Bluebasser86

I always use a leader unless the water is dirty. I only use a foot or two of leader so the knot isn't running back and forth through my guides.

Spooks are designed to "walk the dog". Use sharp, downward twitches of your rod to make the bait glide side to side on the retrieve. It takes a little practice but the original spook is probably the easiest bait there is to walk. You can mess with speed of the twitch and length of the glide, pause versus no pause also. They're a great bait for covering lots of water quickly and seem to excel in stained to clear water.

Those are small hooks for a muskie, which are hard fish to hook anyways. If you're looking to target muskie with one you might just get a regular Spook and upgrade the hooks. There's lots of muskie sized walking baits like a Poe's Giant Jackpot, but you'll need heavier gear to toss one. Muskies are notoriously aggravating with topwaters. I've never managed to hook one on topwater, but I've had some of the most impressive explosions and acrobatic strikes I've ever seen with them.

Yeah, and it really SUCKS!!! Without a doubt the best pond in the area and now nobody gets to fish it because of some knuckleheads.

I've always flown mine with me. Rods go in a Bazooka rod tube, reels go in a padded reel case in my checked bag packed in the middle of all my clothes for extra padding, tackle bag is my carry on. Make sure you don't have any pliers/forceps/knives/lighters/large hooks/multitools/screwdrivers/dynamite whatever in your tacklebag. It's kind of hit or miss with the tackle. Last time I flew I had no issues until I was coming back from my trip. I had bought no fishing tackle on my trip but suddenly my hooks must have looked extra sharp or something because the TSA guy was all worked up about it. Thankfully his supervisor let me go without having to check it. The also removed the C clip from my rod tube for some reason and never replaced it? Ticked me off but they're cheap so I just replaced it instead of asking them to do it.

I see fish with those black splotches on them fairly often. From what I've been told it's a sign of a healthy fishery? No idea why but I know most of them I see are from lakes that do have very good bass fishing.

This is the one I was looking at but there's a few more in Chanute. http://www.guesthousemotelchanute.com/

There's camping but no electric hookups. I'd be more than willing to take anyone's batteries with me to the hotel to charge if they have a charger that isn't attached to the boat.

Has anyone that is planning on going made reservations for anywhere around Perry? I'm asking because I'm seriously considering a change in venue. Perry has been a tough customer this year from all reports. If we're willing to drive a little further I think that Wilson County State Lake would be a blast for everyone and maybe someone will screw up and catch a new state record spotted bass Scrogg and I had no problems catching well over 50 fish with lots of them over 2 pounds up to 4 pounds and I'm sure there's bigger fish in there and there was a good mix of spots and largemouth. Just something to toss out there. I'll fish Perry if that's where everyone wants to go, but I think one guy could catch more bass in 1 day at Wilson than everyone might catch in 2 days at Perry.

The Sahara and Symetre are both great workhorse reels that will do everything you ask them to.

No matter how fast you are or how sensitive your equipment is, you're going to gut hook fish on occasion. Set the hook at the first sign of a bite to try to reduce the swallowed hooks. Smashing down the barbs like you are is a good measure to try to prevent further injury to the fish and aids in hook removal.

You can get a Lees Hot Pot melting pot for a pretty reasonable price and melt that lead quickly and cleanly. The pot has a pouring spout right on it so it's easy to pour the lead where you need it. I use one for all my pouring.

Used to do the same. Used a basic setline like I was fishing for catfish except they were set very shallow in mucky areas. I caught some big ones but the biggest was about 30 pounds and a couple feet across. I've caught them on lots of different artificials, a long pair of pliers and quick reflexes are the best combo to unhook them.

Rangers are not unsinkable, trust me

I would think it would be very difficult to keep a tube up on the hook like that? Are you using a tube with a solid head or do you have something to keep it up on the hook? I'm sure it will work though.

Reel into them until you feel weight and lean into them. This serves 2 purposes; it keeps you from dodging a treble hooked missile, and if the fish misses you don't pull it away from them and they will often come back and hit it again.

Don't you know you're always supposed to catch the big fish in practice?

Have not yet had a chance to fish it. I'm assuming it's going to be more of a slow rolling action than a fast wiggle of the 1.5 sized baits. Bigger baitfish also swim with a bit more wobble than their smaller brethren though so that might not be a bad thing. I'm a little disappointed in the colors as well but at the same time I'm not going to be carry several colors of a squarebill this size anyways so as long as they have the basics I'll be alright. I was disappointed in finding they didn't make it in Green Gizzard shad, by far my favorite SK crankbait color.

Well, they're big I had planned on fishing it on my DD crankbait rod but after holding it I've decided to go with a light flipping stick instead. Going to be tossing it with a 7' 6" MH/MF with a 200BSF Curado and 20lb P Line Evolution. Did I mention it's big? That's a 1.5 sized bait it's next to and 1/0 Owner ST 36s the bait is sporting.

I use 14lb Mustad Thor. No problems ripping it free from the weeds. If you bury it up bad enough you can't rip it loose with that combo I don't think it matters what setup you're using.

Weren't we just talking about something like that the other day?

Now that we're getting closer to the actual date, who is still planning on fishing this get together?

From doing a little searching I'm seeing possibly Garland, TX area??