Fishlegs

It’s the hat! ?

How does one go about convincing their wife of this? ? All of them. Final answer. My collection is nothing like what @A-Jay has though.

Wow! I'm hungry now. I've always thought that it'd be fun to fish with y'all, but it looks like eating with you would be just as fun. I'm impressed!

I stopped by my local academy yesterday, and the aisle where the H2O Xpress baits are supposed to be was filled with gaiters. It made me think the lure brand might not be coming back, and that makes me sad. I hope I’m wrong.

My lost fish story for 2022 involves three fish on the same day. I was fishing with @roadwarrior. The morning had a very good start. It only took us about 5 minutes to catch the first fish. We caught several at the first spot, but nothing big so we changed spots. The second spot we tried seemed promising as well. I was yanking a lipless crank through the grass, and got a big hit. She jumped so we got a good look at it...a 5 lb largemouth. This is what we were looking for. She came up again, gave the lure a shake, and was gone. Tough luck, but I still had hope for the day after a promising start. roadwarrior offered some technical advice to help me with the next one, and we moved on. A little later I hooked another big one. About 4 lbs or so this time. I'm trying hard to do what roadwarrior suggested, but it throws the lure again. I'm kicking myself, but it's still early so I'm still hopeful that I'd have a shot to redeem myself. This was on a Monday. I caught a 5+ pounder just three days before so I knew I was capable of landing one, but doubt is creeping in. The third big one that I hooked that day was the real heartbreaker. It was crazy from the start. I cast to a spot, and before my lure hit the surface a huge fish came out of the water to get it. I started to reel as soon as I thought she had it, but I wasn't able to get a great hookset. I felt the weight of the fish on my line so I thought I'd be OK. I knew it was a good fish. She jumped again...big one. PB level fish. Since I'm telling this story here, you already know she got away. I asked roadwarrior what I did wrong. He simply said, "Sometimes the fish wins. That's how they get big." Looking back, I think my primary mistake was using a new rod that I had never used. That's what I tell myself anyway. If I had landed those three fish my "best five" would've been around 22-24 lbs that day. What a day. I was so close, yet so far off. It's a fine line between the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. There will be another day though.

Sorry to hear that. Try to use your desire to fish again as part of your motivation during the recovery process. You’ll be back at it before you know it. Good luck!

I have some. I still use them after I respool to dial my reel in.

Good luck in the tournament!

That’s what friends are for.

He's an excellent fisherman, and an even better person. I'm thankful for every opportunity I have to fish with him. I could go on, but he'll probably delete the post if I do. lol

We have no idea how many eyes are on the cows or chickens we eat. We should peobably be thankful for that. ? I doubt if it's a big deal to the fish. I'd say try it with both sets of eyes, and if you don't get results you think you should take one set of eyes off. Having two sets of eyes could also make the fish think there is more than one fish there. You never know.

Hit the river with @roadwarrior yesterday. This man knows how to find smallmouth. He put me on my best smallie of 2022...so far. He had a new digital scale that we were excited to try out. We clamped it on, and saw 1.7. No way! I thought I must have done something wrong so I tried again. Same thing. Then we realized it was set to KILOGRAMS. DOH! We weren't sure how to switch it to pounds so we snapped a picture, and put her back in the water. Google says 1.7 kg = 3.75 lbs. I'll take that. Thanks again, roadwarrior! It's always a pleasure my friend!

This is very true. It can be insane at times.

Pickwick is an all you can eat shad buffet in the fall. Shad imitators work well. Lipless, squarebills, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, underspins, or paddletail swimbaits are what I’d recommend.

Don't forget that @TnRiver46 knows where the Forensic Anthropological Research Facility (a.k.a - the body farm) is, OK? I don't want you to disappear. ?

I've been trying to think of how you could use those guys. The names you listed are legends so anything from them would be incredible, but IMO they have too much to offer just to field mundane questions about what rod, line, or lures they like. One of the main things I love about fishing with more experienced anglers are the stories they tell of how they became the fishermen they are today. I love learning from their experience because it makes me a better fisherman. Imagine the stories those guys have. To become the best ever, these guys mastered the art of knowing why, when, and how to do certain things. What I'd love to hear are the hows/whys behind their decisions. Getting into the minds of those greats could be extremely entertaining and educational. It would be great in video format or written articles. The stories those guys could tell would help us all become better bass fishermen. Sharing experiences, and learning to be better bass fishermen is why we're on this site. That would be my wish from them. That...or a chance to fish with them and hear the stories myself. ?

I'm working on the problem. I've been clean for about a month so I'm pretty proud.

I haven't gotten to fish as much as I'd like lately due to life & the heat, but I got a little break this week was it was good to fish again. It started out with a friend who bought some property with a pond a couple years ago asking me to come see if I could catch a bass. He's seen them in there, but he hasn't been able to catch one. It only took me a few minutes to catch this guy. The pond appears to have a great forage base so they should grow quickly. Later in the week we decided to take the boat out and see what was happening on the river. It started out slow, but we ended up catching 15 on the day. The only real question was which of these is smaller? lol Fishing on the Tennessee River on a holiday can be tough, but the weather report gave a 60% chance of rain...so we decided to fish. Most people believed the weatherman so we had the lake to ourselves. The weather was perfect for fishing. It was overcast with temps in the upper 60s. The bass were schooling up, busting shad, and tearing up the lipless cranks. Nothing big, but we caught 25 about like the one below from 7:00-12:00. I'm really looking forward to fall. Around noon people realized that the weatherman was wrong so we decided to go grill burgers and hot dogs to celebrate Labor Day. Doesn't get much better than that.

Finding bass busting on shad is always exciting. I've had days when they'll bite anything I throw into the feeding frenzy, and days when I throw every lure I have at them, but can't get a bite on anything. The key is to keep trying until you find what works. I usually seem to have better luck when I throw something that looks similar to a shad, but has a slight variation in color so that it stands out. A lipless, paddletail swimbait, or popper usually work best for me.

Internet friends can’t compare to a lifelong mate, but know that you have a lot of folks pulling for you, and praying for you. All of us on BR think highly of you. Hang in there, man.

Glad to hear it went well. Keep on pushing, and believing.

Aren't we all weird in our own way? No doubt he's different, but I enjoy his show. I watch it whenever I can. I usually decide to keep watching a fishing show based on whether or not I'd go fishing with the host. I'd go fishing with Zona. I bet it would be a trip you'd never forget.

Maybe it was just an unfortunate bad batch. I have rage craws, rage menaces, rage bugs, and rage swimmers in probably 10-12 colors. I have not had that issue with any of mine. They’ve all looked pretty consistent. Did you get them online? Is it possible to return or swap them?

I'd say you're REALLY good at putting your friends on fish, and we're very grateful for that. You're also REALLY good at catching smallies. I've netted some for you that would make @A-Jay proud. As for my special skills, I think I'm pretty good at recovering after losing a good fish, not getting discouraged after a tough day on the water, and backing the trailer down the ramp by the 4th try. ?