Bluebasser86

If I don't catch over 20 in a day of fishing I feel like the fish beat me, unless I'm focusing on big fish and I fool a couple of them, then I'm alright with just catching 1 or 2.

Texas state record bass is over 18 pounds, caught on a crappie jig/minnow..Now maybe there was a crappie on that jig before she bit, but that's what the book shows. I've caught 9 inch bass on 7 inch swimbaits. Caught a 4 inch green sunfish on a 5 inch swimbait last summer. Big baits may increase your odds, but they're no guarantee.

8-12 on deck on average. If I'm dedicated to fishing one certain bait (usually a large swimbait) I'll take 1 rod and just a few other swimbaits.

I've been about half a dozen times now. We had one 100+ fish day in February. Today was the nicest weather I've fished in so far this year (70+), also the only day I've been skunked so far this year No big ones yet, lots of 3's with a 4lb 3oz largemouth the biggest so far, but that will change soon

I've never seen that lake without 4' white caps on it. It's worse than Wolf Creek with how easy it gets rocking out there. Last time I was there it was so bad we were taking rollers over the front of an 18' bass boat, I thought we were going to sink. The fishing wasn't that great any of the times I've been there and from what I've heard it's gone downhill big time these last couple years.

You mean something like this? They're pretty awesome. They're very versatile, especially since I started pouring my own so I can choose the hook size/style that I put on them. Really excited to try some of the little 1/8 and 3/16 oz sizes I poured with 2/0 EWG Gamakatsus with some small beaver baits. Planning on using them in the same situations I'd use a shakyhead and finesse worm. The standard sized ones work great with about anything, but especially creature baits and beaver style baits. The brush hogs and Havoc Pit Boss really looks good on them, especially hanging out of a fishes mouth

35lb grass carp on 6lb Pline with corn 23lb flathead with 4lb Pline and a Yo Zuri Aile Killifish crankbait 42lb flathead with 10lb Mustad Ultra line and a Spro bucktail 40-50lb flathead with 14lb Vicious Fluoro and a homemade jig 9 3/4lb flathead on 3lb test and a homemade crappie jig

I had a PQ on my deep cranking rod. It was a great little reel that would really launch my cranks and handled bass up to 7.5 pounds with no problems.

Ever see the guides on the Rage rods when they first came out? I'm pretty sure I could get them straighter than those guides were with no previous rod building experience. That's the kind of thing that makes me worry about buying rods before I get to see them. What model rod was it?

Nice work man! Those gill colors would be great over the weeds on our smaller lakes that don't have shad.

I build my own bladed jigs. This way I can choose my hook, color combo, and wire tie my skirt so the dang thing isn't constantly slipping down to the bend of the hook. Black and blue is my favorite in stained to muddy water and has become a consistent big fish producer for me lately. A variant of sexy shad is always good in stained to clear water. As is my crappie color. The key for me in clear water has always seemed to fish a chartreuse trailer. No idea why but I fish some extremely clear water in a couple of our local lakes (>20' visibility at times) and I can watch a white bait with a chartreuse trailer the entire retrieve until it just disappears. For lakes with smallies I like my version of sexy mouse. I think this guy is going to be a killer in muddy water too

1/2oz brush jig with the 6 or 7 inch crappie that popped it while it was falling; So yeah, a 1 pound bass can eat a 1/2 oz jig no problem. If that doesn't make you believe they'll eat a big bait, how about a 13 incher on a 7 inch swimbait?

It's down as of last Saturday the 8th and will be down for at least a couple months. The temps at the outlet dropped from 63 while we were there on Thursday the 6th, to 46 by the 9th after they shut the plant down.

Some of my collection of originals Side to side comparison of an original versus a post Rapala version (original on the bottom). The underside of the bills, the originals say "wiggle wart", the new ones say "Storm".

Jon and I fished Coffey last Thursday (3/6). Had a 2 hour fog delay and it was still thick when we got the go ahead but we had to stay idle speed and could only go to the outlet (not sure how they would have known but that's where we wanted to go anyways). Main objective was to test some of the new baits since they're in Mondo now. We didn't really tear them up (nobody did) but we still caught plenty to keep it interesting. The fish we caught were slamming the bait and really eating them well. Of all the fish we hooked, only 1 came off and that was while we were waiting for the fog to lift on the bank and I tried to lift it over a dock cable and it got stuck on the cable and flopped off. One of my bigger fish of the day. We caught some nice whites in the outlet but they were absolutely stacked by the bridge on the north end. My daily allowance of 1 jig fish per trip at Coffey County. Another chunky largemouth, no smallies this trip We caught both our limits of crappie from the trees once the outlet got packed, and Jon caught the biggest bass of the day there too.

Bad, our local shops take BPS' prices behind the wood shed. Their prices are just getting ridiculous anymore.

That's dirty man

Surprised to see how many have no confidence in bladed jigs and traps, two of my big confidence baits. I think most people fish the bladed jigs too fast though. Mine would be a swim jig. I can see why they should work, but I just rarely get them to actually work for me.

Yay Bennett Springs! Hate that place. If I can cast and hit your boat, you're too close, unless we're just crossing paths.

I hope they don't, then it will be impossible to tell them from the true "originals". They could just put something on the box about them being made from the original molds or something.

The prices....

I'd been moping around for a few weeks after my girlfriend of 5 years dumped me for fishing too much (shocker I know ). My buddy got tired of me being like that so he drug me out to a county western bar/dance club despite my protest. Walked in the door and immediately one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen came up to my buddy and punched him in the arm and asked what he'd been up to. He tried to introduce me to her but I couldn't get any words to come out that made sense. Thought I'd blown my chance when my buddy came over to me and told me that she wanted to know if I knew how to dance. I didn't but that didn't stop me from trying. By the end of the night I knew a few different dances and hadn't hardly stopped talking since we started. We dated for a year before I asked her to marry me, our wedding was a few months later. Now we've been married almost 4 years and have a perfect little 2 1/2 month old baby boy

The way you did it is fine. Main thing is to be upfront about it so they know right away that you're carrying. A traffic stop is an extremely tense situation to start with, knowing that the contact has a gun as well makes the tension go up a ton, so if the officer is maybe not the nicest person after you tell them that, mostly likely it's because his blood pressure just skyrocketed. Letting the officer know right out of the gate that you're legally armed is the best thing you can do. Leave your hands on steering wheel and most importantly DO NOT reach for it unless the officer instructs you to do so, just like you did. Most all the officers I know are happy to see legally armed good guys out there, because goodness knows there's plenty of illegally armed bad guys out there.

Don't have to, I'll be working! It's pretty great to work 7 hours and get paid for working 8!

IMO, the GL2 shouldn't even be in that conversation, they just are not an impressive rod to me but I'm sure other guys love them. The Mossybacks as are the Avids. I really don't think you could go wrong with either one but I've always been partial to the St. Croixs. Always felt like I was paying extra just for a name with the Loomis rods.