Bluebasser86

Take your bass jerkbaits, that's all I ever fish for them. They do really like jigs too but that seems to target the smaller rainbows for the most part and I'm always trying to target the browns. Vision 110's, 97MR slender pointers, and especially the Lucky Craft Spazz are my favorite trout jerkbaits. I know it's hard to do but if you can get yourself to fish with 6lb test you'll get way more bites. I've fished with 6lb ever time and caught several browns. My buddy can't get himself to fish a 110 on 6lb so he sticks with 12, he's caught 1 brown each trip. They aren't all big ones either. My crooked jawed 5.5 pounder right across from the state park ramp is my biggest brown to date. I watched him miss my Spazz 3 times before he connected, it was freaking awesome.

I saw some where a few days ago a guy that had carved a swimbait to look like a great white shark to go with the shark week theme. Seems like there may be an application for it here.

If you find one at Academy I would highly recommend handling one. There's a guy on another forum that throws A rigs at Beaver Lake for stripers with one and has yet to have one fail on him. I've fished mine hard and expected it to quit a long time ago but it still works just as good as the day I bought it and I've not done an ounce of maintenance with it yet after over 2 years of use.

Someone else builds them for Cabela's, like every other store brand rod or reel, it just has the Cabela's name on it. They should take it back without any hassle if it does break, but it's still a pain to take back. I tend to assume that most of the rods we got back were broken due to user error. It seems most (I said MOST), people that buy the lower end rods aren't serious fishermen that just throw there gear around and let it bounce around in the back of their trucks or bang on the tailgate while they're driving then wonder why their rods break.

My favorite would probably be the old Curado 200B. For a pure workhorse reel that was affordable and could do just about anything and was easy to work on, pretty tough reel to beat. If they hold up like I think they will the new Curado I will be at the top of the list too, man they are sweet reels. For spinning reels the Stradic C14 is awesome, so is the Pfluegar Supreme XT.

Yeah you'll have no problem getting bit with a 6" Hudd. I like the weedless 6" Hudds myself. This is only a 16 3/4" fish, and it just about swallowed a 6" weedless.

The new Storm Arashi wake bait has been killing it for me and only runs about 6" at the deepest, most of the time it's right on the surface.

I have a pair of felt sole Cabela's waders that have been good for me. I prefer the shorts and old tennis shoe route but depending on the number of ticks, how cold the water is, and how many stick tights there are (if your legs are really hairy like mine you understand how painful those can be), then waders can be a better option.

They may not help in all situations, but they certainly don't hurt anything.

I've been using a swinging football head with a swimbait on the back, a swim jig wouldn't be that much different.

10lbs 2ozs. It was dusk after a hot, sunny day. Sun setting behind the Sierra Madre mountains. I was trying to cover water quickly before the guide told us it was time to go. As I burned my 8" Zoom Lizard back to the boat to make another cast I saw a huge dark fish closing fast. Disengaged the spool and my bait sank with the fish hot behind it. After a couple feet the line quit sinking. We were in nearly 30' of water so I knew the fish caught it. Reeled down and stuck her. Very short fight before she was in the net. I was disappointed with how skinny she was, the guide said she should have been 13-14 if she was so thin, even her back was sunk in. Biggest smallie is a 3 way tie with 3 5 pound fish. Only have a picture of one of them in my bucket. Sunny, breezy day in October. Water was a little stained but not bad. Catching lots of smaller fish when I hooked what I thought was a drum on a Lucky Craft BDS zero in American Shad color. Then she jumped and I could see that tiny bait flopping around in her mouth. One tiny hook held for a very long, nerve wracking fight before she was finally in the net. There was the tail of a 8-9 inch crappie sticking out of her throat, don't know how she even got in all the way in her mouth.

If I ever get comfortable where I'm at I'd probably quit fishing. Part of what I love so much about this sport is there is always something new to be learned.

If it's in Ft. Riley there's no alligator snappers either unless someone put it in there. All we have are common snappers, which can get to the size you described pretty easily. Common snappers are actually much more of a concern because they're much more mobile while the gator snappers tend to just lay on the bottom and wait for food to come to them. We used to have a 50lb common snapper in the aquarium when I worked at Cabela's that would climb out of the tank regularly and take the 15' drop to the concrete like it was nothing. My boss found him under his desk one morning I was the assigned turtle man that had to wrangle him whenever that happened, good times. Not many ponds in KS clear enough to see anything diving though. Even ones that look pretty clear only have a foot or two of visibility once you put the goggles on and start diving.

Last year I did pretty well at Hillsdale every time I went. Most of them were short fish but I did get one that was 4.5. Most of my fish were either on a buzzbait,black/red beaver bait, or a black/blue 10" worm. I do best on the west side of the lake and usually in pretty shallow water, especially on points.

I would have to disagree with this. Trailer yes, always. Trailer hook, never. Most of the time bass hit a bladed jig them seem to almost always get it really well and the trailer hook just makes them snag easier. With a good, sharp hook you shouldn't be outcasting your hooking range either. I can launch mine a long, long ways and more than a couple times have hooked fish as soon as I started cranking. If you buy the original Chatterbaits you can for sure outcast your hooking range though because those hooks are not very sharp at all.

Just like he planned it.

I used to fish out there a lot by myself and with my buddy Travis (dodgeramwax). We caught some really nice fish out of there in the years after they reopened it. I've caught them up to 5.5, he's caught a couple 6 or 6.5 I believe. Right after it opened back up a friend of a friend caught one just over 9 out of there. I've seen the fish, it's hanging on his wall unfortunately. It could have stayed an amazing little lake but they just didn't take care of it and the bucket fisherman have taken their toll on the lake. Used to be able to go out there with a spinnerbait or squarebill and catch 20-50 fish with a lot of them in the 2-4 pound range, not anymore.

If you are near an Academy you could pick up an Ethos for the same price or cheaper. Those that have them really seem to like them. I have 8 of them and they've been great for me. I have no experience with that model of Pro Guide but I worked in the fishing department at Cabela's in KC for 5 years and we got back 5 times more broken Pro Guides and Tourney Trail rods than any other. They may have changed who makes the blanks since then but just from seeing that I would never own one.

I have the 6' ULF Avid paired with a 750 Symetre that is a blast to toss a tiny crank or 2" grub and just catch whatever bites. I've caught fish up to 12 pounds with it and it handled them as well as I could have asked for it to.

I've caught bass on swimbaits up to 9" here in Kansas, I'm positive your fish will eat them if you dedicate some time to fishing them.

Sounds a bit like Summer Craw color that a lot of companies make. I like them in stained water especially where they're feeding on bluegills in the weeds.

The Luck E Strike G5 is a very good bait that hunts well and has some good colors. Doesn't seem like it ever got much love though and is quickly becoming hard to find. I bought 10 of them for $2 apiece recently from a tackle shop that wasn't going to carry them anymore because they weren't selling.

On A-Jay's reports and recommendations I picked up a Crush Flat 75X in the Copper Green Shad color. Impressed with the bait so far. Hooks don't seem to be all that great but that's an easy fix. Already caught several fish on it after just a couple weeks and plan on catching many more this year with it.

I like the Zoom Meathead for dropshotting.

War Eagle