Bluebasser86

For those wanting to be there, don't forget we'll be at Austin's off 151st St in Olathe at 6pm tonight to figure things out for the spring get together!

After looking at the pictures a couple more (ok, maybe a bunch more times) it appears the fish that ate the catfish is the same fish that he estimated to be around 16 pounds, makes me wonder how big that catfish was! It's either the same fish or there's two very large bass with almost the exact same 2 tears or cuts in it's tail.

I've never had as many baits fall apart as the DT's, almost always the bill coming out of the bait. I've had them pop out while they were bumping the rocks and I've had the lip pull out while fighting fish, at least half a dozen times now. I do like the old Shad Raps, never had a problem with their durability, but I won't be buying anymore DTs unless they're real cheap.

How do you find anything in that mess?? Mine look more like this, You have a good selection going, just add to it slowly and one day you too can spend 10 minutes untangling hooks to finally give up and just use whatever comes untangled the easiest.

Sometimes small baits may be the answer at times, but to me, your situation sounds like a perfect one for a big worm or creature bait. Think dark colors in stained water, black/blue, black neon, grape, or junebug. If the water is clearer then natural colors should rule, green pumpkin, watermelon, or motoroil. Green pumpkin and solid black are pretty universal colors if you don't want to buy a bunch of different colors. If they won't eat your plastic in one of those two colors you're either not around fish or they aren't going to eat that bait at all that day.

My favorites as well. It's unfortunate for that catfish that their eyesight is so poor, he might have seen the danger coming before it was too late! On a side note, since very few of our lakes have trout but all of them are heavily stocked with catfish, it may be time for me to invest in a Mattlures channel cat swimbait!

Well known big bass hunter Mike Long took the time to take some underwater photos of huge bass throughout the year. The results are some pretty awesome pictures of some very large bass, just doing what they do. http://www.mikelongoutdoors.com/underwater-bass-pictures/

You know what model those Mann's baits are? Should say somewhere on them. If they're anything less than the 30+ (do we have any lakes that deep other than Melvern??) then I'd trade you some jigs or chatterbaits for the Mann's deep cranks and the super spook?

I've done really well with mine unfortunately. I was done buying Rapalas crap...er...cranks until I bought one of those. It's a really unique action and the fish I've caught on it really smash the thing

I could see where the added sound could really be a plus with the jerkbait during the pause. Other than that it seems like the rattles would kind of drown out the other sound. I wouldn't be afraid to try and probably will now that the local BPS carries them.

I have some of the Flappin Bug. I really thought I'd like them but they're smaller, and thinner than I really like in a flipping bait and not very durable.

1/2 Xcalibur XRK50 or XR50 in Ghost, Rayburn Red, Chrome Blue, and Gold/black. The RES would be a distant second but certainly has a place in my box, pretty tough to beat Sexy Shad.

Zoom Cross Craw or Lil' Critter craw or the old stand by Uncle Josh pork frog.

Find an area with vertical structure (some kind of sharp dropoff, one with large rock would be best, if it happened to be on the north side of the lake would be even better) and fish it slowly. If the water is clear enough, I'd be twitching a suspending jerkbait very slowly around the cover. Your idea of "not super clear" and my idea of it are probably completely different. I'm going to guess the water has at least a couple feet of visibility which would be plenty for a jerkbait. I let the water clarity and amount of sunlight dictate my color selection but colors like clown and bone are pretty universally good colors no matter the water clarity or amount of sunlight. Give the bait very small twitches and let it sit a long time during the pause, at least 10-20 seconds, longer if you can stand it. I like to count it out in my head and if the fish are hitting at a certain point in my count, then I'll shorten my count to just a couple seconds longer than that. If the jerkbait isn't working I'd drag a small (1/4oz) brown or black jig with a pork or plastic chunk trailer, slowly around deep drops. A shakyhead with a straight tail worm in green pumpkin would also be something I'd keep handy.

I don't like freshwater fish in general anymore, I ate too much fish growing up and just lost the taste for it. It isn't an issue of not having them prepared properly, being from the wrong body of water, nothing like that. Every fish I catch gets released unless someone else wants to eat them. It's funny how upset some people will get when they see me release a keeper walleye, crappie, trout, or catfish. Every year I'll try some fish (usually a walleye caught early in the year fishing jerkbaits for bass) hoping that I'll have regained my taste for fish but it just hasn't happened.

I prefer to go with larger baits in a few circumstances; 1. Anytime the fish are aggressively feeding. 2. When the water is hot enough to make the fish lethargic, they'll often be looking for a big, easy meal. 3. In dirty water, a larger bait moves more water and is easier to find. Think of it this way, what's easier to find in a dark room, a small child, or a 300lb guy? 4. Anytime the fish are feeding on larger prey. Obviously there will be exceptions to these rules, but those guidelines usually give me a good place to start anyways.

That's kind of my thinking as well. Buy it down there and then we don't have a ton of coolers laying all over and taking up space in peoples trucks and all that mess. Snacks and drinks are a personal choice so everyone can take care of bringing what they want in those departments.

The food deal will be part of what we're going to have to discuss on Thursday. We could either have everyone bring what they want to eat and just cook for ourselves, or have everyone pitch in 5 or 10 bucks a person and make a grocery run in town and get stuff for everyone. For sure bring an extension cord and a power strip if you have one. Depending on how the cabin situation ends up, we may or may not have beds for everyone so that is yet to be figured out.

Bone Creek can be a lot of fun but it can be really tough as well. Fort Scott is a good lake, lots of fish and good quality, can get pretty tough at times though. Cedar Creek is your dream lake if you love flipping timber. It's a fairly new lake so there aren't a lot of big fish though, not sure you could ever get one out of all the trees even if you did hook one anyways. Bourban State Lake is great if you want to just catch a ton of fish, 100 fish days aren't really even that hard out there, but you may have to catch that many to get one over the 18" mark. Elm Creek is a great lake if you want to be really, really frustrated after your day on the water, unless you're catfishing I guess. The pits can be really fun but they take a ton of trial and error to figure out when, where, and with what. There is just so many of them and just because one is bad one trip, doesn't mean it can't be great the next and vice versa. Don't bother with Big Hill, it's never done anything to impress me. It's about the same drive to Stockton as it is to Big Hill, not a very hard decision there.

I'd opt for the bow personally. I don't trust buckshot to get the job done like a well placed arrow will. Sounds like you just need to get out and practice with your bow so you're efficient with it and you'll be good. I have a heavy, slow, and loud Parker Hunter Mag Extreme and I've never had a deer jump the string. I think the main cause of that is the deer already being jumpy before the shot, usually a result of the hunter moving too much, making too much noise, or they've winded them. I also like how clean a bow kill is, no giant hole blown in them and it's one clean hole, not a bunch of holes all over like with buckshot.

I can send you texts if you want to keep updated on the plans or suggest anything.

I've never even seen one in person, but with those ratings I'd be thinking either a plastics/jig rod or frogging.

Zell Pop by a mile, the smaller size in Z shad. I have the first one I bought still, almost no paint left on that thing.

One solution I've found to fit thinner baits and baits made of Elaztech is to cut the screw lock down to about the first spiral, straighten it out with pliers, then just bend it so it's shaped like a J. You an push thin baits up onto it that way and Elaztech baits don't pull back off of it like they do with the screw locks.

I catch probably 80-90% of my cold water pond bass on suspending jerkbaits fished very slowly. Other than that, dragging a jig if there isn't too much junk on the bottom or slow rolling a light spinnerbait with a single colorado blade will also catch fish.