Bluebasser86

I don't really have any. I don't get the net out but that's more because my boat is small and I try to save as much space as possible.

I take the time I fish alone to try to learn new things or fish techniques I normally can't with someone else. When someone else is in the boat I have to worry about if they're catching fish or not. If I'm alone and don't catch fish then I don't have to worry about someone else being disappointed.

Name: Clayton Westgate Age: 34 City/State: Gardner, KS Occupation: Deputy Sheriff Education: High School grad with some college (Police Academy) Yrs Fishing: My parents first took me a couple weeks before my first birthday. The picture of me sitting in my diaper holding a fishing pole is one of my favorite old pictures of myself. Preferred Style (describe a typical, quality day): If I can get on a good jig bite it's a good day. I also love getting slack lined on my bladed jigs. Personal Fav food: There isn't really anything I don't like to eat other than fish oddly enough. BBQ, Italian, Mexican, and breakfast foods are my favorites. If I had to pick one thing it would be my mom's lasagna. Fav movies: Tommy Boy, Dumb and Dumber, Step Brothers, I love stupid comedies. Fav quote: "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell Fishing Fav bait: Homemade jigs or bladed jigs Fav set up (rod/reel): Spinning: Daiwa Tatula 2500/ St. Croix LTB 6' 10" M/XF Baitcaster: Daiwa Zillion SV TWS/St.Croix LTB 7' Mh/F Fav lake: Table Rock or Melvern Fav river: Elk River in Missouri is the only river I've ever fished for bass. The White River in Arkansas is one of my favorite fishing destinations, but for brown trout on jerkbaits. 10 Questions from Members input 1. How do you find the time to work, spend time with your family, go fishing, and still be logged onto the website and patrol all the posts? I work nights and have a lot of down time that I spend on the website while nothing is going on. Evenings are time spent with my wife and sons, Lake and Finn. I'll go for an hour or two after work in the mornings a couple times a week when the weather allows it. 2. What is your fishing background/experience? We were very poor when I was young, so fishing was a means of getting food without spending much money. I always felt good when I caught a good fish because I knew I was helping my family out. I loved being around the water and trying to catch the fish and anything else in it, and that has never changed. I started fishing tournaments when I turned 16 in a local bass club. My first year I won 2 tournaments, rookie of the year, backseater of the year, and 3rd place overall in the club. I had to stop tournament fishing when I got into law enforcement due to scheduling conflicts but I have been doing it long enough now that I can get the days off and I'm hoping to get back into it. 3. What have been your best experiences when fishing? Any time I get to spend on the water with my dad is a good time. I've always enjoyed our trips together but now that I have sons of my own I think I realize that much more how special those trips are for both of us. 4. Give us a play by play of a typical, lets say, Tuesday for you? What time do you get up? Work? Fishing? Family? How do you relax at the end of a long day at work? My Tuesday starts at 6PM Monday night. That's when I wake up and go say hi to my wife and boys. Take the dogs outside to run around. I make dinner and play with my kids until it's time for them to go to bed. I leave for work around 9:20 for my shift that starts at 10PM and goes until 6AM the next day unless I'm holding over and working until 10AM, which I normally do once or twice a week. Once I get home I usually build some baits or tinker with my fishing gear until 10AM which is when I try to be in bed. Now do the same for a Saturday? Saturdays I'm off most of the day so sometimes I'll get up and go fishing for a few hours in the morning, or I might sleep in a bit and spend the day with my family. 5. What experience do you have fishing elsewhere other than home areas? I've been a bunch of different lakes fishing; Eagle Lake in Ontario, Grand Lake in Oklahoma, Beaver Lake, White River, and Bull Shoals in Arkansas, Gulf of Mexico, Minnetonka in Minnesota, and Hampton Lakes in South Carolina. Beaver, The White River, Grand, and Hampton Lakes were my favorites 6. Is it still as much fun for you as it was in the beginning of your tenors? More so I would say. I've gotten to the point where I try to understand the fish more than just trying to go out and catch them. I like to come up with a game plan before I ever get to the lake and make adjustments as I see fit while on the water. I've also gotten to where catching a bunch of fish isn't as much the goal anymore as catching better quality fish. 7. Do you guys get free stuff? Lures, line, rods, reels, etc...? Yes we do occasionally from some of our sponsors. I've been fortunate to get to try out some great gear from several different companies during my time as a Moderator here. 8. What part of being a Mod here do each of you enjoy most and least? Most: I like getting to help out with helping to keep this forum as great as it is. Least: Any time someone wants to argue is never a good time. I get plenty of confrontation at work. I try to avoid it here but it kind of comes with the territory. 9. What is your favorite besides bass? I'm an avid multispecies angler with bass being first on my list. It's impossible for me to pick a second favorite. I love fishing for big flathead and blue catfish. I spend several days each winter after wipers and white bass. I wish I had muskie and stripers closer as they're both a blast. Same goes for brown trout, I don't think I could ever get tired of chasing them. 10. Do you guys rotate as to who needs to be on line at any given time? Or does everyone just look in whenever they get time. I'm mostly on at night but also occasionally during the day. Fav hobbies other than fishing: Lure building, bow hunting, and bow fishing. I love going camping with my wife and kids. Turn ons: Fishing in the dark, Spring, sunrises on the water, getting to be a dad and husband. Turn offs: Liars, negative people, know-it-alls, anyone who is abusive to someone who is different/weaker/smaller or to animals. Aspirations: To be the best father and husband I can be while continuing to grow in and enjoy this sport that is such a major part of my life and hopefully pass my passion for it on to my kids.

No, that's Wilson Reservoir, we're going to Wilson County State Lake by Buffalo,KS.

A friend has one on his pontoon and it does just fine and my dad has one on his deep V and does well with it. Great motor for that money if everything is working fine with it.

Getting close to that time boys! Only a week and a half before we'll be down at Wilson tearing them up again

No, it's the state park ramp on the northeast side of the lake by the dam that we normally go from, in Eisenhower State Park. The one we went from last time was Arrow Rock on the south side of the lake.

10 pound is the heaviest I'll go on a spinning reel.

A Zoom Finesse worm on a #2 EWG hook with a 1/16 or 1/32 ounce bullet weight is a killer super finesse rig. I also use those little hooks for the smallest size YUM craw tube, which is a killer smallmouth and bed fishing bait.

I lost a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 97MR in Gunmetal Shad on a big smallmouth once. Line stretched tight and all she did was nick a zebra mussel on a rock and it was all over.

Same here. I'll rig up baits on a known body of water that I might only plan on fishing 1 certain spot with or baits that I can tell in 10 cast if they're going to eat it or not. Our lakes don't have enough structure or large enough populations of bass to really pick up 1 bait and fish it all day very often.

I find dozens of baits every year, mostly in the trees or floating against the bank. A telescoping lure retriever has recovered countless lures others have left hanging in trees. Most expensive one I got was a Megabass Vision 110 Magnum that was in a tree at Table Rock. Found a 100 Pointer and 100DD Pointer that same day. I caught a bunch of fish on the Megabass that day and the next until the bill mysteriously fell off mid retrieve.

Heck of a fish, congrats

Good job adapting and overcoming to land your first bass!

Those swirls could have very well been bluegills. We had a very large hatch of flying ants at the lake Sunday, every kind of fish in the lake seemed to be taking full advantage of the mass of insects floating on the surface, including the smallmouth we were fishing for. Small ponds often have very little cover or structure so the fish seem to relate to the shoreline where most of the food is and where most of the cover tends to be.

I try not to keep them out of the water any longer than I can hold my breath.

For anyone interested we'll be doing the Saturday morning deal at Melvern this week. 6:30-??? 1 maybe? There were several members there last weekend and everyone reported catching lots of fish with several good fish, should be a good time Saturday if we can get the weather to cooperate! We'll go out of the EAST state park ramp.

I had Sunday off with Nicole and my parents were nice enough to watch Lake and Chris was nice enough to loan me his boat so we went to Melvern Weather was beautiful, sunny and flat calm, wasn't so sure about how the fishing was going to be, I was pleasantly surprised. I sight fished a nice spot out from under the private dock by the ramp, then Nicole caught a small walleye on her first cast on the ramp with a Ned, her first walleye ever. No amount of pink gloves were getting her to touch that fish I threw a few different baits and caught fish on all of them, unfortunately I settled on a topwater walking bait as the best producer of better quality fish I was watching Nicole fight one of what seemed like hundreds of 8" smallmouth she caught when I heard my bait get blasted. Fish sure look like they're doing a lot better than last time I was out there. 18" on the nose, didn't weigh it. Nicole continued her multispecies day with her first flathead ever, watch out Curt! She got her share of bigger smallies too, including a BLACK 18 incher. I caught more largemouth than I've caught at Melvern in a single day too, including a few off the dam. Seems the states efforts to stock largemouth in that lake are working. Several times we had fish hooked and several others followed and I kept expecting to double up with my walking bait. When it finally happened wouldn't you know it would be 2 largemouth. Hopefully it will be that good Saturday.

Well Hazel was fun, but it really seemed to be off. Thursday night was very tough, my buddy never had a bite and only caught 4 or 5 in 6 hours of fishing. Friday was a good numbers day but the big fish that are usually so common there were nowhere to be found. We bailed and went to Paho Saturday but it too failed to produce the big fish that it's so well known for. My old bass club was at Mozingo last weekend and if fished horribly, so maybe the bass in northern Missouri were just in a funk last weekend. We did see a bunch of muskie at Hazel Creek though, which was part of the mission in going up there. I caught a little muskie on a squarebill off a laydown log. Then towards the end of the day Friday I pitched next to a tree and got a hard tap and set into a good fish. Thought I'd finally found a good bass until she came up and wallowed next to the boat. No leader, in the middle of a bunch of trees, net was still in the locker, it was an interesting fight to say the least. Once finally in the net she shook and cut my line like nothing, even though it was 50lb braid. Wanted to get a tape on her but lots of fight left in her and she plopped back in the water after the weight and pictures, came up at 17 pounds even. Holding her with the grips while trying to get the tape ready, she threw water everywhere and about took the grips with her right after this picture. Paho gave up a couple keeper sized bass at least, including Ricky's 19 incher that was our last and biggest bass of the trip.

No big bass at Hazel Creek but I did get 2 muskies today.

On the way to Hazel Creek now, hopefully have some good pictures and stories tonight.

I fish a 5 arm with 3 dummy baits rigged on hitchhiker trailer keepers and 2 rigged baits. Usually go with 3 small grubs on the hitchhikers and 2 bigger baits on the hot arms and I try to keep the rigged baits on the middle and bottom arms so they're the first ones the fish run into.

The play was over by the time the block was made as well, D backs knee hits the ground and immediately after the hit is made. There is no way that huge D lineman couldn't have blocked Foles without laying him out like that. It was really similar to laying out a helpless receiver on a crossing pattern over the middle. It's a violent game and I know injuries are going to happen, but the league owes it to the players to protect them from shots like that. To me it shouldn't make a difference if he hit a 3rd string fullback nobody had ever heard of, but I know they try to protect the QBs even more than anyone else. I didn't have any dog in the fight here, just my opinions on it.

I was right there with you

That rod would work just fine for those baits as well as a lot of several other things. A 7' MH/F is a very versatile rod.