Bluebasser86

Oh boy, I like that one!

Big, dark colored jigs are one of my old standbys. A black and blue chatterbait has become one of my recent favorites though. Buzzbaits are fun but you have to make sure to feel the weight before you set the hook so you aren't trying to dodge it in the dark.

I hate wearing sunblock on my face and neck. It's an annoyance to put on, I sweat and it gets in my eyes and makes my contacts blurry, and it seems to stain the collar of my shirts so they look really dirty. A buff seems to be a great option to make all this a thing of the past so I bought one this winter. It looks a little funny (maybe because it looks so stretched out on my big head ) but so far it's kept my face, neck, and lips from getting burned and I only notice I'm wearing it occasionally and is much nicer than wearing sunblock.

Bass probably aren't even eating the big frogs you're seeing (bullfrogs I'm assuming). I'm sure bass will eat bullfrogs but I've never seen one do it, and some of the ponds I fish are loaded with bullfrogs. Bass eat lots of things that may be on or near the surface of the water so you don't have to imitate a frog just because it's a frog bait. My favorite frog color is black, I've never personally seen a black frog but the bass love it.

Frogg Toggs are the best really lightweight raingear I've ever used. I've got a Cabela's Guidewear suit and a BPS 100MPH suit, both are great, but I wouldn't consider either of them to be lightweight. Plus you're looking at over $400 for a suit for either of those versus around $50 for a set of Frogg Toggs.

Almost anything you fish on a T-rig you can fish on a shakyhead. A tube would be about the only exception, mainly because they're hollow and don't stay on a shakyhead very well. I've done really well with baits like craws, baby brush hogs, grubs, swimming tail worms, and skirted twin tail grubs. The shape of the head versus the shape of a bullet weight to me is what makes the T-rig better for heavier cover. The more direct contact with the shakyhead because the weight is connected to the head allows you to impart more action on the bait without moving it like you have to with a T-rig, the head shape also effects this. Like the others have said, I like shakyheads in more open areas like rocks, sand, or gravel, and T-rigs in areas with heavier cover.

Well it's flooded now but Olathe Lake has been great the last couple weeks. Cbass12 and I did well last week then Jon and I did really well yesterday also. Not sure on numbers but for sure over 20 between us between 11 and 4 with some good quality fish. I also had 2 channel cats, a flathead, a couple crappie, one saugeye, and some sunfish. Jon had two keeper bass, one on a Keitech Swing Impact and one on a homemade chatterbait. I had one that was close at 17 3/4" on a homemade finesse jig. Caught fish on a little bit of everything, shakyheads, jigs, squarebills, chatterbaits, power minnows, and swimbaits. Tried to go out there again today but the water was 2' higher up the bank since yesterday with tons of junk floating in the water and really muddy. Probably take a week or so before it settles back down.

Have fun down there, you've been missing some nasty weather up here!

I've heard of guys even having their batteries stolen out of their boats while they're sitting on the docks before. I hate taking my batteries out of the boat and into a hotel room but I'd hate to have to spend the money on all new batteries for my boat.

There's a big raccoon that walks across the boat ramp every Wednesday night as we're taking out from our evening tournament. He'll walk under trucks and boat trailers on the ramp if they're in his way to get to the trash can next to the ramp where everyone has thrown their trash from the evening. He's never acted aggressive or spooked at all, just hungry and he knows where to get an easy meal.

Cavitron 3/8oz whatever color blade you prefer and black skirt. There you're done

Congrats, I just caught my first striper ever this year. It wasn't quite that big but man was it fun!

Big, dark colored worms and jigs around the same docks that hold fish during the day should be good. They will often just be shallower but in the same general areas. Spinnerbaits with single colorado blades for lots of thump and chatterbaits are good search baits to cover lots of water quickly. Never fished a senko or fluke at night but I'm sure they'll eat them.

Football heads are the main thing I fish mine on. I pour my own so I can use different size hooks for whatever size bait I'm planning on using. Plus they only cost me a few cents to pour instead of a dollar or more apiece like store bought heads so I'm willing to fish them in nastier areas.

kanasbassfisher and I FINALLY put the right fish in the boat tonight. Caught 2 keepers, both in the last half hour, but that was enough. 15 boats, 9 keepers weighed in, we were one of two boats with two keepers. Only had 3.16 pounds but that was good for first place. Felt great to finally feel like we knew what we were doing a little bit!

Fish taken with bowfishing gear count as state records in KS, he might want to check if they do there also. Some states have bowfishing records as well. If that was a common carp that was a monster!

You know, I've doubled up several times and I've fished the A-rig quite a bit, not once have I doubled up on an A rig. Those fish yesterday doubled up on an Excaliber XR50, which I've doubled up with at least 3 times now. I've done it a few times on jerkbaits, a time or two on poppers, several times on cranks, and once on a super spook jr.

It is usually pretty good by now but they can get scattered out and eating about anything so it can be hard to get a pattern dialed in. Last time I went was a few weeks ago and we caught fish on a little of everything with nothing really standing out as the best bait. The water may have warmed up enough to change that by now though.

I throw most of my big baits on a Curado 300 and couldn't be happier with it. I've handled fish up to 20lbs (striper) on it without an issue. If I'm tossing really big baits then I'll switch to my 400 Calcutta. The Cardiff is a good, affordable reel that will get the job done as well.

Never done it but I'm sure I will at some point.

I tried snell knotted straight shanks and had terrible hookup ratios with them. I never had a problem with my EWGs and haven't had a problem since I went back to them either, not sure why I ever tried to change. Lots of pros do it though so obviously there must be something to it that I just couldn't make work for me.

That is a big gator pike! Funny that it ate that laker and then went for that little grub after that.

You've obviously never been bowfishing. Not being argumentative, but it sounds like you have a bit of a skewed view of what it's like from watching some yahoos you've seen on the water. Very rarely when I've been do the fish freeze when the light hits them. Trying to hit a 2lb, or even 20lb carp at 10', under water, is really a challenge. The light refraction, along with having to try to judge how deep the fish is, adds a couple more dimensions of difficulty to it. Add in some dirty water that makes the fish hard to see, waves, and a moving fish/boat or both and some nights it's almost impossible to hit a fish. The lakes around here are packed with carp that tear up the shoreline vegetation, causing erosion of our already shallow lakes, and destroy bass nest and habitat when our bass populations already aren't very good in a lot of lakes. I completely agree that tossing carp or gar on the bank to rot is in bad taste though. I don't eat them personally but you can almost always find someone fishing on the bank that is more than willing to eat them. Carp also make great cut bait for catfish, something that I also use them for a lot. If you can shoot them in big enough numbers there's fish markets downtown here that will buy them from you. I've heard of people using them for fertilizer in their gardens also. Lots of uses for them so no reason to just let them go to waste. As to the OP, I'd certainly give it a try. I don't think you have any of the silver or bighead Asian carp in your area but those are a blast to shoot and obviously high on the list of dangerous invading species, just like the snakeheads are. I've never shot, or even seen for that matter, a snakehead but I've heard they live in shallow water for the most part so you should be able to get a shot at some. We do aerial shooting with the silver carp, run the gas motor and they jump out of the water and try to hit them out of the air, it's really a blast and helps your instinctive shooting for fast shots during bow season. Big buffalo are also popular fish to shoot in lots of places, they pull extremely hard, and are never hard to find someone who wants to eat them. Big gar are one of my favorites. If you can find them where they're surfacing to gulp air it's pretty similar to shooting jumping carp because you have to just draw and shoot. They're also surprising popular food fish here. I had someone explaining to me how to fillet one once but when he got to the part about putting it on a bandsaw he kind of lost me

I like it on the back of a jig. I tear everything except for the legs off though. I've had really good luck with them on the back of a brush jig though.

Another good morning from the bank at Gardner. Over 2 dozen bass, including a double. Had a few more white bass but not as big. Also got a 19" saugeye. For some reason they shut down completely after I caught him though??