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I’ve had 4 bites in 4 days of fishing but finally put one in the boat this afternoon, I’d fished past a big laydown earlier and saw a giant in it, followed me to the boat but didn’t eat…went back about 2 hours later and she ate an 8” hudd on the fall Couldn’t get the hold button to work on my brecknell so that’s why I switch scales in the video IMG_5318.mov

Went and followed up on my bite from last week, similar conditions just a little cloudier and a little more chilly. They were still there but not as many bites.

Algae sucks in socal. Suffered on the shoreline for a couple of days with no bites until i got this one on the boat. When I landed this girl, thought for sure it was a winner. But this is cutting it real close.

Ice water for the big glides works for me. I fish them like a big jerkbait looking for a reaction bite. These were caught in March out of low 40's water temp. Taxi Trout and Hinkle Shad. I also do pretty good using a RM Negotiator fished the same way. Of all the casts I have made with various deps 250's I don't have much to show for it.

Hit a couple good ones recently on the illude rat. SE Mass fish. 6-8 and 5-9. IMG_4272.heic

Stuck a nice one on the ol’faithful. The whippersnapper has definitely become a confidence bait.

Yesterday was the Annual Alumni Tournament for my school's Bass Team. Last year my team placed 2nd, this year there was only one goal, 1st. The teams of this tournament are randomized with one current undergrad and one alumni fishing together. Luckily I was able to get on a boat with the homie @jmm_4. While everyone else was on their fast and fancy bass boats, we ran an old Crestliner 16ft, putting us at an immediate disadvantage. We started the day without any plans, neither of us had even targetted bass in months. Our plan was just to go out and have fun and hopefully catch some fish. We ran all over the lake throughout the day picking up a fish here or there, almost always on different baits, but two fish in the bag came on the magdraft and magslowl, something I was stoked on. As the day was ending we got on a pattern with some shallow fish, Jake was throwing a finnesse jig and I was burning a chatterbait with a 6" trailer. At the beginning of the day we realized we didn't have a net and decided we would just commit. Throughout the day we had no issue, landing every hooked fish including 2 Pike and a monster Pickerel. As the clock was nearing time Jake made a cast to a fallen tree and was hooked up. We were looking to replace a 1lber and immediately knew this would cull. As we brought it closer we realized this fish would put our best 5 over 20 and give us a serious shot at winning. It got boatside, I went to grab it and the jig popped out. Immediate heartbreak, I tried to grab it but wiffed. There was nothing more that we could do. We went back to weigh in and made 3rd with 17.96, missing out on the money by 0.8 and first by just over 4lbs. That last fish would've made us seriously competetive. At the end of the day, I am proud of how we fished and what we put together. It was seriously some of the most fun I've had during a tournament. That first place finish still eludes me, but I'm 4/6 on podium finishes

I fish in Maryland which isn’t really northeast but is in your neck of the woods. Up until this year I felt the same way as you and would throw the 250 here and there with sporadic success. This year I dedicated a lot of time from March-June to mostly throwing the 250 and a few other big baits, and things finally started to click. It resulted in more exciting moments and more heartbreak than any of my previous years of fishing. I landed a couple fish in the 5lb range, dumped a mid 6, dumped a giant tiger muskie, and had many opportunities at 5-7lb fish. One of the main factors was focusing on waters with either trout or gizzard shad as major forage. I have had very little success with getting bites or even follows on lakes lacking one of these two forage items. The second major factor was wind-every bite I had was in moderate to heavy wind. Sunny or overcast/rainy didn’t seem to matter. The areas were no secret-laydowns, rock piles, long points, all with immediate deep water access. It was a matter of hitting these spots at the right time and from the right angle in relation to the wind and so the fish can pin the bait. Third and final factor was commitment. On my best trip when conditions were ideal and fish were fired up, I got 5 bites, but most trips were a grind for one good opportunity type of deal. The important thing was not to downsize, and almost without fail, the opportunity would come.

First one went 5lb 11oz and the second one was 4lb 5oz

Missed like 6 fish on the new wooden battlewing crawler first half of the day. Got smart and went to lighter ST-36 hooks like I should have all along and landed everyone after that including this 6-6 South Carolina beauty!

Still grinding them out to the bitter end. Well done bro.

Always an epic read - great showing

So sick

Nice

Nice fishh

Nice one brotha

Throwing up the “1”, nice. Good fish right there.

Hit a couple good ones recently on the illude rat. SE Mass fish. 6-8 and 5-9.

Lots of lure washing today for me. One bite ended up being a 12” pickerel that ripped the tail of a 68 hudd, 6 hours on the water plus two hour round trip, on not that much sleep. Winds were 15-25mph today and water was 58-60, with some nice sideways rain. Try again tomorrow. least the fall colors are nice! be safe out there guys. When I got off the water today it was legit white caps and just getting snottier.

Having fished pretty much every JDM jointed crawler made over the past 7 or eight years (and most USDM ones too), I finally splashed the cash on a the $400 KRR Cometa Wing, a handmade wooden 2 segment jointed bait weighing in at 2.8 oz and 6.5 inches in length. The time from placing the preorder to the bait showing up on my doorstep was about 4 months. The Cometa ran pretty well out of the box and had about a 85% startup/wing engagement without having to pop it. Wing cadence/speed was high even on ultra slow retrieve. Interestingly, the only way to slow the cadence was to do a burn retrieve. No hardware or segment/segment noise, only sounds were the wings engaging the surface in the typical crawler bloop bloop sound, so I would say this bait is on the medium (typical) side loudness wise. As I fish exclusively at night, I am very dependent on the feedback I receive through my preferred topwater setup: Evergreen Kaleido Super Stallion GT2RS, Daiwa Zillion HD, 1520 SH, and Hitena Silky 63lb braid. The description of how the Cometa feels/gives feedback on the retrieve is something akin to soft butter. Extremely smooth, even utilizing braid. This is a big difference to other baits in its price bracket like the Vansbaits or Kawasemi, or even other much less expensive wood baits like the DS Customs Speed Crawler or Fish Arrow Wing Dachs where I can feel every tiny vibration, movement of the wings, joints, and hardware amplified. It was an interesting feeling. It wasn't a dead feeling, nor refined, just very buttery. Typically I can feel if a bait ticks a weed, or a fish is pushing up behind a bait,. With the KRR, it was muted to the point I had difficulty feeling that I had ticked a submerged weed and had it caught on the hooks. Typically with even the slightest weed on a hook, the wing cadence will change, speeding up or the pitch will change. On the Cometa, there was no change. Surface disturbance was about on par for the size of this bait. The hookup ratio was 3 for 3 in blowups to landed fish. However, the bait went out of tune in the first fish, which was a cookie cutter 4-5lber size, not even a crazy fight which should not have caused it to get out of tune so easily. It took me a good amount of time to get it back in tune, and I never could get it tuned back to running perfectly despite my best efforts (and many, many years experience fishing and tuning all sorts of crawlers). By fish 3, the soft plastic tail had been lost. A spare tail is included in the package, so that will be replaced. The finish on the Cometa held up well, only a minor bit of hook pitting and bite marks. Wings and hardware closely resemble Raid Deka Dodge wings/hardware, but they are pre bent forward, which explains the fast wing cadence. My overall impressions of this bait are that it is beautifully built and finished, the hardware is somewhat fragile, and it is finicky to retune. Would I buy another one? Probably not. I have other better performing baits in that price range: the Kawasemi is a magical bait, and the Vansbait Magnum Lake does everything the KRR does, except better and more reliably with a slightly larger profile. KRR Cometa Wing Length: 6.5 inches Weight: 2.8 oz Strengths: Top notch build quality, excellent hook up ratio, when running right has a great sound Weaknesses: Hardware is fragile, and is finicky to retune. Soft plastic tail is easily lost. Out of the box: 9.5 Twitch: 6 Ease of Startup: 8 Slow Retrieve (Creep): 6 Medium Retrieve (Crawl): 9 Fast Retrieve (Skitter): 6 Noise: Medium (from wings: 100%) Wing cadence: Fast Durability: 6 Ease of tuning: 6 (Stay tuned, as I will have an in-depth crawler breakdown and reviews of over 30 different JDM jointed crawlers coming soon on jdmfishing.com. My other article, on the DRT Klash 9, can also be found on jdmfishing.com, in the Big Bait Otaku section.)