Pat Brown

This. I'll only add: Match the power of the rod to the bait/hook that you're throwing and set the hook hastily but use torque more so than snapping the rod upward. Try to reel the slack out of your line - feel the fish load up - pull the hook hard into the fish and reel quickly at the same time. But do it instantly. 😎👍🏻🎣

Heck, I can't even find two creeks on my lake that behave the same. I think you've really got fish for the fish you're fishing for if that makes sense. 😂😂😂

Shallow is relative. A recent Bass after Dark podcast episode about frog fishing with some of the consummate masters of the realm historically - revealed that for somebody like Bobby Barrack, who has caught multiple double digit LMB on the California Delta on frogs - the ideal depth to target with a frog for a double-digit fish that he's looking for is 8 to 12 inches. He points out that a double digit fish is 7 inches tall and only needs 8" of water to hide. I think some people just think they like to fish shallow. 😏😏😏😉😉😉 I think oftentimes when we target big bass up shallow we aren't fishing shallow enough. Some of my most fantastic topwater bites have come walking a frog off of the bank and into the water into 1-2" - where the big bass out of nowhere wakes on it like a killer whale on a seal from those incredible videos!

Thankfully the wife is a fan of the outdoors. We camp and fish and hike and swim and she enjoys being there and often participates and has her own great success doing things her way. I am grateful my wife is also my best friend.

The problem with following your intuition and having a bad case of ADHD is that oftentimes your intuition is saying six different things at once and you know you just need to focus on the cast you just made! I try to be deliberate and methodical and sometimes I let my monkey brain play around when the fish aren't biting where I think they should be and it pays off but I find it's best to be 'selectively methodical' (sort of systematically trying top/middle/bottom/fast/slow/steady/erratic/big/small) or something to that effect - but if the little voice screams 'CAST AT THAT BUSH!' you better probably do it.

I don't even need to say it because a bunch already have and I've said it in your threads a few times now: Learn the fish and the fishing and the catching - not the lures. They all work fine at the end of the day - pick the ones you like.

@ol'crickety you'll be a frog master in no time. Scum Frogs have the best hook up ratio and durability of any I've used so far. Send me your info in DM and I'll ship you a couple. 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼

Thankfully nobody is commercially fishing our public lakes and never will, so that's really not going to happen. But I appreciate Mr. Cousteau and everyone who is a little bit worried. Places that it could potentially have had an effect maybe 50 years ago would have been places like the Great Lakes- but even that is not really commercially fished like it once was. The people who pretend to be commercial fishermen down South are definitely the crappie fisherman and they are getting the light shined on them right now. So it's like the DNR is doing what it is supposed to do. I honestly wish more people were able to catch bass at the ponds I fish - ain't nobody culling nothing out of those places - despite some magnificently, bizarre and cunning efforts that I've seen over the years! 😂😂😂

People have always bedfished and people always keep catching big fish. Anytime you catch a big female it's probably pregnant and probably stressed out. Whether she's been lounging around her bed or chasing bait all day. I think that most people agree that ffs is more of a threat to the untouchable offshore populations that were able to rest pelagically at certain points of the year and are no longer protected but even then - I've read about enough government sponsored efforts to eradicate bass completely resulting in healthy and giant bass - that I personally don't really know what to think anymore. I just try to take care of the fish that I catch and I think that's all anyone can ever do whether they use technology or bedfish / throw lures at open water and hope for the best or target 'ideal habitat' using your knowledge (bedding locations 9/10 times whether ya like it or not) etc etc I'm not trying to debate the ethics of any of it because I think if you're cool sticking a hook into a fish's mouth and pulling her out of her natural environment for a picture - it's all about the same ethically speaking. Just do your best and take care of the animal you've caught and try to release it safely. Last thing we need is a bunch of anglers on big shame and guilt trips or superiority trips. It's all good as long as we are trying our best IMHO. I don't want my son to feel sad and ashamed when he catches his first 10 lb female worried she might be pregnant or dying or any of that. I want him to be happy and proud and soak it in and treat the fish right all at once. The people who should be ashamed are people harvesting beyond a legal limit off of beds or using tech or doing any other such stuff that has ALWAYS been regarded as unwise if you like the sport or even illegal in many instances! People who do these things legally and conscientiously are always the victims of the critics and unfairly so - but the criticism and fear is still very valid. I'm torn for the most part and don't really find myself eager to adopt the technology but I do think it would be interesting to see fish in real time and all that stuff. The nerd in me likes it. The outdoorsman thinks it's removing a lot of what makes fishing good.

I use a LOT of semi transparent or entirely transparent soft plastics when I'm doing a more bait fishy presentation. I think you need some opacity to help hide the hooks. Rarely go solid colors on my lakes anymore. I'd try entirely clear plastics. Zoom has a new one called 'killer blue' that I've done really well with that is almost clear - 'barely blue' is what I'd have called it. Good color. Would be great to have Zoom do 'killer' - all the other colors and maybe even a killer clear!

The giant snapping turtles do the bubbles too. But I seen big big bass do it too. Ya just never know who's around when you see bubbles. 😎😎😎😉😉😉

And this is why it's good to have catfish and bluegill and crappie aplenty. It seems like it's something else for them to fixate on perhaps. I've noticed that the otters hone in on whatever is on bed just like a bass does. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I don't doubt @Bazoo for a single solitary second. Many many times I have been fishing a spot quietly next to some sunfish bedding and had an 8 or 9 pounder quite loudly smash through them and push enough water to get me wet and scare the pants off me. They're noisy eaters in shallow water and LOVE pushing bait against the banks as it gets dark. Even a 2 lber can make a wake and smash the bank making you think it's Moby Dick. Bass are cool.

Well thank goodness there's still a bass worth catching in CA. The folks out West on podcasts make it sound like the bass fishing is completely dead now but that sure looks like a healthy fish. Cool!

I find that every body of water is different. I fish two ponds connected by a spillway and dam and two lakes connected by a spillway and dam and the mood/personality/seasonal habits and general locations of the bass tend to be different between each respective pair on any given day even though they're connected. It's bizarre.

Walleye is probably the tastiest but there aren't a lot in NC so I'm gonna go with a healthy channel catfish. Hard to beat.

😎😎😎🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼♥️♥️♥️🥹🥹🥹😂😂😂 Yep that's about right 🐸🐸🐸😂😂😂

Yeah fall here is just 'Spring 2 : Shad Massacre' ©™ coming to a lake near me ~ 9/30 😀😀😀

My observation: cold weather - fish the middle of the day or sunset for more bites - why? Water is the warmest it's gonna be and sun is warming things up in the middle of the day. Warm weather - fish at night or the earliest part of the day for more bites - hour before first rays of dawn is best. Why? Water is the coolest it's going to be all day and the sun is just starting to make those bait fish a little easier to see for ole Sally. In general for the really really big fish I like 11 am - 2 pm regardless of conditions or time of year. Why? Big girls ain't scared of nothing and they take full advantage of the middle part of the day being the easiest time to see their food - and potential threats too I'm sure.

Plum Apple can't make up its mind. Is it a plum? Is it an apple?

I'm in the 'basically when you're on a good bite it doesn't matter' camp AND different situations call for different colors so they're all good sometimes. That being said - around here the water is pretty clear most of the time so I don't fish a lot of super bright neon colors much. I do better in general on colors that mimic forage. When visibility gets worse I like darker colors more than super bright neon colors or I'll just use white which is natural / stands out/ mimics everything.

You'd be amazed the number of tiny ponds I fish that have loads of crappie and double-digit bass in them. I think in many ways they're a perfect food source for a largemouth bass. In places I fish the crappie rarely get bigger than a pound because the bass make sure that doesn't happen very often. 😂😂😂

They really like those main lake points with sandy channel swing banks - yes they do. 😃🤙🏼🌑🌕🎣😎

Here in NC there's a LOT of 5+ lbers that live on them crappie. I'll tell you what. They're slower and stupider than shad or bluegill and have softer bones.

I love this story so much! Congratulations on getting your fire back. I rarely experience last cast glory because I can't stop casting. 🥹🥹🥹🥹😂😂😂😂

Oh yeah! First time - 7.4 lbs sapphire blue Zoom Mag Speed Craw on a tungsten @Siebert Outdoors3/8 oz t rig (3/0 offset worm hook) in April of 23' way back off a main lake point on a channel swing (I assume preparing to lay eggs on a bed under the tree I caught her off of) Second time - 5.9 lbs on my buddies scale on a black and blue football jig with craw trailer out of the spillway pool right by the dam in June of 24'. Third time - (I didn't weigh her but I'd guess mid to high 5s) on a Green Pumpkin Zoom Mag Speed Worm rigged weightless on a 3/0 offset worm hook fished in current during a rain storm where the spillway dumps into the main river channel on a channel swing bank off of a sandy point (I presume the larger females just did a round of spawning on this bank as it was 2 days before the new moon). August 2 2024. For the ULTRA nerds I did a little research: During this day (April 19 2023), the phase of the moon is New Moon with an illumination of 0.00%. I caught her on the new moon spawning or just having spawned - near her bed probably - twice.