56 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Excellent 

Went out for a few hours today in the cold and wind. Barely climbed above freezing but 20mph north winds had the wind chills in the low teens. Caught several fat, well colored fish on a jerkbait, 1 on a Ned that still had someone else's fly in his mouth, and found a couple baits too. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Went out for a few hours today in the cold and wind. Barely climbed above freezing but 20mph north winds had the wind chills in the low teens. Caught several fat, well colored fish on a jerkbait, 1 on a Ned that still had someone else's fly in his mouth, and found a couple baits too. 

 

 

Epic finds as always, and there's nothing better than catching a fish with a hook in its mouth and removing it.      

15° air temp and 43°water temp this morning. First time winter fishing with braid so not only were my guides freezing every cast, but I was getting pieces of ice in my spool causing a few backlashes. I had one hit a Spook and a Super fluke but I lost both. I got outside and got to see some ducks though.

Too cold for me!

12 hours ago, Jmontgomery87 said:

15° air temp and 43°water temp this morning

That's the spirit!

12 hours ago, Jmontgomery87 said:

First time winter fishing with braid so not only were my guides freezing every cast, but I was getting pieces of ice in my spool causing a few backlashes.

Soft plastic lines only weather. It buys some time at least. With braid that throws spray and a little wind in the mix, even where temps were just above freezing, I've had worm gears freeze up and totally lock the reel.

Reel spray on my hands during 45 felt degrees yesterday was all it took for me to decide to go buy a new rod, I'd be dead the moment I crossed the Mason Dixon line ?

 

 

5 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Reel spray on my hands during 45 felt degrees yesterday was all it took for me to decide to go buy a new rod, I'd be dead the moment I crossed the Mason Dixon line ?

 

 

 

I scouted a new pond two days ago. It's perfect! No boat ramp. A walk through the woods to reach it. Likely full of fat bass. Let's go!*

 

 

 

 

 

*There is snow on the ground and we'll be paddling through ice. 

41 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I scouted a new pond two days ago. It's perfect! No boat ramp. A walk through the woods to reach it. Likely full of fat bass. Let's go!*

 

 

 

 

 

*There is snow on the ground and we'll be paddling through ice. 

Bring us pics. Please. Careful out there solo.

4 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Bring us pics. Please. Careful out there solo.

 

Oh, I'm too fraidy to fish again this year. It's winter here and the wind is howling. However, I did scout the pond and it does look gorgeous. It also connects to another pond down a mile of swampy river. C'mon, 2023! I'll share some pics then. 

Blade bait bite finally turned on for me.  I have been trying to force feed it for weeks.  Yesterday it was on fire.

 

Looking around the bank I found a red and blue crawfish shell. I went and grabbed a red and blue lipless crankbait and on the first cast, pulled this out. I have repeatedly been shutout during the fall transition. Conditions were low 60s, blue bird sky, no wind and bass busting shad on a 5 acre pond near my house. I tried the same technique the next few days and the conditions weren't the same and no fish were caught. Yesterday they were the same as they were when I caught this fish, I didn't have my phone, but I did catch 'em. I am figuring out a pattern. Lipless on blue bird chilly days work. Now if I could only figure out what works on cloudy windy days. Contrary to popular belief, red does work during fall and winter transitions. 

5 hours ago, lunkerboss923 said:

Looking around the bank I found a red and blue crawfish shell. I went and grabbed a red and blue lipless crankbait and on the first cast, pulled this out. I have repeatedly been shutout during the fall transition. Conditions were low 60s, blue bird sky, no wind and bass busting shad on a 5 acre pond near my house. I tried the same technique the next few days and the conditions weren't the same and no fish were caught. Yesterday they were the same as they were when I caught this fish, I didn't have my phone, but I did catch 'em. I am figuring out a pattern. Lipless on blue bird chilly days work. Now if I could only figure out what works on cloudy windy days. Contrary to popular belief, red does work during fall and winter transitions. 

 

I'm out of likes, but I ^like!^

17 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I'm out of likes, but I ^like!^

I’ll let you borrow one of mine?

After putting the camper away for the time being I decided to give that new spinning reel I got the other day a try. Spooled up some 10# Spiderwire braid and tied on a Blue/Green lipless crank around 1/8th oz. Casted like a dream and the retrieve was so smooth. Just what I’ve grown to expect from Shimano. Went bust on the new rig and swapped to the Pflueger 40 and tossed a red Fogy Pro with a red craw trailer from @Siebert Outdoors and nailed the 1 1/2 pounder below. He tried swallowing it. Didn’t do any good the rest of the afternoon even though it turned cloudy.
 

1 minute ago, sdw215 said:

After putting the camper away for the time being I decided to give that new spinning reel I got the other day a try. Spooled up some 10# Spiderwire braid and tied on a Blue/Green lipless crank around 1/8th oz. Casted like a dream and the retrieve was so smooth. Just what I’ve grown to expect from Shimano. Went bust on the new rig and swapped to the Pflueger 40 and tossed a red Fogy Pro with a red craw trailer from @Siebert Outdoors and nailed the 1 1/2 pounder below. He tried swallowing it! Didn’t do any good the rest of the afternoon even though it turned cloudy.
 

Nice job Scott!   Glad to hear the new rig is meeting expectations.    Fish weren't biting here either.   I have an OCD thing about the skunk, so I always get rid of him with a couple smaller fish, then move on to the priority of the day.   Today was using 2D sonar and the Damiki Rig with the spinning rig.      Struck out big time, seems stupid lol.      

 

 

Sometimes it just happens with no rhyme or reason. I’ve wondered sometimes if they took vacation. ?

Ray Bob water temp has dropped a degree per night over the last 12 days - we went from about 67 to 55 in that span. Fishing has fallen off a cliff at my usual bank spots, I'm back to catching dinks and maybe 1 per hour if I'm lucky. Time to figure it out on the jerkbait or just wait for the patterns to adjust I guess. I haven't seen a decent blowup in probably a week. I get the feeling the big bass are just somewhere else for now.

With the weirder than usual weather lately in the south it’s been tough locating them. It’s not been this cold this early in the season and we’re already warming back up again. The bass are probably as confused as we are. 

Drove past 2 ponds and they were froze over. Walked to two others - same story. Kept walking and finally found one with no ice...and a half dozen biters. Got 5 on blade bait and 1 on Ned. Nice but breezy. Wind is supposed to calm down the next couple days with highs near 60. Might pull the boat out - or at least have a few more options from the bank once these ponds thaw in the next day or so.

 

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, sdw215 said:

With the weirder than usual weather lately in the south it’s been tough locating them. It’s not been this cold this early in the season and we’re already warming back up again. The bass are probably as confused as we are. 

100%. I'm headed to San Antonio for Thanksgiving, hoping to get some time in at some warmer water on the way down and back. I'm annoyed because I love fall fishing and we kinda just ripped right through that into winter. Boo hiss.

On 11/21/2022 at 11:15 AM, lunkerboss923 said:

Looking around the bank I found a red and blue crawfish shell. I went and grabbed a red and blue lipless crankbait and on the first cast, pulled this out. I have repeatedly been shutout during the fall transition. Conditions were low 60s, blue bird sky, no wind and bass busting shad on a 5 acre pond near my house. I tried the same technique the next few days and the conditions weren't the same and no fish were caught. Yesterday they were the same as they were when I caught this fish, I didn't have my phone, but I did catch 'em. I am figuring out a pattern. Lipless on blue bird chilly days work. Now if I could only figure out what works on cloudy windy days. Contrary to popular belief, red does work during fall and winter transitions. 

 

Believe it or not, also lipless. Try something like gold or chrome sexy shad. Also great conditions for a jerkbait or chatterbait. Gimme cloudy windy days any time and I'm a happy camper.

Caught this 2-3 pounder a little while ago on a white/green bladed jig from @Siebert Outdoors again with a baby bass trailer. Forgot to bring my scale with me when I walked around the pond looking for likely spots to try so the weight is ‘guesstimated’. ? Downside was I snagged the same lure on the next cast and couldn’t free it. Tied the line off on a pine tree for later retrieval. ? 

 

42 minutes ago, sdw215 said:

Caught this 2-3 pounder a little while ago on a white/green bladed jig from @Siebert Outdoors again with a baby bass trailer. Forgot to bring my scale with me when I walked around the pond looking for likely spots to try so the weight is ‘guesstimated’. ? Downside was I snagged the same lure on the next cast and couldn’t free it. Tied the line off on a pine tree for later retrieval. ? 

 

Nice one, and lol at the tie off.

 

I do the exact same thing, but with a bobber since I'm in a boat.    I come back out with my heavy duty lure retrieval tools.