Bluebasser86

It is right on the same level with the Kistler Helium.

They are insanely light. I couldn’t believe it when I picked mine up for the first time. The sensitivity is excellent and they look great. Really just a great all around package.

Them things are lucky there must not be an abundance of big blue cats around them. They look like they'd be a top food/bait choice for a big hungry blue. I'd love to try them for cutbait, they look like they'd be oily and bloody.

It’s lighter and feels more balanced and sensitive than the LTB rods I’ve had, especially with specs similar to this one. I'd say it even feels a little lighter than my Kistler Heliums, and sensitivity is really similar.

The final installment of The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork is tournament day. Launch was 7am, lines in at 7:30, lines out at 6:30pm. 11 long hours on the water. I wasn’t sure where to start but settled on a dock that I’d found with several crappie beds on it that I’d caught a couple out of in practice. I spent a lot of cast slowly picking the cover apart with a very light T rig, which the light weight seemed to be key for me to get bites. I finally got a fish to go, but it was only a small 14.50” fish. 15 minutes later I was working a weightless Yamatanuki through the brush when another fish picked it up. Keeper number 2 was another dink, only 13.75”. I picked the cover apart for a while and had one really thump the Tanuki once, but no more fish. I slid over to the next dock and pitched the T rig into a small hole and felt pressure. The fish sliced under the dock after the hookset and my line pinged under the edge of the dock. At the end of the dock there was an old piece of rope I didn’t see hanging in the water, the fish got wrapped and tangled in the rope and was threatening to rip free. I stabbed with the net and got her. Keeper number 3 was a 21.75” fish. I had a long dry spell with just a couple dinks on a shakyhead out of some trees on a point. I worked into the point I caught my 8.23 and was pitching into a gap in the grass under the bushes when I had another pressure bite. I slammed the rod back and saw a big flash, and then she was gone. I hadn’t lost a big fish all week until then. I didn’t use braid because the light weight and wind wasn’t a good combination but it bit me on that fish. It was almost 1pm when I finally got another bite, keeper number 4 was another 13” fish on the T rig. Then at 2pm I caught 2 keepers on back to back cast on the shakyhead, a 12.25” fish, then I immediately culled it with a 13.50” fish. I had 4 hours left to fish and only about 76”. I fished a couple more areas before I decided to work back through where I had caught my big fish in practice. The first pocket produced nothing. The next one was the one with the bushes that I’d lost the big one earlier and caught my 8.23 in practice. I was picking apart some bushes with the T rig and pretty zoned out when I dropped my bait and when I lifted, I saw a big white flash and my line started moving for deeper water. The fish when nuts on the hookset, thrashing all over the surface and was quickly in the net. The fish was a better boat fish than a kayak fish, 20.75” and a hair over 7 pounds. It was just after 5 and the wind laid down, I felt like maybe I could make a late move. I was fishing a senko through a tree where I missed one earlier in the day when I caught a small fish. When I hooked that fish, it was stuck for just a second, and I never checked my line. Right there was the trees I caught my 8.23 off of, and one of my first cast to them got picked up. The fish swam to open water so I let it swim away before I set the hook. The fish was heavy, and the. I saw that it was maybe my biggest of the day. I had it open water, it was mine, just wear her down. She fought and surged and dove under the kayak, and broke my line. I was completely defeated at that moment. That fish should have been mine and I made a careless mistake and it cost me. I never got another bite and ended with 84.25”, good enough for 60th out of 145 anglers.

I don’t, most of my experience has been with St Croix LTB or Kistler rods.

I've got several Okuma reels I use for big catfish because of their durability. I love their big baitfeeders because they're well built and I don't have to spend a ton to get a reel that will surely end up in the sand or mud multiple times during it's lifetime. I also use one of the big Citrix 364's for catfish. It's a huge, low profile reel with a bait clicker, the thing is a beast on big blues and flatheads. That was the Shimmer Shad color, that fish absolutely hammered it on the pause.

Took my boys out for a few hours Sunday evening where a creek runs into the river. Everything gathers here in the spring but all we found were little channels and drum. Nice weather and the boys were having a blast chasing frogs and cranking in fish.

That wind broke my locking latch on my pedal drive and the prop on my pedal drive while I was fighting the wind, pretty sure it got the best of me.

I drive past a few different options on the way to and from work. Many times, I'll have 15-30 minutes before I need to be there or home so I'll stop and make a few cast. I usually just have one rod with a wacky rig or Ned rig, or whatever is appropriate for the season and conditions. They'll either eat what I'm offering or they won't. I've caught some really nice ones on those quick stops though, and I catch nothing a lot like I did this morning. It was nice to stop and make a few cast while I had a minute though.

After spending the week on Fork in my kayak where the wind blew 20-40 mph almost every day, the wind is not my friend 😂

I've been saying it for years, Okuma is such an underappreciated brand in the bass fishing world. I've owned, and still own, many of their rods and reels and they always rank among my favorites. I caught my 8.49lb fish last week using their ITX Carbon spinning reels. I've got an RTX that is over a decade old on my dropshot rod that has been one of the most dependable spinning reels I've ever owned. I have another old white spinning reel I bought on clearance in a blister pack that I use for brush busting and creek fishing, that thing just refuses to die. My oldest son caught a tank wiper on it a couple years ago out of a creek small enough to jump across and it handled it no problem. The Helios and Helios TCS reels that I have are probably close to a decade old and I beat those things up every year and they just keep going. I could keep going but I don't want to completely derail the original topic of the post. The Hakai has been a great reel for me for a couple of seasons now. Before I went to Texas, my biggest fish of the year was caught using it to fish a suspending IMA lipless bait.

Oh, wait until I have time to break down my tournament day, I'll tell you all about me losing bass 😬

It’s extremely light, only 5.6oz. It doesn’t feel “cheap”, like some lightweight reels I’ve used. Everything feels very connected and sturdy. There’s no play or movement anywhere in the reel. I really like the clicking drag and spool tension adjustments also. It’s centrifugal brakes also, which is one of my only complaints with my Daiwa reels, I’m always accidentally hitting the magnetic brakes and having to readjust them.

I usually keep it on until it starts to crack or something, then I peel it off. I don’t know why I do it, just always have.

When I got back from Lake Fork this weekend, I had a rod tube and box waiting for me 😍 I’m a big Okuma fan, I have several of their bait casters and a few rods, they’re a very under appreciated brand in the bass fishing work I feel like. I don’t understand why when they make gear that looks and feels like this thing does. It looks sharp and is incredibly light. I got the 7’ 3” H/F and the 8.1 reel to put braid and use it for straight braid applications only. I got to take it for a test spin Sunday. I was just blown away how light it was. I expected a little weight for a rod with those specs, but I didn’t feel it at all. It fished as nice as it looked too. Can’t wait for the grass to grow so I can really test it.

I use one for my trap rod. It cast really well and is a great “workhorse”, type reel. It was a little finicky to dial in, but it was a “set it and forget it”, once I got it dialed.

I had a jig rod and bladed jig rod out most of the day and almost every time I set the hook, it was 5 pounds or bigger. It truly was a magical day. All on baits I made too.

Part 4 of the Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork was a very windy Tuesday that was supposed to be the day before the first day of the tournament. I had gone out to try and find a way to fish in 30mph winds in case we did fish on Wednesday, but I found out around 10am that day one was cancelled because of the wind so I headed in. We were allowed to fish on Wednesday, but we couldn’t fish Fork. I didn’t want to sit around the camper all day, so I drove to nearby Quitman Lake to see if it was a potential option. The lake was much smaller, muddy, rocky, lots of docks, seemed to be shallow, and most importantly, I caught 2 healthy bass right next to the boat ramp on a bladed jig. So Wednesday morning I headed out to Quitman and loaded just a few casting rods and zero spinning rods into the kayak. I started right at the ramp and after trying a few different baits, I pitched a black and blue jig into the opening between the boards on the launch dock. I picked up and felt pressure and the hookset had a good fish thrashing on the surface quickly. I held it’s head up while I worked the kayak next to the dock and was able to reach through the dock and grab a 19” fish. After releasing that fish, I pitched back under the dock and my jig got slammed immediately. I could tell by the thrashing it was a bigger fish. I did the same maneuvering and got a grip on a 5+lb 20.50” fish. The wind started blowing pretty good and I only got one small spot before I came around a corner that was pretty protected. I ran my bladed jig down a seawall and it just kind of got heavy. When I leaned into it, I felt the headshake and knew it was big. She darted past the kayak right on the surface and I was quick with the net and she was mine as fast as the fight started. A beautiful 22” bass that weighed 6.72lbs. I caught a little 12 incher (that would be the last small fish I would catch), before pulling up to a tree growing out over the water. I pitched my jig and hopped it once before I got a bite that shook my whole rod. The fish was in about a foot of water and came charging across the surface. The back was so thick, I knew it was big, but when I scooped with the net and my jig popped out of her mouth at the same time, the realization hit me how big she was. I was sure I’d just caught a DD. The first time on the scale she came up 9.58, but then I realized it had started in the negative. When I zeroed it, the scale locked at 9.72. The 2nd largest bass I’d ever caught and way prettier than my PB, the fish just didn’t look real in the net. I couldn’t believe what just happened, but the shakes hadn’t even worn off from that fish when I pitched into another laydown and yanked out another 6.5lb 21.25” fish. That 20lb Seaguar Tatsu was earning its keep with these fish I promise you that! I didn’t catch a single one that wasn’t rubbing on something at some point in the fight. I had to surf the waves around the southeast end of the lake. It was too rough to be safe to try to fish and run the boat, so I just focused on driving the yak and getting to calmer water. When I got to the northeast side, it was a good, solid 2 hours before I got my next bite, a fat 17” fish in some shallow grass. I passed another kayak angler who said he hadn’t had a bite all day. When I got to the area by the north ramp, there was some bushes growing out over the water. I pitched my jig into, picking them apart. I knew when I finally made the right pitch, because my jig hit the water and the whole push shook. Another pig of a bass came boiling out of those bushes and crashing across the surface, putting on a whole show until I got it in the net. This one was just an absolute toad of a bass at 7.11lbs and only 20.75”! 2 more kayers passed me and asked how I was doing, and I told them. I don’t know if they believed me but they also said they hadn’t caught anything all day. I kept flipping those same bushes and about 5 minutes later my line jumped again and another big fish bolted out of the bushes. This time it was a 21” 5.66 pounder. I was at the end of the road at that point unfortunately. I was going to have to crash through a lot of big, rolling waves to get to the next safe spot to fish, or make a short run through much more manageable ones to get to the ramp I launched from. It was only 2pm and I wanted so badly to continue on. It was already the best day of my fishing life, how much better might it be able to get? I made the decision and pointed it towards the opposite shore and rode the waves the short distance across to the ramp and called it a day. My longest 5 were 108.25”, my heaviest 5 weighed 35.71lbs. My homemade silicone/living rubber jig and Yum Christie Craw combo that did most of the damage.

Part 3 of the Adventure of Blue goes to Lake Fork was on Day 4 of practice when I went and launched from the 514 Bridge. I had to drag my yak and all my gear about 50 yards down the bank to get to the water and do a gator check in the weeds before I could launch. I wasn’t positive it was a launch but the map said it was and I thought it might be a good good choice because it was hard to access. I caught a 17.75 almost immediately and was excited about the potential. It took almost 2 hours to get my second bite in a tangle of timber off a point, but it was a great kayak bass with a skinny 22” bass that was very postspawn looking (or maybe a huge male). Only one other small fish followed that one and then the winds that were not forecasted, started to blow heavily straight up the gut of the arm I was in. I made the decision to load every Back up and move. I moved to the Fork Boat Storage Ramp and caught a fish quickly on a wacky rig. Right next to the first dock I came to was a private ramp with poles marking what I assume was the end of the ramp. I pulled my wacky rig across the ramp and caught my smallest fish of the trip off the ramp, a 10 incher. I made another cast to the ramp and had another fish swim off with it. This hookset was met with an unmovable weight on the other end that slowly moved upwards and then lurched above the surface. I immediately thought I might have a DD on my line. I begged and pleaded with the fish to cooperate and it did everything to do the opposite, jumping 4 different times and dodging the net on my first attempt. After almost 2 minutes, I slid the net under the monster. She stretched to 23.75” and went 8.49lbs, one of my top 5 largest bass ever. I fished for 4 more hours and caught a total of 1 more bass, but I didn’t really care.

Part 2 of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on Day 3 when I decided to launch from our campground at Patriot Park. I was flipping docks and not overly impressed with the area but caught a decent fish pretty quickly on a Bang Stick under a dock. Just a few minutes later, I caught little bigger fish, around 17”, on a wacky rig. As I worked around the pocket, I was catching them pretty regularly on the T-rig and wacky rig. Lots of people were sight fishing, but I don’t have much luck with catching bedding bass so I wasn’t spending any time with the beds. As I was getting to the backside of the pocket, I saw what looked like a light spot a little deeper, and flipping the Bang Stick on it. My line took off immediately and a strong, heavy fish went ripping off for deeper water. She took me back and forth around the front of the kayak before I could get her in the net. My second big fish of the trip was a 21.25” 6.80lb chunk. The bite stayed pretty steady into the next pocket, mainly on the wacky rig. There was 3 standing trees that were growing in the water. The first one was empty. The second one, my wacky rig was picked up and slowly swam off with. My hook set was super heavy, if I was at home I would have been thinking catfish, but then the fish jumped. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bass make me nervous during a fight that wasn’t in a tournament, but I was nervous fighting this fish. I had 3 boats watching me and a chorus of cheers when I got the net under her. In all the years I’ve fished in Kansas, over 30 years, I’ve never caught an 8 pound bass, it took me 3 days in Texas. I caught a few more small fish, covered a lot of water, saw 2 swamp puppies and almost ran over one, Day 3 was a big success. I saw several other big fish caught, it was obvious this was a potential area for the tournament.

The Adventures of Blue goes to Lake Fork started on the 14th at 2am with an 8 hour drive to the lake. The wind was supposed to be howling all day (a recurring theme during the week), so I decided to launch from the Lake Fork Highway 19 Ramp because it was pretty protected. I put in a hard 6 hours on the water there, had 1 bite I think was a bass on a frog, caught 2 catfish on bladed jigs, and found the motherlode of gar and spawning carp before I decided to move to a different ramp. I moved to Fisherman’s Cove Ramp for the last 4 hours of my day. It took about 2 hours before I finally got a bite. My first Lake Fork bass was a Whopping 13.50” bass on a Neko rig. I caught a 12.25” fish on a jerkbait off a boat ramp and missed one more off a seawall on the Neko. I was not feeling great about my first day on Fork. Day 2 I launched at Coffee Creek and went under the bridge with the intention of flipping and frogging the shallow grass. After a couple hours, I had 1 bite flipping that I missed. I headed out of the shallows and around the point to try and fish a channel swing point. Unfortunately there was boats all over it so I continued around and found some dead cattails with emerging cattails mixed in on the backside of the point I wanted to flip. As soon as I started down the bank flipping, I got cutoff by a boat about 20’ in front of me but decided to just continue on my course. Didn’t take long before I caught a little 15” fish, and a few flips later, I got another a little bigger. I figured out any spot with laid over cattails right on the bank, had a fish under it. I went from no fish, to 7 or 8 in about 30 minutes. The bite stopped when I got to the back of the pocket and there was nothing on the front, so I went to the backside of the next point. There wasn’t as much grass, but I flipped the little bit there was. One of my lifts was greeted with a little resistance so I hammered the rod back and a good fish was thrashing on the surface immediately and quickly in the net. It took me well over a solid days, but I finally had a nice Lake Fork bass in the boat. I found one more clump of cattails and flipped a 16” fish out of there, and that was it, radio silence the rest of the day.

Just got back from Texas this morning. The Bassmaster Kayak Classic was an adventure but the week leading up to it was pure awesomeness. I caught several bass over 5, 3 over 6, 2 over 7, 2 over 8, and one nearly 10 pounds, my second largest bass ever. Of course, I never lost a big fish all week, until tournament day, then I lost 2, but that's fishing. I'm proud with my efforts and how I did on a notoriously tough lake with no previous experience. I finished above some of the biggest names in the sport, so I did okay in my book. I'll get to writing up a recap and posting pictures and videos as I have time, but here's a little sample for now.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement. I didn’t have the day I hoped for but considering the reputation Fork has for being difficult, and the fact that I’d never even seen the lake before, I’m not disappointed with it. Last I saw when Steve posted the standings at 6pm, I was in 50th out of 145 anglers. I caught that 7 pounder with just 1.5 hours left after a few hours of no bites. I lost one big one in the grass mid day when it buried up and just came off. Then with 45 minutes left, I hooked what may have been my biggest of the day on a weightless Senko and 8lb test. I had just caught a small out of a tree and I made a rookie mistake and didn’t check my line. When she dove under the kayak, my line broke. It was a huge high thinking I was about to catch another 20+ inch fish and cull 7+ inches, to watching that chance flapping in the wind and questioning why I didn’t check my line after that little fish had me in the tree, even it was only momentarily. I had the bites to be in the mid 90’s, but just didn’t capitalize. I wouldn’t have even been in the money with that total though, it took over 110” for first place, 100” didn’t even make top ten. Fix a couple mistakes and get 1 more big bite, and the guy from Kansas is right there in the mix and I’m pretty proud of that. It’s going to be a great video and the day before when I caught 108.25” and over 35lbs for my biggest 5 and nearly broke my PB is going to really be an amazing video 😎

I'm hoping I'm saving up to catch a DD at Fork next week.