Bluebasser86

Are you planning on bringing a boat or are you a non boater? We have one for sure non boater that still needs a boater. Just let me know for sure. We're going off the East ramp in the state park, the one on the north closest to the dam at 6am or safe light until 2pm.

Forgot about that one, that's another pretty good one.

The alarm sounds a lot like what mine did at Table Rock when kanasbassfisher and I were there a couple years ago. As soon as I'd try to power up it would overheat and the alarm would go off. It turned out to be the thermostat was stuck because of some sand my motor had sucked up on the river. Replaced the thermostat (about $20) and cleaned out the little bit of sand I could still see and it was good as new.

Sounds like bass chasing baitfish on the surface to me. If they were right on the bank they may be carp or gar spawning, they throw water all over the place and create all kinds of havoc in the shallows when they're spawning.

It will certainly cause them to release more saliva and increase your chances of infections also. I've had one on the ol' ball bag too, there is no good way to do it, they all hurt.

grubs or power minnows will catch lots of walleye and smallmouths. Cranks like shad raps, flicker shads, original rapalas, or jerkbaits like rouges or pointers will catch lots of walleyes as will lipless cranks. No sure fire things with walleyes. They're one of those fish that if they don't want to bite there isn't much you can do about it.

I started my wife (then gf) off with a cheaper Okuma combo. It worked alright but it tangled a lot no matter what I did to keep it from doing it and she would get frustrated and stop fishing and then I'd get frustrated. A few years back I went out and popped for a St.Croix Avid Pearl and a Quantum Energy PT spinning reel. It's a super nice combo, more expensive and smoother than several of my own, and it makes her fishing much more hassle free. Since then she'll stay out longer and fish with me more often because she enjoys it more. Just a little something to think about.

I agree with Maico1, look for a rod that handles baits up to 3oz. Personally I use a 7' 10" H/XF BPS Extreme that handles baits from 1/2-3 ounces. I don't fish the big baits some of these guys fish, our bass just don't get that big unfortunately and tend to eat lots of smaller baitfish so the big baits just don't get much love. For your price range I'd look at something like a 6" BBZ Spro, 6 or 8 inch Huddleston deluxes, ABT Banshees, Mattlures trout, U2 gill, tournament series, or baby bass, or a Decoy Hydratail. I prefer to stick with 20-30lb copolymer line for the shock absorbency (first time you cast a heavy bait and get a backlash that stops your bait you'll be glad you didn't have braid) and the abrasion resistance (for when a big fish pulls you back into the laydown or dock it came out of). For the reel you can stick with something cheaper like a round Abu like a 5600C4 or you can go something like a Revo Winch, Curade 300E, or Lew's Super Duty. Also I highly suggest switching out the hooks on the lower end hard baits with something a little more heavy duty like one of the heavier Owner Stinger trebles or VMC spark point trebles. You spend all that time and money tossing big baits, you don't want to lose a big fish when it finally bites because of cheap hooks.

Just plain 3700 boxes by color and style. 2 boxes of casting/football jigs, 1 of brush jigs, and 1 of finesse jigs/smaller football jigs.

I have to do something to distract me a little to help slow down. I try to drag my jig and count all the rocks and sticks and feel how big they are. Sometimes it's just a matter of taking a deep breath and getting really focused. I like to cover water and find the aggressive fish too but sometimes that just isn't an option. Last time I fished Table Rock we had to drag a jig painfully slow from 10-50 feet deep just to get a bite or two an hour. We did alright though and one of the long time guides on the lake was shocked at the fish we were catching. Apparently they were having a hard time putting people on fish even with live bait and the tournaments that weekend were being won with a few pounds less weight than what we were catching. Times like that make you realize how important it is to slow down sometimes.

Wow that sounds like you had almost as much fun as I did last time I was at La Cygne. That lake can make a guy think about quiting and taking up golf.

Never have been able to get my wife to go fishing in the dark with me, she doesn't like all the bugs and skeeters on the water then. Can't complain though, at least she goes with me.

Worst I had was walking out to check my trail camera in August last year. We had a really mild winter that didn't kill off any bugs so the ticks were terrible. First mistake I made was wearing shorts to walk out to check my cam. Normally wear rubber boots and sweat pants even though it's hot out just to prevent getting ticks. After I walked out my wife and I went to grab something to eat. I had that crawling feeling like something was on me but I thought it was just because of the feeling of the grass rubbing against my legs that made me think I had something crawling on me still but I couldn't see anything. After we were done eating I still felt like something was crawling on me and I got a flashlight out of my truck and looked closer. I had no less than 50 of what we call "seed ticks" crawling on my knees and legs. They were tiny ticks that must have just hatched because they were the size of a pinhead and I'd walked through a nest of them. I couldn't get home fast enough to shower off. Wore all my clothes into the shower and was probably in there for half an hour looking all over to make sure I got them all. After that I got back in my truck with a flashlight and found another dozen crawling around (thankfully I have a light grey seat cover). Amazingly I didn't have a single one attached to me but it took almost a week for me to loose the feeling that I had something crawling on my legs.

I also prefer a wide wobble (with lipped baits) when I'm fishing over weeds. Popping squarebills through weeds is one of my favorite ways to fish cranks. I really like bluegill colors around weeds because they tend to live in the weeds right along with the bass. I've done well on both rattling and silent baits, usually just depends on how pressured the lake is or how dirty the water is. I'd probably start with a silent one with the water clarity you're describing.

Brad Paisley Eric Church Luke Bryan Craig Morgan Hank III Carrie Underwood, not really her songs but because....

Some of my favorite colors of homemade jigs. It's addictive once you start tying your own jigs,especially when you start catching fish with your own baits!

Unless you have a gift card to BPS get one of the Cabela's Advanced Angler bags. I had a BPS bag, as have several of my fishing buddies, we've all had problems with the zippers or material tearing. I've had a couple Advanced Angler bags and never had a problem with one. Good quality material and heavy duty zippers with plenty of storage.

Once you've seen enough pictures of big fish it makes it harder to try to pass a smaller fish as a big fish. I don't care if you want to hold it out to the camera, I'm looking at the picture to see the fish anyways. For me it's when someone holds out a 3lb fish and tries to claim it's 6 that bugs me. It's like this first picture I could try to claim it's 6 easy with it's frame and because it's close to the camera because of the self shot, but if you inspect it a little closer unless I had hands like bear paws you can tell it's just a solid 3 pounder. Then this 6 1/4 pound Beaver Lake bass that doesn't look all that big at first until you start to compare it's length to my height or compare it to the 5" swimming flukes I was using on my A-rig. Off topic but I just noticed in that second picture you can see all the fish that were streaking around the point chasing shad on my graph, kind of cool!

I really like that Casey Ashley song "Fisherman". When I was growing up everyone always said that "I'm going to miss her" was going to be my song when I started dating, how right they were Took a lot of trail and error to find one that would put up with my fishing.

Oh come on I work midnight to 8 and then fish all day the next day every Wednesday!

Is that the one they also call Spring Creek? Little, muddy, 7 acre lake just south off 56 about a mile? I've fished it a couple times and it isn't easy to catch fish but you're right it has some good fish in there.

When wearing it do you suddenly have the urge to tell everyone that you see that you caught a great big ol 7, 8, 9 pound bass on (insert lure name) fished on a (insert rod and reel name) spooled with (insert line name) covered with (insert scent name) while wearing (insert clothes and sunscreen name) and of course you couldn't have done any of it if you didn't have your Minn Kota trolling motor and your Power Pole down

St. Croix Premier 7' ML is what I used for a long time to toss shad raps and other small cranks. Now it's a 6' 10" ML LTB which is a little lighter and more sensitive but the Premier was still a great rod for small cranks.

I mainly use the 5" but the little one works well on a small scrounger head or just on a 1/8oz ball head.

If it's open water then you can add a small treble hook in place of the single trailer hook.