Bluebasser86

Well I was going to suggest a bass pattern swimbait until the previous post calling a shallow shad rap "pricey" 😬 I'm guessing even a lower end swimbait in the 20-40 dollar range is out of the question then, even if it meant potentially catching the biggest bass of your life. Small bass are fair game for bait in many waters in Kansas, and all bass are everywhere here. They just have to be taken on a hook and line, be legal keeper size, and count towards you daily limit. Many of our lakes have slot limits, so if you wanted to use a 6" bass as a live bait, it would be completely legal. I've used them for catfish bait, but never have found them to be a very good bait. I've got a laundry list of other options I'd rather use before I come to bass, and not because I just don't want to use them, but because they're rarely productive for me. I've had big bass eat small bass while I was fighting them in, but it's much more common for them to just follow them in and try to steal the smaller fishes meal than it is to have them actually attempt to eat the hooked fish.

My kids love throwing rocks in the water, and I was the same way when I was a kid. Still enjoy skipping rocks with my boys. They love seeing how many times I can skip a rock or how far I can throw a rock (use to have a cannon but my arm would probably fall off at my shoulder if I tried to throw it like I use to 😂). Does it annoy me? Yeah, especially if I'm fishing a spot and people come to where I'm at, just to throw rocks. At the same time, they are just there to enjoy themselves like I am and have the same right to the water that I do. Could they do it anywhere? Sure, but they probably feel the same way about my fishing and maybe there is something sentimental about the spot to them. As long as they aren't trying to throw rocks at me, or obviously doing it intentionally to disrupt what I'm doing, I'll just move and maybe come back later.

Savage Gear makes some really nice bluegill swimbaits. They've got a few that I really like and fish a lot. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_Pulse_Tail_RTF_Bluegill_Swimbaits/descpage-SGRTFBG.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_Pulse_Tail_LB_Bluegill_Swimbaits_4/descpage-SGPTLBB.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Savage_Gear_Structure_Gill_Swimbait/descpage-SGSGS.html

I get out before the sun comes up fishing all winter long. I've caught some big winter bass in the early morning hours and one of my best winter banks never sees the sun during winter months because of the hill, trees, and it's position in relation to the sun. Sun hadn't even cleared the trees. Sun barely starting to clear the trees. Almost still dark out. Not even over the trees yet on a bank that will see zero sun the entire day.

I tried one on a Neko and really liked the look, but the fish didn't agree with me.

Devil's Horse is a big fish topwater that gets no love around here.

I mostly have designated rod/reel combos, but I do have floaters that are called into service when needed. Sometimes the reels come to tournaments in case I need them. Usually, it's a casting reel with straight braid in case I feel like I need to swap it with a reel that has fluoro on it.

I do a lot of short trips from the bank, usually less than 30 minutes before or after work. My boat trips have been cut down significantly since I started kayak fishing. It use to be my main way of going fishing, but now I probably fish from a boat less than 10 times a year. My kayak trips are by far where a majority of my fishing hours are spent.

I don't fish deep a lot but I'm getting more comfortable with the concept with FFS. In the past, it was a dropshot or jigging spoon on visible, vertical cover or occasional deep cover I saw on sonar. Now I use the jighead minnow a lot to target fish I see in deep water. Still not great at catching those fish, but we don't have many lakes that have lots of deep water, so it isn't something that I do often.

They're very situational for me, but if you find that situation, they're deadly.

I overdress because of the temperature swings. It's amazing how much the humidity here will chill you overnight when it drops from the hight 90's to low 70's with extreme humidity so you're damp with the wind blowing on you. The bugs usually are only a problem for about the 30 minutes as the sun is going down to 30 minutes after it's dark. Lots of swarming bugs after dark though, especially anytime I have to turn my headlight on. I usually keep my facemask pulled up all the way all night to keep them from flying up my nose or in my ears. A buzzing bug slamming into your ear and going nuts is about enough to knock you out of the boat.

I haven't done much night fishing the last few years, I'm hoping to change that this year, I really miss chasing those things that go bump in the night. One of our smaller kayak clubs is actually seriously discussing a night tournament this summer and several guys are wanting to do that, I really hope it happens.

I added a blackpak with a shortstack to my kayak (sounds like a line from a Dr. Suess book) 😂 Finally made the step up from the rolling toolbox DIY tacklebox to something a lot nicer. Also added the DIY seat riser, a paddle holder, a 100 Ah mini lithium battery, and 55lb thrust stern mount motor to the kayak my kids use. Should make it a lot more enjoyable for them.

I've had the misfortune of fishing against Damian. That was in the Bassmaster Kayak Classic on Tenkiller a few years back, prior to having FFS or even a motor on my kayak. He was fishing how I wanted to fish but couldn't because of the wind in practice, I never got to check the docks he was fishing during the tournament. His skill with FFS and open water fishing is unreal. I've learned a lot just from watching how he does it. He's very humble and he seems to very much be "Me vs the fish", which is the same way I feel on the water.

That's a longnose for sure. Pretty crazy to manage to land one after snagging it on light tackle. It's almost impossible to get a hook through their scales, even with heavy tackle.

Damien isn't a guy that is going to edit a picture, and he catches monsters on swimbaits in California so I'm not surprised at all by it. Also the fact that he's about 5' nothing does make his fish look even bigger but that one has to be a mid teen range fish still.

It’s funny because I did almost the exact same thing as they did and have a picture somewhere to prove it 😂

I'm not sure what color "shiner", is but I assume it's a baitfish color. That's a pretty big difference from all green pumpkins and a pink bait. Combine that with the wind starting to blow, I'd guess that all played a pretty big factor. Way to stick with it and turn the day around!

The very south end of the lake by my house is LOADED with big shad right now. I've stocked up on about a trash bag worth of catfish bait and shared the info with some other guys. I didn't even have a net the first time, just snagging them with a Ned rig they were so thick 😂 A 10" shad snagged in the back is a pretty decent fight on light tackle.

Had the perfect storm of warm weather, wind, and rain to knock the ice of one of my favorite winter fishing lakes just in time for the weekend. There was one pretty good patch of ice covering one of my favorite banks and my livescope revealed a lot of fish hiding back under the ice unfortunately. Things started out pretty slow, I managed to catch a few small ones on the scope off deeper structure but mostly I was getting casting practice. I noticed as I was fishing towards the south end of the lake where the creek runs in, the water was slowly warming up. That gave me the idea to check out the back of another cove where a drainage pipe runs in. The water was 38-41 everywhere I had been, it was 46-49 in the back of that cove when I got there and there was fish everywhere. I ended up catching 34 bass, several white bass, several drum, 2 trout, and a bluegill. Most of them were in 1-4 feet of water that was much dirtier than the rest of the lake. My big fish of the day thumped one of my homemade micro football jigs.

The lake by the house is still 3/4 frozen, but still managed to get a couple little ones from the bank after work, and watch some teens make questionable life choices 😂

We're not planning on fishing that circuit anymore. It's $100 a year for me to buy a permit to fish that one lake and the only reason I get it is to fish those tournaments, and it's not even a very good lake. We decided it's just not worth the hassle.

Our smallies love purple. That candy purple I use on those blades cut down on some of the flash but don't kill it completely like GP or black paint does. Gives a combination of purple and flash, sensory overload for a smallmouth 😂

I fish a lot of different bladed jig colors, green pumpkin is pretty low on my list of colors I reach for. Black and blue is always a good choice in low light conditions, regardless of water clarity, and in stained to dirty water. When I go for GP, it's usually when I feel like the fish are feeding on gills or craws. I fish the reds/oranges a lot in colder water and in dirty water. I agree that it does seem to be a big fish color. Of course the solid blue is another of my favorites. It's another really good one in low light conditions and is really a standout when the algae blooms start in the summer and the water gets green. Something about it just really seems to work in those conditions. This is a color I just started doing last couple years and I guess I'll let the cat out of the bag. My buddy Jon and I were working the local weeknight boat circuit over with it. Clear water, lots of grass, bass that eat tons of gills. I call it Watermelon Jelly, but the bass call it Dinner. Another one I fish a ton in lakes with lots of tannic acid in them is this color I call Golden Shiner.

I live in a cul-de-sac in the very back of a neighborhood, they always push the snow up in front our our mailbox and the fire hydrant. My kids will have to end up shoveling a bunch of it out every year to get to their basketball goal because it's so slow to melt when it's in giant piles like that. I use to put a bunch in the back of my truck and haul it around until it would melt and then refill it to get rid of the pile but can't do it anymore since I got the 4runner.