Tatsu Dave

Welcome to the site! You will very much enjoy the first time you set the hook in a 3lb smallmouth thats for sure

Leaving braid out of the discussion what is everyone happy with in a good clear fluro or hybrid fluro line? I worked up thru seaguar from red label to invizx and finally tatsu, happy with the tatsu if you use KVD line conditioner. The tatsu is the best I've found so far taking abrasion - sensitivity - line stretch - knot holding and overall diameter into account. Hearing about hybrid lines and wondered how they work as no experience with them. No interest in mono, used it for years and stretch/sensitivity don't work for me, is GY line one of the new hybrids?.......any on water experience and opinions will help. Gonna buy line to spool the reels this winter and looking at options, I will say the 10# tatsu is a good diameter (.010) and as invisible as possible and with pickerel teeth not counted, it's very abrasion resistant. Price is stiff but its what connects my rod/reel to the fish so whatever line costs its worth it if it works well. What say you?...........

Never despair, what has worked for you on good days will still continue to work for you. We just powered thru a couple dismal fishing trips due to a sudden hot spell putting fall transition into reverse. We went with the thread title on here right now.....when you KNOW the big ones are here. They don't move to another state or lake they just stop biting like usual for a couple days or even a week or so but it comes back and the net and scale go back into use I know what colors and lures work for me and I don't waiver, its those skunky days that make this game a challenge and fun to play. I'm real lucky where I live, we don't encounter other fisherman very often. The launch area's are quiet and no lines lakes and rivers we like aren't lined with homes and camps. There are still terrible days and we know its not to blame on pressure or boat activity its just a time the bites off........BUT we still know the big fish are there and its just a day to enjoy the wildlife and sunrise and watch the eagles fish. I do have one suggestion for those bad days, I put on a small 1/8 oz shakeyhead jig and rig it weedless with a ribbontail grub. If that don't work I go home and get on BassResource and read posts. Dave

Excellent Fish! Dropshots can be deadly.........

Well year round I guess my favorite would be weightless T Rig 5" stickbait (Senko - Trick Stick - Ocho) in one of my five most fish catching colors. Second would be a 4-5" kalin grub on an 1/8 oz jig weedless. Third would be a Pit Boss or brush hog style creature bait weightless or with 1/8-3/16 oz weighted drop dead VMC hook. The first one will account for at least 70% of my bass....large or small mouth. I love plastic fishing with a spinning reel

Hope this is where this post goes...I have to say we bought a net to bring in the heavier and longer fish and are very happy with results. Its a Ranger tournament series telescoping rubber dipped net. No problem with hooks getting snagged or caught and it moves fast in the water when it needs to. Long reach and don't damage fish, haven't had any big pickerel tear it up yet either. Wasn't inexpensive by any stretch but worth the cost for a net that truly does it all. Well worth it Dave

Hafta revisit my earlier this summer answer, this week we did very well with junebug and rainbow trout color 5" stickbaits (GY Senko and BBB Trick Sticks) these accounted for some real nice size fish . I also tried 4" Char. pepper kalin grubs on an 1/8oz real deal shakey head tungsten jig rigged weedless, hadn't fished any grubs in that color in years........they couldn't get enough of them....smaller but big numbers

Welcome and enjoy!

Good to hear from you and will see you on the forums Dave

This site often makes my day, lots of info and experience available. Welcome

Real Deal tungsten just like your pic with hook size you want. TW sells em' was using them yesterday with large curly tail grubs. Dave

The best in my experience of all of them........but yum pulse swimbaits have a rocking motion as they swim that at times can really be deadly on bass. Just sayin'.........

Howdy all, this was my sons last week before going back to work so we spent pretty much all week fishing. Things have slowed some due to warming water temps but we still located some nice ones here and there. I lost a big one in a submerged treetop when he wrapped around about a 3-4" limb and when we got the boat over to it he was down about a foot and a half in the top yarding on the line trying to break free. I thru the rod down and grabbed the net hoping to lift him up out and unhook the line from him but he broke the line and I watched him swim out of sight with my lure still in his mouth We did catch some large pickerel and several nice bass, saw many eagles and beaver as well as a couple huge snapping turtles. Deer are along the banks in the acorns as well, heres some fish pics...........

Lakes with rivers that run in and out of them. Maine

I ordered my order 9-4th and they were closed the 5th-6th-7th it shipped on the 8th and is due to be delivered on the 15th, I am about as far away from them as you can be and I don't think that's bad at all. Everything seems normal.

Weather cooled last couple weeks and water temps dropped 8-10 degrees, fishing really turned on and things were good. Then we had almost a week of hot days and much warmer nights and water temp climbed right back up to where it was before the cool down. Fished last three days straight and the fish are coming very hard and bite seems limited to first 1-2 hours of morning. Hoping things go back to normal and temps come back down to normal.......heck we usually get our first killing frost (mid thirties or lower) by the 17th of the month. Instead today it was 85 degrees and we're in the sixties at night. It should turn around pretty quickly however.

I actually dream about it some when I sleep.........funny thing I never catch small bass

Buck Perry, Bill Dance, and local legend where I lived Roland Martin were my favorites to learn from in the early days. I never had a fishing mentor growing up so I was self taught and learned from reading and watching those that knew. Doug Hannon and Billy Westmorland also really interested me in there pursuit of the sport as they thought outside the box. Most of all I learned by putting in my time on the water and learning from my mistakes and success. Good thread! Dave

I'm a bass fisherman, brown or green don't matter to me just because of where I live. We catch about 70% largemouth and about 30% smallmouth, all less traveled lakes and rivers with beautiful scenery and both species are about equally challenging to catch. Last season my best smallie was 4lb and largemouth was 5lb 3oz. very close in size as well. They both came from same body of water ? what fights the best is what I have on my rod at the time. I honestly don't like one better than the other.....glad to have both where we fish and be able to catch both on any given day. Its more exciting to catch big striped bass than any other bass species. Good Fishing Dave

No actually one of your videos was a real Wow moment for me, when you changed the way you hooked a stickbait on the hook to greatly change it's movement in the water you blew my gotta be perfectly straight on the hook the same each time methods You were using a white stickbait think your wife was filming..............Dave

Good advise for sure, I have kept a three ring binder myself for many years and would be lost without it. Computer files are easy and hard drives are cheap so digital back-up would be a fail safe. I'm lucky I don't have as many guns I load and keep loaded rounds for so if necessary would break down one to get OAL, powder weight, brass and primer. Know all my cartridge powders by memory. Hope your book shows up. Dave

Don't need to post as this would have been my response as well, I like the darting action of the stick bait over the gliding action of the jerkbait myself....seems to trigger more strikes more often.

Another vote for the striker plus, with screen size the bigger the better. I use mine for bottom structure and depth as well as water temp and being able to waypoint structure spots and drop offs and return to them. Boat speed is another good point. Dave

Well I bet there's one thing we all have in common....catching Smallmouth Bass

In northern part of country things are cooling and slowing down on the water. Fish are now feeding harder and water temps are hovering at 62 degrees. Early mornings at dawn are high 40's and bugbites are all but gone Think we will hit the water Tuesday thru Thrusday this coming week, try to get some big ones pictures. Caught a pretty big pickerel the other day.....he jumped out of the water twice right up next to the boat and yet didn't manage to bite the line off I was amazed! Dave