Bluebasser86

Sometimes I'll check for abrasions on my line by running it over my tongue. I did that once with my dropshot rod, forgetting that the day before I'd caught a large catfish with it that had rolled and slimed the first 5' of my line up I had a tray of half shell oysters and got one that was rotten, don't think I'll ever be able to eat them again. I'm with Hi Salenity on the rainbow trout. They make good cutbait for catfish but aren't fit for human consumption. Everything about them reminds me of a colorful shad. I don't care what anyone says about "I haven't had them cooked right." There's only one good way to cook a trout, it involves smoking them for several hours on a slab of wood, throwing away the trout and eating the piece of wood.

I've fished them quite a bit for muskie and never caught a bass on one. Better big bait options for bass out there IMO.

One of the lakes I fish a lot I get exponentially more bites if I fish a brown or green pumpkin jig with a black/blue trailer for some reason. Water isn't very dirty, they just seem to prefer it for some reason.

Fluke or craw papi.

Bone and then everything else.

X2. Find the bait, find the fish. Most of the time I fish the rig the trolling motor doesn't hit the water until I'm marking baitfish near structure or cover.

I don't think there's really a wrong answer here. I use brown/purple flake twin tails, cajun neon craw papis, crawfish paca chunks, black and blue pork trailers, brown/purple flake BPS stick Os, watermelon candy chigger craws, black paca craws, pretty much anything and any color.

That right there is a work out! I hook one in the 20lb range on a 6 weight with a hopper fly. After about half an hour my wrist and forearm were aching so bad I just broke the line. If I was a better fly caster it looks like a blast to sight cast to them when they're tailing and feeding on cottonseed and grass clippings. I'm sure I could catch them when the berries are dropping, but that's almost not even fair.

Good luck with that Can we just give Dwight the prize so we can all come back to reality and fish for second like we are every year? I don't have a snowballs chance but I'm in.

In the waters that they occur naturally, they really aren't that rare, maybe not an everyday occurance, but certainly not rare. I fish Table Rock a few times every year where it isn't uncommon to catch a largemouth, spot, smallie, and meanie, all in the same day. I can't say that they really fight any harder and I've never noticed their teeth/tooth pads being any more pronounced? I've always been under the impression they are a spot/smallie hybrid however? That article is the first time I've ever seen them listed as a largemouth/smallmouth hybrid. I've only ever caught one keeper. It was a couple years ago fishing Table Rock with my wife in February on an A-rig. Didn't seem like it fought any harder, but it was one of the hardest strikes I can ever remember getting from a 16" bass.

Yep, good angles can make a fish look heavier, poor angles can make them look a lot smaller. A good buddy of mine taught me how to hold a fish properly so they don't look smaller than they are, and often will look bigger than they really are. A couple examples; This fish was caught on a jig at Table Rock, the weight... 3 1/4 pounds. Just seeing the picture made me think I should weigh it again because it looks so much bigger. Or this big ol' buckethead, I think I could say it was 7 or 8 pounds and most wouldn't bat an eye at it, she weighed 5lbs 6ozs. I see those pictures that I think, no way that weighs what they're saying it does, but I've seen some fish that weighed more than they looked and a lot less than they looked. So now if I don't believe them I just give them the "Nice fish!" and leave it at that. Even if it didn't weigh what they said, they're obviously proud of it and I'm not going to try to steal their thunder.

With the way things go some days, I feel like a bass is the rarest thing in nature

It sure is! We get on them pretty good every year with topwater walking baits.

I should probably leave those to the professionals anyways

I hope you have a couple then, I'm fresh out of Rodney Rattlers.

I've got a roof over my head, a decent, steady paying job that allows me to provide for my family, a loving wife, a healthy baby, I really have no right to be unhappy about anything right now

Pizza or my meatball sub casserole

20lb Sunline Super Fluorocarbon for most of my flipping. I avoid braid almost to a fault when flipping, just don't like fishing the stuff when I'm flipping.

I like to try to stick to one brand for the familiarity. However, if another company makes a rod that does something better I'm not so hung up on brand loyalty that I won't use something else.

We get 10 for this poll??!! Jig-home made brush jig in Texas craw bladed jig-home made black/blue swimbait-Slammer Hitch buzzbait-3/8oz Cavitron black on black (duh) 10" worm-Zoom Ol' Monster in watermelon red candy or plum apple beaver bait-Netbait B-bug in Toledo Special or Havoc Pitboss in Summer Craw finesse worm-Zoom Trick worm in watermelon red magic squarebill-H20 in chartreuse/black deep crank-SK Series 5 in green gizzard shad stick worm-BPS Stick O in watermelon/purple flake

One of my favorite big fish techniques right after ice out. I normally just retrieve a single colorado bladed spinnerbait as slowly as I can while keeping the blade turning. A trailer hook is a must as they'll be moving slow and sometimes just nip the back of the bait. You can use a grub or pork trailer to help slow it down even more. I've never had much luck with the yo-yoing or pumping retrieve normally associated with the term slow rolling.

I never used to use them. It's amazing how bad your stuff gets beat up without them, even when you're being careful. Now they all have rod slicks and neoprene reel covers. Not only does it prevent scuffs and scratches but it also keeps them cleaner. Even if you never get off the paved rods I promise there's plenty of dust and dirt kicking up off the pavement and settling in your reels.

I guess we don't have to ask what Chigger cuts his line with

One of my passions in this sport is introducing people to it, young and old. I usually keep several decent combos at the house to loan out, from spincast, spinning, and baitcasting. Most of them used to be on my starting line up but have since been replaced. If you don't have anything like that laying around there's plenty of mid range priced gear out there that will work just fine. I believe I saw in DSGs add that right now if you buy certain reels you get a Berkley Amp rod for $1. I know one of those spinning reels was a Pfluegar President because I was thinking about going and getting one myself. That would be a fine combo for a beginning angler for under $70 with tax.

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