Woody B

Not the best picture. I've got my 9 inch Lowrance mounted on the bow of my Tracker Classic XL with the factory bracket. It's high enough when fishing but not so high that it blocks my vision when I'm going down the lake.

Every month is a big bass month for you!!!

I believe that to be more of a manufacturer thing. IIRC manufacturers have to meet a certain MPG average across their brand. (I'm not sure how EV's play into this though) When I worked at a Chevy dealer a person from GM told me they were losing money on Sonic's and Cruze's so they could sell more gas guzzling Suburbans and such. So, the sub compact was sold at a loss, with the big SUV sold at an inflated profit. This wasn't on the dealership level though but some dealer incentives were tied to stuff like that. IE you had to order so many Sonics before you were approved to order a Corvette.

@TOXIC's 2016 bad experience is way more common now. Most dealerships lost money during covid. Many of the small family run ones sold out. (but small family run doesn't always mean good) Since covid service prices have almost doubled, as well as mark up on new cars. It's my belief that they're trying to make back the money they lost overnight. They got used to a sellers market where they could charge what they wanted to. Many are still trying that. I worked at a Chevrolet Dealership for a couple decades. It was a small family owned dealer. I left there in 2016. They sold out to a big corporation last year. This was the last real family owned dealership around here. I currently work for the "largest used car retailer in the US". (the link A-jay posted is currently the 2nd largest) The price marked on the car is the price. No haggling, and no additional mark ups. This will offer an extended warranty, but no special air, or expensive special wax job. I suspect most modern honest dealers (both new and used)would like to do business this way. It's also my belief that most modern dealers prefer online customers. Online sales, with a no haggle price and no add ons eliminate sleazy sales people.

For decades I would try holding my rod low to discourage jumping. This works for some Bass, but the smart.......or at least the hard to land ones try to go the opposite way you're pulling. If you pull up, they try to go down. Also, when a big Bass reaches/breaches the surface if you're quick enough you can jerk them on their side, and basically surfboard them in. I do this to get Bass out of heavy cover. They usually come up when first hooked. When they breach I pull my rod sideways and reel like crazy to surf board them to open water. If you're on the bank, and have room run away from the water to keep your line tight. I will put my trolling motor on a fast speed and run from them as needed. I'm not pretending to land every big Bass I hook but I think my record is pretty good. I think I lost my PB a couple weeks before I landed it. I hooked it on a t-rig in fairly shallow water near a brush pile. I "surfboarded" it away from the brush, right to the boat. Basically not fight at all due to it being skied on it's side. I got it to the boat, had my line in one hand and was attempting to lip it with the other. It "got traction" and broke off. 2 weeks later I believe I caught the same Bass, and landed it. This was on devils horse. I surfboarded it away from the brush pile, but at the same time I was moving the boat away from it. After being surfboarded for ~15 feet I let it go under and swim. It didn't want to jump anymore. When it was tired I was able to land it.

I've had pretty good luck finding decent sized Bass in what I call "people areas" when the people aren't there. Swim beaches, and areas near them, as well as on the water restaurants. I don't fish during the day at least not when the weather is good. I wouldn't fish a swim beach while people are swimming. There's a particular swim beach, recreational area with a rocky point, and creek channel near by. During the day the fish are on the point or the channel ledge. Many times, at least for me it's hard to get them to bite when they're there. At night, or during heavy rain I can usually nail them on the swim beach or the flat nearby. The on the water restaurant seating are hot spots at night sometimes. I understand that. People probably drop food in the water, both intentionally and accidently. I could see this bringing in fish....which will probably bring in more fish. I don't understand why Bass hang around a swim beach, or wedding venue.

It's my belief that on crowded lakes Bass get conditioned to boat traffic and fishing pressure. I think after the lake gets crowded they just hunker down and wait for things to settle down. It's also my belief that, at least where I fish there will always be some Bass shallow. As it heats up they'll be under docks and anywhere else there's shade. These Bass are usually smallish and they get pounded. Most that I catch shallow during the Summer have previous hook holes in their mouths. Do Bass sleep? It's my belief that the ones under the docks, as well as the ones suspended in deeper water are asleep. Bass hugging the bottom may be active, but they're hard, at least for me to see on sonar. Many people say to run a bait above the suspended fish. I've had better luck running a bait under them, near the bottom. Many times a fish will bolt up from the bottom to grab my bait........but sometimes this will be a Catfish. Occasionally this will "wake up" the suspended school and result in some good action. The best time, for me at least during the Summer is between midnight and sun rise. Sometimes they're shallow but many times they're still deep. I don't see any, or as many suspended Bass, and the ones I do see are moving around instead of just hanging in one place. But.....as soon as I think I have figured something out things will change. I went to a different lake last week. I launched my boat around 30 minutes before sunrise. I found active Bass shallow early. Quickly I caught 3 decent Bass. Shortly after sunrise these Bass just....shut down. I could see them on sonar, but couldn't coax a bite. I went deeper looking for Bass. I found a BUNCH of schools in/around brush piles on points in 25 to 40 feet of water. I caught a couple out of each school, but they were all around 10 inches long. This lake is different, no main channel but I tried creek channels, road beds, ledges and various depth humps with no luck. Were all the decent sized Bass shallow, and not active? The deep 10 inchers were eager to hit whatever I put in front of them.

I'll occasionally catch a White Perch, Bluegill, or Crappie. They're usually small. I put the White Perch and Bluegill in my live well and give them to people fishing for Catfish. I catch Catfish pretty often. They're a double edged sword. I enjoy catching "trophy" sized Cats.....over 30 pounds or so. I usually try to shake the smaller ones off beside my boat so I don't get slime everywhere. My biggest is a 53 pound, 47 inch long Flathead. I caught it on a Bandit 200 using 12 pound test mono. It took a while to get it in the boat. For a while I wasn't sure who was going to tire out first.

I'm old enough to not need one here in NC, but I took a course too. It was pretty much useless. If BASS and others are concerned about safety (and costs) cut horsepower back to 100 or less.

I wonder if Randy is going to enter this one, or hide like he did during the last one. Y'all know I'm going to laugh when someone who wins using FFS wins this tournament without it.

I went to a different lake today. Monticello Reservoir in Fairfield County SC. It's a man made ~7000 acre lake. It's a "pumped storage facility" for a nuclear plant. I was hoping to catch some Menderchuck reject Smallmouth Bass. I started out in a rocky area and quickly caught 3 decent Largemouth. The first 2 were ~3 pounds (guess, first 2 pictures). The 3rd was 4.26 pounds (actually weighed, 3rd picture). There was a little bit of mayfly action early. The shallow bite died so I moves off shore. I caught a BUNCH of tiny Largemouth 25 to 40 feet deep but now decent Bass. (one dink pictured) I'd find schools around deep brushpiles. I've been keeping my Active Target depth at 25 feet (and range at 100 feet) for a while instead of "auto" so I could gauge the size of fish. I had to change that to 50 feet so I didn't have a good idea of the size of fish in the schools. I'd catch a couple dinks at a location, then move to find some more. I never found any decent sized deep Bass or any Smallmouth. I've got Bass thumb, but it doesn't count since there were only 3 Bass over 14 inches. I'm not sure where I'm going tomorrow yet. I'm considering a Broad River trip to try and catch some Brown Bass but I'm not sure about my boat in a river. There's a dam, and a 238 acre "lake" but it's over 100 years old, and probably full of silt.

I went Tuesday morning for a few hours and caught 8, nothing huge. Went again Wednesday night around 11 and fished until 4:30am. I caught 12 none huge, but at least none were tiny. After bragging on not losing many decent fish I lost one that would have been around 5 pounds. I was fumbling with my net and basically pulled up and switched directions with my rod. I should play like I was trying to unhook it without getting it in the boat. I simply pulled the wrong direction and removed the hook. Examination of the hook revealed the barb was broken off, but I would have got it in the boat had I not changed directions on it boatside. 2 trips covering 3 days. One from each day is pictured. Water temp varied from 84 to 86 depending on time of day and area of the lake. I'm going to a different lake tomorrow morning.

He got quite a bit of recognition but I never thought he got the recognition he deserved. He was one of the only TRUE 5 tool players. Many of the 5 tool players were really good in one area, and decent in the other 4. Willie was great at all aspects of the game.

Too many to list. I used to drag race and had a few purpose built drag cars. That's a different topic. My first vehicle was a 1965 Chevy stepside pickup. I took out the 230 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine and put a 454 in it. Later I had a 1971 LT1, Z28 Camaro. I kept it for a few years and sold it for a nice profit. I had a 1963 Corvette split window coupe for ~6 months. I had just one a big money race and ran across a guy selling that needed money. I didn't a little work on it and sold it to a collector for a BIG profit. The daily driver I miss was a 1969 Cadillac Eldorado. It had a 472 cubic inch engine. You could pretty much see the gas gauge move when driving it. I used to tow my race car with it, but eventually sold it and bought a truck.

The old saying "it's not the arrow, it's the indian" comes to mind. Me and spinning gear are like oil and water. We just don't get along. Others are the opposite.

Regarding Summer vs Winter, I don't think Bass feed at night during the Winter.

Fishing pressure.

Posts like this remind me that we all fish in different situations. What kind of line do you use? Do you use a leader? I've never seen a need where I fish for any kind of leader. I think in most cases a leader just complicates things.

Is it just the side cover, or the piece that moves when you deploy/stow the motor? Trolling motor parts (.com) has side covers, and probably most any other part you need. If you can use something like this a little space between the boat and dock might prevent any future problems. Dock Defenders Wake boats are a menace. A friend of mine who lives on the lake had the cleats ripped out of his dock, and his pontoon float away due to the huge waves. He put in a boat lift.

If you're fishing pressured waters the Bass are probably seeing the same lures you're using multiple times a day. Get away from the "popular" new stuff and go back to a spinnerbait, bladed jig, lipless crank, or even a lipped crankbait that runs the depth you want. In the past everyone around here was either using spinnerbaits or jerk baits. This year they're all using the new stuff like you are. (I call them fancy FFS baits) I couldn't catch anything on a spinnerbait in the past, but now that everyone is using something else they're tearing up spinner baits again. Also, I'm not much of a video watcher but the ones I've seen and the articles I've read says to keep your bait above suspended Bass. Lately I've been having pretty good luck rolling a spinnerbait, or bladed jig near the bottom under the suspended Bass. You might get "catfished" doing this though.

It's not. It was squirming around and I was about the drop it due to it's slick lips. It was really close to the camera when I snapped the pic. It was 16 inches long, the LM was 20.

I'm on vacation this week so I'm going to spend some time fishing. I went last night and fished from midnight until 5. I caught 11. 8 cookie cutters (but no dinks, for me cookie cutters are 13" to 15") and 3 decent ones. Biggest was first, a 4.16 pound 20 inch long Largemouth. (first picture) I caught a Spot that might have been 4 pounds but I didn't weigh, measure of photograph it. When I unhooked it I knocked a rod overboard. I needed both hands to be able to grab the rod before it sank without falling out of the boat. I didn't want to lay be Bass on carpet so I released it and saved the rod. The last one (last picture) was a 16 inch Spot. It looks bigger in the picture. I was struggling to hold on to it. It didn't have any teeth. Both of it's lips, as well as it's tongue were slick. It looked healthy to me. I don't think the lack of teeth was keeping it from eating.

I think the "grab then gone" fish are mostly small. Obviously I'm not feeling what y'all are feeling. When I have grab then gone bites I don't have them "on" long enough to feel how big they are. Sometimes, if this is happening quite a bit I'll do something different with my hook setup, then land a Perch or something that's not a Bass. A big part of me landing Bass is boat control. My boat isn't big by Bass boat standards but it's a solid platform for setting the hook. A small Canoe or even Kayak is going to soften the hookset. Then, after the hookset if using a paddle you're unable to steer the Bass, instead the Bass pulls the boat around. I fish right in the middle of lay downs quite a bit. Most of the time when hooked the Bass come up. I'm able snatch and surfboard them away from the lay down. While this is happening I'm using my (oversized) foot controlled trolling motor to move the boat, and Bass away from stuff to get tangled up in. So far this year I've lost a couple fish that broke off on the hookset. These were due to me not retying when I should. I've had one get tangled in a lay down and break off. I've told this before, but last month I lost what looked like a 3 pounder on my first cast, on it's first jump. I followed up with a wacky, and broke something off on the hookset on my next cast. This was first thing on a Saturday morning. I spot locked my boat, re tied everything, re rigged a wacky and sharpened my dull spinnerbait hook. The next cast (to the same spot) I caught my biggest Bass of the year. I don't have anywhere to fish around here with reeds like that I'm sure I'd lose more fish. I also suspect I'd catch more fish too. (and I'd be using #50+ braid instead of #12 mono)

I love fishing in the rain. One of my best days last year was a day it rained so hard my automatic life jacket inflated.

I caught 7 today. 6 cookie cutters and a new PB Spotted Bass. 1 cookie cutter pictured along with the 21.3/4 inch long 5.26 pound Spot. I didn't think the Spot was that big. I knew it was too big to boat flip so I lipped it. I decided to weigh it and it weighed 5.26 pounds. I re zeroed my scale and it weighed the same thing. Then I measured it. It was 21 3/4 long with a girth of 14 inches. It appears to be freshly spawned or either has some other kind of recent injury on it's tail. It was dripping blood from it's tail. I've read that (some?) Spots spawn deeper. I caught it on a shaky head, on the bottom in 18 feet of water. The other 6 were all caught on a Devils Horse. I didn't fish long. My back is hurting some. My last several jobs at work last week were all bending over working under a hood so I've got a sore back. I'm on vacation next week. I'm going to take it easy the rest of today and tomorrow. I'll be back on the lake Monday when it isn't crowded.