AverageAngler

The pro membership has free shipping, and the core membership is over $25, it says so on their website. I can also confirm because I just bought a new jerkbait to replace my lost one and there was no extra shipping charge added, but that return and protection fee automatically applied is a bit sleazy... you can untick the box but it does pop back up every time you exit and make a new cart. Also the tackle warehouse hard baits sale does in fact apply to megabass, it just doesn't show up right away. I noticed that my total cost was less than what I anticipated and checked the list again and noticed the discount was applied at checkout.

I had my fishing log summarized and surprisingly I found out that my most successful bait was a frog. It didn't seem like it at the time but I was crushing it on topwaters this year. In terms of lures I used the most I would say that the bladed jig was my top bait by far, followed up with the frog, fluke, flipping jig, whopper plopper, jerkbait, dropshot, tube, karashi, and finesse swimbait. I made it a mission this year to get better at some lures I don't use enough, and as a result I gained a lot of confidence with jerkbaits and tubes. I have been grinding out the a-rig and bigger swimbaits but I still have a ways to go when it comes to building my skills with these two...

Once again a frigid weekend, these cold temps are really tough to get anything going on. I went to Wachusett yesterday for the afternoon and skunked hard, even the shiners weren’t enough to coax a bite from anything, and today I tried for a shallow bass pond. I got three yellow perch and one bass on my 110jr before I snapped off on my first cast after the bass… I retied my line since there was a kink at the leader to main line connection but somewhere halfway down there was another kink. 😭 I may be able to get a good morning session on Thanksgiving day, but man these days are getting tougher and tougher… I did learn a lot today however, I gained confidence in a new retrieve that will serve me well in these cold times. 41-42° 🥶 Caught in 5 ft of water 30 yards off a point.

The pond next to my job has been producing a ton of big browns on my social media feed, so after work today I put on my waders and tried to get one for myself. Got em!

If you want used gear then facebook marketplace is the go-to. If you want new gear that is the older model then I would use the gps store. I ordered a hook reveal 7 and 9 last year and it shipped fast and both have been working amazing for me with regular usage (2-3 sessions a week).

Thank you! If I make it to 10 I will be happy, anything more is a bonus. I appreciate the concern, I did do my due diligence and fished a place that gets trout stockings and isn't on the advisory list. I understand that doesn't mean much considering every place has been contaminated, but in my mind the risk is low; I had around 8oz of meat, the water was cold, and perch rank low on the totem pole of mercury accumulation. The funny thing is that they tasted SO much better than the trout that get stocked here, no "pond" taste and the meat was firm and flakey.

Very cold and windy out here this past weekend. I was out of town last weekend so even with the weather I needed to go out. I hit up two new spots for me, one south shore and one out west. Neither were particularly successful. The south shore spot yielded one smb on a dropshot with two lost fish on a blade bait. Both fish in water less than 10 ft deep. The west spot was promising, but with the intense wind gusts I had to strategically place myself in certain spots, which limited some of my range. The fish finder showed me tons of stacked up schools, but they ate nothing I offered; jerkbaits, dropshots, a-rigs, crankbaits, jigs did not get me a single bite. I tied on a finesse jerkbait on my dropshot rod and discovered that the big schools were actually white perch, and pretty good ones at that. I landed a couple to get the skunk out of the boat, and made myself dinner out of them, shallow fried perch is quite tasty! Both spots had water temps in the mid 40s, with the highest being 48 and the lowest being 44. Hopefully next weekend will be better fishing, I made it a goal of mine to try to catch 20 bass a month, so far I'm at 7 in November, most likely will fall short of the goal but I believe I can at least get 3 in the next two weeks to make it 10, then I might shift to trout. I've seen some crazy fish pulled out of the pond next to my work...

I'm seriously considering doing this on my bladed jigs that have been chipping away, how long does this last?

The weather in New England has been quite windy for the past week, with the forecast predicting even colder and windier days ahead. It’s been difficult going out in that sort of stuff, but I’ve been braving the elements and catching some good fish. Good luck to everyone out there!

In terms of stretchiness and durability yes absolutely, it also floats just like elaztech. I'm not sure on the ability to melt other plastics but they come in their own clamshell packaging so I don't worry about it lol.

I get bit when I flip it, don't have a ton of confidence on the free rig but on a traditional texas rig it's awesome; the lack of appendages and ribbed features mean I almost never catch any stray vegetation and the hookups are nice and easy. I like the elastomer version with 3 in a pack and I'm still on the first one after many aggressive fish.

Even though the air temps are in the mid 50s for the most part, the water has been C O L D. 49 degree water temps both Sunday and Monday, but the fish are still pretty active. I went out on Sunday to fish my favorite river and even though I skunked I had a good time enjoying the breezy afternoon. The river has gotten really high, getting closer to typical spring levels which doesn't bode well for me; I usually do a lot better when the water levels are much lower. I lost a couple good bites on a jig, one being at the boat, but my memory served me right as the bites all occurred on the rocks that were exposed in the summer and submerged now. A good learning experience, even with the lack of fish slime on me. Yesterday I called out of work for a... uhh, mental health day, and I went out to a pond further away to try and make up for the skunk. What a great decision I made because even though I got out later than expected(honestly forgot about how drastic the change in daylight is with the clocks going back) the fishing was great. Water temps were still in that high 40s-low50s and the fish were moving! I had so many bites from pickerel and smaller bass, but was only able to land 6 good sized bass. I lost two good ones at the boat, and had a couple hooksets fail on me, but overall the wind and cloudy/rainy conditions were too good to not have success. Bladed jigs did the damage as the grass was still too prevalent for treble hooked baits to succeed. The grass piece has been on fire for me, what an amazing bait, and the bladed jig came in clutch with an 18.5 incher when the fish got used to the other presentation. The fish would eat the lure so hard that it knocked slack into my line, hence some hooksets failing. I will be away this weekend so no fishing for me, but these cruddy weather days should force a feed before it starts getting really cold. When I come back I will start heading to Wachusett to try my luck at some late season smallies and lake trout, I've never caught anything at the Chu, if anyone has some advice on what to look out for I would be forever thankful.

This x3. Leverage is the key; braid or heavy mono/flouro and a stiffer fishing rod gives you the sufficient leverage to turn them away from heavy cover. Crank down the drag settings on your reel and keep the rod tip way up, it may not be as "fun" but when you want that fish in your hand you gotta do the things that give you the best chances.

Saturday I fished for a few hours out at Walden pond, fishing was terrible, 3 hours no bites. Aside from some trout roaming the shallows ignoring all my offerings, the bass were locked on the bottom in around 30ft and took nothing I offered either. This place gives me one good outing for every 10 times I go, sometimes I wonder why I keep going back... Sunday was much better, I tried a new spot on the south shore known for large fish, I didn't luck into anything of size but I landed 5 bass and 2 yellow perch. The day started off hot with 3 fish in 45 minutes but then the wind died and the bite slowed down to a halt, pretty much only picking up when the wind started again. Most fish came on the wind blown banks, some were next to docks, and others were on points. The largest came on the grass piece off the windiest point, around a 2.5lber, what an awesome lure that grass piece is. I fell into the hype and bought two and so far they've been working great, they chatter immediately and come through cover great. I may go out after work again on Wednesday, and this weekend looks pretty juicy with more seasonal weather coming up. I hope everyone on here has a good week, the fishing is still pretty good so get out there!

I do occasionally, I see people catch a ton of carp in the colder months, and some people have success with the smallmouth there. I tend to struggle, like 1-2 bass a trip with a couple skunks here and there and the fish are on the smaller side generally. I have more success up near the Waltham dam, that stretch has been kinder to me this year.

If you need to translate this to spanish I got you, it's "Claro que puedes pescar en mi lago secreto con esos peces gigantes." Hope this helps! This is so sad, some parents definitely hold their kids back from exploring and discovering new interests. I also had moments where I'm fishing at a park and catch a little fish next to a family, and while the kids want to take a closer look at the fish, the parents push back a bit and either tell them to move along or reluctantly let them take a look. It's not all the time, but enough where it's disheartening. I understand the world is a scary place for new parents but like, it's fishing!

Oh yeah I totally didn’t, I thought I would make a silly quick comment, that’s embarrassing on my end. 🤦‍♂️ To go back on topic, I feel like an interesting statistic to find out would be the age demographics of people not renewing their licenses. One thing I have noticed is that after the initial impact of covid and the increase in fishing social media apps, a LOT of the newer fisherman are really young, like 10-14 years old, too young to buy a license. Once these kids come of age and start buying licenses, it would be interesting to see how these numbers fare. Seeing a generally older age of people not renewing, while sad, would make more sense and be less alarming than if younger people were the ones not renewing. Younger people generally have more time for hobbies, and if they would rather be doing other things, then there might be issues going forward…

Over the summer I went to Maine for a week and a little bit into my first trip I realized I never bought a temp license. I go online and make the purchase and not even five minutes after confirming the purchase I catch a 4lb smallmouth bass. For all the newcomers, the fish know, get yer license!

Saturday looks like a cloudy and cool afternoon with hopefully some wind, but recently the weather apps have been all wrong with the wind forecast. The bass still are shallow from my last few trips, most bites between 4-6ft of water on moving baits, good luck if you go!

I went out to the Charles after work yesterday for a couple of hours before the sunset. I anticipated some wind and when I got to the river it was dead calm and not a cloud in the sky. It was not great conditions, and within 15 minutes I sliced off 2 jigs from what I assume were pickerel, smh. I did catch a perch and lmb on a squarebill shortly after and at the end of the 2 hours I landed a good 2.5lbs bass on a texas rig creature, water temps rose a bit to 57-59, hopefully the feed bag stays on over the weekend. I can't believe I'm wishing for terrible weather on my days off but with all that I hear about bad weather=good fall fishing, I kind of want to see it happen...

Busy weekend this one, I was only was able to fish hard on Sunday but I also managed to squeeze an hour and change at a trout pond on Saturday morning. Saturday was an absolute beautiful experience getting out to a pond that gets loaded up with trout every spring and fall. It was sunny and beautiful with almost no wind and the trout were feeding up. In the small cove I was in there were 8 other anglers trying for trout not including me, and even with that amount of pressure the trout were still on fire. I managed to catch two soaking a worm but the others around me were catching them on a variety of stuff - float n fly, parachute adams flies, streamers, powerbait, small swimbaits, etc. There was an older gentleman that was helping two guys out on getting their first trout, and they each landed one! One nice brook trout and a nice rainbow. Overall a very positive and fun experience essentially shoulder to shoulder with people. Sunday I failed to wake up for a double session, morning and afternoon, but I was able to get in a solid 6 hours from 1-7pm. I went back to the favorite river because my mind needed a good session, and it somewhat delivered. I landed 5 in two and a half hours which by my metrics is pretty darn good. The wind was periodically going strong and the gusts where I got most of my bites. I recently acquired the grass piece and quickly realized that the price and hype was worth it. Three were caught on that lure and I also caught one each on a jerkbait and fluke. I then went about an hour and a half without a bite, mostly because I was trying so hard to force a frog bite; the weeds were still lively in the shallows and I saw a TON of activity in there. After missing a couple of bites I finally had a good take and landed the biggest of the day, nothing crazy but a 2lber in a sea of 1lbers is a welcome addition. After that I covered a ton of water but had no other takers other than a couple of crappie. Overall a very fun and beautiful day on the water. Water temps hovering between 56-58 degrees. Getting colder! I also fixed an issue with my fish finder that I had last week and that had me very happy, looking forward to some colder fishing trips the next few weeks.

This is so true, it really depends on how the day is going. Sometimes If I know they're aggressive I'll just toss the same bait back in there and give it some more time in the strike zone, but on days where I'm tossing a frog and they're not committing all the way, a fluke or senko usually does the trick. Recently it's been one and done though, I miss the bite and I get the fin(ger) from them...

Smashed 1,400!

We're rooting for you to get 1,400! If you still feel the itch when it gets even colder, a good dry suit might be in order. I got one this year and it was invaluable for when the water was juuust a little bit too cold for comfort( and also when I go swimming in April for my favorite bladed jig). That and a good pfd and you're basically a large bobber.

Went out yesterday morning and this morning, had an absolute grind. One would think the pre frontal conditions would have led to a monster bite but I got humbled real bad. Yesterday I went out to the sunken forest and landed one good fish on a whiplash shad and another on a bladed jig right before heading out. The clouds cleared out as soon as my kayak touched the water and I was faced with dead calm bluebird conditions. Really pretty though and two fish is better than zero so we move on. This morning I realized I forgot to charge my fish finder battery and was left with only my senses. When I got to the pond the water had about 6” of visibility and the supposed wind was…not there? I had two bites on a toad, one missed hookset and the other just straight up missed. I’ve heard good things about this specific place but in my three trips and about 14 hours of fishing I’ve landed one dink crappie out of it. Pave it! I believe this was my first time getting a big ol SKUNK since May, very sad but you can’t win them all. Next weekend looks a lot better in terms of conditions, but I hope someone here got on em today, it looked too fishy this morning for nobody to succeed.