Pat Brown

To me it’s just good on fish that have seen 1000 jigs and Texas rigs which is all of them lol

So there’s a few key 🔑 details 🙇 that people need to be aware of when fishing a free rig IMHO. The plastic needs to sort of be the protection for the knot with this rig - if you practice and get it dialed in you’ll see what I mean. For the bait to properly glide freely the knot needs to be inside the plastic so the plastic has maximum glide/spiral/dart/whatever that it is intended to do when you give the bait action. Heavier weights seem to separate the best and there’s a sweet spot in that 3/16-3/8 oz range where everything seems to really operate the way it was intended to for me at least with a wide range of soft plastics on a wide range of line diameter. Obviously the round eye tear drop sinkers are going to be the freest and I recommend the Walmart ones - they rule. Lead is better than tungsten for me. It’s bulkier and gets snagged way less. It’s also softer and sort of gives coming through hard cover more. Way way better for me. I like the lightest wire hook I think I can get away with - this will dramatically increase the overall effect of the rig underwater. Here’s where the rubber meets the road with this rig so get your pen and paper out now: As much as it pains me to do it, this is one of the only presentations where I will dramatically feed the bait slack on the fall. This is the only way in my opinion to get the proper action on the initial presentation you cannot have semi slack line with a free rig it does not work. You need to give it enough slack to where you basically probably can’t see if you get a bite or not for that initial fall. If you want to get bit on the drop learning to trust this process is the first step and trust me. You’ll feel the thump or see your line swimming every time. It’s not that big a deal once you get used to it and you don’t need to let it sit for too too long after the initial slack line fall. When you’re working the bait back to the boat, the subtleties are very similar and equally important. You need to pop the bait up hard and then immediately drop your rod tip and throw slack into your line so that you see coils on the water if you do this next to you, you will see what I’m talking about the difference between popping the bait and dramatically, throwing it slack instantly versus popping the bait on semi Slack line is night and day and it’s the difference between getting bit and not getting bit most of the time. Play around with it and see what your fish like but my best luck has been with Beaver Baits or bulkier profiles that glide and have lots of lift on the fall like mag speed worm or mag speed craw or brush hog or even flukes and trick worms and ribbon tail worms are all deadly on the free rig. The key is really learning how to illicit those moments where the bait and the weight separate and once you get your range of motion dialed in and learn how to be subtle or not so subtle, you can really milk a spot with this bait and you can fish it slow and fast and I find the way that the teardrop weight hangs below the bait, you can stroll it or buzz it back to you for big bites a lot of times, especially with that 3/16 ounce sinker. I think one of the biggest keys with this rig is getting the sinker hung in wood cover and then popping it free and getting the weight and the bait to separate and in my opinion this happens more with the free rig because the sinker tends to get hung up more than a Texas rig sinker. I think it really gets big bites so don’t be afraid to get it really hung up in the brush. When working brush work it more on a tighter line and when you feel it pop free from something give it a little bit of slack on the initial drop and you’ll get thumped a lot of times instantly . It’s all about learning when to strategically give it a little bit of slack basically and then you’re golden. It’s kind of like a jerk bait or a frog in that way. Have fun with the technique everyone who reads along with this rambling rant about free rigs! They definitely are fun and sometimes they get bit 10:1 over a Texas rig for me!

@Bluebasser86 The lightest I usually go for this technique on a sinker is 3/16 of an ounce and I use 3/8 of an ounce a lot!

Cold front dropping temps into the low 40s (and into the 20s tonight) hit today and I walked the bank in the backyard - missed some good bites and then double back through making casts from far away and this 3 lb 12 oz beauty thumped the free rigged net bait dagger on the fall. She wrapped me up in a tree pretty good but the 3/0 worm hook kept her pegged nicely. 6 lber yesterday and almost 4 lber today - that’s fun! Unfortunately the action may slow down a lot tomorrow and Tuesday but by Wednesday the weather will be trending back up and this weekend we should have favorable conditions for catching a nice one on shallow cover again!

@king fisher you always share wisdom and catch monsters and you’re hilarious so I’m gonna have to toss your name in the hat - I’d say you have to be pretty obsessed to guide for a living down in Mexico also! Cheers! Keep sharing wisdom and being hilarious and catching Mexican DD bass for us to gawk at! I will echo all who say @Catt and @WRB-2.0 who over the years I’ve been a part of this community always challenged conventional wisdom and shared their most hard earned wisdom and always encouraged us to find our own fish and forge our own paths - the best advice you can give in fishing and in life, really. Miss those guys tremendously but it makes me happy to know their spirits are swimming in the waters of California and the waters that border Texas and Louisiana and beyond. Winking from the stars when I feel that tick. We will all be joining them someday - but let’s enjoy every moment of what we have in front of us this year for Tommy and Tom and for ourselves! I appreciate the folks who’ve been kind enough to mention me here - I humbly do my very best - me vs the fish - and when it works out I humbly do my best to share what I learn and be an ambassador for the sport and encourage the same line of thinking as Catt and WRB did - and it’s because of their wisdom and generosity. Rest easy Tommy and Tom!

I nominate @Team9nine @Bluebasser86 @TnRiver46 @A-Jay @Swamp Girl @Lottabass @PhishLI @Fried Lemons @Gutierrez @Choporoz @thediscochef @Mike L @pdxfisher @Glenn@N Florida Mike There’s tons of hammers on here but I see the passion these folks have and the results are undeniable!

Leaders definitely have resulted in a few four letter words on the boat back when I used to try to make them work. I’d suggest committing to straight braid or a straight fluorocarbon or monofilament line that you prefer. It has happened to me with Alabama rigs and glide baits and lipless crankbaits - all of which really load your rod on the cast. It hasn’t happened since I stopped trying to use braid ->leader. A 5/8 oz jig is a pretty heavy bait and I throw those on a minimum of 15 lb big game and generally prefer 20 lb.

I’ll recommend trying a jr z craw rigged flat or a baby rage bug rigged flat! Helps it glide and plane for a slower retrieve with less erratic action which can really be the ticket with a bladed jig sometimes!

Tank in a foot of muddy water today - leading the big bass battle for February for 2026 with this one! Free rigged bronco bug in black and blue got it done right before they closed up for the day!

I pay more attention to a consistent steady increase in overnight lows than anything else. If you have a warm night with a little warm rain (warm being relative and in this case warmer than 32 degrees Fahrenheit - those of us with lakes that freeze) the next morning can produce the biggest fish of the year - especially if the warm drizzle is steady and gentle and consistent. On days like this, I target flats and places around spawning banks with lipless crank baits and jigs. I also try to target all of the ditches and drains with water flowing in or causing erosion during these warm events with precipitation early in the morning with jigs, especially!!!

Come on somebody catch a fish - it’s time y’all! (I’m talking to me 😭)

@GetFishorDieTryin Wish I understood the science behind the weather - but it seems like not even the local meteorologists have it figured out - so I’m not too worried! 😂 Last year we had ice for about 3 months on everything down in central piedmont NC lasting from December until mid March. This year we accumulated about a month of iced over conditions across the December - February span with melt/refreeze happening pretty chaotically from week to week. Year before last we had about a month where lakes were frozen at the end of the winter and then it was spring. 3 years back it was fall and then it was spring. Truth is - we get quite a bit of variation from year to year ranging from Florida or Texas like conditions to Iowa like conditions and everything in between.

Bass like shade and night time regardless of temperature - especially in water that’s fairly clear to very clear. They don’t like being hunted by birds. The early morning and later afternoon both provide a confusing and intoxicating blend of obscurity and visibility that lasts very briefly and I think big ones use it every single day everywhere they live.

If the water is wet and the daylight hours are increasing - bass have to eat! I hear what you’re saying - but we get ice on our lakes and such. If the water they got in Iowa freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit - my advice stands - fish for them when the water is wet in the spring - big ones eat in the cold early morning hours shortly after ice has melted and even sometimes just before it forms here.

Caught some giant bass before the sun comes up in the spring. Go for it!

For some bait categories - running straight seems to be a precursor to getting bit at all - for others not so much. Timing and preference of the bass population seem to factor pretty significantly. There are times when a gentle pull that gets a jerkbait wiggling in a straight line is just the ticket - times when vibrating a jerkbait in place is the deal - times when it needs to slice and dice side to side erratically etc. It’s good to be aware if your baits capabilities and its limitations and it’s good to impart some of the variations each bait is capable of to figure out the mood of fish!

With that bass he is now #14 of all time unofficially but in my mind it definitely is. Incredible stuff to see in my lifetime! You don’t see fish like that often and it couldn’t have happened to a humbler guy or a more serious hammer. Wanna see proof of Damian’s prowess - go watch his double digit frog bass compilation. It’s like watching a Super Bowl highlights reel. Many of them are from the bank and the rest are from a kayak. His hookset is FIERCE with a frog - I’ve learned a lot from Damian just watching him fish.

Almost all bass eat fish and almost all fish are kinda pale belly and dark top. That’s generally what I go with when I’m worried about it. It’s good to have some bold colors and some more natural colors for clearer or dirtier water - those extremes tend to be when color can help fish find it or make fish more curious - but most of the time a natural looking bait fishy color will do for just about any presentation. Profile is something that is much much more important to have dialed in for bass. Where and when you cast and how deep and fast you work a lure matter more than profile and color.

I’ll paraphrase what I read - in the wind it weighed 17.46 on a bubba scale and they tried to get California fish and game / DNR etc and couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone with certified scales. They found someone and with the help of a friend with a bass boat that had a good live well - they took the bass to a certified scale and it weighed 18.75 multiple times. They took it back to the lake and released it safely and a friend told Damian in confidence that he broke state law transporting the fish - as a result it will not be a lake record. Scales needed to be brought to the site. Damian was fully transparent about this and owned it. To me though - he just cracked the top 20 biggest bass of all time. 18.75. Wow. He caught a 6 and a 10 out of the same piece of cover a couple casts before this one bit. That’s why you keep casting to the tree! 😵🎯

I tend to agree but she’ll probably be okay. Maybe his options were kill her and drive her corpse somewhere she could be laid horizontally or weigh her by the lip quickly and let her go to fight another day or have a fish story and guess at the weight forever. Fishing from a kayak you don’t really have a live well to stuff her in for hours driving around and really that’s probably not great for fish either. He probably did exactly what he had to do to get a weight. I respect his choice.

Not my work sadly - but how big y’all think Damian’s latest is? I dunno about you guys but that thing looks biggggggg. https://www.instagram.com/p/DU1Z8v0gdg_/?igsh=MnJyemxmeGVqenI2 Damian Thao doesn’t really hype things ever and he’s caught a lot of giant bass - that’s a really really big one.

NC has had ice on lakes for a month or more the past three winters - the winter before last - notably a full 3 months of ice for us. Back in 2022 it was already 50 degrees up shallow in early February. It just varies a lot down here is the honest truth. We have a lot of 50/50 Florida Northern hybrids and a lot of 70/30 Florida Northern hybrids from what I’ve been told by local fisheries biologists. The 50/50 tend to show out more during the ice out conditions and cold fronts in the fall and such. The 70/30 tend to show up more during the warm spells after prolonged melts and hang shallow in the dead of summer more. From what I understand there are still small but significant populations of pure Florida and pure Northern in most public lakes that are 50 years old or older. Over time the two unique hybrid largemouth phenotypes (70/30 and 50/50) have emerged and it’s something observable and repeated and consistent in most NC lakes - I affectionately call them the Tar Heel Bass and the Blue Devil Bass - you can guess which hybrid is which. 😉😂

Mostly jigs and lipless crankbait with some jerkbait and floating worm and spinnerbait/swim jig and frog depending on warm it’s been and how shallow I start seeing them. I fish a jig a lot til I start seeing them around spawning areas and then the other stuff gets used a lot more. Mostly jigs of various weights and sizes is the short answer for that first bit of wet water after ice melts. Prayers for a speedy recovery and safe surgery for @bwillis !

Some kind of 7-12” worm with a pegged 3/8-1/2 oz sinker with a 4/0-5/0 offset worm hook and 20 lb big game.

Answer is gonna depend on individual preference etc but I’d sell or give away the Ned rig pre rig deals and the Krej. Got no burning desire to mess with those. The other stuff all would get used!