Pat Brown

I try to do both every time I fish!

I think this is basically true. I think 'pick your favorite brand and try something similar to this' is unspoken and always applies! To me, I basically just need a few different profiles and sizes in a couple colors and that's good enough to get the job done. It can basically be any brand or product as long as you got a few things that don't do stuff and some that do stuff and some bigger stuff and some smaller stuff etc.

I love the smaller lizard and baby brush hog just the very back half on a finesse jig.

Zoom speed craw cut down Zoom Critter Craw Zoom super fluke jr. Zoom creepy crawler grub

TANKS!!!!! 🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣

I wonder if it is hormonal and quite literally pre spawn lipstick to attract mates. Don't other species outside of fish do stuff like this?

I have heard people say 'they are feeding heavily on crawdads' when lips show up red in the winter time. Any one have any scientific explanations or anecdotes or information to add to this? It seems to me more like they're 'flushed' the same way I feel on a cold day playing on the playground as a kid. You come inside and your cheeks are rosy. Maybe it's irritation from 'eating crawdads' but I catch a lot of red lipped bass on little fast moving shad imitators so I dunno? Thoughts? I figured it's a good winter bass fishing discussion topic to say the least!

Merry Christmas to all from NC! I hope everyone gets the big one they're after this year!

Good one this morning before work! Jake just got home and after chores and snack we are gonna hit the bank! Tight lines this evening to y'all! 😎🎣

Just getting over a reaaaally nasty case of COVID that ripped through my family and is lingering unfortunately. Haven't been able to get out much at all the last couple weeks but Jake is out of school for Christmas break tomorrow and we have....plans 😎😎😎 Happy to see folks catching em! I'm feeling a okay and ready to get back at it at my next opportunity and thankful to have my health back.

I like lighter jigs when water is very dirty, when it's very very calm and I want to mimic an insect falling in the water or something, and when I'm swimming a jig in shallower water (horizontal retrieve) and when fish seem to want a slower rate of fall (which is usually dirty water). I don't subscribe to the belief that a heavy jig feels less natural in a basses mouth. Had WAY too many 3/4 oz jigs stop at 4 feet falling in 12 and just swim slowly out of the cover like it's another day at the log. But in general I'm learning to swing when they bite. @Cattis on the money with that one. Hesitating is just giving them ample opportunity to flair their gills and push it right back out. The big smart ones are more likely to do this of course. In the winter time, I'm usually mimicking a crawdad with my jig presentations and heavier jigs do that much more naturally.

A worm! I like the Zoom Finesse Worm if it's cold and Berkley Power Worm when it's hot. A craw or creature of some sort, I like the Missile Baits D Bomb or Zoom Mag lizard. Don't sleep on stick baits, toads, flukes and poop baits fished weightless in special situations!!!!

Keeping it on the bottom on 'winter days' (persistent 10 mph + winds during nasty fronts) in often times deeper water. It's more efficient!

I got nothing to offer other than philosophy and anecdote: I believe that much bigger fish exist up north than we know about. I also think electronics and techniques are finally coming together in a way that could locate these fish up north. Michigan has to have one or two bodies of water that are heated year round/power plant lake maybe? River systems that don't freeze? Stuff like that seems likely to be where you'd get a DD in MI

Less than I would have liked but more than some people! Probably an average of 16 hours a week with some weeks exceptionally more and some weeks exceptionally less. My goal for 2024 is to be more selective about my days that I commit to being on the water by paying attention to weather leading up to my trips. I see a lot of folks doing this and it makes a lot of sense the more I can identify trends and days where I have gnarly success.

6th sense suspending quake. Bill Lewis floating trap. I can do this technique in 12 inches of water over brush with these baits. They are the perfect bank anglers lipless IMHO. One of these days I'm gonna keep this to myself 😂😂😂🎣🎣🎣

I like a Senko/fluke/swim jig/swim bait personally if I can get under. If I'm working the sides I like a spinnerbait/jig/worm/glide/lipless/jerkbait/buzzbait depending on depth and cover.

@LrgmouthShad for me personally for my own sanity and enjoyment on the water, I'd just substitute a spinnerbait or underspin for the A Rig. I am not a huge fan of throwing a rigs only because they're super heavy and expensive and annoying to fish around cover.

There are twitch and rip style Jerkbaits. The husky is a twitcher and it catches the snot out of shallow fish. I love all of rapalas Jerkbaits though! The ripstop and x rap both work great but are more for ripping harder to get action. I agree with most that especially this time of year my Jerkbait isn't doing a whole lot on the way in. Regardless of variant. I really like the twitch style in colder water. 😉

@Siebert Outdoors has completely smashed my expectations out of the park with this color he did for me based on the gizzard shad that absolutely infest my home lakes....and the bass seem so pre occupied with til the spawn...I give you all 'Pat's Gizzard' paired here with gizzard shad Storm Largo shad trailers. Got some black and red bugs to drag around when it gets a little muddier and colder in the next month 😎😎😎 Can't wait to see the hook into a winter time giant with these babies!

Nah that one was okay thankfully but she choked it. Mostly she was hooked in the roof of the mouth. Somehow the back treble was swinging freely back there. I did nick a fishes gill with a jerkbait that was hooked outside the mouth and came in bleeding fiercely last week and that always makes me anxious. She swam away okay though also. The fish that go belly up when I accidentally kill them (which hasn't happened in a while that I know of) is when I let them have a plastic too long. Always sad to see them go belly up.

Or just use heavy enough line and light enough hooks you can always bend it out. That's what I do and it works most of the time 😂

I Iike a tight wiggle and a slow rise when I'm cranking deeper wood. You can fish targets a lot more efficiently than a crank that hunts a lot which I prefer for flats or rock. Berkley Frittside has caught me some toads reeled slowly through some thick thick stuff. When they get it, they get it good.

With flukes and toads and other baits like that where an EWG makes more sense, I bend the point out to where it's straight /bent outward ever so slightly and just accept it might hang up more. I catch the fish that bite.

I don't think pegging or not pegging is a bite thing personally. I get lots of bites on both - I will however say, pegged is a lot more efficient when you're trying to feel bites on the fall in very heavy cover. I like unpegged weights most of the time, especially if the water is more stained and the cover is more sparse. In colder weather I often find fish suspending around structure and unpegged usually makes more sense in those situations. If you're fishing inside of a thick brush pile or a very big underwater tree for bass, peg it or get ready to hang up a lot. That's just my approach and it may or may not be correct. 😂