Bluebasser86

I think it was the line I was using. I switched to 832 and caught well over 50 fish with it last weekend and never had an issue, even in heavy timber and brush. That Super Slick must have just been slipping on the hookset and popping the knot.

I use to noodle, not so much anymore. Big catfish are easy, just grab them by the lower jaw. The key there is just like noodling, don't let go unless you absolutely have to and don't try to yank your hand out of their mouth if they bite down. The hardest part is getting the camera set up and getting the fish in position before the 10 second timer goes off I agree totally about the grass carp in shallow water. The monster that t boned my S waver last year took me over 20 minutes to land on a heavy swimbait rod and 25lb copolymer and it did just like you said, every time I got it shallow enough that it laid over on it's side and I tried to drag it up so I could reach it she would shoot off again. Since that fish had the bait crossways in her mouth I had no real way to grip her. I ended up wading out about knee deep so I could get behind her and ended up just shoving her up into the shallows and pinning her down so I could take the hooks out to pick her up.

If you tight line them they'll be able to move around in a circle the size of your leader length. If you give them some slack line they should be able to pull some line through the sinker and move around even more freely. You can also float them under a large slip float and use several split shot to keep them near the bottom but I feel they look much more natural with the rig I posted.

I've managed to hit the 5 pound mark right on the head 3 times now, most recently was this one in October 2011 on a tiny Lucky Craft BDS Zero crankbait in American Shad color. She had the tail of an 8-9 inch crappies sticking out of her throat, hence the giant bulge in her stomach.

X2 on fishing your strengths if at all possible. During a tournament is not the right time to be trying to learn something new. I'd look for high potential areas on the map first and go straight to the best looking one if possible and beat it up. Fish should be tight to cover in stained to muddy water.

Could the fish in your left hand even swim?? Good gosh that's a porker!

I've had good success with 15# and lighter Vicious, 12# is great for finesse jigs and T rigs. It has terrible memory in heavier sizes, but the stuff is extremely strong and abrasion resistant. Maybe the bad reviews are guys tying bad knots or something. The Vicious Elite is good line with much less memory.

Like J said, you can set your security settings really high and don't have to list anything in your personal settings, although some groups might require some information for you to join. I use it to keep in touch with my family that doesn't live close and to share fishing pictures with my fishing buddies, some of which had a really difficult time finding me on FB despite knowing my full name.

Thank you for your service and welcome from a fellow brother in blue!

Not as much a craw pattern but hands down my favorite wart color, V38 The phantom green craw would be more of a craw pattern that I've had a lot of success with also.

I've tried a couple times and hated it. I've been broken off by bass, but usually due to zebra mussels, dock pillars, or heavy cover of some kind. Check your line often and make sure the knot is good and there's no reason even a 10 pounder shouldn't make it to the boat in open water unless it tosses the bait.

I used to fish for big bluegills with a small aberdeen hook and piece of nightcrawler with no weight or bobber. Cast it to a likely looking spot and watch for the line to twitch, how I learned to be a line watcher before I even knew what that meant

Rage double or triple blades do the trick for me. They're all effective with a well placed shot though.

Trilene BG or P line C21 are my topwater lines of choice, unless I'm frogging of course, then it's braid.

It has a delay, both on the stop and start and on making adjustments. Not a huge deal if you're just fishing down a bank or offshore structure or something. Get around some docks or standing timber and I'd probably end up just tying up to a tree and fishing around the boat like I was crappie fishing.

I've tried to make hardbaits, incredibly difficult unless you're a very skilled craftsman or willing to fail, a lot. Having tried it myself gives me an appreciation for the nice hand carved baits that some feel are overpriced. A ton of hours and skill goes into making those baits, even those that make it look easy surely had many, many failures before they made a bait that worked correctly, especially a diving bait.

You might be able to just mount a bracket to the front of the boat to clamp it onto. I had to use a hand control that I spun the head around on my johnboat for awhile. Used a piece of angle iron and drilled a few holes through it to mount to the deck and added a piece of 2X4 to it to clamp the motor onto, worked pretty well.

I would try some lead shot in the back of the bait. Should be a much duller sound than other baits, which would still be good for your clear water applications.

Toronto isn't far away and is supposed to be a great lake for monster crappie and white bass, like 2+ pound crappie and 3+ pound whites. Could always hop over there after the tournament

This is the lake. http://kdwpt.state.ks.us/Fishing/Where-to-Fish-in-Kansas/Fishing-Locations-Public-Waters/Region-5/Wilson-State-Fishing-Lake and these stats are why we're going there. Only lake in the state rated excellent for both largemouths and spots . The black numbers were the biggest of each species sampled, the state record spot is 4.44 to get an idea of how big a 3 3/4 pound spotted bass is. largemouth bass WILSON STATE FISHING LAKE 52.69 25.75 3.59 5.38 E 55.17 spotted bass WILSON STATE FISHING LAKE 32.34 11.98 1.20 3.75 E 34.92

Welcome aboard!

I'm going with the RTO in TO shad. Maybe they just changed the color pattern slightly. As for not saying Lucky Craft on it somewhere?? Maybe it was one that slipped through without it.

I catch a bunch of catfish on lures every year, really isn't a bait I haven't caught one on other than a big swimbait, and I'm sure that's just a matter of time. I've caught countless numbers of them on cranks, jigs, T rigged plastics, spoons, and bladed jigs. I've caught quite a few on jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, and traps. I've even caught several on buzzbaits and one big channel on a Snagproof tournament frog that I thought was going to be a new state record bass. I've helped a friend of mine land a 30+ pound flathead on a spinnerbait and landed them myself over 40 pounds. 14lb baby brush hog 40+ on a jig 15lbs Havoc Craw fatty 17lbs on a jig 25lbs on a jig 12lbs on a shakyhead Most of them I catch each year are close to this size and are tossed back without a picture.

Here's a very basic catfish rig that I use often for presenting cutbait and livebait on the bottom.

X2, never fished a big river for bass but this would be really similar to my game plan if I was going to try.