LrgmouthShad

I think if I could pick a month that is the most underrated month to fish in down South, it would be December. But naturally, we get caught up in the Holidays. I caught my PB in December also

Winter fishing is an extremely special time for me. It is indeed probably my favorite time to fish. My catch rates are generally lower but the quality is there and I just have this thing for fishing in the cold. I love it

Just to throw out some numbers, a high catch rate for me on Stillhouse is 1 fish per hour based on this season. I’ve only fished the lake for 4 months. That’s what I consider “On Em.” Poor days can be less. There are many people who catch more than me and plenty people worse too. Surveying catch rates and of course electrofishing are two methods that departments can use to assess the health of a fishery. If I remember right, when those East Texas guys studied Toledo Bend, they found 1 fish per hour was common and that is considered okay/good. Please take with grain of salt. I don’t know if bass fishing is getting harder though. I’m just bluntly saying what the reality is for me. The goal is not catch rate, it’s quality bass. Hopefully I can find some good ones

Yeah, there’s always the “what if” in the back of your head. I think you’ve got the right idea. My whole idea on spinnerbait fishing is that while there are bad days for it and there are some scarce days where they will clobber it everywhere….. for the most part spinnerbaits target a certain kind of fish. An aggressive fish. Spinnerbaits don’t tend to be the kind of bait (on public lakes) where I can roll up to a spot and catch a bunch without moving the boat. I just kinda mix them in with my fishing throughout the day and I’ll catch a spinnerbait fish here and there. Or on some windy days or certain times of the year I will just run and gun with a spinnerbait and nothing or little else. But over the course of a year I will catch a lot of spinnerbait fish. So what I’m trying to say is that between spending my time tinkering on the water and spending my time casting and moving, I’m going to pick casting and moving.

Hey casts, I personally do not modify my spinnerbaits while on the water or build up new ones. I usually just bring spinnerbaits that offer me a few different options based on the time of year and conditions. I do all my tinkering back in the tackle room. For that, I have everything and anything. Lots of blades of all kinds and swivels and skirts and I do have some empty heads lying around if I want to build up something new. I keep it all in a 3600 just all kinda thrown together

It gets really bad when you want to buy lots of spares for baits that work. My current practice is to buy 4-5 of whatever starts working really good I bought five packs of gambler burner worms and then that bite completely shut off I bought five of some night spinnerbaits I like before I even used them (they work) I bought $100 of zoom mag 2’s The bait monkey doesn’t live with me but he loves to vacation with me

That’s awesome

@greentrout Strike king lil mr money is a good spinnerbait. I will fish those stock

That’s one I don’t have. You’ll have to share how you like it!

what one you getting?

Well shucks Pat I can't say no to that, thank you very much for the offer! I hope you don't think that is what I was asking for. I just tagged you because I know you do well around NC and could maybe give me some tips. I'm pretty humbled! I will PM you as we get closer to the holidays if that works for you and we can try to coordinate something that wouldn't interfere with the family time.

@papajoe222 Lol. By about the end of July, yes, I no longer was thrilled to fish midday. I started to transition to night ops

@Pat Brown come save me, lol

Fishing from the bank I recommend a squarebill and running parallel to bank. Take a look at Rapala BX Brat 3' or 6' and the Bill Lewis ATV A few lipless would be a good idea too, particularly for this time of year. Spro, Bill Lewis, Strike King makes good lipless. Fish on a burn and stop retrieve

Hey if it ain't working, then try upsizing or using a different blade combo. I can't guess why the smaller or regular size willows are not working for you but I am not a fish. I don't really like small willows to begin with but that's another story. I see a few people mentioning single colorado's. They can be a year-round bait but I will throw the heck - and I do mean the heck - out of them once we go late fall. Late fall-prespawn is single colorado time for me and I am hardly putting it down unless conditions just aren't right. For you Northerners, throw it right now

@TnRiver46 careful what you say. I can already hear Steve Kennedy running towards you and giggling

@TnRiver46 the way you are holding that smallmouth it looks like a swimbait

@Kites R4 Skyfishing with no electronics, keep in mind that fish like anomalies or changes. Isolated cover often better than cover fields. Bottom composition changes. A dock that sticks out farther in the lake than the others. A patch in the grass where it is less thick. A rock bigger than the rest. Timber that's completely submerged versus poking out. A flat instead of a steep drop or vice versa. Jimmy Houston uses the term "junction areas" and you can hear him talk about this. Where one thing meets another. Changes. Night fishing of course you can't see as well so I would recommend learning your lake well enough in the daylight that you know where to cast in the dark, and that's tough. But you can learn what general regions produce for you and that can be helpful.

@BrianMDTX My biggest dislike of Central Texas is that the ‘trees’ are just glorified bushes. I have quite a few things I like about Texas though. It certainly is not a bad place to live. That’s even withstanding that the summer was INSANE, STUPID hot

@PhishLI what’s the soup for?

It’s a trick isn’t it? It comes with free Thunder Crickets doesn’t it? Thanks man 😁

@BrianMDTX nice. Look at those lovely East Texas trees

Hey y’all, My Mom is not proficient with a baitcaster but she wants another spinning rod. She will fish “Ol Muddy” most of the time which is a small muddy pond with quite a bit of timber and quality bass (most are 5-6lbs). She fishes from the bank and I told her it is probably a good idea to have a rod that’s short so it’s easy to manuever from the bank. I also told her that it’d be a good idea to get a rod with some power to it because the fish pull hard and there is lots of timber. So, I arrived at 6’6” MH as a suggestion for her. Trouble is, I can’t really find a nice rod with these specs. She likes to throw senkos mostly and we run 20lb braid to 15lb big game leader most of the time. I’m wondering if you gentlemen wouldn’t mind helping me find a suitable rod. $150 +/- $50 Thank you 🙏

Hey y’all, I’ll be visiting family over Christmas and New Years in NC but I do not plan on bringing my kayak and all my tackle with me. I will bring very minimal stuff on a flight and I don’t really plan on fishing too much. I’ll spend a lot of time hunting with family, but I know I’ll want to get out to a big lake 2-3 times and a family member might even join me. It’ll be a Jon Boat and no electronics for me. With this in mind, what lakes in NC in the Raleigh/Greensboro/Winston Salem/Yadkin River region would fish best shallow in the winter? Of course I’m from NC and I have several lakes in mind but to be honest a lot of my fishing in NC wasn’t on big lakes so I’m more of a newbie here.