Bluebasser86

Yep, all winter long. I also spend quite a bit of time fishing for white bass and wipers during the winter. On very rare occasions I'll fish for crappie too but they have to be biting and have to be big to get my interest since I don't eat them.

I had a 55 gallon tank with a small flathead catfish in it, coolest aquarium fish I've ever seen. I caught him when he was at 4.5" long and started out feeding him nightcrawlers. I named him Brutus kind of as a funny because the little guy acted and looked tough just like a big flathead, but was so small a big crappie could have eaten him. He was such a pig, he'd eat nightcrawlers until it looked like he swallowed a golf ball and swam around like a big tadpole. After he got to about 6 or 7 inches I started putting fathead minnows or young of the year bluegills in the tank with him, they never lasted long. The first time I bought a dozen minnows and turned them loose I figured they'd last a week or so. That night I kept hearing bumping noises and sand getting moved around, I assumed he was having a hard time catching the speedy fatheads. The next morning there was nothing but an extremely fat flathead in the tank. I had Brutus for a few years, he ate a ton of minnows, bluegills, goldfish, and nightcrawlers. I also added a silver dollar sized soft shell turtle I found swimming hundreds of yards offshore. They were quite the pair, the turtle got pushed across the tank several times in the flathead's mouth when he'd try to dig around the half a hollow log that Brutus called home. It was really a cool experience watching Brutus grow but as they do he got big and once he was about 2 pounds I knew he was too big for his home. So one day I scooped him out of the aquarium and took him back to the little community lake he came out of. I'm sure he's still in there terrorizing the abundant bluegill and sunfish.

Depends a lot on what size bait you're fishing and where you're going to fish it. I fish swimbaits on everything from a 7' M/F with a 7.1 reel and 15lb fluoro to a 7' 10" H/F with 25lb copolymer with a 6.2 reel.

Green pumpkin, green pumpkin magic, green pumpkin blue flake, green pumpkin orange flake, green pumpkin red flake, green pumpkin purple flake, green pumpkin candy. It's like the fishing version of the shrimping scene from Forrest Gump

Oval rings are the best way to go for the line tie. It's a simple switch and makes your life much easier when you're switching out baits.

I'll buy a couple of the same if it's a proven bait. If it's a proven bait and it's getting discontinued I'll buy dozens.

Regular Plano 3700 box for me also. I try to arrange them by similar head, weight, and color as best I can but with 4 or 5 boxes packed full of a few hundred jigs it gets tough at times.

My buddy Jon and I got out on Halloween to chase some fish around, turned out the weather was feeling like playing mostly tricks and not giving out many treats as we fought rain in the 40 degree temps along with 20mph winds. We were on a lake known mainly for smallmouth and having reports of good fishing we started on a likely spot. I'm pretty sure I missed the first 6-8 bites I got while Jon was catching them pretty well on a spinnerbait and tube. I finally got my act together and started catching them on a spinnerbait, tube, and shakyhead. Right before we left I got our biggest smallmouth of the day on a spinnerbait that went 19" and 3.28lbs. We left a little early to try a little pond that was on our way home, wow where we not disappointed. We'd had over 2" of rain fall the day before and the little pond was swollen and muddy, didn't look good when we pulled up but hey we're here let's give it a try. For the first 15 minutes the pond seemed devoid of life, shallow, and muddy. I was running a homemade black and blue chatterbait along a metal overflow grate when it got slammed by a super fat 3 pounder that pulled like it was 6, the next 3 casts resulted in the same thing! When the little flurry stopped I pitched a black and blue Strike King flipping tube at the grate and got thumped. This one was even fatter and pulled way harder than largemouth are supposed to! No skinny fall fish here! Jon was on the other side of the pond fishing an inflow area and catching them pretty good from what I could tell. I continued covering water quickly with the chatterbait and tube, catching several more fish. I pitched into a corner area with small chunk rock with the tube when I felt a very sharp tap. My line took off so fast I was positive it was a catfish from the start. The fish didn't move towards me at all on the hookset, instead it steadily pulled drag off my pitching rod, heading towards a brushpile, but I got it turned and moving back towards me. Doing just like catfish do it stayed down, pulled hard, and ripped some more drag before I got it close and saw a big bucketmouth and greenish sides! I didn't have my scale on me, it was in the boat along with my camera so I had to take a picture with my junky cell phone camera and guess the weight. She was extremely fat like the rest of them, I'm guessing somewhere in the 5.5-6 pound range. Needless to say we'll be back

Every one of them I've ever seen was missing most of the paint on them. Pretty pricey for a mailbox too, but would still be a cool to have.

X2 on the Mettle. I bought one just because they have great reviews and they were on sale for $30. I don't have more than a couple months use on it but I've been really impressed so far. It casts a mile and is really easy to set up and use. You can feel that it's more plastic than a higher end reel but as long as he isn't putting braid on it and trying to haul big fish out of heavy cover it shouldn't matter. They do scuff pretty easy but it doesn't effect the usability of the reel. The BPS Pro Qualifier would be an easy second choice and will probably last a lot longer.

There is an "other fish" forum you could post it under. Lots of guys on here catfish as well as bass fish, I'm sure you'd get some input there. I catfish fairly often, and jug fishing is legal here as well as most every state close by, just not my deal.

Wal Mart here carries some of them I know. If you have a lake with a good walleye population I promise you can walk the banks and find some that have been broken off by other fishermen and washed onto the bank. About the only crank I fish for walleye anymore and I got several of mine like that.

One of the few baits I've tried for a reasonable amount of time that failed to produce while other, similar lures were working well. I sold all mine and wouldn't buy another.

For the size range you're looking at I'd be looking at baits like the Huddleston weedless shad and 6" Hudd, Mattlures trout or tournament series baits, or Decoy Hydratail. Most all of them work well with a slow, steady retrieve but the weedless shad is great to pull through vertical weeds.

Jon and I made the trip to Wolf Creek today hoping to get in on a good smallmouth bite. The wind picked up pretty fast and I was surprised we didn't get paged off when it started white capping really bad. I had a hard time hooking anything at first while Jon was catching fish on a spinnerbait and tube pretty well. One area was way better than others and a spinnerbait, tube, and shakyhead accounted for a vast majority of our fish. We never caught them real fast but it stayed fairly steady most of the day. I had the biggest one of the day with a 3.28lb 19 inch smallmouth We left a little early so we could fish another lake on the way home. Every fish we caught was very stocky and as hard of fighting bass as I've ever caught. A homemade chatterbait, homemade jig, or flipping tube caught all our fish there. My first fish on the tube was a super chunk! A little bit later I got thumped and my line went screaming off. After not jumping, ripping a lot of drag, and just pulling way harder than a bass is supposed to I was sure it was a catfish. I didn't have my scale with me but I'm guessing she was around 6 pounds and super fat.

A friend of mine works in Marine at Cabela's, I talked to him about that motor when I bought my jonboat. I guess it gets pretty poor reviews and has a tendancy to break or give up if you hit anything or use it very often.

Fished Olathe this morning before the rain and lightning started up. Wipers were chasing shad, and nothing I had to offer Saugeye weren't biting, but the bass sure were. I started a little slow until I figured out what they wanted, then it was on! Best fish of the day ate a tube, pitched to a brushpile and the line jumped while it was sinking, 18.5" and 3.46 pounds and mean!

Yeah but there's lots of people who apparently get on here just to try to spot steal and offer nothing in return. I have no problem sharing information/spots with anyone on here, but it's kind of a you scratch my back I'll scratch your's deal. I'll share my spots, hot bites and baits, but when the person/s that I shared my information with comes across a hot bite, I'd like to get a heads up on it

Chartreuse shad is one of my favorites for stained water. I've also done well on Table Rock shad in stained water.

Don't feel bad, I wasn't the only member that immediately picked out the spot you're on. It's a good spot for sure, and like I said I won't tell nobody Not looking like the wind is going to cooperate for me to get out there Thursday anyways

Water temps in the high 50's right now, pretty much a little bit of everything has to go in a box. If I had to pick there'd be some lipless baits, spinnerbaits, squarebills, jigs, wacky rigs, and jerkbaits.

I have a theory on why it's been so bad. We had a really cold spring and the result was the shad spawned way later than usual. In all the lakes I'm fishing the shad are still tiny (around 1-2 inches long) and way more plentiful than normal because the fish haven't had all summer to eat away at them. The end result is an overabundance of food while the fishes need for food is going away as the water temps are cooling off. I can't prove it but it makes me feel a little better about my lack of productivity.

In Kansas, and other states I'm sure, they're considered an ANS, aquatic nuisance species. They aren't supposed to be in the lakes they're in and they compete directly with a lot of native game fish for food and habitat and in some cases are outcompeteing native species. It is against the law to posses a live white perch or to release them, even into the body of water that they came out of or use them for live bait in the lake it was caught from. Same goes for the Asian carp.

Some riprap bank I won't tell but it's pretty obvious what riprap bank you're on in those pictures Might have to try to get out there Thursday if the wind allows.

Some very pretty fish. Water looks like it was really clear out there. Sounds like you guys caught more smallies then I've ever caught out there in all my trips combined. Bad thing is you just don't have the shot at the big fish out there like you do at Melvern.