JZpowered

Plan to fish a small lake that I haven’t done well at before but I know it holds good fish and I think will help me improve. Normal water vis was approx 2-3’ or less, stained and a little murky. Some coves had a bit clearer water. There is an algae bloom advisory, and we got heavy rains this week and will get more before the weekend. I’m assuming this means dirty water. Deepest parts are approx 10-12ft by the dam, and the lake is skinny with one main creek arm, and another shallow cove. Main cover is laydowns with some pads shallow. I can find lots of guides on springtime muddy/dirty water but not summertime. I’m thinking chatterbait, large profile flipping jig, potentially topwater very close up in cover. Bold colors. It might be wise to go up the creek arm if they have moved up there towards colder/fresh water? But I’m not sure about this. How would you guys attack this?

Hey Guys, Jerkbaits have been killer for me this season so far, but seems every trip I’m bending hooks back. Now I have to decide between stock replacement hooks(which i like and have great hookup for me just dont have confidence in them after bending them back in a few times) or upgrades. Tacticalbassin recommends size 5 gamakatsu g-finesse hooks for them to remain as a suspending bait, but evidently these are backordered until march everywhere. Not sure how a size 4 or 6 would impact the buoyancy. What hooks are you guys using on vision 110 full size to get a suspend or ultra slow sink/float?

Looking at electronics for my Kayak - I think I'm looking for a 7" screen with both Side and down imaging. It seems the Garmin and Humminbird units don't have many maps for my state compared to Lowrance's C-MAP and capability to download maps uploaded by other users. I fish in South Jersey, Lake Lenape for instance I could only find on C-MAP and I don't want to graph the whole lake to have that capability. But, let me know if I'm mistaken and have more options than Lowrance. With that said, I'm looking at the Lowrance Elite Ti2 and the Lowrance Hook Reveal. Will the Elite Ti have better picture quality/clarity for sideimaging and down imaging compared to the Hook Reveal? if so how much better? Anything else I should consider let me know! Thanks

Funny enough I had a similar experience with mine, but the blade didn’t break; it seems that the eye just let go of the blade or broke. Was fishing a dam by me and the deal there was casting chatterbaits into the white water right at the dam wall and retrieving out slowly. Because of all the rock and nature of the current you’d lose a few if they got wedged under a rock so didn’t wanna use a Jackhammer and risk losing it but tried the Project Z chatterbaits and caught a few before this happened. This was a brand new bait and wasn’t really beat up compared to other ones I’d fished. I emailed Z-man customer service just out of curiosity to see if this is something theyre aware of happening but haven’t heard anything back.

I’ve had more 0 fish days on a glide than any other technique but it helps keeping me throwing it when I remember having those insane days with it too. Baby bass is definitely a sleeper color and guaranteed to be one of their potential forage anywhere you’re fishing for bass. Don’t be afraid to throw bright colors either, they have a lot of drawing power. For me a Glide is definitely using the drawing power of a big bait then working it erratic to draw strikes. You could also try the megabass magdraft freestyles, I’ve caught several 4lb fish on them through/over weeds and hooked up on every bite so far with an owner 6/0 beast hook.

I like throwing glide baits even if they don't match the hatch so that’d be my deal but if that isnt working I would try throwing a frog over the ludwigia close to mid-day when the bigger bass may be pulled up in the shade of the thick plants. Followed by casting past it and Ripping a heavy swim jig through on braided line. Big topwaters/wakebaits could also work. In my experience when they are all close to 1-2lb they probably have access/ability to eat most of the same forage so unless youve seen/know of bigger ones in there they may all be that size. The ponds I know of with dinks and big bass consist of LOTS of fish under 12” with only a few fish in the 1-3lb range and the rest being 4+. Sometimes you just need to wade through the dinks, same glide bait I caught my PB on(8lb) I’ve also caught some 1lb and 8” fish on.

Truly, more experience/time on the water especially at each location will help you eliminate baits before going. Use weather conditions, cover/structure available, time of day, water clarity, to pick. If I fish from the bank I typically bring one backpack with 3 smaller Plano boxes with jigs/terminal tackle/spinnerbaits/hardbaits/frogs, two side-ways and one front-to back alongside them to create kind of an 'L' in the bag which gives me empty space to put bags of plastics in that I chose. I'll usually concentrate on color first based on water clarity, and bring a pack each of what I plan to fish, craws/creature baits, big worms, senkos, keitechs, ned rig baits, dropshot baits, flukes. If I think a particular bait will work great that day I might bring 2 packs of varying colors or sizes. There are many days where I've brought too much but the days where I wish I brought a particular bait suck more. You can absolutely fit everything in one bag just try to plan ahead.

Definitely a dropshot with 2-3 different baits, sneaky one mentioned is a small swimbait. Try working it aggressive with a heavier weight. Deep diving cranks or lipless cranks too. If they're only interested in the big bait but not committing in my experience from my favorite clear water spot here that's usually a sign they want it but something else needs to be right(retrieve or color/size/shape) to get them to eat. Try slow swimming with two hard rod twitches mixed in when you think a fish could be there or if you see a follower, then kill it for a second. Can also kill it mid-retrieve and it should either bank off left or right which might trigger a reaction. Other thing I've noticed with big baits in clear water is sometimes the color is really important, if possible try a different color. One last tip with the glide - keep the bait in the water as long as possible sometimes working aggressive up in inches of water even if you think the fish stopped following, and make longer casts if you can far from the bank.

If theyre hitting topwater but missing a frog, try a weightless fluke or senko. One of the lakes here I will double my bites over a frog by using a weightless senko or stickbait and pointing the rod tip up while twitching/reeling fast waking/walking over the surface with short pauses every so often. You can do this over the pads or weeds too but works especially good because you can let it fall into any pockets also. As for some frog tips: Like some others said start with some softer frogs like booyah, spro, or river2sea(or boil your current frogs in water for a few minutes and let cool to room temp), bend your hooks UP and OUT slightly so your finger will stick when slid down the frog. When you get a bite make sure the bass got the frog and the line is tight before swinging hard. Make sure your gear is also up to the task, a stiffer MH(good for smaller people or those struggling with a hookset) or H(better for stronger/bigger people) rod will both work, I prefer 7'3' H.

Tight line for sure, had a period of a few days where I was missing fish and when I thought about each one they were all on a slack line. Doubled down on making sure the line is tight especially with EWG hooks and been having more success.

Standard Wire EWG should be fine on that rod, I tend to use a 3/0 gamakatsu standard for 5" stickbaits on my ML spinning rod. Definitely try using a fluoro leader rather than Mono. Most importantly make sure you reel down and have a tight line before swinging. I try to remember that of course a hard hookset is good but the distance your rod swings and speed during the hookset are what help take up any minimal stretch/slack and drive the hook. This is why a longer rod will be able to set the hook better since it moves more line on the swing. I would also avoid the heavy wire hook, and make sure to keep pressure on the fish once you set the hook. If you feel like the hooks are possibly penetrating but popping free I would loosen your drag slightly and this may help also.

From what you described I'd try to let them swim with it a little more and focus on getting a tight line before swinging if you find youre setting the hook and your bait is getting its pants pulled down, but these may be smaller bass. Granted I've caught 10" bass on thick 10" ribbon tail worms where theyve already swallowed most of the bait almost instantly, but smaller ones tend to be kinda like what you said - feel the bass getting mostly the tail and running with it then dropping it. In my experience bigger bass will take the whole bait and start swimming more similar to a senko or other worm bite or just sit with your bait and feel like mush/dead weight. I'd use a 3/0 on that size worm and I use a 5/0 on a 10". If you want to try a different hook you could try a round bend worm hook instead of an EWG

I've been having the most topwater success here Early Morning with Walking Baits and Rest of the day/evening with Frogs/Poppers. I'm sure they would work reverse too I just tend to fish each most at those times. Favorite walking baits are the Super Spook(rounded face, wider walking action) and River2Sea Rover 128(cupped face, tighter walking action), Favorite Popper is the Rebel Magnum Pop-R(balanced, bigger profile, heavy enough to throw on a baitcaster, super cheap - gives me lots of confidence to stock up on replacements throw tight to cover where bass are holding), Favorite frogs are the Spro Bronzeye for thick pads/slop mats and the Poppin Spro for anywhere else. Put some time into learning to walk a popper and find the rod you feel most accurate casting it on(Some guys prefer a spinning over a baitcaster for this) and you will be amazed how many options you have fishing a popper. Since you're in Florida I'd definitely upgrade the trebles.

Hey J-dubs welcome to the forum! Follow state/local laws, but don’t let people discourage you about keeping bass in an aquarium. Just make sure you are prepared and know the expectations from keeping these fish. I have a 75G aquarium as well setup for 4-5 months currently with 3 Largemouth. I caught them with rod/reel from a private pond on a trout magnet jighead(barb removed). Day of collecting: The most important thing would be first keep some minnows or other small fish in the tank for about 4-6 weeks to “cycle” the tank and feed them normally to develop the bacteria colony in the filter. As for as “enough” filtration this will depend on how much the pump in your sump flows, I would aim for 5-10x turnover of your tank meaning 375-750gph for a 75G tank. I have a large 500gph Hang on back filter as well as a sponge filter to help add some filtration. Live plants and regular water changes will also help keep up with the waste from the fish. Happy well fed bass: If you want to truly save money on food, you will want to pellet train them. Schooling bass are competitive and we can use this to our advantage to break them from live food. I trained mine by feeding them cut up earthworms that they would fight over them and hit them on topwater. Then starve them 1-2 days before offering a few water soaked pellets. Once one bass eats one to compete against the others they will all eventually eat them, it may take a few offerings. I like the Hikari Carnivore floating pellets as they are small in size but quality food and also are very strong scented so the bass destroy them. I did release the smallest bass early on that was being out competed by the others for food. Schooling = competition, just a few days after they were added to the tank: Keep in mind you want room for your bass to turn around so eventually you will need a place to release the fish in about a year. A 75G tank is 18” front to back, I would recommend releasing your fish before the ~12” mark before it has difficulty turning around. I plan to downsize to 1 fish soon as 3 larger fish will be too much eventually even if they can all turn around. As of last month: Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks guys Awesome what part? Im from towards Atlantic City area but last season fish between Menantico all the way up to Ocean County area as well. Hopefully will expand that and have some good days on the water with a kayak this year.