Bluebasser86

We snag big buffalos all the time during the winter jigging for wipers. It's always a great fight and they'll even jump and tailwalk at times. Hook a 30 pounder in the tail and you're in for a ride.

Just reel slowly and a high speed reel won't get it up too high. Shallow water with a heavy head and you can reel pretty fast and still contact bottom. A high speed reel really helps for those times they catch it and come right at you. I drag mine most of the time though, like a regular football head. I really haven't found a condition they don't work in yet, from the muddy water around here to the clear water at Table Rock.

Deer are faster than a horse and like fields and woods, just saying. I've spent a lot of time on the water at night and have heard some crazy things. It always turns out to be a nocturnal animal that we don't here much during the day, like a raccoon, owl, or even a frog.

If any of you guys are looking for a mid range rod I have a few I'd like to sell but they're not worth shipping anywhere. I've got 3 St. Croix Mojo casting rods, 6' 6" M/F, 7' M/F, and 7' H/F. All of them are in good shape, $50 each. I also have a 7' 6" MH/F telescoping Shimano Clarus. Rods the older full grip style. It's great for launching big, deep running crankbaits, $30. I can text pictures to anyone interested.

You're biggest issues will be how far you want to drive and what lakes got hammered by all the rain and muddied up real bad. Melvern is probably my favorite this time of year but if you have trouble with a jerkbait you'll probably hate it right now. Both Pleasanton City Lakes, Mound City, Ft. Scott, Osage, Atchison, Perry, all of them are pretty good this time of year. If you don't mind the drive Bourban State Lake is a lake that's pretty easy to put 100 fish in the boat during the spring on pretty much whatever you feel like fishing. I've heard that Lyon is the same way but I've never fished it. Belcher Branch is up north a ways in MO and has some nice fish and is small enough to figure out pretty well in a day of fishing. Yes a bladed jig is basically the same as a chatterbait. Chatterbait is just the name of a a specific bait made by Zman but every similar bait gets called by the same name, just like lots of folks call every popper a Pop R or every walk the dog bait a Spook. I normally fish them with a very slow, straight retrieve, just fast enough to keep the blade working. Anymore I prefer them over spinnerbaits unless I need to move the bait fast. They're amazing in dirty to stained water because of all the vibration. I've also found that traditional spinnerbait colors don't seem to be the most effective colors with bladed jigs.I find myself fishing a lot of black and blue, green pumpkin, watermelon, candy bug, and a color I call Spicy Shad (kind of like a firetiger color). Regular spinnerbait colors work, but I catch my biggest fish on those colors, especially black and blue.

Late fall when it gets down to about 55 until next spring when it gets back to about 55. Find the baitfish and you'll catch fish on it, but remember to fish it slow.

You can cut the weedguard off then use a hitchhiker trailer keeper on the eye of the jig and turn it into basically a big shakyhead.

I'll trade you my Rapala DT-6s for your pre Rapala warts They don't work magic everywhere but if you ever have the misfortune of fishing behind a good warter on one of the White River chain of lakes and you'll see why they're so hyped up. As for the OP's question, those are 2 very different baits, even though they're both supposed to hunt. The new warts are made more similar to the old ones so you could just pick some of those up and some scatter raps and give them both a try. IMO, the warts are great early in the year up to the spawn, the Scatter Raps are better after the spawn until the water starts to get cold again.

Looks like a Matzuo or Renegade.

Nice fish man! I live for that thump on a jig. Everyone else can have the topwater bites that are supposed to be the best, give me some solid fish eating jigs on a short line and stout gear and I'm in heaven

X2, make sure your tetanus vaccine is up to date and just keep an eye on it. If it's discharging a lot, hot to the touch, or more tender than you think it should be then go to the doctor. It's better to error on the side of caution on deals like that.

I'm fairly close here in KS. Killed them Friday on a 3/8oz brush jig. Saturday a wacky rigged stick bait was the deal. Really, they're eating about everything you put in the water lately it seems like, some baits are just better than others.

You're fishing some terribly difficult lakes for one thing. I've fished La Cygne for over a decade now and I still feel like I've barely begun to figure the lake out. Longview I've heard is a lot like fishing Wyco, which is all I need to know to decide to not fish there. Truman is a flood control lake first and the constant water fluctuation makes it impossible to get stable conditions that are conducive to good fishing. Are you wanting to stay to the MIssouri side or do you mind fishing KS lakes? I'm sure the non resident KS license is steep (the resident permit is too), but there's lots of little lakes on the KS side with really pretty good fishing, for numbers at least. Olathe Bass Club is almost always looking for members it seems. East Kansas Bassmasters is a buddy format that I prefer over the draw but not sure how their membership works. Fishing as a non boater in a bass club is how I learned a lot of stuff, kind of like a guided trip you might win some money on.

Shovelnose are neat fish. They hit like a freight train and fight like a wet sock though. There's quite a few of them in the Kansas, Missouri, and Big Blue rivers around here. I've only caught a few because I rarely fish with what they really seem to like to eat, nightcrawlers. The ones I've caught have been on smaller chunks of shad, usually during cooler water times. They're really bony and hard to hold onto when they start flopping.

Tiny jigs are about the only thing I've ever got them to bite. Heck of a fight on light tackle.

Fluent in English and Sarcasm I know just enough Spanish after 5 years of classes in school to really confuse Spanish speaking people.

Just over a month before Grand so lets get the roster figured out. Still planning on smoking a pork butt for dinner on Saturday night and buying sides and stuff in Grove so we don't have to worry about everyone hauling stuff down there. Right now I know we have; Hi Salenity (Curtis)/Wachati (Peter) kanasbassfisher08 (Chris)/Bluebasser86 (Clayton) basshunter0731 (Jon)/Christopher cbass12 (Ryan) sizzlefry (Sean) Mr_Scrogg (Andy)/Scrogglet Folks who aren't sure they can make it yet; CCCDrew (Drew) pbrussell (Blake) Chris S (Chris) If I left anyone off the list, let me know so I can get you on there or if your attendance status has changed.

Red Zone Rattle Trap. I've got a couple and they're great in water too shallow to fish a jerkbait early in the year or over shallow grass.

I'd hate to do that and start running low, I only carry about 400 of them with me in the boat at any given time

Frogs over the top or lightly weighted plastics dropped into the holes are about the only way to combat that stuff. You're still going to get it on your bait but there really is no way to avoid it fishing in that slop.

I was prefishing for a tournament at LOZ a few years ago when I saw one of the craziest thing I've ever seen at the ramp. Guy backed his boat down to about 30' above the water on the ramp then got out to get his boat unstrapped and everything like I was. He sat there for a about 30 seconds when I heard several loud clicks and his truck rolled back a few inches then stopped. 30 seconds later it did it again. I assumed he noticed (it was impossible not to) but I hollered that I thought he might want to put his parking brake on. He said it was but it still rolls back a few inches every once in awhile but it was ok I was just waiting for that whole rig to end up in the lake at the boat of the ramp when it didn't catch one of those times.

I busted the lip of a Megabass Vision 110 Magnum at Table Rock a couple weeks ago. Never hit a rock, tree, nothing, just went to twitch it after the cast and it skipped across the top. Nothing like having a $29 stick with treble hooks you can't do anything with.

My buddy has a radio in his boat and had it blasting one day a couple years ago that we hammered them all day long with it going.

I got chewed out when we were leaving. They have a new system now that you can leave your fishing license and boat registration with them and they do the paperwork while you're fishing. Well it was the other ol gal when we put in and she didn't ask what I needed. Turns out she put me down for the year permit like I got last year, but I didn't want this year. Apparently I should have told her what I wanted even though she didn't ask. Thankfully I was able to get my rods and tackle out of the boat before she soaked everything with bleach. I'll be fishing Lake Quivira out of a 2 man tomorrow, I think you can handle it

Dad and I fished Wabaunsee today. Water was very low and it started really slow after the cold weather and all the rain. I caught a decent smallmouth on a jerkbait early on that was 2 1/2lbs. Caught fish fairly well along the dam but just little ones. Got to the deeper bank by the dam on the west side and got a good one on a homemade brush jig. First keeper was 3.90 pounds. Hit a very long dry spell with just a couple fish here and there and a lost one in the 4-5 pound range. After fishing all the deeper banks, I was really surprised when we started getting bit better when we got to the shallow, flat banks with docks. I was dragging the same homemade brush jig when it felt like it just disappeared. Crank like crazy and stuck a heavy fish. Wasn't sure it was a bass for quite awhile until I saw it. 21" long, super thick, and 5.33 pounds. All down the east arm with the deeper banks it was steady but nothing big, did miss a couple really hard hits though. Very back of that arm the water temp was 63.4 and I thought there had to be a good fish back there. Picked up a spinning rod with a Strike King Ocho and found her, 4.73lbs. Fished around the concrete swim beach wall and back into the pocket by the ramp and got one last good one on the same homemade brush jig, 3.88lbs.