Bluebasser86

There's lots of other lakes in the area that are good. Where in KC are you located and maybe we can point you in the direction of somewhere better?

99% of them don't survive in our lakes once the water temps warm up.

Spinning, just doesn't feel right on casting gear.

Can't stand Trilene, always seems to break so easily. I'll take Mustad Ultra line any day, can't hardly break that stuff. P line C21 is great for moving baits and only $5 for a spool.

Usually from 8-12, more on certain trips, down to 1 if time is limited and I'm only wanting to fish 1 kind of bait (usually a big swimbait).

6' 6" St. Croix LTB/Lew's Speed Spool with 14lb Mustad Ultra Line and a War Eagle finesse spinnerbait. First fish was actually a 14.5" crappie First bass ate the same bait on the same set up, can't remember which one it was but it was one of these two!

I use 2/3 of a BPS Stick O as a trailer for my bladed jigs, I'm sure a fluke will do way more than those do and I catch plenty of fish.

Look at a big baitfish, like a trout, juvenile bass, hitch, gizzard shad, whatever, when they're swimming they don't do a whole lot. When they're swimming and their guard is down they do even less, little tail movement, maybe a little side to side head sway, but that's about it. 8" Hudds probably account for more fish over 10lbs each year than about anything else and they do very, very little other than the tail wagging a little and looking big and easy to catch. Personally never thrown the Deps baits, my wife would kill me if I spent that much on a bait, but if I ever have the money or find a good deal on one I'll own it and fish it here in Kansas because our lakes are such big bass factories I've seen enough fish that didn't even weigh a pound smack my 7" MS Slammer now to not think twice about throwing a bigger bait.

I've had some success with the Duo spinbait 80. Like stated, it required light line and clear water because it's a very subtle action. I can see how it would be effective in the right situation though. Our water temps haven't broke the 50 degree mark yet so my fishing them has been limited to power plant lakes where the water stays fairly stained up and limits their effectiveness.

I've caught a lot of big fish the last couple years on bladed jigs, 95% of them are while reeling as slowly as possible. What color were you using? Congrats on the great day! I bet it was tough to leave!

Looks like a tons of fun. I'm going to make it to one when my son gets old enough to go with me

Guys like Tommy Biffle and Denny Brauer rarely pick up anything other than a jig or plastics and they've done alright for themselves. If you plan on fishing tournaments though, I'd plan on getting proficient with some hard baits also or you're going to really bomb some tournaments.

Best advice I can give for Smithville is to go somewhere else. Last time I fished there was a tournament with 30 anglers, 1 keeper was brought in. I didn't have a bite for 8 hours, neither did my partner or anyone else. There's a KC area thread in the Central forum with tons of information on area lakes, almost 200 pages worth of info.

Ah, I thought he said it was 3lbs 6ozs. My biggest was only 3lbs 1oz on Curt's scale but it only measured in whole ounces and it may round up once they're over a certain amount.

Well the trout deal went pretty well, all things considered. We only had the 3 boats show up so it was even less formal than usual. Curt and I started on the dam and I put 2 in the boat pretty quick, one on a Ned, one on a home made trout jig under a bobber. We tried a spot that was good last year and struck out. In the 45 minutes it took us to do that, the wind went from zero to over 20mph and white capping. I missed a few bites on my jig and bobber before we tucked into a little cut with a small dock and started cleaning up on them with jigs and a little cleo. Caught a few bass there too. Jon, Jared, and Jackson joined us in our somewhat protected area and we decided to leave since the action had slowed by then. Tried a bunch more spots and never caught another trout until we fished the boat ramp as we were loading up. Jackson had fished all day without a fish, apparently he just needed one of my homemade trout jigs because he whacked 3 good ones right off the boat ramp dock Curt and I had first with 12lbs 14ozs, RJ had big fish with a 3lb 6oz (I think) trout. It was a little slower than last year still but quite a few fish were still caught but no real monsters. Looking forward to the Razor Clam Classic next month!

Well for those of you wanting to be there, we'll see you at 8am at the northeast ramp at Lake Shawnee! Make sure you have you sails ready, looks like it's going to be windy

Anyone who hunts and has kids can appreciate her reaction

X1000

Guy I know goes every year and loves it. I can't stand the trout parks so I've never been personally though. Quite a few lakes in KS have been stocked with trout recently, much bigger ones than most anything in RR too.

Shakyheads suck in heavy cover, be it grass or wood. They also don't work well with certain plastics, especially tubes. I love fishing shakyheads, but you're seriously missing out if you're completely dismissing the Texas rig.

Jigs suck in those conditions. An unweighted or lightly weighted soft plastic is going to be a better option.

When you're talking about the cranks do you mean the shads or regular Scatter Rap crank? The cranks are over 1/4oz and I have no problems launching one plenty far with a 7' MH/M St. Croix Pro Glass with a 200E5 and 10lb Mustad Ultra line. I wouldn't try to cast the shads or minnows on casting gear though.

Xcaliber XR50-ghost Xcaliber XRK50-Rayburn Red Xcaliber XRK50-Gold/black back

Well I stayed out at Kill Creek WAY longer than I should have yesterday, going to be a long night at work Hard to leave when you're hammering them like I was though, trout and bass both. Caught a bunch of trout on a Little Cleo, home made trout jig, even a few on a 78 pointer. All my bass either ate the pointer or the Cleo. None of them were real big but all of them were fighting good. Water temps were 45.5-47.7.