33oldtimer

Caught one of my biggest Smallmouth on a Texas rigged green pumpkin lizard. I plan on fishing lizards much more this year. My thought is that on the heavily pressured waters around me bass don't see many of them compared to other lures.

I use mono on everything except top water frogs and toads, including my jigs. Curious why you use braid on swim jigs if you don't mind me asking.

Caught my first bass last year in Feb. on a Ned dragging it slowly. Spinnerbait just in case they are more active than I expect. Skirted Jig finesse size dragging it slowly, maybe letting it soak a bit.

Red Spinnerbait. Ned. Jig.

Not 100% sure about scent with bass. But I had two catfish slam a Texas Rigged Ribbon Worm with scent added.

I noticed half of the reels on Amazon and Walmart.com are the same as the reels on Temu. First, any cheap Abu Garcia or Shakespear or Zebco baitcaster is much better than the reels on temu. A couple of years ago when most baitcast reels were $10 on Temu I bought too many of them. The best reel I got was an Axis baitcaster that feels pretty solid and works, looks good, but nothing to shout about. The Sougayilang baitcasting reels are generally "the best" they have on Temu as the brakes actually work. 90% of the other reels you can only keep from backlashing by tightening down the tension knob. But the Spinning reels on Temu are surprisingly good for inexpensive reels. I find their spinning reels mostly good, don't buy any under $10 though as they are garbage. $10 and up you can get a usable spinning reel that is often better than Walmart cheapos. Temu had some decent lures. I've got whopper ploppers, bladed jigs, casting jigs, and several nice plastics (curly grubs and swimbaits are pretty decent). Also some great very tiny plastics for panfish. If you can find lures actually made in America by Americans you can get good quality gear and lures. But most of the stuff on Amazon, at Walmart, and sporting goods stores is all from China anyway. Use their online site (not their app), pay with paypal. Pretty convinced that's how my wife's credit card info was stolen: Temu app with credit card #. I only use paypal for online purchases whenever possible.

Fluke or Swimbait.

I'm mostly a bank fisherman. 2 years ago late winter I was fishing on the river bank. I stepped onto a flat piece of concrete that was leaning toward the water. I didn't realize there was wet sand on the bottom of my shoes. My feet went flying out from under me and I was in water over my head. Thankfully the water was not crazy cold and my car was not far away. But that was a wake up call for me. I'm extremely careful now about what banks I will climb up and down, and staying away from generally slick areas. I was very lucky, my balance is not like when I was in my 40s and younger.

Weightless Texas Rigged Stickbait. 3/0 ewg hook, Yum Dinger 4-5" blue/black. If windy, add a 1/16oz bullet weight. That's my go to. Most water I fish is stained, but if clear I use green pumpkin color.

If you like Football Head Jigs Headhunter has some nice 1/4oz jigs. Decent price too.

Keep an eye on clearance fishing gear at Walmart. Watch fishing videos on Youtube. Hope for a a huge warm weather front to push up from the south for a week or so--and go fishing. Probably won't happen till at least February though.

I have 6 33s. 1 Micro that works well for panfish. 5 33s. I is a 1984 classic with a matching rod. And this summer I bought the 75th anniversary model. The other 3 are recent models. I like them for cold water, windy days, and when I just have a short time to fish and want to keep it simple. They don't do everything, but are an easy to use option.

Love the split shot rig. I keep 2 rigged up. A Zoom finesse worm on a size 5' split shot sinker 2/0 round bend hook. Slow drag with pauses. A 1/8 oz bullet sinker pegged with bobber stops and a 4"-5" Stick Bait 2/0-3/0 EWG. I've had luck pitching this a few feet off of the bank and fishing it like a Texas Rig with a few twitches. Sinker is 8"-10" up the line on both setups.

I've got the Grit Stik spinning combo for $20 which is sort of an Ugly Stick knock off. So far so good. Also have the Ozark Trail Baitcasting combo for $40. It's worked well for me. Alex on Realistic Fishing Youtube channel has that same baitcasting combo. Said he used it 5 days a week for two years before he started having issues with it. A pretty good run for $40.

Baby Bass. Caught 4 this morning using Zoom Baby Bass color.

Been there, done that. Will never use those combination hook/weights again. Not enough hook gap. I lost well over a half dozen fish using that junk. Just T-Rig the correct size hook with a small pegged bullet weight.

Thick plastics can be difficult to get good hook sets. It is easier to get a better hook set with a longer rod, especially on weedless lures. On open hook lures I've not noticed any problem with hook sets. I've caught several nice fish on open hooks with a skimpy little dock demon.

A Spinnerbait is my favorite bass lure. But by the time summer rolls around bass don't hit it much and I move on to other lures. But I still see bass busting on shad in the summer. I use paddle tails for my spinnerbait trailers. I'm wondering is losing the trailer or using more subtle trailers would help get bites in summer. Also bass hang around bluegill beds and there are bluegill colored spinnerbaits, wondering if those colors are better in summer. Just wondering who uses spinnerbaits in summer and what your tactics are for them, downsize, different trailers, fish them differently, different colors in summer, etc. ?

Same here. From 4# mono on up it is hard to beat. Never worry about my knots now. Only difference is I go 6 wraps, probably unnecessary though.

4"-6" weightless/weedless Stick Bait. I've caught most of my bass on them this year despite using many other lures. On calm or light wind days they are hard to beat. Just caught a 14" bass on one this morning.

Weightless T-Rig I let it set only a second or two then twitch it. About 1/3 of the time a fish is already on it and I feel the weight when I start to twitch it then set the hook. I still had one gut hooked that way as occasionally they just inhale a weightless bait. Get a gut hooked fish back into the water quickly.

I had fewer backlashes on braid, but when you get a bad one you have to cut it out. Big Game mono is stiff and seems to backlash least of the monofilament I've used.

Not long ago a guy told me he catches lots of nice smallmouth out of our local river with a split shot rigged tube. Split shot rig is just a mini Carolina Rig. I've got a rod rigged up and ready to try it.

Caught two nice bass last month on white Scum Frogs. Very pleased with them.

Depending upon use maybe once a year. Heavy use, especially if I have had several snags, I would change more often.