Pat Brown

I like throwing a buzzbait into the dense heavy cover and the super shallow waters and fish it past and over targets a lot. Biggest tips I can give is get the bait moving the instant it hits the water - bites from the big ones always seem to happen really early on in the retrieve and then also casting accuracy is paramount. If you see a little tiny cave or hole with water flowing back into it or a pile of logs with a few inches of water interspersed throughout the topping out wood or maybe a really nice shade line waaaay at the back of a pocket that's super duper shallow - you gotta get it perfect - but those are the kinds of places you can get a ton of success with a buzzbait. Sometimes you would think there's no fish til you REALLY get that cast right in there just right and then it's pandemonium. Also the buzzbait seems to reward covering water. Not my favorite bait for picking apart areas but excellent for burning bank and casting at everything that looks good.

I have a few approaches with jigs but regardless of whether I'm casting it and letting it fall or hopping it or dragging it or dead sticking it or swimming it - the previously aforementioned observations remain. Jigs are great for catching bass in open water around structure on a slow retrieve but when you get on a REALLY spectacularly good jig bite, you're throwing the jig at every target you can see visibly and the jig is often getting smacked hard long before it arrives at the bottom. There are definitely days where I catch them on structure with jigs fishing them on the bottom too - but this is what seems to be the type of action that happens when they're On It™. YMMV as always 😎🤙🏼🎣 I will say to your credit - when the water is clearer - slower and lower almost always works better with jigs but when it's a little dirty - I move shallow and plan to keep that rod in my hand all day probably.

I prefer dirty water for a jig 😏 I think you get a lot more bites on jigs when visibility isn't great because they can't exactly make out what it is and all of the secondary action of the skirt and trailer combined with the water displacement from the bulk of the bait make it very effective. I personally don't find that claw action is about whether craws flutter or don't etc It's more about generating a reaction strike/slowing or expediting rate of fall/creating a profile/mimicking small bluegill or perch or baitfish. Bass definitely eat crawfish but I think bass bite jigs because they look alive, not because they look like a crawfish. I like claws that move mostly because they seem to generate more bites in clear and dirty water regardless of how I'm working a jig/regardless of water temp. Jñ I have caught fish with chunks and I use them when I want to increase rate of fall or when fish seem to be more keyed in on dead action and less on movement.

I bank fish a lot and I fish from a Jon boat that has me paying about 150$ a year give or take to stay on the water. I only use a trolling motor and battery. I mostly spend money on new rods and tackle throughout the year but lately I'm trying to spend less money and fish with the lures I have. I'm coming to the realization that I couldn't fish every lure I own before I die even if I tried. Trying to stick to terminal tackle and replacement rods etc for the most part this year but we all know how that goes 🤫🤫🤫🤫

I guess the reason the super chunk is good is because it doesn't have action. For something similar that has a lot of action. I like the net bait paca chunk.

You're going to want 1 to 2 oz flipping weight pegged and a very stout hooks for what you're trying to do but also don't sleep on a fluke weightless on a spinning rod with 15-25 lb braid over the top real slow 🤫🤫🤫

Nice to see more mustache representation @bp_fowler - carry on 😎 @Choporoz - that one looks worthy of the full body shot for sure. Looks like a super big one? Did you get a weight on her?

Y'all aren't even gonna believe when you catch a fish on a jig with no claws 🤫🤫🤫😏😏😏 In all seriousness I think mostly they think it's a little sunfish or something and the rate of the falling and secondary action and profile you get with the. skirt do a lot of the heavy lifting with jigs.

I throw @Siebert Outdoors Kent Craw a lot. I will throw it in his honor this weekend! Thanks Kent!

This time of year: When I have no idea what's going on and I got shallow cover - 1/8 oz buzzbait and a rage menace with no skirt and go. If I don't have a ton of shallow cover or targets to fish I bust out the drop shot with a finesse worm of some sort and work structure. If I don't have a ton of structure or cover - a bass has a hard time resisting a weightless fluke Jr on 8 lb mono fished slow. But if I'm being honest - I'm becoming a live by the frog - die by the frog guy 50% of the time so.... I'd probably just fish a frog. 😂

This would get my vote 100% Seems like this can even work going forward for 'new technologies' as well, potentially. Don't remove new technology from the sport completely but let the guys do their best in practice to sort a lake out with state of the art stuff and then on derby day - go bass fishing using your instincts and accumulated skill based on your knowledge of how bass react and relate to their food and their environments and how to efficiently present artificial lures to capitalize on this knowledge. I think it would be great for the new guys who are masters of it AND great for the masters of bass fishing who don't use it but can't compete when it's allowed during a tournament.

I'll add the paca craw/slim/chunk and Berkley chigger craw both of which have done really well for me - speed and rage stuff does the rest of the work In the craw department.

When it's 12" or less - hard to beat black! Oddly enough also a fantastic color for very clear water. I don't do great in typical stained water with black unless it's got some red/purple/chartreuse/blue accents.

Love that bryozoan butt section and grip. Is that a new Abu feature they'll be putting on every rod???

Here in NC - it's really all about surface temps IMHO. When the surface temps dip down and the thermocline disappears - the fish start acting like it's fall - regardless of day to day weather - which will confuse us as anglers. It's kinda like what happens in February every year. Big bass move up shallow even if it still feels like winter to us. For them - increasing daylight hours and slightly increasing overnight lows = surface temps go up ~2° and boom, they are ready to spawn in shallow water again.

I'd prefer a 4"+ swimbait on a 5/0 screw lock EWG because you'll tear apart far less swimbaits. I am not a big fan of small hooks for soft plastic baits that I'm going to be chucking and winding constantly. They tend to tear the plastic up from casting + weight of the plastic itself.

Fluke Swim Jig Spinner Bait Buzzbait Buzz Toad Swimbait + flashy swimmer Frog Mag Speedworm Carolina Rig (hard structure) Drop Shot (soft structure and grass) Texas Rig (brush and wood) Wobble Head Jig/Football Jig (rock) Shaky Head (steep ledges) Punch Rig (dense vegetation)

Really good on finesse jigs and on little jig heads in shallow clear water. I fish them from the bank and they are skunk beaters on really tough days.

Welcome from the Triad/Piedmont! Grew up in Durham - awesome area. NC is an amazing bass fishing state - you're going to learn a lot here! -Pat

That's why we fish. It's healing and peace. Well done sir.

I think water clarity and fishing pressure and timing have a lot to do with how line shy fish are. It's another one of those factors that you've got to take into consideration on a day-to-day basis and play it by ear because every fishery is different.

My favorites are a 6" zoom lizard, D Bomb, Rage Bug, Palmetto Bug, baby brush hog, z HAWG, z craw.

Yeah - you're spot on - it's just a funny shaped worm! They definitely catch the bass though! I like pegging my weight with the beavers so they can plummet along with the bait and hook as one unit into cover! Others will feel differently but this has worked best for me. Sometimes that bulkier flatter profile really seems to appeal to them over the longer slenderer profiles. The gliding action on the way down seems to be the biggest trigger and I tend to get 90% of my bites on a creature bait on the fall near a target. Enjoy!

Hey! You're talking about me! What I have done is learn to recognize poor phases for getting bites and going into these trips with low expectations - trying to recognize things besides fish caught and bites as feedback and THEN - more importantly - I try to fish the times when I think my recon work is going to actually pay off like my life depends on it with very high expectations. Every month of the year you get about 6 days where you can bet on running into Nadine. The rest of the days are opportunistic reconnaissance.

Everything I have read would indicate that stocking F1 without culling Florida's/Spots/Alabama bass under about 18" isn't gonna do a lot. Basically for the food pyramid to re arrange itself you have to help the big fish along and remove a lot of small fish. It's what pay to fish trophy ponds do all year long to ensure the success they want to guarantee clients.