Bluebasser86

From my limited experience with spinbaits I wouldn't go any heavier than 6lb test to get the right action from them. I know they're making some bigger ones now that are supposed to be usable on heavier gear but that seems to me like it would take a lot of the appeal of the bait away.

Kind of embarrassing that I forgot Mondo Tackle, not like he carries my baits or anything Mondo is the place to go to find baits you won't find in the big box stores and prices you won't find anywhere else. I've heard he carries some really nice bladed jigs from a local lure builder too

LTB 7' MH/XF LTB 7' 6" MH/F Ethos 6' 10" MH/F Just depends on the situation

Here's the best pictures I could get to show what I'm talking about with the paint job. It isn't terrible, just seems like it gets scratched up easier than most other baits I fish. I like baits with lots of battle scars showing though so it doesn't bother me

If I had to choose just one color it would probably be some kind of shad color or something like copper bream.

The catfish are getting back to chasing stuff all over now that the spawn is done. I caught a flathead and a channel last time I went, and they love jigs so I wouldn't at all surprised if that's what you had. What jig did you straighten the hook out on?? Even the standard wire hooks I use on my finesse jigs have handled flatheads up to 25 pounds without straightening.

I didn't catch a fish the first 3 times I fished Olathe. Then I got to where I could catch a couple and aimed for 10 fish per trip. Now most trips produce 20-30 fish with several fish over 15". It's not an easy lake to figure out at all, but there's lots of fish in there and some pretty good ones too. It fishes differently than I expected it to I guess and that's probably part of why it took me so long to figure it out.

PM sent

Cabela's is probably the worst out of all of them but sometimes you can find good stuff in the bargain cave. Roger's in Liberty would get my pick if I had to choose one. BPS in Independence is pretty good too. Academy has great prices but their selection is limited.

I've heard good things about it from the guys that have got their hands on them. The DTs I've had have been very fragile, main issue has been the bills pulling out of the baits, either during a retrieve or while fighting a fish. I'm down to only about a dozen or so and have no plans to buy any more once they're gone.

I haven't tried any Rapala wake bait. I've all but given up on Rapala after all the headache the DT series gave me. I assume you're talking about the new BX waking minnow?

A MS Slammer is my favorite wake bait but doesn't fit the small category. Right now it would be a Storm Arashi wakebait, the only wakebait I've ever had much success with other than the slammer.

I use a Falcon spinnerbait box but that would be pretty serious overkill for 3 baits. I think they make a wallet sized one too if you want a smaller box.

Those river fish fight even harder than smallies from a lake too! I could probably fish nothing but Ozark streams for smallies for the rest of my life and never get bored with it.

Hmm, what if I was over 20+ feet of water but the fish bit just a couple feet below the surface?

Yeah, Olathe if anyone is still coming

And when you bury the hook up to the bend with no way to push it through??? Pushing a hook through can be a good way to get a hook out in certain parts of the body, it's also a very good way to do serious nerve and tendon damage in other parts of the body. More than once I've had the hook buried as far as it will go with no way to do anything with it but pull it back out the way it went in. If I had pinched the barb on my hooks down, it would have been an easy process, but I hadn't so it's either do the line trick or go to the ER. Agreed on the tetanus shot, they're a must in this sport.

Pinch the barb down on all your hooks so when it does happen it will come right back out as easy as it went in. You might lose a fish or two because of it but it's well worth it to save the trip to the ER. Plus you might save a big fish at some point because the hook comes out easy so you do less damage to the fish while removing the hooks.

Bluegills were made to get kids hooked on fishing.

Very true. I consistently catch big crappie during the winter at one of the power plant lakes while others using normal crappie gear struggle. I use nothing but a 3" power minnow on a 3/32oz head, which is considered a big bait by a lot of crappie guys. Once they see how tiny that bait looks in a 14" crappie's mouth they realize why it works. This was last winter, 14.25" slab that thumped a War Eagle finesse spinnerbait off the end of a dock.

Shimano packs their bearings with grease in new reels. Take the spool bearings out and flush them, then add a drop of oil to each before you replace them. If that doesn't fix the noise then you might consider returning the reel.

I can't get my camera to focus in well enough to see it. The skirt is wire tied onto the wire form first, then put a split ring on under the skirt on the wire form, hook goes on last.

Looks like he had a great day. Careful lipping those channel cats though, they can put some serious clamps on you through gloves and all. I had one bite done on my thumb so hard once it split my thumbnail and made it start bleeding, through a leather glove.

In a situation like that is when you should go with a lightweight jig with a bulked up skirt. The extra skirt acts as a parachute of sorts and keeps the bait from disappearing into the bottom vegetation. Of course if you're trying to punch vegetation first that's not going to work though. As much as I hate to say it, if you're just trying to catch a 5+, it's pretty hard to beat a 5-7 inch stickworm. They can be extremely boring to fish but they catch all sizes of bass, including more than their share of quality fish like you're looking for. They also slide easily through heavy vegetation and offer a profile that fish under mats don't see often. One of the first tournaments I ever won was flipping a Senko through holes in matted weeds. If you're needing a heavier rod and have an Academy close by you might want to check it out. I picked up a 7' 6" H/F Ethos for $40 not long ago. They still had a few of the same rods for the same price a couple days ago too. Our local DSGs has Veritas rods for $50 right now also, which would be another good option at a very affordable price.