Bluebasser86

Any good ones?

I did go home...to get my fishing pole I took the dog for a run around the Gardner Greenway and then went to Gardner until the rain got really heavy. The white bass I had this morning were probably 2-2.5 pounds, about as big as any I've ever caught.

Man were they eating this morning! 29 bass and 3 huge whites on a trap this morning in 30 minutes, from the bank!

The citric acid causes the blood vessels to contract, stopping the bleeding. A can would do the job, but they're a lot harder to seal back up and use again

Stock up on some small hair jigs

Yeah we did. We actually caught more, bigger fish when we were wading though. Areas with just inches of water that was moving pretty fast was where the bigger fish seemed to be at while we were there. Crazy numbers of smaller fish in the pools and around the log jams, some big fish too, but those ones weren't as interested in eating. When the fish get in that skinny, fast moving water they're only there for one reason I really should get down there more. I probably have as much fun catching those small river smallmouth as just about any other kind of fishing out there.

4/0 EWG with a 1/4oz weight gets it done for me.

I'd fish it. In fact, I have what's left of a Cavitron that caught one too many fish that I may have to rig in front of one of my frogs like that

Haven't used the VMC EWG hooks but I use the BPS EWG Magna hooks and have no problem with hook ups. Sounds to me like your set up is a bit on the light side for the size hook/baits you're fishing so you might not be getting enough force behind your hookset. I'd probably switch to braid with a fluoro leader if I was going to fish that rod/reel combo with those baits.

Green Gizzard shad is my personal favorite in the SK line up. A silent Series 5 in green gizzard shad is what caught the fish in my avatar. It just seems to catch big fish around here for some reason. It kind of looks like a shad, kind of like a juvenile gill, kind of like a bass, and bass love it. Check out the Bandit 250 Ledge also. Another affordable bait with a few different paint schemes that SK doesn't offer. Just like the SK baits make sure you change the hooks out before you fish them though.

I use rattles in heavy cover and dirty water, sometimes. The craws that you're mainly trying to imitate with a jig don't rattle and bass don't have any problem finding them. Most of the time I don't use one though.

Man I'd bury the hatchet to get a picture of that fish if I'd caught one that big. At least ask him just to text it to me

Are you copy and pasting the IMG link? That's what I do and the pictures work fine every time. Like this with your little guys monster smallie.

Yes it's a very common approach to find fish and baitfish, which are probably going to be very important now that they're done spawning and looking for a meal to recoup afterwards. If you find a good area and there's bait it's just going to make it that much better.

Gar aren't going to bother bass. Your biggest problem may have been bass leaving the pond in the high water that ended up in the river or even other ponds if the water made it that high. If the water level dropped rapidly following the flood it may have shut them down also. I wouldn't worry too much about it right now. If you get some stable weather and continue to strike out then you may have a problem but I can almost promise the gar are not it.

Are fish have started cruising the banks a lot looking for food with a few still guarding fry. The fish have been pretty easy to catch but the bigger fish have been scarce. Edges and points have been the deal for me. Weedlines, sharp drop offs, and points that fall quickly with some ambush points have been key.

Don't be lazy. It's that time you decide your knot is "good enough" hook is "sharp enough" or cast was "close enough" that you'll miss out on the fish of a lifetime. Never stop tinkering, I'm always looking for a better mousetrap.

Great story. I was about the same age when all my fishing gear got stolen, it was a terrible feeling. It takes a long time to build up any gear when your only income is from mowing yards or raking leaves. I was lucky that some of the regulars at the lake I fished heard about it and pooled their money together and got me about $60 in gift cards to get new gear. It really helped me out a lot not just in being able to fish but to make me realize that there really are people that still care out there. I'm sure when you find the young man and give him that gear it will mean the world to him.

Forgot to mention they were eating an A-rig very well while I was down there also in similar areas with similar retrieves but I was using swimming flukes in Albino on my A rig. Just found this map trying to point out the exact area we were fishing. It's labeled as "Tilleys Cove" on the very top map picture near the bottom left of the map. Lots of good info on stuff that may be worth fishing on it too. http://www.divesitesinarkansas.com/mission.html I was catching lots of these on the Keitech With more of these eating the A-rig with some of these on both All those fish were in Tilleys cove. When I started stroking the Keitech these started eating them.

A hot shower after getting sprayed??? There was snow on the ground last time I got sprayed. If I could have laid naked in the snow without getting fired, I would have.

I use the Mojo "Big Cranster", never been so happy with a deep cranking rod, makes fishing big, hard pulling baits very easy. Mine is paired with a 5.2 PQ.

I have my favorites but I have tons of different brands of baits because they are not all the same. Even the same colors will be different throughout different brands. I use watermelon/red Zoom trick worms a lot and catch lots of fish but don't have near the success with the same color in the Netbait T-mac that I do so well with in other colors. If I didn't try different brands I may not have ever gained any confidence in that color bait.

I got away from them for awhile and recently started fishing them a lot again. Can't really fish them wrong, football head, shakyhead, T-rig, standup head, and C-rig are my favorite ways to fish them. A few lakes I fish they're much more productive than a regular jig for some reason.

We have 2 BPS, a Cabela's, Roger's, and now 2 Academy's going into the KC area. I can't blame DSG for not bothering to stock much hunting and fishing gear in my area.

Jig or a shakyhead depending on the water clarity.