Bluebasser86

Those are massive!

I change my hooks out except on my Spro baits. I've had too many stock hooks bent out by big fish so now they're almost all changed to either Gamakatsu round bend or EWGs or Owner ST36's.

Once my son is old enough to go I plan on attending but he'll be just over 6 months old by then, probably still a little too young

Blue-I'm a LEO basser-I'm a bass fisherman 86-the year I was born

What a difference a week makes! Cbass and I got to Coffey just after 9 and I think we were lucky number 13 on the water! Outlet was packed but we didn't plan on fishing there anyways, too bad the fish from last week were nowhere to be found I caught one fairly quickly in the trees and that was it off of last weeks spot. We fished all through the trees, all the way to the bridge at the north end. Ryan caught one pretty solid fish flipping the trees, the rest were all white bass. We caught the whites pretty well along the bridge but that was the best fishing we found all day. We tried the outlet once but the wind was really picking up by then and it had been pounded for several hours by then, we only managed 3 or 4 dinks. I think we might have squeaked out 10 bass all day with probably 25-30 whites and 1 crappie 2 of those bass were fishing from the bank by the ramp before we left.

Nebo's just a little mud puddle with nothing but stunted crappie and catfish in it and it's down probably closer to 5 miles of the most rutted out, dusty dirt roads you've ever been down. I wouldn't even bother trying it, move along, nothing to see there

I fish trout colors all the time in our lakes and very few of them have trout.

They're good baits, but I don't see any way they'll play a part in the Classic.

While I do try to feel for it, it's about impossible to anticipate a surge fast enough to start backreeling immediately. What I do is have the switch off as soon as I set the hook on a heavy fish so I'm ready. If the fish surges I drop my arms and lean towards the fish to prevent the line from breaking while I start backreeling. May sound complicated but after you're used to it you don't even realize you're doing it. I like that I can put extra pressure on a fish when I need to and I can lighten up when I need to. It's really helpful fishing around cover. If I'm fishing around something like a dock with posts I can either hold the handle and lean on them to try to move the fish away from cover that could break my line, or if the fish gets around a post I can basically relieve all pressure while I try to get to the dock and hand my rod around the post. Also helps a lot in our lakes with zebra mussels. Setting the drag may work fine when your line is in perfect shape, but let it touch a rock with zebra mussels on it and try to use the drag and the fight will be over shortly. If I feel my line hit an object in the water where I know there's mussels I can take it easy on the fish and play it out to help protect the line better. I understand that drags on spinning reels are great now but I'm much more confident in my ability to control a fish by backreeling and I have zero concern of my drag sticking or failing.

I stick my finger out on the hand holding the rod against the bail roller to prevent the reel from back reeling and land the fish with the other hand. Only once the fish is in the boat do I turn the anti reverse back on.

You're going to lose some fish, the more you fish the more you'll lose. With time you'll learn how to try to minimize those losses, but it's still going to happen. If you're on the bank it's really difficult to keep a fish from jumping. If you're in the boat sticking the rod in the water might keep it from jumping, or it might still just and you still lose it.

Just remember, those are the same kids that are going to be picking which retirement home you go to some day

I had a Mojo 6' 8" M/F "Wacky Style" that was the best all around spinning rod I've ever owned. It got fished right along side my LTB's until, like the dummy I sometimes am, I tried to swing too big of a fish with it and it snapped I'd have no problems buying another if I ever had some extra money to buy one.

If I bought it to use right away it's coming out of the package. If it's a backup then it stays in the package and goes on the appropriate peg on my pegboard in the garage.

That's disappointing, I was really looking forward to trying them. Are they just extremely soft or poorly put together?

If only every cold front produced results like that!

If you can get in good with a home owner that would probably be your best option. Even then they will probably have to be with you at all times if there's an HOA, and you may still get hassled. Whatever you do, DO NOT try to sneak in. Catching a few fish is not worth a trespassing charge.

I'd much rather back reel than depend on my drag with spinning gear, I feel like I have much better control over the fish than I do if I let the drag do all the work. I still set my drag for those times I can't get the anti reverse turned off before the fish takes off, but I'll switch over to back reeling as soon as I can. Even though I fish some really nice spinning reels with great drag systems, there's still the chance they may fail or stick and I'm not losing a big fish because of it.

I wouldn't eat them, but I don't eat fish from anywhere so take that for what it's worth. KDWPT doesn't say anything about not eating them on their website with the other consumption warnings.

That looks great! I love grilling in the winter, makes me feel a little closet to the summer months, even if there is snow on the ground. I grilled some great steaks a week or two ago when it was in the single digits outside. Just put the grill on the patio right outside the door and check the steaks when I need to, good stuff.

I don't think I could eat Ramen noodles if I was starving to death. I smell them cooking so often at work that just the smell makes me sick to my stomach.

Right in the feels Not much worse feeling than losing a good dog, sorry for your loss.

Brush jig, not only can you do anything with it, but I seem to hook up much better with them than I do other jig styles.

Good C-rig bait.

Where are the YUM soft plastics on sale?? They're almost $6 a bag everywhere around here and rarely on sale for more than $.50 a bag off. I love the Wolly Bug, Mightee worm, craw papi, and craw chunks but I can't hardly afford to fish them anymore. They came out with the Chug N' Spook, One Knocker Spook, Buzz Plug, Perfect 10 Rogue, Pad Crasher, and Mighty Craw all pretty recently. They own the companies that produce some of the most popular baits of all time (Spooks, Spots, Rogues, Pop R, and Fat Free Shad), along with some of the popular newer baits (Xcaliber rattle baits, Booyah spinnerbaits/buzzbaits/jigs, Erratic shad, Yumbrella rigs). Maybe they're just content with what they have already and aren't real worried about trying to produce the next hot bait.