FINALLY a day that felt better than the past couple weeks...like no ICE on top of the water or on land! This part of the channel in the river the ice had melted off, so I did some shore fishing there.

I first ran a BPS version of the Silver Buddy & felt it bump off on quite a few fish. Finally hooked up to what I was bumping into & there were huge shad. I figured there should be LM bass around, so I tried the new 1/2oz Rapala shallow X-rap in pearl color. I used it as twitch bait & got the bass going nuts!

Caught a few on the new shallow X-raps & switched to Rapala Subwalks & caught a few more on the silver/black & pearl colors.

Now this is getting really FUN, while I'm shivering in 39 deg weather in shorts! It was sunny today & being originally from Southern California, sun means warmth....I was soooo wrong! I braved it fishing & knees knocking for a couple hours just before it started getting dark, cuz the bass bite was so on!

After using the Subwalk, I used some lipless crankbaits & caught a few more bass & snagged a bluegill...where did he come from??? I guess the bluegill didn't get out of the way of the lipless crankbait screaming by.

The finale' for the best year end fishing came when I switched to the Chatterstick. I used this lure very differently than just reeling it in, I used it as a subtle jerkbait. I was using the Quantum Energy PT(2008) b/c reel w/ 12 lb P-line. The rod I used, which surprised me to the sensitivity of the rod, is the Kistler Helium LTA 6'9" MH APC. This is the previous, previous iteration of the LTA & today I felt vibrations from the Chatterstick that I've not felt from a b/c rod before. I let the Chatterstick drop down & I would jerk it so much. I felt the vibrations of the blade when it was shimmy-ing down.

I felt the line twitched so I set the hook. The lure & line takes off, I'm thinking I've snagged another big shad...but the fight was totally different. It felt like a fight rather than a fish snagged on the dorsal fin. This fish was pulling some drag...crazy! I get it close to me & it jumped out of the water...a BIG bass....BOOYAH!!! Landed the bass, took a pic & let it go. The bass was around 3 1/2-4 lbs!!! I was so excited that this late in the year & being cold, I caught a very decent bass:

I figured I caught over 12+ LM bass & snagged quite a few large shads. This has been the best day of fishing this whole year. I haven't pulled that many fish in a couple hours in a long time. The bass were in the channel hunting the shad...why the shad were in there, I don't know. But it sure made it one of the best days fishing I can remember! Now I need an excuse to sneak out of the house tomorrow & see if I can repeat the fun of today...How can I sneak out of the house w/o the wifey seeing the fishing rod & backpack through the house???? :-?

Anyways...Happy New Year to Ya'll

[movedhere] Fishing Rods, Reels, Line, Leaders, and Knots [move by] Glenn.

Nice fish Ghost!  Those pics look great.  The bass have a cool shine to them.

Congrats on the good day.  Awesome way to end the year on a high note!

Nice fish Ghost, hopefully an *** of things to come in '09!

That cool shine you see is probably ice.  LOL

Haha Very nice fish ghost! I've been meaning to get me some of those Chattersticks... Looks like a great bait!