I went out last Tuesday morning after working a 12 hour graveyard shift. We targeted smallmouth. Both of us were picking up some nice fish here and there but the bite was not quite on. Lots of stumps. " Stick" ties on a 200 series American shad pattern square bill with the loud rattles. The water temp is barely over 50 degrees. I smirked at his choice and offered him one of my Speed Traps when he he got a TWOOONNNNGGGGGG and landed a four pound plus female. She CHOKED it ! Three more three plus females in a row and I had to eat crow. Where were my square bills ? At home in my largemouth bag of course. I felt like saying, " Please sir may I have another " because I just got spanked.

Lol, sometimes the rule in fishing is that there are no rules

I've had to eat crow several times pitting my tackle bag of cranks and bag after bag of worms against my brother's tiny collection of Rebel Crawdads. His tackle box consists of about five Rebel Crawdads, a single rust stained Rebel Wee Frog, a few bobbers, weights, and a half rusted pack of snelled hooks. That SOB catches quality fish every single trip just throwing that @%#$ing crawdad. I want to choke him every time he catches a fish and looks at me with that dumb grin and says: "Hey John, guess what I caught that one on..."

Thats funny. Same thing happened to me, except the water temps weren't quite at 50 and I had my square bill box.

Im happy to eat crow.,,when Im catching fish.

Ouch, that has got to hurt, but sometimes that is how it goes.

We have a guy in our club who is a non-boater and fishes a lot from shore. He really loves to fish, but will throw every odd ball bait that comes along - only thing is - he catches fish with 'em. Nobody smirks at him anymore.

lol this has happened to me before

I had a friend make fun of me because my ugly colored Baby 1- I tied on wasn't going to catch any fish. Several fish including a 4lber later he wanted to know if I had another.

It's really humbling when you find out you're not as smart as you thought you were.

Not exactly the same circumstance, but I have been asked for some JJ's more than once after out producing my partners with the same bait they were throwing and fishing behind them.

Usually it is the odd baits that get the bites. The bass are not used to seeing them, so they will hit them.

What would make you think a square bill crank was a largemouth only lure?

I mean, LMB vs. SMB is usually about location, not lures. If they're shallow, a shallow crank will work.

Well, I´m not the kinda guy that smirks at my partner´s lure choice, normally it´s the way around. Being a creature of habits I constantly fish with lures everybody sees as "beginner´s" lures ( like in-line spinners, grubs n´such ) ...... which makes me wonder, when is the time you cease to be a "beginner" ?

When fun fishing I have never understood the rivalry between anglers fishing out of the same boat, unless a bet was on the line.

Take a kid fishing; they want to use what you use or that bright colored lure and you want them to use something that has a high percentage of catch rate. They try what you gave them and get bored, the thing you you hear is "daddy I got one", you look around and a big bass is reeled up to the rod tip caught on one of your pet lures!

Share your productive lures with your fishing partners, young or old.

Tom

I agree with WRB. I'm just as happy watching some one else catch fish, my tackle is theirs to use.

My buddy is a master of Slider fishing (you youngsters can Google it) and I've seen him pull many, many quality fish in over the years. Me ? I can count on one hand how many Slider fish I've caught. Early on I used to break his balls about it, he shut me up quick.

But it all evened out two years ago when I turned him on to tubes...He used to laugh at them until I lost an absolute beast of a bass 20' from the boat. She torpedoed out of the water for all to see and threw me. He became a tube convert right then and there.

) ...... which makes me wonder, when is the time you cease to be a "beginner" ?

Once the bait monkey robs you of 3 times your annual salary then you are no longer a beginner.

I have a 73 year old part time employee that I take fishing when he is not up to taking his own boat. He has a couple of hooks and weights in his shirt pocket along with a crusty bag of lizards that look 10 years old. Uses an ancient spinning rig and beats the crap out of me most of the time.

Once the bait monkey robs you of 3 times your annual salary then you are no longer a beginner.

Then you become a hoarder.