Amistoad

That’ll warm your a$$ up!

Thanks man. Yeah, my wife is awesome and lets me go fishing any time I feel the call…especially after she got me sick!

I’m surprised such a long fish is less than 4 lbs!!

It’s been a long time since I posted a report. But yesterday I was coming down with a flu given to me by my dear wife as a Valentine’s Day present (thanks sweetie!) so I decided to go to a local lake and at least get some fresh air while messing around with the bass. They’ve been inhaling Alabama rigs the last month but yesterday I couldn’t buy a bite all morning. Everyone was struggling based on the conversations I overheard and had with other guys. It was perfect weather too. Overcast skies, warm (upper 60’s) and minimal breeze. They were out in 11-20’ and on the bottom with not many suspended. Bait was everywhere. I had a shine glide tied on and it’s been one of my go-to glides for years. Cheap, good lookin’, and gets plenty of attention. Not the classiest bait in town, but damn near a sure thing. It saved my afternoon. Didn’t bag any big girls, but I managed a couple of little footballs up to 4.7 lbs. to save the day. As for the flu, so far, so good. Lots of snot and some coughing, but no fever or body ache like my wife still has. Diagnosis: if you feel a sickness coming on, GO FISHING!

Plenty of these fish are eating jigs, crankbaits, worms, and other baits. So the A-rig, Swimbait angle is incorrect. I’ve thought about the program and all I can say is that after all these 40 something years, I’m not convinced it’s doing wonders for the fisheries. The fish get big because of environmental conditions and some genetics, but keeping a handful of fish to spawn out of the thousands or millions of big monsters that spawn naturally doesn’t work out mathematically I’d say. With that, I wouldn’t participate and I’ve caught a couple that would qualify. I don’t want to bring attention to the water, or how I caught it, or cause stress and potentially death to the fish. I know I caught it. The fish knows. My wife knows. That’s good enough for me.

Always a work in progress. 1987 Ranger 680T with Lowrance and Garmin. Here’s the current version:

Whole lotta people quick to call others out on the interwebs and then never apologize when they get busted themselves. Had it happen to me a couple of weeks ago on another forum. Makes them look like real losers…in my humble opinion.

From personal experience…scope out the place you plan to fish in the daylight. Worst thing in the world is to step into something you didn’t know was there, like a muskrat hole or something, and seriously injure yourself. Likewise, check out the water ahead of time so you don’t wind up casting into a shallow rock reef and losing your lure. Basic stuff, but important.

+1 on a used Hobie PA 14. I’ve had mine since 2015 and it’s perfect for throwing big baits. Got it on a local fishing forum and it’s rigged with sonar, had an inflatable life vest, and all sorts of other goodies. Caught many a fish out of it!

Gah! Autocorrect changed “price” into “prove” in my rant. But you get the idea. I just don’t get why guys don’t ask the freakin’ price they want.

I refer people to this site when they start asking lots of Swimbait questions. It’s a treasure trove of information. But it also has the “hey lookit my collection of pristine, expensive baits I’ll never fish…wanna buy one for the price of a car?” component. That’s always been a factor. The trick is for people to be able to separate the solid information and good deals from the flippers and wannabe cool kids with too much of mom and dad’s $$$ and not enough common sense. In my opinion.

Results from day 1 on the water. It’s freaking amazing. I went to my local because I know it pretty well and figured it’s a good place to learn how the unit works and what things look like. Saw so many fish doing things I’ve never imagined. Saw them mobbing my lure but not eating, saw a school rocket up from 25 feet down to bust Shad at the surface. Saw schools bum rushing my A-rig (caught a few doubles). Watched them chasing each other and grabbing things off the bottom. Bass are WAY more mobile than I’m used to imagining. Just an incredible day. I wore down my battery after 8 hours and had to call it a day, but I’m looking forward to hitting some lakes with DD girls in them to see what I can do. My best bass on a swimbait so far is just under 8. Hoping to crack 10 this year. Still totally amped from the day’s events.

It’s a 12” screen. I had a 12”’Lowrance up front, but I relocated it to double up on the tiller end. I figured the 9” will put less strain on the RAM mount. It also does double duty on my Jon boat. I made a simple bracket out of 2” angle iron to hold both on the same mount.

Good to hear. There are big fish in my local waters, but I spend too much time unhooking 3-5 lbs fish when I’m chasing monsters. Tomorrow I break in the new unit.

I just finished installing a Panoptix setup in the old Ranger and I’m going to give it a serious workout this summer. Just wondering if any of you guys have had any experiences with this or Active Target, or whatever and how it’s influenced your fishing. For me, I’m hoping it helps me minimize time spent throwing at empty water. Especially offshore. The lakes around me get tons of pressure and the fish have seen every lure in the world a hundred times. Except for big swimbaits. So what’re your thoughts from guys "Not Allowed" using it?

Ordered a couple this morning. Hoping to try them as soon as they arrive.

For years I’ve said there shouldn’t be eBay style “make me offers” in the Black Market. You have a prove in mind? Ask it! And I’ve also never understood why f&f is used by so many. For a couple extra bucks, just use g&s for everyone’s protection. It’s not complicated. Then again, nobody asked me.

There’s always bluegills available for bass. Water temp doesn’t factor in for me.