JonB2

While the site was down, the cut I had been doing well during prespawn had slowly transitioned from the end of the staging phase into the spawning phase. Persistent chill and cold fronts with steady northerly winds kept temps up and down…so bass acted accordingly. I don’t bed fish, but near the end of the prespawn into the early spawn when they’d back off but hang near bedding areas…I had some good bites on Texas rigged creatures, especially a pit boss and d bomb. I also caught fish on senkos, but didn’t use them much, and jigs which stayed consistently productive. The deeper edges of flats or outside edges of thicker weeds were best. I had two good runs on two different trips, a sunny day bite when they really turned onto a gp pit boss and cloudy/windy day when a gp d bomb caught fire in the afternoon. Nothing better then figuring out that bite! I also included a good fish on a 10” worm lol

I don’t run them much, but did get my first couple chatter fish earlier in spring. There are lots of videos and lots of reading showing to use whatever expense you want. The original out caught the pricier versions in several videos. Some it got outfished. It was variable as fishing always is.

I like texas rigging. If I can’t run a jig, gimme a texas rig in heavy cover. Just bare bones, old school MHF with heavy mono and a t rigged power worm in summer slop just screams “bass fishing” to me…I love that type of thing!

It’s not better necessarily, but more enjoyable to some for easy reasons. Most people use one thing forever, so something new suddenly becomes amazing. I never used any casting tackle until I got into bass fishing and found it fun. I also still get down with my spinning rigs just the same. Don’t buy into “better” any further than face value. I have a bfs setup and after catching fishing with it…it’s just other combo in the lineup.

I’ve been learning c rigging myself and like to peg my weight. I leave 2-3” of separation for “play” of the sinker, but it keeps it tight and compact for casting. Shorter leader also helps with casting, but always run the leader the fish dictate. C rigs are cool and I’ve found I enjoy the bite while fishing them. They definitely work and STILL have a place in bass fishing.

I get what you’re saying and agree. I still like fish talk my man, and seeing what others run is interesting. That crank bite sure is fun when it’s rocking!

I tried flouro last year and the start of this year and just don’t like it as a mainline. Bass fishing is all about touch and feel for me and I can’t stand the sag of flouro hanging down to your bait. It has a clunky, springy feel working baits. I much prefer mono or Hybrid which is a great comp. I like braid as well but mostly on my spinning rigs and a couple casting. I didn’t mind straight flouro cranking though.

Well yeah, that’s why I put “8+”…

I have a St. Croix Avid 8’ panfish rod that’s fun. I was wailing on nice bluegills just today on gulp minnows…not much more fun than 8”+ gills!

Man, that was some long downtime. I caught too many fish to even try to catch anything up, so I’ll have to offer some targeted and incidental “panfish hookup” bass from the last week on my little inland lake. Prespawn, deep water bluegill have recently began staging near the shallows and it’s been a hot bite for them. I’ve lost a few nice bass on the bluegill tackle, but that is expected. I had a nice afternoon with the bfs setup tossing bitsy bugs on 6lb and pulling a few bass threw emerging and still frail pads. That was fun, but I won’t be trading in my mh any time soon!

What do you feel is most versatile ratio for shallow cranking squarebills? I’m leaning towards one of my 7.1:1 reels. I started with a slower 6.1:1 and my bro smoked me one day on cranks. At first we thought it was color, but it was a stark difference. I then realized after that he had a 7.5:1 reel and my guess is a quicker, steadier cadence to his lure. The next trip was even better crank conditions and I had a 7.5:1 reel, and we both destroyed them on squarebills that day. So I’m thinking a 7.1:1 would be a good compromise. I’m newer still to serious bass fishing, but found the crank bite highly addicting and really enjoyable when it’s on.

Tougher, cold front conditions and bite last few days. Smallies were a little pocket flurry on a jig/stickworm at first, a lull, then a scattered paddle tail bite with one on a jig to end it. Got a big male and one fat hen. Bite wasn’t long and very hit or miss. The largemouth were doable, but picky and tentative at times on the bite. Had a lot of drops today and most bites were simply weight or tension. Jigs were best, with a stickworm trailer a MUST. No crank fish, but I did get some dragging a baby brush hog on a c-rig and my first senko fish of the season in a little closing flurry in the weeds(3 on 1 senko!). Tough bite and scattered around. When it gets picky, you gotta experiment. A craw trailer caught one bass all day. The pop and drop of the worm was their trigger(like coho salmon).

Having only recently gotten into bass fishing, I’ve mostly tapped into my youth when bass and pike were regular targets and fish like walleye were a prize back in the 1990’s. I’ve also saw, read and watched stuff just to see how modern bass fishing is and what most guys use so I can use something else. All the posters who say same ol’ thang works are very correct. When I started running a Carolina rig this spring, the very first bait I thought of was a 6” zoom lizard in pumpkinseed/chart tail. Black or motor oil power worms Texas rigged, black/blue skirted jigs for largemouth, spinnerbaits- all that stuff was popular in the 90’s when I was a kid. I’ve settled on a baby brush hog in place of the lizard(modernized) and switched to electric grape and blue fleck power worms as those colors really get bit lol