Bluebasser86

There's a very specific spot on the south end that they stack up in sometimes. I caught several down there right after ice out last year.

Wow! 52 really? I almost went out there from the bank today, guess I should have.

You might check out Belcher Branch Lake. It's a smaller lake that should open up pretty quickly and fairly clear water with plenty of deeper water that should concentrate the fish nearby. Some really good quality fish too.

Always enjoyed raising and lowering the flag at the beginning and end of the week while I was in the academy.

Since we're going there... I had the bubble gut right as I got to the lake one morning from a combination of McD's and coffee. I was very disappointed to find the bathrooms padlocked (offseason time). Of course I'm prepared so I grab my coffee can out of the boat that has my emergency paper and make a hasty retreat to the nearest secluded trees. Stumbled around in the dark and managed to find a good laid over tree and right as I got myself into position a couple big does burst out of their hiding places not 10' from me and went crashing and snorting through the trees. It's a good thing I had already assumed the position, probably would have made a mess of myself otherwise. Back to the OP's question, I drink at least one cup of coffee every night around midnight and I always drink a big thermos of coffee on the way to the lake. Ideally, it does it's job on the way to the lake so I don't have a repeat of Bambi's Revenge.

Sounds similar to what happened to my wife's grandfather. He went in to have surgery for a clogged artery in his leg as a lively old man that loved to play practical jokes on people and give folks a hard time whenever he saw the chance. When he came to from surgery he didn't recognize anyone and never really did for the last 2 years of his life. It was a terrible thing to see him and his family go through. Thankfully he's in a better place now. It's so true that you never know how long you're going to have with someone.

I recently bought a couple micro guide rods and really like them so far. The main problem has been that one of them I've been using as a jerkbait rod but when it's cold I have to use a different rod because the guides ice up so fast I can't even use it.

Sorry, forgot I started this. Yes they suspend and yes they worked very well for me so far I bought several more after my first couple trips with them. I replaced the hooks and split rings but I do that with most of my baits anyways.

The new Ike approved VMC HD wide gap hooks are very sharp and strong. I've been using them when I pour my swinging football heads and have been really happy with them.

Yep, completely different. My muskie rod is the same way, almost the exact same specs as my swimbait rod but just 2 completely different rods.

Dark colored brush jig, dark colored 10" worm, or a home made bladed jig. The bladed jigs are quickly becoming my favorite night fishing bait because they call them in from afar and present a good profile that makes it easy for the fish to find them. I avoid treble hooked baits at almost all cost while night fishing, especially with topwaters. It's bad enough to have to unhook a treble caught bass at night, it's a whole lot worse to miss a topwater strike and know there's a bait you can't see that has trebles flying at you at mach speed.

I was fishing ponds with a friend last fall when I spotted some monster grass carp cruising the surface. I had a S Waver 168 that I jokingly cast in front of the lead fish and told my buddy to watch to see what they'd do. We were both stunned when a huge carp we didn't see shot off the bottom and T-boned my bait. No idea what it weighed but it's the biggest grass carp I've ever caught.

I fish power plant lakes all winter long. For me one of the main keys is usually finding the optimal sized shad. By that I mean those 3-6 inch shad that bass love to eat. If you find those, you'll find the fish. If the plant has been running all winter keeping the water warm, they probably will be in prespawn by then. I've never fished the lake you're going to but moving baits like squarebills, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, traps, swimbaits, and jerkbaits are my favorites at the power plant lakes.

Our golden retriever has been going with me since she was just a puppy. Took her first trip in the boat when she was 4 months Now she about wags herself in half when she hears the garage door open because she knows we're going fishing. She does really well in the boat, doesn't get too excited. If you hook a big fish she'll lean her head over the side to look at it, but I've never had her do much more than sniff or maybe lick a fish. This is about as much excitement as you'll see from her when you put a fish in the boat. Usually she's much more interested in what's going on along the bank, or taking a nap. She sits in my seats on her butt like a person would a lot of the time, pretty funny looking.

We weren't even a cast away from the bank the first time, more like pitching distance. Curt's attempt at being nice was completely ignored when his "Good morning" didn't get a response, a wave, a middle finger, nothing. The second time we were about the same distance from the bank, catching fish this time, when a boat when in between us, did a tight circle around the boat, and then dropped 2 anchors exactly on the spot I was casting too, and moments later a second boat parked on the bank next to them, completely cutting off the area we were just fishing. A third boat fished down the bank and at one point there was maybe 20-25 yards from our boat to the far boat, just not and ounce of respect from any of them. Still, I think there were probably over 10 fish put in our boat while Ryan and Sizzle landed a few, and the Three Stooges landed a whopping total of 2 fish while soaking powerbait. You really had to be there and see it in person to truly appreciate how rude and disrespectful the whole lot of them were.

If you're planning on being at Lake Shawnee next week either let me know on here or shoot me a PM. I think the fishing should be pretty good by next week when the water is a few degrees warmer hopefully. More than anything I hope nobody has to deal with the special group of people that were on the water yesterday. This is a family friendly forum so I can't really say what I thought about them other than I don't know how someone can even operate a boat or a fishing rod with their heads that far up their backsides. I think for times we should shoot for 8am-2 or 3 pm unless everyone wants to start and end different times. We'll do a weight tourny again. Trout are pretty fragile so I'd suggest either just popping the scale hook through their bottom jaw and try not to touch them too much (unless you're keeping them) or weight them in your net and then subtract the weight of your net from the total weight. Also remember if you're keeping them, once they're in the livewell you can't cull them like in a bass tournament. Also, once you reach your boats limit you can't keep fishing for trout. Since this is a trout tournament I'm going to make a couple exceptions to the normal bass fishing rules. 1.You can troll 2.Live bait and prepared bait (powerbait) will be allowed, BUT!, if you choose to fish either the fish you catch on them MUST go on your card towards your total weight and that weight can not be culled off your card. So if you catch a 1 pound trout as your 5th fish on powerbait and it's your smallest fish, if you catch a bigger fish it can only cull off the weight of your second smallest fish. This allows anyone who wants or needs to fish with livebait or powerbait the opportunity but also levels the playing field a little for those who are only going to fish lures. I'd also highly suggest if you plan on fishing livebait or powerbait that you don't release those fish. They normally have the hook swallowed and die shortly after release. I really don't want anyone leaving dead fish floating all over the lake. If if a fish does die on you, keep it even if you don't want it, someone will take it. As of right now the only ones I know that are planning on being there are; 03Stratos/basshunter0731/Jackson Hi Salenity/bluebasser86 RJ/Sizzle

Curt and I did a little prefishing for the trout fishoff next week. Water was ranging from 41-45 degrees by the end of the day. We started pretty slow with only 3 trout in the first couple hours. Curt caught the first one of the day on a Ned. We finally found some in the back of a cove eating spoons. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to fish that spot long as every other boat on the lake anchored within spitting distance of us. We still caught quite a few before we moved on and tried some other spots. I think we only caught one more trout after that off the dam. We did catch a couple bass, a crappie, a bluegill, and a bunch of white bass before we called it a day. Curt kept 7 or 8 trout that weighed a total of 20lbs, so the ones we were getting were nice ones for the most part. I think they'll start eating better by next week when the water warms up and hopefully clears up a little bit.

Just the bladed jigs for now. He has the pictures and descriptions to put them on his website but for now they're just in store.

I'd go with 5 Roman Made Mothers, that way I could sell them and buy more than 5 baits

I got a nearly new pair at a garage sale for $5, best wading shoes out there.

We have an army base near our house, haven't noticed any increase in air traffic, but I'm usually asleep during the day. You wouldn't think a guy would be able to sleep through a Chinook flying low enough to make the house shake, but I do on a pretty regular basis.

Took my IHG for a test drive today. It felt terrific and despite not catching anything with it I can tell I'm really going to enjoy fishing with it

I really have no preference with the Slammer. I don't have the mini but I fish mine anytime fish will hit normal topwater and some times that they won't. Flat water or choppy water they seem to work as long as it isn't too rough. I'll fish them all day long, even when it's hot and sunny out. The big profile makes them an inviting looking high reward target that makes it so they don't have to play by the normal rules of topwater fishing. My biggest Slammer fish to date was on a hot, sunny day around 1pm.

Pretty brownies! Last time I got hooked was fishing for trout as well, only mine was because I was dumb enough to try to take a picture of the 18" brown I'd just caught with my Erratic shad still in her mouth. She flopped and slimed out of my hands and buried a hook in the process. Thankfully her next flop ripped it right back out so I didn't have to worry about how I was going to get it back out.

We get those splotchy bass quite a bit around here. Last year I caught a smallie I named "split face". One side of it's face was normal colored, the other side was almost black, and the line went perfectly down the middle of it's face. He was just a little fella, but I'll know if I ever catch him when he gets bigger I guess.