T-Billy

All about perspective. My guide buddy's clients went 10 for 16 yesterday, and 3 for 10 today in conditions similar to what I described above. Hooking 26 musky in two days tends to make the conditions seem not so bad. I sure hope they're still chewing when I get there tomorrow. Gonna be a rough day if they ain't.

Going muskie fishing tomorrow. Low 20's to start, low 30's to finish. Blowin 15-30. Should be fun. 😂

@A-Jay, you have good taste in hats my friend. 😉

I've been very happy with my Okuma Guide Select rods. I use them for smaller musky cranks. I'd go with the 8' H for the baits you mentioned. It's rated 2-10 oz.

Spool to frame gap is a problem with the zephyr. Anything under 8# mono gets caught in there on mine. Shame, would be a great value if it weren't for that.

Spent the morning getting my clock cleaned by the FFS guys on offshore shad schools. My guide buddy included. Had fish all around me and couldn't even get a follow. My buddy guided his 9yo son to 4 including his new PB 45". Tickled for him. He's a great kid. I enjoyed watching him light 'em up. Bailed on that shenanigans after a few hours and went back to my bread and butter fishing structure. Managed this nice 43" on my favorite rock pile, and had four more follows. Follows were super aggressive, but they were being weird and taking short swipes at it in the 8. Finally got the 43 to commit around 1:30. Awesome bite. It came out of nowhere and absolutely smoked it in the first turn of the 8. Called it quits around 3. Tired of fighting the wind, hungry, and my hands and wrists are thrashed from chucking the rig 7 of the last 9 days. Just looked through the photos. Today's 43" is muskie #51 over 30" on the year, with 13 of them going 40" - 48.25". Looking like temps are fixing to crash. I'll get to fish five days next week, then who knows, every trip could be the last after that. I'm gonna stick it out as long as I can. I got some 6" and 7" tubes, and some 5" blade baits to go vertical with once icing guides get to be too big a PITA to cast.

When you're as handsome as I am, ya gotta beat 'em away with a flippin stick. 😂 Put one of them on a big circle hook and send it back down. 😉 20's-30's in the mornings, 40-60 in the afternoons.

Thankful I got to spend the holiday on the lake with my bride today. Unfortunately we weren't able to get her hooked up. I was blessed with a 40" and a 37.5". I also had a low 40's come unbuttoned boatside while trying to get it in the bag. First multi fish day since mid October. T'was much needed. Those slimers been making me feel bad about myself. LOL. We'll be back after 'em tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get her on the board. Been awhile for her.

All manufacturers can be included in this. Love the handles on my zillion hd's. I've put big knobs on my flipping reels and no longer have an open wound on my index knuckle from March till December. Wish all my reels had em.

My best 5 this year would weigh in at about 19#. Anchored by a 5.67. I didn't spend much time chasing them this year. I'll have to remedy that in 24.

So hard to guess from pics. So many variables. That said, put me in the around 6# camp. Beautiful specimen. Congratulations!!!

LOL I can live with that. I was marking big shad schools at the base of a 100yd rock ledge the other day. They'll be there all winter. This seems like just the ticket. Got some big 6" and 7" tubes on the way too. When it gets too cold for the A-Rig, I'll go vertical with these.

I have a pair of 'em. Excellent for slinging light baits.

I just received my order of XXL Steelshads. Gonna replace the single hooks with some 4X VMC trebles and some 100# hyperwire split rings and see if I can get some muskies to eat 'em in the coming weeks.

Generally referring to any type of submerged vegetation.

I open the eye just enough to slide the blade in with a 1/16" nail set punch, then close it with a set of pliers. Mustad, VMC and Victory hooks all work well. Gamas are tempered too hard for this. I've had a couple break. I used to make them like that skimpy guys YT video shows, using a straight shank with a wire form for the eye, but I had a couple of those fail so I went to opening the hook eye. It's easier and much stronger. I use a Do-It sparkie jig mold. It's designed for 60 degree hooks, but using 30 degree hooks allows for using a 5/0 in all the cavities.

Dunno how I missed this thread last Feb. Too late to call my shot now, but a bait similar to your pick got it done for me @A-Jay, with both the brown and green bass. My homebrew chatterbait, with a Do-It molds 3.5 Ripper trailer in green pumpkin. 5.85# LM 5.67# SM

Yeah it's been warm @gimruis. The fish have been really tight lipped. My guide buddy's clients have only been averaging a fish or two a day, and a lot of those are coming on a dead shad rig. He has FFS and is fishing giant shad schools in open water. I've been on fish, fishing the breaks, and outside weed edges in 10-13, but I haven't been able to make 'em eat. Glides, jerks, cranks, A-rig, they follow them all, but won't commit. Been REALLY frustrating. Surface temp's 48-49 in the morning and 52-53 by afternoon on sunny days. I took this coming week off, but now I'm wishing I'd waited another week. I was just looking at last years pics, and it was Nov 28 to Dec 9 that the A-rig carnage REALLY went down. On the upside, it's looking like I'll be able to fish later into Dec this year.

Boy did I ever jinx myself with that statement. Good grief. Six skunks in a row since the 1st. Finally got Pepe Le' Pew out of the boat today. I've never been so happy to catch a 31.5" in my life. LOL. Been moving a few every trip, but getting them to commit is another story. Colder temps in the forecast, so things should start improving. Today was better than it has been. In addition to the little guy I caught, I had two tails bit off and six other follows. Three were in the 40"-44" range. Then the wind did a 180 and started blowing out of the east. That shut the action off like flipping a switch. I ran across this glutton below on a weedy shelf at the mouth of a cove. Low 40's with a 3-4 pound bass T-boned in it's mouth. No way that fish can swallow it, but it has high hopes. I followed it around filming for almost 5 minutes. It was just slowly cruising around, not too concerned with me being over it.

Long rods with long handles, and plenty of backbone, take a lot of work out of tossing and working heavy baits. My recent muskie addiction has changed my perspective on rods for some techniques. I've come to like a 9 footer for glides and jerks as well as swimmers. Tucking that long handle up under your armpit makes working big, heavy, glides and jerks a breeze. The long rod also requires smaller movements than a shorter rod to get the same action out of the bait, thus keeping you in better position to quickly set the hook. With swimbaits it gives you more distance with less effort, and moves more line when setting the hook at long distance. If I were gonna throw big swimmers for bass, I'd forget about those 7'6" - 8' bass rods and get a 9' MH muskie stick. Nearly all have telescoping butt sections these days, so they store like an 8 footer, and fish like a one piece.

I came within a couple feet of catching one of those with a DD22 once. I was fishing it on Gorilla Braid. Old school stuff that was about as smooth as concertina wire. Ol boy came really close to having a VERY bad day.

Props to him for giving his honest opinion about things work, and what it takes to make it to the elites. That said, he's quite the Debby Downer. If I'm a rod/reel/tackle manufacturer, that ain't the personality I'm looking for to move my product.

Exactly. The guys that left BASS for MLF did so because they felt like it was the best option for them and their families. It didn't pan out that way for some, and they returned, or tried to return to BASS. I don't fault any of them. I'd do the same. I'm not emotionally tied to any company. Business is business, leave your feelings at home and take care of business.

That's a solid simple rule of thumb right there. Definitely wanna be chasing the shadows when there's a bright moon overhead. I may stay offshore, but if so, I'm fishing deep weed edges or even deeper rock piles.