Bluebasser86

I love the War Eagles but they are thin wire that breaks after being bent and straightened several times. I'd prefer a bait that works and eventually breaks over one that doesn't work though. I've had lots of problems with the blades coming off Terminators when fish jump and shake.

I retrieve them as slowly as possible but I like to give them little pops with the rod tip as I'm retrieveing them. It makes them speed up for just a second and spit a little more water and often triggers strikes.

I use the Havoc The Jerk when I need a fluke style bait. I stock up on them at Academy when they're on sale for $1.99 like they are right now!

Zoom Ol' Monster in Black Grape in a ribbontail Zoom Trick worm in Watermelon red magic in a straight tail

War Eagle and Booyah are about the only 2 brands I fish.

Some of the local lakes have slot limits where bass under 12" can be kept, and therefore, used as bait. These lakes are usually over populated with bass so I have no problem using the small ones for bait. I've used them for flatheads before and they make decent bait but I still prefer sunfish, bullheads, drum, or small carp for bait. I know guys who will use them on 15" lakes also, a 10lb flathead has no problems eating a 15" bass.

I have 2 different plans of attack for post cold front. I'll usually start with covering water quickly looking for a reaction bite. If that doesn't work I'll slow down and drag a jig.

Most of the time clear water=natural colors, but there are those times when something bright and outrageous looking will just kill them.

Some days Ned catches everything but bass it seems. It's probably one of the greatest drum baits out there

It's always funny to me how folks think catfish are just a slow moving, bottom feeder that eats nothing but dead stuff. I think it's probably because they don't often feed off the surface like other species do. I've caught them on about ever bait imaginable though and have even targeted catfish with lures at times. 14lbs on a baby brush hog pitched under a dock. Channel cat on a Gulp minnow 22 pounds on a Power Minnow 9 3/4lbs on a crappie jig 40lbs on a jig 14lbs on a Craw Fatty 13lbs on a jig 25 1/4lbs on a jig 11lbs on a shakyhead 12lbs on a shakyhead 9 pound flathead that absolutely CHOKED a bladed jig. 2lbs on a jig I've caught several on buzzbaits and spinnerbaits, lots on crankbaits, tons of them on bladed jigs, even one on a hollow bodied frog. My buddy caught one on a 7" Triple Trout last year, they're way more predatory than they get credit for.

We had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish. Chris and I got down early Thursday and put in at Wolf Creek. Chris caught a stocky 16" fish on a buzzbait his 3rd cast and that was the last bass either of us caught until about 10. We fished all kinds of baits and different areas looking for fish with a couple misses and lost fish to show for it. We ran down towards Honey Creek and decided to stop in a smaller cove on the way there. I had been fishing a 1/2oz brush jig in Texas craw but decided to switch to a 7/16oz finesse jig in PB&J. We opted for a bank with chunk rock mixed with small gravel in hopes of finding fish that were just finishing spawning. They must have been as we finally started to catch some fish! I found a brushpile with my jig and after 3 repeated cast finally caught my first bass of the trip. After that I went on a hot streak with several more fish, most of them keepers, that were thumping my jig. One of my biggest from Thursday. You can see from my line that it had swallowed my jig too. Most of the banks we fished looked like the one in the background with a little more chunk rock mixed and and quite a few docks. We ran to Honey Creek and decided to crank the riprap of the bridge, that was a good move, lots of fish like this one on a DT6. Also caught a couple nice ones off the Honey Creek Resort dock pilings. After that it got really tough tough. I think we went without a keeper, and not many shorts either, for the next few hours. After hitting several spots in Honey Creek we ran to Courthouse Hollow where the cabin is. The first cut we tried produced 3 keepers on a wacky rig. When we came out that cut it had started to lightning and thunder so we ran back and loaded up. Friday we made the drive to the dam to fish new water. We decided to start in Duck Creek, best move we made. We had 12-15 pounds in the boat in the first 15 minutes, catching at least one keeper and up to 3 off almost every dock we fished in the first little cut. Wacky rigs and poppers were doing serious work in the morning. Chris got our biggest spot of the trip out from under a walkway on a wacky rig. The walkways and banks that looked like the one behind him in 8-14 feet of water were key for us. Our plastics had to have some purple in them to, from purple color to purple flake. Friday was a crazy day with between 75-100 fish coming to the boat on a variety of baits. It actually got to the point we were seeing what they wouldn't eat on our shakyheads or Rocker heads, we didn't find much they wouldn't eat. Over half the fish we caught were keepers as well. We tried Drowning Creek for awhile and only caught a couple dinks and one keeper before we went to Lawhead Hollow. Keepers started coming to the boat quickly again including our biggest of the day at 3.96 pounds on a magnum trick worm and Rocker head. Saturday we decided to go back to Duck after the great day on Friday. We had to work a lot harder for them Saturday but the quality was a little better. We had a limit by about 8:30 and culled one shortly after that before hitting a long dry spell of either shorts or no fish. We ran around to some different areas we hadn't fished before and found nothing. With about 2 hours left we ran back to the same stretch of docks in Duck, doing the same thing, and culled 2 more times including our second biggest of the day. Chris and I ended up with 15.78 pounds for day 1. Scroggs and Zander had a successful day with both of them catching keepers. Sunday we decided to have everyone launch from the same ramp in Courthouse Hollow near the Cabins. Chris and I had very little to go off since we hadn't fished there much but we decided to look for stuff that looked the same and it paid off. We ran into Dinosaur and fished into a little cut. Biggest problem we were having was short fish. I was catching short spots about every cast with a Zell pop and wacky rig. Lost a keeper largemouth at the boat on a wacky rig before boating a keeper on the Zell pop. We fished all the way to the back of the cut before Chris caught a solid fish on a 10" worm. We picked up another keeper on a wacky rig before running over to the east side of Shangri-La Marina. We caught 3 more keepers, including our biggest of the day, and culled twice, all on a 10" candy bug Zoom Ol' Monster on a Rocker head. Ran to one more cove where we culled again before heading back to Courthouse where we culled one last time about 5 minutes before weigh in. Chris and I had almost 30 pounds in 2 days for first place. Jon and Christopher were in second with around 25 pounds and Christopher had big bass for the weekend with a 4lb 15oz fish on a wacky rig. The motley crew that was left by final weigh in.

Pleasanton East gets a good frog bite at times but not sure the weeds will be grown up enough there yet.

No, I've caught yellow perch on baits almost as big as them. It may cut down on the number of bites but the quality will most likely go up too.

My payment is going to be 355 a month for 60 months for a 4WD 4 door Tundra SR5 with 67k miles on it. I've got a great credit score though, might have a little something to do with it. Brought her home tonight, really going to like this truck I think

Cardiff 300 hands down.

Zoom's Black Grape color is a killer purple worm too.

The coleslaw colored War Eagle with painted white blades is a killer in clear water on cloudy days. I've had really good luck with tandem colorado blades, one red and one chartreuse, in really muddy water. That's a Booyah Pond Magic spinnerbait for sure.

Great walleye and crappie baits, never really fish them for bass though even though I've caught some on them.

The biggest problem I have with mine is getting it back from the fish! Every largemouth I catch with it chokes it like that. The spots hammer it too but are a little more reasonable with how deep they eat the bait.

The H20 lineup is about all I use now that there's one 10 minutes from the house. They make rattling and silent models in every color and depth I need, all for $4 a bait. Can't find a reason to use any others anymore.

I've had very good success with the Owner's with the centering pin on the swinging football heads. That's quickly becoming my favorite way to present baits, it seems to hang up far less than other rigs. Very nice fish!

They'll bite on about about anything when the mood strikes them. I've caught them from tiny little 2" crappie tubes to 7" swimbaits, spinnerbaits, jigging spoons, all kinds of crankbaits, traps, jerks, worms, tubes, jigs, senkos, shakyheads, about everything. The ned is just about as sure a thing as there is out there, that's why it gets talked about so much.

Get the minimum post to send a PM (10 I think), and send me a PM and I'll give you some spots/baits I promise they can catch fish on. You can also go through the KC area thread and find a ton of information on Melvern.

If you put the hook in the end with the tentacles it gives a really interesting look to the bait too. I've had good luck with them on a dropshot and split shot rig as well.

I use to use it and was never impressed with it, just used it because it was pretty inexpensive. There's better lines out there for the same price or even cheaper imo.