Bluebasser86

I'm with WRB, 50+ fish days are very common for me throughout the fishing season. Some of these days the average size is very good with a couple decent fish in the 3-5 pound range to top it off. While that's a lot of fun, my most memorable days are the ones that I didn't catch lots of numbers but the ones I was catching were all well above average size fish. Personally, I'd trade 40-50 little ones for even one big bite. Nobody cares about someone catching 40 12-15 inchers but if you catch one above average sized fish and you'll start to raise some eyebrows.

The length and width isn't the issue, the bass' throat is round, much like the shape of a smaller bass. The shad is much deeper or taller than the longer bass would be. A 14" bass will probably only be 5 or 6 inches from belly to back and the belly will also be able to be compressed in if a larger fish was swallowing it. A 12" Gizzard shad is very deep or tall, probably at least 7-8 inches and they have a much more rigid rib cage than a bass does that will compress a lot less than a bass' would. They can't eat as big of a shad much for the same reason they can't eat as big of a bluegill. Their anatomy just doesn't allow them to swallow something that tall and most likely they would never be able to even get it all the way to their throat to attempt to swallow it.

But if I didn't than who would believe that I caught a fish on my pink Pop R?? No man shall "leap frog" another boat, unless anchored, or cut in on a bank on another angler. No man shall lose a fish before it's seen without it becoming the biggest fish to have every swam in that particular body of water.

Doesn't really get any easier than a walleye or yellow perch on the fillet board.

Never done any good at Nebo this early in the year. They seem to prefer the hotter months but maybe I just haven't figured out how to catch them out there in spring.

By far the largest I've ever heard of from out there. I talked to a guy that said he caught 2 5's out of there the same day but didn't have any pictures or proof of it. I was marking quite a few larger fish in 10-17 feet of water off the dam but I assumed the were cats or carp. Me and a couple buddies may be back out there Wednesday to see if maybe there are more that size hanging around in deeper water off the dam, maybe fish a 6XD or flutter spoon. The crappie are spawning on the dam and she looked like she'd eaten a couple of them so maybe a big swimbait too.

P-line C21, $4.99 a spool and you can lift a brushpile off the bottom with it even after seesawing on a limb with a big fish, trust me, I've done it. It has more stretch than I'd like with jigs or plastics but it's an awesome line for treble hooked baits or other faster moving baits.

Shad are much deeper bodied at 12" than a bass is at 14".

Zman finesse worm, very soft so I get lots of action and buoyant so they stay off the bottom. Even my wife catches fish with these worms on a dropshot. I tell her to cast it out and leave her bail open, count to 30, close the bail and reel in your fish. The Zoom Meathead worm is a close second for me.

She saw you or heard you would be my guess. You have to read the fishes body language to catch them off a bed. If a fish leaves the bed and comes back fairly quickly they are catchable. I'm really surprised you were able to get a fish to nose down on a bait and not get it to bite. Usually once they tip down on a bait it's a done deal. Try a different kind of bait would be my best suggestion. A drop shot can be very effective on a bed because you can move the bait without pulling the weight off the bed to really annoy the fish into biting. Try to wear natural colors and stay back from the edge of the water and crouch down so you're harder to see. Another bait option is to put a bluegill or carp swimbait into the bed. Sometimes this will get a vicious strike from a big female trying to protect their nest.

X2, with a jig being a close second. Start with 5-10 second pauses between twitches and let the fish tell you to either speed up or slow down.

Strike King KVD 1.5's or Lucky Craft 1.5's ran into any type of cover and bounced off rocks are great ways to get bit in shallow water like others have said. A lipless crank burned across shallow water and deflecting off rocks will trigger a lot of strikes also.

Went and did some birthday bassin tonight at Douglas State Lake. Figured if I had to go somewhere close I was pretty much stuck catching dinks so I might as well catch a bunch of dinks. We caught probably 40-50 in the hour and a half we were there with about 50/50 bass to crappie ratio on little cranks, jerkbaits, and jigs. As it was getting dark I started fishing a jig on a drop off along the dam because I was marking tons of fish and Nicole was still catching crappie about every cast off the dam. I thought maybe I'd get a giant 2 pounder I caught a couple a little bit bigger but still nothing that I could have even stretched 14". Decided I might as well try to catch a couple dinks on a deep crank on that ledge. One of my first casts got stopped under the boat by what I assumed was a decent catfish. I was pretty shocked when this gal flashed by the boat. 21.5" and 5.48 pounds on the smaller size Luck E Strike Smoothie crankbait. Didn't know they made them that big out there

There are bass in Hillsdale! Only took me 4 hours to catch it

Glad everyone had fun again this time around. It's great to see the quality of fish that were being caught. Never would have guessed I'd be tossing 17 inchers back without having to measure them. Glad that spot paid off for Curt and Peter I thought about fishing it a few times but never made it there. How does everyone feel about the end of September for the next one? Last fall we did it late October and it was getting pretty nip and tuck if the weather was going to hold on and be nice by tourny day. The other potential problem we could have with late September is depending on the weather you may be looking turnover straight in the face. I like the idea of weighing the fish on the boats and doing a total weight, especially if we do Melvern again. Just my feelings with the way these smallmouth are built you can get a 16.5 inch fish pushing 3 pounds or like the 16.5 largemouth I had that was 3.57 pounds. Let me know what you guys think and we'll start looking at putting the next one together

Birds nest won't normally damage your line unless the line gets under your spool or if your line kinks. Check for weak spots and retie if you find anything that you think might be a weak spot.

Mouse and Spot Remover are 2 of my favorite War Eagle colors. Normally I fish the 3/8oz with a gold colorado/silver willowleaf combination. The 3/8oz Coleslaw colored bait is one of my favorite cloudy day spinnerbaits. I fish the War Eagle Finesse spinnerbaits a lot too, it's a great little bait. Normal spinnerbait colors work well with them also but I'll usually opt for a cheaper bait if they'll eat a plain white or chart/white bait.

Even if you get a hook in the fish it's worth it to cast back. I was fishing a tournament when my boater fought a fish all the way to the boat on a wacky rig. When it came off at the boat the fish just sat there so he dropped his bait back in front of it, the fish bit again immediately. If you hook them and lose them chances are they won't come back. If you hook them, lose them, and don't cast back, then you for sure won't catch them.

We had a bragging rights tournament for the KC area guys on the forum yesterday on Melvern Lake, KS. It went great with lots of really quality smallmouth (for Kansas) caught. I fished with my wife and although she didn't catch a bunch of fish she did catch the biggest of the day in our boat She was fishing the smallest Luck E Strike squarebill that is a whopping 1.5 inches long and 1/8oz on 6lb test when this tank of a smallmouth hit it going the other direction. I thought maybe she'd snagged a carp by the tail until it jumped. She kept telling me to take the rod because she was going to lose it but I just talked her through it until it got close enough to get in the net. 18.5" and 3.96 pounds and second or third biggest anyone caught. I did my best but came up a little short of matching her fish. My biggest was this 18 1/4 incher that helped us to our second place finish.

I didn't get everyone's sheets but I think the top 3 were First-Hi Salenity/Wachati 91.5 inches Big Bass 19.75 Second-Bluebasser86/Nicole-89.25 Big Bass-18.5 Third-kanasbassfisher08/Ricky 89 Big Bass-18 The winning length in the fall shindig was 84.5 inches, a full 7 inches less than the winning length this time. Just a little further proof of the quality of fish that were being caught today. Supposedly the smallmouth population is down at Melvern from last year. Maybe it is, I don't see it, but if that means more of the fish like we were catching today I don't have a problem with that. We had several actual keeper sized smallmouth caught, we had 2 in our boat and KB08 and Ricky had 3 so we could have actually had a weigh in this time and had it been interesting. With the size of these smallmouth we may have to consider everyone weighing their fish on the boat next time because some of them we caught were 3.5 pounds but only 17 inches long. Obviously the main problem with that would be not every cheap digital scale is going to weigh the same while every ruler should measure the same, just something to consider. Weather was not nearly as nice as it was supposed to be but the fish bit from start to finish and the quality! wow we caught so many nice fish today. Jerkbaits were the deal for me but Nicole caught the big bass in our boat on a tiny little Luck E Strike squarebill. My big smallmouth was 18.25 on a shakyhead. My smallmouth/largemouth double. Nicole's new PB smallmouth. 18.5 inches and 3.96 pounds.

My Avid jerkbait rod has one guide that I rewrapped and epoxied and as of yesterday a new tip. It doesn't look pretty but it still puts tons of fish in the boat for me.

The Skeet Reese LC cranks are huge! I saw them at the Classic and almost talked myself into buying the squarebill until I saw it's still supposed to dive 15'? I need one that size that runs 3-6 like a normal squarebill and I'll throw it.

Braid and a 4/0 Gammie Superline EWG hook and wait to feel the weigh of the fish, I don't miss many of them with that combination.

Didn't have a working scale because the chain on it broke when I tried to lift this one to weigh it. 1/2oz homemade jig and 14lb Vicious Elite next to a dock. I've caught plenty of them this size fishing for flatheads that I have no problem calling it 40lbs and probably heavier. We catch a lot of hybrids fishing for bass during the fall and winter also.

Congrats! A whole lot bigger than my first walleye was.