Pat Brown

I just use the smaller size missile baits spunk shad! Or a fluke jr.

I actually love the hook sharpener advice - practical advice that definitely will increase your hook to land ratio! I don’t think anyone was necessarily saying spinning rods are bad at all. have you tried using a “heavy power” spinning outfit in lieu of a bait caster? Maybe a 7’ or longer with a lot of backbone and a small range of motion near the top of the rod? that plus a deeper spool and heavier braid and sharpened hooks would probably suffice if you were dead serious about only fishing spinning rods! Wasn’t trying to be redundant with my reply earlier - just trying to offer friendly practical advice BUT maybe there’s a workaround hidden in there somewhere - I’m guessing you’ve considered all options though - you are generally speaking wildly successful! 😎

I could write a long verbose post about this but @king fisher summed everything I was gonna say up pretty much perfectly. You need the right tool(s) for the job(s) that you find yourself encountering in a day on the water! Since I basically have nothing to add I will leave you with a fathers anecdote of his sons stubbornness at times. Jake is a mostly normal 13 year old kid and throughout his boyhood - he was also mostly normal - what do I mean by that in this context? I mean he didn’t like to carry a lot of things back and forth for most of that time period. Oftentimes that meant a polite reminder before departure to “get all the rods you might need for the boat today - we probably fishing pads and wood” followed by a few hours, a solid thump, a brief fight, a giant bass jumping a couple times and either snapping Jake off or pulling off followed by big ole tears and sadness….why? He decided a couple spinning rods would do it. Whoops. And I’m talking he’s lost some that make my PBs look like henchmen for big mama. I think @A-Jay has said more than a few times that *preparation* is 90% of catching big bass and it wasn’t til I saw Jake forego being properly prepared a few good times that I really understood what he meant - you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight!

I have found red to work and not work in all manner of water clarities and conditions and slow and fast presentations and all seasons and I think it has more to do with whether the fish are around and active and whether you’re presenting the bait where they want it at the speed they want it than the color.

I tried that last year and I made a huge dent in my expenses and I used a lot of tackle I had. It’s a good goal. Needless to say - I still bought myself a few toys but it was mostly stuff I really wanted to catch a fish with and not just “let’s see if THiS works” ad infinitum and I’m happy about that.

Y’all remember the hawg I got on the Spro popping frog last year (bottom of the post quoted above)?!?!? Here is your opportunity to see the cast to catch capture of the moment! Super lucky to have this memory on video!!! Enjoy! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! 🐸🐸🐸🦃🦃🦃

Same to you and the rest of the BR family! You always make me smile and I value all that you guys and gals teach me every year!

Welcome! Bass fishing is indeed the greatest sport there ever was and we are so glad to have you here! Enjoy the ride and share what you learn with us all so we can be better anglers when you can!

Odd man out : Go for it! Report back when you catch a new PB (or keep it secret 😜)

Simplified my approach and equipment and tackle for the most part and I’d say made the mental/biological aspect of fishing more complicated in the interest of better understanding how to be a steward of healthy fisheries and big bass catcher.

I don’t feel like it’s that important to use both - but I enjoy the ability to be more efficient and quiet and accurate and baitcasters are a useful tool in that regard but by no means essential to catching large bass or numbers of bass. There are many presentations I HaTe throwing on a bait caster like a jerkbait or weightless plastic or jig minnow or a flashy swimmer - basically different tools have different applications for me and I appreciate having them all for me - you should use what you enjoy having for you.

I use the 30$ Walmart reels - black max - they’re nice for the money - I use them for beating the bank and pair them with a 30$ Walmart rod! 😆

@Cdn Angler - I like a 5/0 gamakatsu offset worm hook and a pegged 3/16-7/16 oz tungsten sinker and I throw that guy into the heaviest stuff on the lake/pond and work it all manner of ways to elicit strikes. My favorite colors are Green Pumpkin, Black and Red Bug. It’s the 7” with the little curly tail that kicks. Caught me piles of nice fish and tied my PB or 11 lb 5 oz with one back in May. It’s a mainstay 12 months a year when I am fishing heavy cover in clearer water.

Top 10 Mag Speed Worm T rigged Trick worm weightless 10 “ ribbon tail free rigged 1 oz siebert grass jig and swim bait trailer Various sizes and models buzzbaits Spro and Copper Red Baits frogs Red Eye Shad Hybrid Hunter DT6 bladed jig honorable mention: Fat Free Fingerling Big O Frittside Silent Sgt Lipless Mepps Aglia #3

Been doing pretty well with lipless crankbait and chatterbaits after work at the 10 acre grass pond near my house - I was able to take some of the better captures and make a cool video on the techniques that have been working down in NC as the temps cool and also captured some of the beauty of this urban hydrilla gorilla factory! I know there’s always a lot of curiosity about the places we fish and hopefully you enjoy the digital tour of one of my little public spots! Enjoy!

Watched it on Ott DeFoe’s channel - him and Drew Gill have amazing chemistry and some incredible fish catches. Looks like a really cool fishery! The bass are beautiful!

Hey everyone - last weekend we got out and had some fun on the little grass lake local to us and successfully filmed it and posted it on YouTube! It’s beautiful down here in NC and I think our video does a nice job showcasing that in addition to a little fall Hybrid Hunter fun. Our lakes close at 3:30 to boaters so it’s short and sweet but we get our licks in and show a thing or two about fishing the HH! Enjoy and thanks for watching! My wife Meagan did the camera work and editing and my dog Stella and son Jake co starred! We had a lot of fun putting it together and we are going to try to make more!

I like a crankbait that suspends or very slowly sinks when it starts to get really cold (surface temps below 50). I don’t think action or color is that important as long as I can let it sit and then barely move it and then let it sit etc.

I feel like the shallow areas fish are likely to use become much more specific this time of year. Look shallow directly adjacent to deep and if you’re looking shallow look in direct sunlight and look at protected areas that are still in current.

@casts_by_fly - the frog and jerkbait are both lures I like for fish I am positive are there - I am not a fan of looking for fish with either because both baits are pretty slow presentations. Both baits are very effective even when fish are extremely pressured but the key is definitely timing and location. Frogs - 99% of the time I hear people say “I throw a frog when it’s too thick of slop for a spook” or something to that effect. I can count on one hand the number of frog fish I’ve caught in heavy vegetation around here. It would take a lot more hands to count the frog fish I’ve caught on wide open clean hard bottom do nothing banks around rock or wood. Weird huh? I think sometimes - a big key to having success with a new bait is figuring out where no one in their right mind would use it and start throwing it in places like that. The obvious places are the places that they get educated fast. The jerkbait is a lure I’ve caught 50 bass in 2 hours with. It’s one of those baits that - when they’re in the right mood - it’s the only bait you need to bring. Active feeding windows and places that they kill lots of bait are mostly what I target with a jerkbait. It’s got a pretty specific job for me. I might work it very fast near the surface if I know a smaller area is loaded with fish etc. It’s funny that you said May-July, can’t buy a bite on a frog - for me - those are often tougher months to fish a frog - I do my best March - May and August - November on top water in general but by a country mile with frogs. If you see a place you think “I bet there’s a bass right there” where normally you’d flip a jig or a worm, try gently placing a frog on the bank and sliding it into the water next to that laydown and then helplessly walk it back and forth real slow making it spit water now and again. Next to lay downs, under shad lines, paralleling bluffs or rip rap etc. I think of it like a spook where they don’t see big mean trebles or hear spooky rattles or knockers - the bigger bass seem to think of it that way too. In March and April - this is a good way to get your rod bent!

I am also from NC and I fish those baits a lot and have had insane days with jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits and red baits and shaky heads as well as caught giants. The biggest advice I can give to someone new to fishing these baits is fish them slower or faster than you think you should be fishing them. I usually do my best fishing these baits either too fast for fish to recognize as fake or so painfully slow that I sometimes see my line swimming off without even realizing one has the bait. Most people fish too middle of the road with both baits. Another big piece of advice is fish small and bigger lipless and jerkbaits- they’ve seen a TON of the standard size. Try silent and rattling and knocking variants of both bait categories and keep your colors simple and natural looking for the most part - don’t stray far from the local minnows in terms of how your jerkbait looks. Red baits - early spring - cold muddy water! Shaky heads - just fish them more - they’re deadly and one of the easiest ways to get a bite on the planet. Play around with jighead weight and worm size and use black worms - they get bit in all conditions.

I often catch a few dinks around bigger fish that i also end up catching - especially this time of year. The fish seem to get much more grouped up and you have to weed through smaller fish sometimes to hit a bigger one. For me - anything that I can fish faster to make them react seems to work better. I don’t do very well fishing slow until the fish are around their beds in the early spring. YMMV

I was worried you lost a double digit bass! Go buy a new rod! 😂😂😂

I usually just fish the conditions on any lake - that means the conditions a few days prior and the conditions today are kept in mind when selecting areas to fish. A 3 day blow with cold front might have me fishing protected banks - a warm day might have me fishing shallow areas with cleaner water and hard stuff like rock and wood. A cloudy windy day might get me fishing deeper on structure or more on heavy cover. You really have to fish every day differently and I just try to fish the day I get!

That’s amazing! Congratulations!