger.

Coming right up. 5.64lbs on a 1/4oz red eyed shad. The first crankbait fish out of Ol Muddy. The pond was not easy on me, though. That’s several hours of work. My Dad had one on yesterday but he did not land.

Yes, I still do the thing

A rough return to Wordle for me Wordle 918 5/6 ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A whole lotta goodness here

Okay so basically any plastic on the market

That light, use a spinning rod. I like a shorter one for that. 6’6”. You probably want a medium for what you are describing. Beyond that, don’t overthink it. You don’t need to buy a whole rod just to try and skip better. Especially when it comes to spinning. Most of those are going to skip just fine.

@NorthernBasser no sir, I don’t have that bait

@N Florida Mike heck yeah!

@T-Billy Gosh man, yeah I feel for you, too. Keeps us hungry. I won’t stretch and say this was a possible PB. To find a fish like that on Badin would be pretty insane. I’ll never know for sure, unfortunately Im not going to be back on Badin until after Christmas, but I will fish Ol Muddy with family soon, so standby for a 5-6lber.

@ol'crickety I know better. As soon as I realized I didn’t have any sensation of my jig, should’ve been automatic. Reel all the slack out till I feel the fish and rip it. I’d been fishing a senko for most of the day. I was surprised that got me nothing. Then it occurred to me that maybe I needed something falling faster. Something like a jig, which they didn’t bite yesterday. I put on a full size jig, which by default put me in hog hunting mode. Just missed the hog 🫤

Today’s trip: one bite again, but this time I did not convert. It was a jig bite on a shallow laydown. Never felt the bite and was slow to the hookset, which I didn’t execute well. I believe it was a very large fish. Oh well

@TnRiver46 thanks dude. when I come back to fishing after a hiatus, I usually think of two things. 1. Gosh it’s so good to be fishing again. 2. Do I remember how to do this fishing thing? Every time it’s just like riding a bicycle again.

It’s a winter bass that I caught with no electronics and a no frills kayak. I don’t care that it’s small. Badin. Water is quite clear and chilly. Nighttime temps are below 30 right now and there was barely a gasp of wind today. I look forward to conditions improving. Only clue I have is to start looking for some deeper wood. Might change launches tomorrow

250 days? @AlabamaSpothunter you need to look into some tournaments

“Apply now to fish with the greatest stick on the Tennessee River!! Spots are limited and reservations fill quick! Claim your chance to fish with Mr. River now!!”

I’ve been meaning to go on over and fish with Mr. River. One of these days if I’m allowed over I will make it happen!

Okay. Are you apt to start with a lighter jig or a heavier jig in the winter? What is an indication that you should use one or the other? I still feel that a lighter jig in general works better when the water is cold/dirty, but I would like to hear this out because it’s interesting. You’re also a hammer with a jig and t-rig so there’s that