Pat Brown

Gorgeous smallmouth. It really seems like they tend to strongly go for one or the other. Must have something to do with the tighter shimmy and dive vs more thump and lift. I feel like sometimes it's even a profile thing and they just like one specific shape more.

I'm my opinion the two biggest pieces of advice I can give you are: 1. Not all lipless crankbaits fish the same. Find the one that works best for the cover and depth you're targeting. I find some work best for 'bumpin n grinding' (rat l trap/Klutch/Quake) some I prefer for pumping or yo going (hard knocker/Red Eye Shad/Tremor) and some are good for jigging and fishing like a jig (Sergeant/Aruku Shad). You can do any technique with any of them but I like certain models for certain depths or speeds basically. Do not sleep on the 1/4 oz models, they cast like bullets on bait casting gear and get bit a lot more than the bigger ones and tend to be better for slow rolling around super shallow cover). etc etc etc. Get a few different sizes and models and learn what kinda cover and structure they work best on for you. 2. 70% of the time regardless of the size or brand of lipless crank I'm throwing, I fish it exactly how I fish a buzzbait or spinnerbait - I point the rod at noon and slowly start reeling before the bait can sink and then I drop my rod may 3-12" at a time periodically very slowly and smoothly and pull at different speeds while varying the reel speed all with the VIBRATION of the bait being the primary thing I'm focusing on. This takes practice with each lipless. Some barely thump and some feel like a chatterbait or Squarebill and the bass definitely will go for one over the other at different times. But basically I'm just trying to occasionally feel the cover /structure and then keep it gently fluttering up and back to me and I'm always starting with the slowest speed I can manage to efficiently keep it rolling without it getting gunked up. If it gets leafy or grassy I give it a hard rip and try to get it fluttering again and then resume my cadence. I will also slow roll it on the bottom and just under the surface. I will yo yo it. I will do all of this on one cast. I try to walk and cast. I don't just cast and cast and cast at one small spot or piece of cover with a lipless. I'm after an aggressive big fish that's ready to roll with this bait and I'm trying to cover as much water as humanly possible with the bait as I can and that is it's strength - drawing fish up and out of cover to attack fiercely. Lock it in your hand and just try to cast as many times as you possibly can and try to get it up in and as close to the stuff as you can and you'll get a big one. I want that water dirty to fish it and wind sure doesn't hurt.

Okay fair, I do love the late winter early spring transition. But if I'm hooking them, I'd love them to be pre. 😉

Let's GO @Woody B! Double topwater attack in NC in January today! I guess if you're south of the Mason Dixon line, better get outcher frogs n spooks n buzzers n poppers n such. 😎😎😎😎🎣🎣🎣🎣 I wanna channel my inner woody tomorrow on the boat hopefully and figure out how to catch a million fat bass in one trip like I was sort of doing for a second in the fall. 🥹🥹🥹🥹 But only after a sunrise topwater and lipless walkabout. Oh goodness I do love me some prespawn.

We are super duper chocolate milk right now but that just means more lipless crankbait for a lil bit which should be fun!

Looks a lot like a threadfin. This time of year fish look pretty pale in general so kinda hard to say exactly but it's a shad/Herring of some sort.

I definitely use the bottles for soft plastics regularly and I like all the colors a lot. I use blue, red and methylate in addition to chartreuse. Also don't sleep on the black spike dye on the back of a swim jig meant to imitate a shad or crappie. 😉😉😉

Proving things to ourselves is the only real way we learn any kind of confidence in bass fishing! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Just caught a 9 lber on an oyster colored red eye shad that I put a black back/chartreuse stripe and a gill spot on. I use sharpies or whatever permanent markers look good to color my baits. I don't care if it's garlic scented anymore and I don't think the bass do either. I could never get bit when it was all white.

Topwater in January? ✅😎

Pro Fisherman (older) : Denny Brauer. I really like his demeanor and his fishing style. I relate to Denny. Hank Parker is my other one. Another NC boy. Rye sense of humor. Fishes like I fish. Just an all around great guy and amazing fisherman. David Fritts. Just a machine and a monster with the crankbait. I aspire to master each technique I learn to the level David has mastered cranking. Pro Fisherman (second wave) : Greg Hackney. My spirit animal of bass fishing is probably Greg if there is one! Pro fisherman (youngin') : Kyle Welcher. If you aren't aware of Kyle. He's the best in the world IMO. Humble and cold blooded. Still has a good sense of humor and he's probably gonna win a classic or two before he's done. Educator: Tyler Berger (BassFishingHQ), Jony Schulz (Bass Fishing Declassified/Fish the Moment), Jimmy Easterling (The Fishing Teacher) Paul Rogers (The Nature of Fishing) are all really good resources for people who really wanna figure this stuff out. Forum Members: I think everyone here is super into the game and think this place is cool because I learn deep level juice from everyone every day but there are some stand outs.... @ol'crickety - positivity/reverence/enthusiasm/support/friend of the bass and to us all! She's a hog snatcher and numbers getter that puts more pressure on Maines isolated big bass than everyone else in the state combined from a canoe with a paddle! @Catt -rye sense of humor/tons of experience that he shares in ways that encourage anglers to use their own brains to figure stuff out and that's my kinda teacher. @WRB a deep well of information and stories from arguably the most mysterious and famous bass fishing boom to hit the US. He lived it and has wild information that really helps shatter the preconceived motions us Southern anglers treat as gospel. We can learn a lot from our big clear water fisher friends. Personal: My Dad. The voice in my head and the man who put a rod in my hand and taught me how to find fish, catch fish, clean fish, cook fish and how to make sure there's fish there when we get back. A conservationist and a man of science and God at the same time. I am proud to call him my father.

I'm about to do just that tonight at a small grass pond that is absolutely erupting with bait fish activity with this warm front. I expect it to get crushed! My favorite way to fish them is cast it parallel to a bank and let it sink down and then do soft and sometimes less soft twitches followed by nice pauses and sometimes just slow lifts etc back to me. This works really really well in high visibility and high fishing pressure situations year round when small bait fish of any sort are on the menu.

Yeah I just got the email and my discount code is not working. Or at least everything in my cart is not showing any discount anymore. Hopefully they fix it.

If I had let her eat for another hour or two before I caught her, she probably would have been a DD. I'm happy with the one I've got under my belt, but another one would hang the moon for me, especially from the Pressured Pond®™ 😎😎😎😎 Thanks for the kind words and here's to some giants for you when weather permits.

I'm out of likes y'all but this place is the best most supportive and thoughtful fishing community the world has ever known! Thankful to call you all friends and co conspirators in pursuit of big bass dreams!

Jr needed a haircut and it was raining so I said why don't y'all drop me and my lipless off and pick me up after his haircut and we go to the grocery store. I got there at 4 pm and walked the banks and casted with no bites for one hour and got to the rip rap wall adjacent to the dam and saw piles of shiners in the dead flooded vegetation. I also saw the dirty water here and I knew it was game time. Made 3 casts. She hit on the third. I thought I hung my lipless on a log and then the log started swimming away from me and then back towards me and then started to really pull the drag out. I kept the tension on her like I learned from ole David Fritts and when I got her in my hands the skies erupted and I let out a howl at the top of my lungs all by myself! Meagan and Jake got there just in time to say goodbye and she swam away with vigor and fervor! She was NOT the half tail monster of legend and as such has renewed my vigor for pursuing the giants of the Pressured Pond®™ just in time for the inevitable move to spawn coming next week! Beyond grateful to have made this beautiful ladies acquaintance and set her on her way to feast on shiners, put another pound or two on, and make beautiful bass babies! 🥹🥹🥹♥️♥️♥️ I'll be out there at the crack of dawn tomorrow you better believe it!

I fish a lipless a lot from the bank through wood and rocks and grass in little to no water and rarely lose them. I simply cut the hook off the front that hangs down and hooks everything but fish and I have a lot of success catching fish and not snagging.

One of my favorite sometimes patterns: Shallow dirty body of water - find the cleanest water 😎😎😎 Another one of my favorite patterns clean shallow body of water - find the dirtiest water 😎😎😎

Just trying to do you proud! We all know who the master is dude!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

I still think this pond holds a DD yet to match my lake PB of 11.5 from last July, but for now...the hunt continues 😎😎😎😎 Today...we celebrate! 🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆

Full Moon? ✅ Unseasonably warm rain? ✅ 'bad time of year' for bass fishing? ✅ What's a boy to do? 😏😏😏😏 Maybe mess around and stick a 9.3 on the red eye shad! 🎣🎣🎣💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲❄️❄️❄️ New PB at the ole Pressured Pond®™ Good day to go fishing after work 🌝🌝🌝😎😎😎🫡🫡🫡 LET'S STINKIN GOOOOOO!!!!!

Welp. Look like I might have gotten it taken care of tonight 🥹🥹🥹

Every spring there's the old spawning pattern. Every day there's the old feeding pattern. Every day there's the old inactive pattern. But there's patterns within patterns that can help you *in the moment* be more likely to catch a bass *sometimes* I don't go out expecting to hit a pattern but on the lakes I fish, if you get on one....ride it out til it's bone dry because it's tough tough tough most days. Sometimes the pattern is that there is no pattern and you do the best doing a little bit of everything. This kinda stuff is probably what makes bass fishing fun!

Rattling lipless cranks yo yo/pumped off the bottom or slowly swam just off the bottom have been great in cold muddy shallow water for me this winter. Seems like the worse the visibility gets, the better they bite the lipless up shallow.

I think pattern fishing can be a really good way to efficiently target larger groups of fish that are active on any given day out on the water. But if your goal is to catch a very large fish, you definitely don't need to pattern fish.