10,000 lakes Bassin

I got out yesterday chasing some brown bass on one of the only lakes that has them in my immediate area. I caught probably a half dozen total with the biggest being a healthy 17”. I battled a long windy day to get those few. In the evening I went up shallow and caught a few decent largemouth. Catching smallies is definitely not my strong suit but I loving catching them so I plan to chase them more this year.

Mixing up my techniques definitely helps me. I frogged on the same smallish lake for probably 15 hours last week. Definitely feeling a little sick of it even when I was catching fish.

I’m curious if any of you start to feel burned out after repeatedly fishing the same small bodies of water, especially if you keep fishing with the same few techniques.

Some years I’m sure I will only get an extra couple weeks on the water but if it’s warm spring I could see easily getting an extra month!

Wow awesome!

Check out the brown bass tools thread started by @A-Jay

Thanks, ill check shallow and see if there’s many empty beds, if so I’ll probably try deep water close to the spawning areas.

Trying for smallies for the first time this week. You think everything’s post spawn? Water temps in the high 60s.

Old thread I know, but how did you end up liking the shine glide?

It’s a zillion I bought from Japan about a year ago. Not exactly sure if it’s a screech or squeal, it’s a high pitched REEEE at the beginning of every cast.

Ive got a reel that gives a high pitched squeak every cast. I had it professionally serviced about two months ago and it was normal after that but starting a few days ago it gives a screech basically every cast. Not sure what the issue is here. Any advice? It doesn’t seem like it’s impacting the casting distance but it’s pretty annoying.

That’s kind of what it seem like for me too. I’d say full summer mode by next week or shortly after

That’s what I figured, I just hadn’t seen many of these until a few days ago so I was wondering:

Ive been seeing lots of bass in the 2”-5” range up in the shallows. Could these be ones that hatch this spring already?? Or did they overwinter at this size?

I’m curious here. Do you not like walking a frog on the 7’6 because it’s too long or because the action of the rod/ because it loads deeper than the 7’3?

Also anyone punching with this rod to to maybe 1.25oz?

Thsts the reel on it now, I was just thinking about putting it on my jig rod because it’s a 8.1 speed.

I’m thinking about experimenting and changing around some of my reels in different rods. This swap would put heavier braid on my zillion and put it on a rod used for punching, frogging, and swimbaits up to 2oz. The JDM version has aluminum gears? Would this be too much for this reel and risk damaging it? I won’t do this if there’s a risk.

Ive owned my 7’2 zillion for about a month now. I’ve probably fish with the rod itself for roughly 20 hours. I don’t own a bunch of high end heavy or medium heavy rods so I honestly don’t have a great comparison to something like an Expride heavy rod, but I can compare it to a Tatula elite 7’3 MH and a Tatula 7’4 heavy. I’d say it’s in between those two, leaning towards the 7’4. Overall I’m pretty happy with it. It’s definitely no broomstick but it’s got plenty of power down lower in the blank. The tip is a bit slower feeling but I don’t think it’s too slow for jigs and t-rigs especially with braid to leader. It basically feels like a normal fast rod until a hookset where it loads deeper. So far ive fished t-rigs, 1/2oz-3/4oz arky jigs, 1/2oz swimjigs and some 6” swimbaits and 168 size glides. The real test will be to see how well it works to pop jigs free from grass. We don’t have enough green grass up here yet to tell, but I will be able to see soon enough.

Have you ever frogged with the 7’6 XH?

Do you mind walking a frog with a 7’7 rod?

I fished a long day today. I didn’t catch many, maybe 7 or 8 but all were probably 14” or bigger. Biggest was 3.99lbs.

When fishing with my JDM zillion I noticed some of the parts seemed looser than they should. After checking it out I found that the thumb bar seemed loose, to the point where I can move it maybe a 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch back and forth and up and down. Also the level wind seems like it has more play side to side than it should without spinning the handle. Wondering how much is normal and when I should be concerned. I sent this reel into @Delaware Valley Tackle for a cleaning and he said it seem like it was in good condition. Ive only used it for probably 15 hours since then.

Ive got no problem finding them when they are blowing up on the surface but 99% of the time they aren’t I don’t know what to do then.

Yeah right now they are up shallow doing their spawning business but once they drop their eggs I bet they’ll move out there.