Bluebasser86

Been loving the Slammer lately.

2/3 of a 5" stick worm.

Kanasbassfisher08 and I decided to hit some small lakes Thursday to see if we could do any good. First lake was a bust, 4 dinks in 3 hours so we drove 15 minutes to the next lake in hopes of some better fishing. I caught one that looked good right off the bat on a Pit Boss but it was 19-20 inches long and so skinny it probably didn't weigh 3 pounds. We were catching a little one now and then and were starting to think about trying Critzer since Chris hadn't ever fished it before. I wanted to hit the trees at the far south end and then one stretch on the east side. First tree I pitched into on the south end my line jumped almost as soon as it hit the water, she caught it pretty good on the drop. She looks bigger than she was I guess. Weighed her twice and came out 3lbs 12ozs both times. We caught a few more and got to the last stretch I wanted to fish so I got brave and broke out my Slammer despite it being hot, sunny, and dead calm. One of my first casts I caught my first largemouth on my Slammer. Chris was wondering out loud what makes a fish eat that big, goofy looking bait. I was explaining to him during my retrieve that if I slow it down like this it wakes just like a big shad dying on the top that needs to be eaten BLAM! 20 inches and 4.5 pounds makes her my biggest swimbait fish to date.

This gal approves of them!

Shad colors are always a good place to start. Something non reflective when it's cloudy is usually a good choice. In stained water I also like gold and red craw colored rattle baits also.

Natural colors are my first choice in clear water, watermelons, green pumpkins, browns, translucent colors. I've also done very well with black or purple in clear water also.

Dark jigs or chatterbaits are my go to baits at night. I'd guess the red colored fish you saw were carp. They can look all kinds of colors under a spotlight at night.

25lb C21, pretty much the same thing

Got a 6" Bull Shad in the mail yesterday. Didn't have much time today so I just went to Olathe with 2 rods. I've had them eat sunfish several times while reeling them in so I thought I might be able to get a bite on the big bait. I fished it for 2 hours and was about to pack it in and was daydreaming pretty bad when I thought I hit a rock. I looked up and saw a swirl where the fish that just hit my bait was at. I was a little irritated with myself and the fish wouldn't come back. Next cast down the bank I got about 2 cranks and got hit again. Not a monster but any fish on a big bait feels good

Cbass and I hit up Melvern Wednesday night to see if you can catch smallmouth at night down there. We started around 5pm and caught fish right off the bat but our average size wasn't very great. Ryan had a good one on a shakyhead in the 17" range. We didn't get any big ones but once it got dark we got smallmouth, spots, sunfish, bluegill, crappie, white bass, drum, and flathead. Ryan had by far the biggest bite of the night, 13lb 9oz on shakyhead. kanasbassfisher08 and I diid some lake hopping on some smaller lakes Thursday. We started at Pleasanton East, it was tough. I think we caught 4 or 5 bass in 3 hours, nothing very big at all. There were some wipers blowing up pretty good for awhile and we caught several of those on topwater so that was fun but once the sun got up those stopped and the bass still weren't biting so we decided to head to Mound City. I caught one that looked good right off the bat on a Pit Boss but it was 19-20 inches long and so skinny it probably didn't weigh 3 pounds. We were catching a little one now and then and were starting to think about trying Critzer since Chris hadn't ever fished it before. I wanted to hit the trees at the far south end and then one stretch on the east side. First tree I pitched into on the south end my line jumped almost as soon as it hit the water, she caught it pretty good on the drop. She looks bigger than she was I guess. Weighed her twice and came out 3lbs 12ozs both times. We caught a few more and got to the last stretch I wanted to fish so I got brave and broke out my Slammer despite it being hot, sunny, and dead calm. One of my first casts I caught my first largemouth on my Slammer. Chris was wondering out loud what makes a fish eat that big, goofy looking bait. I was explaining to him during my retrieve that if I slow it down like this it wakes just like a big shad dying on the top that needs to be eaten BLAM! 20 inches and 4.5 pounds makes her my biggest swimbait fish to date.

Check out the Black Dog Lunker Punker. It's a big walking bait that will catch muskie and bass with surprising regularity! I don't get to muskie fish much because there aren't many around here but it seems every time I go I'll catch a couple bass on big baits fishing for them. Then I bass fish and catch muskies on spinnerbaits and squarebills.

Nope that's not the problem. I fish them on spinning gear fairly often when I fish ponds because they cast easy in tight spaces and are easy to fish over and through cover. Like others said, you have to have your rod tip almost touching the surface of the water for them to dive and even then they aren't going to get very deep.

The fish in avatar was only 21.5" long and 7.76 and I've caught 18" fish that went 4.5 when they were gorging on shad. It would certainly have to be a fat fish, but it's not impossible. According to the fish calculator on this sight it would have had to been about 14" around, not hard to imagine at all.

I hate braid for A-rigs, backlash trying to make a long cast with braid and a heavy rig and you'll find out why as you watch the rig sail into the lake without a line attached. I've never had a problem fishing one on 20-25lb P-line Xtra strong. I've also only ever lost one rig on it and it wouldn't have mattered what line I had on that one. I toss them on a 7' 10" H/F BPS Extreme with a Curado 300E and have handled fish up to a 20 pound striper with this setup with no problems.

An 8" black Mann's Jelly worm still catches lots of fish for me. My friends dad fishes almost nothing but an old white and red Bass Oreno and catches quite a few fish on it, not any more than a modern popper but it still works.

It probably weighs about half that. Unless it's living on a diet of rocks and sinkers it's not even close to 44lbs.

You won't be disappointed!

My favorite bait to fish. I enjoy topwater as much as the next guy, but I'll take the defined "thump!" of a big fish hitting a jig over a topwater explosion any day.

You aren't fishing the stock hooks are you? The stock hooks on the Slammers SUCK!!

Warmouth

Palomar

I like War Eagles for clear water and Booyahs for dirty water.

1/4oz finesse jig

I've had a few pairs of both, Costa's blow the Oakley's out of the water when it comes to being able to see what's down there.

There's actually 3 commonly occuring bullheads; brown, black, and yellow. The yellow bullheads don't get very large though and after looking at that one a little more I think it's probably larger than most yellow bullheads get so it probably is a black bullhead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_bullhead