Bluebasser86

I had a fiberglass but went back to aluminum and my next boat will be aluminum too. I like to get into places others can't and the lighter boat is easier to pull, even though my truck is big enough to pull any glass boat. There's less upkeep involved and when I get back into the thick stuff I don't have to worry about gouging the gel coat on a big glitter sled. The nice tin boats have the same features as a nice glass boat and fish very nice. It's a preference thing and aluminum boats suit my needs better than glass so I'll continue to fish them. There's nothing wrong with either, but for the OP's price range I'd be willing to bet he could get a nicer, newer tin boat than what he'll get in a glass boat.

I used to fish out of a 8' 2 man boat everywhere. Whenever I went to a bigger lake I picked a ramp off the main lake a long ways to decrease the chance of getting caught in bad weather or getting swamped by bigger boats. I think it taught me a lot because I had to find fish in the limited area I had to work with instead of being able to run around and find actively feeding fish.

Nice looking baits and fish! I've been pouring and tying for a couple years now and really enjoy it. I've been fortunate enough to catch lots of nice fish on my baits and even won a couple tournaments with them. My biggest bass on a homemade bait fell for a black and blue 3/8oz bladed jig and went 6.1 pounds. A couple baits.

I hate fishing soft plastic jerks. I know they're effective and I can catch fish on them, just don't like fishing them. Hard jerks are a whole different story. I'm a jerkbait addict and have way more than a person would actually need and I'll continue to buy more I'm sure. I have better success with the soft jerks during the warmer months and the hard, suspending jerks during the cold weather months.

The shad rap is a great crank in clear water when the water gets cold. I like to put some suspend dots on them to make them float very slowly. Wiggle wart type baits are very good too.

Exactly! Fishing the same bait on the same targets will work sometimes but if he's popping all the fish off every piece of cover that's going to eat that bait then you're wasting your time casting the same bait back at them. When I fished as a non boater I loved to fish a shakyhead or a T rigged stick bait, either weightless or with a pegged weight depending on the cover. He'll get the more aggressive fish sure, but you can still pick off fish behind him like that. My first two tournament wins were as a non boater, back to back tournaments, first with a shakyhead and a trick worm, next with a 5" senko and a pegged 1/4oz weight.

This video makes me sick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwWblafrE_w

Catching them off the dam or on the flats?

Them little buggers are tough! A buddy and I were hired by his neighbor to take care of a woodchuck problem she was having and I skewered one from it's back end to right under it's chin. Dang thing made it probably 30 yards and almost got under the barn they were busy digging up before it dropped. Another neighbor was watching and asked if he could have it, I asked if he skinned them, he said no he eats them and they taste great Guy was dead serious, he had it field dressed in a couple minutes and looked like he'd done it before and was real excited about some fresh chuck for dinner

I've had few problems with fluoroclear but I have had a couple times it broke for no apparent reason. In the OP's case it really sounds to me like the fish broke the line because he grabbed the line. A net or a pair of grippers will solve that problem.

Something magic about that bait for smallies here. I have it in the 97MR Slender Pointer and it's chewed up beyond recognition. I've gone through several sets of hooks on it and it just keeps on catching! I've had good success with the Crack color in stained water but don't have the crack black. My buddy has one and catches lots of fish on it though in the 78 pointer.

Shakyheads aren't a good option around very heavy brush imo. If you're fishing from a boat then shorter cast should allow you to lift the bait more and keep it from wedging in the rocks. Loosing hooks and worms is part of fishing shakyheads. I've gone through 10-15 heads and 2-3 bags of worms in a single outing when I'm fishing them all day.

I wish I could say it was one of the tougher days of fishing I've had in a long time but after Truman last week, well it was really tough. Chris and I started by missing every bite we got. I missed a fish under the same dock on 3 different jigs, probably 4 or 5 times before I gave up on it. I had one blow up on a chatterbait when I tried to pull it over a log I cast over, lost about a 3lb largemouth at the boat, then when I finally got a fish in the boat it was a saugeye Seriously don't think I caught a fish for the first hour and Chris only boated one but it was the smallest we had on our card at the end of the day at 2.05. If we hadn't gone to the small cove by the ramp it may have turned out differently. I missed a fish on a Netbait salt lick, then caught our only smallmouth of the day that was also our biggest fish of the day at 3.02lbs, off the point on the north side of the cove. About halfway back Chris caught a largemouth that was 2.88 I believe, it ate a jig right under the boat. I caught another largemouth that was something like 2.35 off the one laydown on the south side of that cove about halfway back. We had a 1.03 largemouth on our card almost all day and after about 2 hours of not even having a bite I thought it would still be on there at weigh in. We hit the cove by the ramp one last time and fished north towards the dam and we were going to quit after we fished the one dock on that flat. I skipped a SK Ocho under the dock and the line slowly tightened and I stuck the last fish of the day for us that was something like 2.51lbs. We fished very little of the west side of the lake, and didn't even have to weigh either of the 2 bass we caught the short time we were there. Jon had the big fish of the day with a 4lb 9oz largemouth that he caught on a home made football jig out in front of the docks in deeper water.

That fish is crazy fat! I've caught some fat fish but even the fattest one I've ever caught falls well short of that gut!

I currently have licenses for 4 different states in my wallet (KS, MO, AR, and OK). On top of that I have several permits for different counties, or individual lakes, and 2 different year pass stickers for ramps on the windshield of my truck. If I'm going fishing I'm going to do my best to make sure I have everything I'm supposed to have before I hit the water. Not only do I feel like it's morally the right thing to do, but if I get caught without one it could have serious repercussions at work.

1 big one if it's just about what I'm catching. Not many people are going to care to hear about someone catching 100 dinks, but mention catching a trophy sized fish and they're all ears.

I've had a couple trips that I walked out with nothing but more often then not I leave dizzy and confused trying to figure out what I just spent $100 on.

He pretty much gave you the play by play right there!

She slammed it as it was slowly sinking, same way I got my only bass of the day on it. I had her belly smashed in pretty good in the picture, she was extremely thick and very fat. From holding her and compared to the big catfish I've caught I was guessing in the 50-60 pound range. I wasn't really concerned about weighing her, it was awesome and she was huge either way.

Fished my buddy Jon's Uncles ponds in today. I was messing with my new 6" S Waver and had caught a dink and missed a few others at the big pond so we decided to fish the little ponds in the back yard. When we got to them there was a few big grass carp cruising the surface. Just jokingly I cast my S Waver in front of one like I was trying to get him to bite. I was more than a little surprised when a different carp shot off the bottom and T boned my bait! The pond is tiny so it didn't have anywhere to go but even with my heavy swimbait rod and line it still took a long time to wear her out and even then I had no idea how I was going to land her with no net. I had to get in about knee deep and steered her head towards the bank and then pushed her up onto the bank. We didn't want to risk killing her and our scales were a long walk to the truck so we snapped a picture and put her back.

Fished Jon's Uncles ponds in Springhill today. I was messing with my new 6" S Waver and had caught a dink and missed a few others at the big pond so we decided to fish the little ponds in the back yard. When we got to them there was a few big grass carp cruising the surface. Just jokingly I cast my S Waver in front of one like I was trying to get him to bite. I was more than a little surprised when a different carp shot off the bottom and T boned my bait! The pond is tiny so it didn't have anywhere to go but even with my heavy swimbait rod and line it still took a long time to wear her out and even then I had no idea how I was going to land her with no net. I had to get in about knee deep and steered her head towards the bank and then pushed her up onto the bank. We didn't want to risk killing her and our scales were a long walk to the truck so we snapped a picture and put her back.

80 in the river, 90 at the outlet. Didn't make it down lake, the 4' rolling white caps were more than I wanted to deal with.

I know of a high spot with brush down near the dam that I'd like to see on sidescan/down imaging. Caught some really nice smallmouth off it on a jigging spoon late last year.

Fished La Cygne today and surprisingly it didn't suck Had probably 15-20 bass, a couple sunfish, a channel cat, and Jared caught a drum. Squarebills caught most of my fish, followed by a shakyhead, along with one each on a pit boss and buzzbait. Had one keeper on a shakyhead and 2 on the crank. Biggest of the day was off a log in the river and was super fat ath 19.5" and 4.87 pounds.