Bluebasser86

It's certainly not too small for a motorized boat. I take mine with a 60hp on lakes down to just a few acres as long as they have boat ramps. As you've found however, smaller lakes will often have HP restrictions or speed limits to prevent shoreline erosion and boating accidents and make time on the water more enjoyable for others.

That rod you described with 15' test is a pretty good all around rod. I'd use it for buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, rattletraps, squarebills, T-rigs, and smaller jigs. It isn't going to be the best option for all of them but it will work. The size hook will depend on what type of bait you're fishing. I use a 4/0 EWG hook for a vast majority of my T-rig baits but I have them down to 1/0 and up to 11/0.

I put #6 VMCs on my 1.0 without any problem. 4s are way too big for that little bait IMO.

Maybe the color or retrieve speed just wasn't quite right for them. My experience with the bait has been most of the fish that hit it almost swallow it.

Sometimes the fast fall with a heavier weight will get more strikes than a slow fall. I use a 1/4 or 3/8 for a majority of my T-rigs.

Spro in black. I like them in vegetation along the shoreline, especially if there's docks or brushpiles too.

I ran into the same thing last Friday on one of the local lakes. It has 3 big feeder creeks that jumped the lake up 2' overnight due to flash flood conditions and muddied the water a ton. I spent the day flipping a black jig and slowly retrieving a blackberry chatterbait around shallow cover. There was several times it took multiple casts several times to the same piece of cover to get the fish to bite.

Got to love the attitude from those rockies! Great looking bass too.

I use a snap on flutter and jigging spoons, I tie direct to everything else.

Sometimes I'll change baits a lot just by switching rods if the conditions dictate a change.

I'll be on Olathe Friday morning so you can shoot me a text or call me and I'll let you know what we find if we figure anything out.

Through the bottom lip and out the top for me. If I'm using bigger baits like shad or sunfish I'll usually hook them through the nose.

Wow that second smallie is a fattie! I'd love to get back to Canada sometime but it's going to have to wait at least a year or two now...

The sell rubber O rings just for wacky rigging that will get you more fish per bait from your wacky rigs. If you're T rigging and want more fish per bait you might try a Zman worm or some other Elastech style bait. If you do just make sure not to mix them with regular plastic worms because they will melt.

With mine all I have to do is reel faster and it starts to dart around. There is a fine line between the right speed and too fast when it starts to spin out. I use a E5 Curado and have no problem getting the action out of it. You'll know when you're reeling the right speed, it will look like this

Same thing happened to me. It was just a shallow pond/marsh no deeper than 6-7 feet deep and several acres completely surrounded by willow trees and brimming with vegetation and big bass. You can't see the vegetation in the picture very well because it was early in the year and it hadn't grown to the surface past the willows yet but the willows were all the way around the thing and it was just an amazing fishery, until the state decided to drain it

I probably push it further than I should a lot of times with lightning. Just a couple weeks ago we had a occasional lightning around but not terrible so we stayed out fishing (didn't help that we were killing them). I made a long cast and my line just hung in the air and even started to lift up towards the sky. We reeled in quickly and got off the water until it passed after that. Very sad deal indeed.

I wish college fishing was such a thing when I was getting ready to graduate high school. It would have given me a lot more incentive to go to college!

Make sure you keep a little bit of slack in the line to keep it walking. As it's getting closer it's easier for you to maintain a tight line to the bait and that's probably what you're doing without realizing it. If the bait doesn't have any slack it can't do the side to side glide that calls fish in so well.

It's been a tough spring for me as well. We had snow all the way into early May and now it's supposed to be in the 90's next week. I've been catching fish on a little bit of everything but a jig and a swimbait have been putting a lot of fish in the boat for me this year.

The last 5lb smallmouth I landed jumped close to twice it's length (20") out of the water trying to spit my crankbait. 4 pounders don't have any problem clearing the water but I've never seen one do it just to jump. I've seen big bass beach themselves chasing shad and bluegills though.

I have some of the bubbler blades but can't really tell a difference in them. What difference do you see when using them?

All over with a little bit of everything. Fish a wacky rigged stick bait in some kind of watermelon color along the water willow and you'll catch plenty of fish. I've only done well with crankbaits out there a couple times.

Sun up to sun down right now. I'm not sure if that will change later in the year. I know they aren't open on Wednesdays during most of the year then they aren't open during weekdays starting sometime in October I think.

I've never had even a big carp start to straighten a hook but my rod I use is so flexible and the line is so light I really can't put much pressure on them, just enough pressure to keep them swimming and tiring is about it. Occasionally during the heat of the summer when the feeder creeks to the rivers get low and clear I'll wade and sight fish for carp trapped in pools. It makes them a little easier to land when they can't run very far and less obstacles are in the water. I use White River fly fishing jig heads most of the time. http://www.basspro.com/White-River-Fly-Shop-Fly-Fishing-Jig-Heads/product/3085/ Normally tip them with a portion of some bright colored 2" grub but I might have to try some of the Gulp micro baits next time, I think the added scent may make them that much more effective.