Pat Brown

I think there's times when both play. And it's not even predictable based on conditions necessarily. It's fairly dependent on pressure and lure conditioning and also the mood of the fish you're fishing for and any of those variables are subject to change. It's pretty much best to expect to experiment but to experiment intentionally and pay attention to what the fish tell you.

Tournaments should all be catch weigh and release. Live wells are for bait fish. OK, in all seriousness: if your fish is suffering from barotrauma and needs to be fizzed and you have the tools and know how to give that fish a chance, I can see the live well being helpful! I do think, in general, tournaments should be catch weigh and release. To the anglers who keep a few for a photo at the end of the day, I just don't have enough on the water experience with it to have a 'real' opinion and I respect everyone's choices.

There are a LOT of folks here who are very insistent upon a single Colorado blade spinnerbait being a very productive big fish presentation once your water temps bottom out for the year. Dragged slowly on the bottom. I intend to try it! In my opinion, from fishing willow leaf and indiana blades and catching lots of fish, there's no real wrong place or way to fish them but you learn where to throw them and how to work them from the fish in your body of water because they tell you what they like based on seasons and conditions the more you fish the bait and experiment.

Yeah it's supposed to be rainy and 56° tomorrow so I reckon good times are around the bend. Summer just had one last hiccup.

I have not caught a bass over 2 lbs for a couple weeks and it's been weird. I feel like this mega warm front actually made the bite tougher in my area...at least compared to what was happening while temps were steadily falling. I feel like whenever I bring maybe one rod and a couple baits and just lose myself in the flow state, I catch more fish and I feel the value in fishing.

This was harder than catching a DD 😂😂😂😂🎣🎣🎣🎣🎃🎃🎃🎃

I generally look for stable conditions that stimulate baitfish activity. The bass get very very active but also they are very focused and have LOTS of food around. This is why reaction baits tend to do better in the fall but finding active fish is a timing thing and can take a lot of grinding on a big lake.

That fish could easily be 15 years old and it might just have been it's time. Her body was not wasted and to be sure her genetics are thriving in that body of water by this point. Your friend got to hold that majestic creature while it breathed it's last breath and hopefully the end was peaceful for her. Sad when that happens but it's just part of the game. For what it's worth, I try to keep fish in the water breathing and only lift them out for a quick snap. I don't hold them out of the water. That can easily suffocate an old tired fish.

Oh you mean the best fishing line? 😉😉😉😂

I think a light rod with about 75% backbone and 25% fast but bendy ish tip seems to work for just about everything in bass fishing. I rarely struggle to feel a bite. I just struggle to get them committed sometimes 🤪

I think there's a LOT of truth to what you're saying. I do think that for people pushing their YouTube success to a whole different level AND trying to grow the actual reach/bass fishing fanbase, it may make sense at least for a period of time to grow personal brand etc It's pretty interesting to say the least!

And IMHO, we are going to see a lot more people coming to the circuit AFTER YouTube monetization success. BASS wants that money. MLF wants that money. Everyone wants a piece of the Milliken Magic™

Cinnamon purple flake twin tail grub on the back of a 1/4 oz PBJ brush jig has gotten me broken off in a tree by something very large in early January! 😂

Certain forage requires effort to chase down and certain forage is 'slow moving and bad at evading predators' I believe Herring are very fast and good at evasion as are threadfin and gizzard shad. You need something fatty and abundant and slow moving that largemouth bass enjoy eating AND less competition overall for those tasty swimming morsels. Spotted bass are just more efficient hunters than LMB.

Trout or Golden Shiners or Tilapia seem to be the conditions that could produce a WR bass IMHO. 😉If Ivey ever started stocking lots of trout, there would be a 30 caught within a few years probably.

Probably just not enough people fishing and too much food or something totally natural like that.

I'm going out on Saturday and I'm going to fish like my life depends on it because I got a good feeling this is going to be a day that big fish feed heavily. I found some pretty good schools this past weekend and couldn't get the big ones to bite so I'm going to go back to those locations with Glide Baits and stuff like that and see what happens.

Same here on muddy sub 50° water @Woody B From what my research is telling me, they tend to get higher in the water column when it's muddy. They will often get super shallow. And of course they will find less muddy somewhere. I think the key to catching cold muddy water bass is super sunny days with very little wind and clean hard bottom in that 2-7 foot range. Let's hope I'm right 😂😂😂😂

I too am afflicted with this condition and see no end in sight. Spinnerbaits are cool and they catch big fish.

Did you get it on a new Christmas present lure?!?! That sure would be exciting!

Usually it starts in December for me too but this year all the bass are accelerating rapidly through their seasonal shifts. I can't explain it. The temps are still low 60s but the bass are already acting wintery. They were acting fally in August and I took a hit on catch rates before I figured that out. It's weird. This past year they spawned in January too so I feel like they just are on a weird schedule in NC on account of sun angles or something. Hard to explain but its getting to be quicker every year and long before the temps 'catch up'

@Cattdon't sleep on that 1.5 oz 😉😉😉😉 When a bass sees a spinnerbait moving that fast they don't really know what to do with themselves.

The leaves are coming down. The boat rental services are starting to shutter their doors. The weekend warriors have been off chasing deer for a couple months now. I am starting to catch fish on lipless crankbaits and jerkbaits. Here in NC, winter fishing is just getting ready to launch and this is a thread like the 'what do we love about fall fishing?' But for winter. Here in the south, we get to look forward to big schools of bass that bite on every cast and the chance at catching the biggest bass in the lake while they're full and fat bellied. Less boats on the water. Less fishing pressure. Reaction baits. When I'm bank fishing I can bring one rod and a small box with 3 or four lures in it and my scale. No more junk fishing. No more slow fishing. No more waking up SUPER EARLY or staying SUPER LATE for a bite. For us southern anglers, it's kinda bass fishing heaven. Here is the thread for that. Share your excitement, your enthusiasm, your stories and maybe your goals for this winter! Who else thinks winter is the secret best season for bass? ❄️🌨️🎣

Just makes me even more confident in the quality of my Strike King hard baits! They're an awesome manufacturer.

With jigs and soft plastics, I like to have my favorite stuff in a variety of colors (and action and fall rate and profile but color seems to matter more for something they examine). With crankbaits, I like to have my favorite color in a variety of sizes and actions. Once I figure out the color of the stuff they're eating I get those colors and focus more on my presentation and what depth the bait is running.