Bluebasser86

I'll play. Wish it would have started sooner, I've caught 2 of the biggest bass I've ever caught in my home state already this year.

Whenever someone asks me what I'm catching my fish on in a tournament I tell them a bubblegum colored hula popper carolina rigged in 30' of water by the dam. He was messing with you.

John and I went to Lake Shawnee today. Started really slow, Hit the spots we've done well at the last few trips and had 2 dink trout to show for it. Decided to try a new area and I switched to a small, homemade trout jig under a bobber and we were in business. Caught several trout, including my biggest of the day, a couple bluegills, and then the screen on the depthfinder blew up with fish. I was pretty confident what it was after last week and a couple cast with jerkbaits and power minnows confirmed we were on a massive school of whites. We caught whites until we got tired of catching them. The trout kept eating the jigs under the bobber and so did the bluegills and a couple bass too. John got his biggest trout of the day on our second pass down the bank with a jig under a bobber. Caught a ton of trout and whites, quite a few bluegills, and 4 or 5 bass. Small jigs caught a majority of the trout, bass, and bluegills. Most of the whites ate jerkbaits. Jon caught 3 trout and a bass on a Luck E Strike wart hog crank too. Great weather and pretty good fishing all day made it a really nice day.

We were looking good here and the next few days are supposed to be in the 40's, 50's, and even one day in the 60's, then back in the 30's with a chance of snow Monday-Wednesday of next week. Seems like each time it looks like winter might lose it's grip it comes charging right back. I was going through old posts on the local forums and I was fishing in a t shirt the 27th of March last year and we put over 200 fish in the boat between 3 of us. This year I bet the water temps aren't above 42 degrees with ice on some of the smaller lakes still

Good all around rod. I actually used a 6000 abu for several years for a C-rig rod and until just recently used a 5600 for swimbaits so you could use it if you really needed to. Lighting rods are great rods for the money and I'd certainly put it to use.

I hate braid with jigs. Only time I might use them is in heavy grass but if I'm in heavy grass I'm much more likely to fish a streamlined plastic bait than a jig. I stick pretty much to floro for jigs but I know a lot of guys that fish them on straight braid, just not for me.

I don't drink beer so that doesn't do me any good. Whiskey is a good breakfast drink but I find my productivity drops quickly if I start drinking whiskey.

I'm not a fish eater, but I'll eat walleye. They're great eating and when the get about 18" or bigger you can get the cheek meat and it's the best tasting piece of freshwater fish I've ever had. I like to cradle walleye by their belly. Put one and under their belly and lift straight up. Like BradH said, they pretty much go stiff when you handle them so you can lift them like that and they don't move. You can also grab them by their tail and hold them vertically because their scales are pretty rough so it's east to grip them like that.

I'd like to fish these but I just can't afford the lake permits. I'd be dropping around $100 just to be able to bring my boat out and fish them and probably donate my money for the most part.

We flew into Matzatlan and then drove 3 hours via cargo van through the mountains to the lake then it was a 10 minute bus ride back and forth to the lake. It was a great trip but it sounds like your travel arrangements were much nicer. The lake was still a little young so not as many big fish either but I still managed to get a DD my second time around. I bet I gained 10 pounds from all the amazing food I ate that week

I just bought one of the Scatter Rap cranks today at my local BPS. I'll be at Bull Shoals and the White River all next week so hopefully I'll get to put a few miles on them and have a report when I get back.

We were at Lake Commendero both times, also very remote and in the Sierra Madre mountains. The problem is there are some small villages around the lake that are very poor so stealing the contents of the boats coolers was an easy way for them to get groceries for their families. Our guide never seemed very worried so I wasn't ever very concerned. I'd be more than willing to go back despite the slight risk.

Ringworms for me. I used to catch a lot of fish on them and for some reason I just quit fishing them. Getting some of the Rage Recons and some Zoom Ringworms and get back into fishing them again.

Both times I went to Mexico we had armed guards on the water with us, but not in our boat with us. We did have a guy come running down a hill with an AK strapped across his chest yelling for "cervesas" He looked heartbroken when our guide explained to him that there wasn't any on the boat because I don't drink beer I still never felt real worried the whole time I was there either time but maybe that was just because I was a teenager and was still invincible

I launch tiny finesse plastics all year long at smallmouths at one of the lake I fish a lot. You'll catch them from the initial fall to right under the boat but it seems like the bigger fish eat a long ways from the boat. Berkley Nanofil helps a lot with my casting and hookset ability at a distance and being able to feel light bites from a long ways away.

There isn't any boat permit, it's just like if you go to a state lake, it's free to launch and no lake or boat fee and no ramp fee. All you need is a trout permit and you only need that if you're going to fish for/keep trout. It's a state trout permit which is 12.50 a person for a year. That lets you fish any state run lake with trout and keep the trout you catch. Lake Henry at Clinton state park is the only other close state run body of water I know of that this applies to but they stock much smaller trout. The state record has been broken 5 times in the last 2 years at Lake Shawnee, all 5 of them were over 10 pounds and the largest one was over 15 pounds, that's why I make the drive out there. Wyco stocks some nice ones but I've fished it for years and never caught anything even close to what I've caught from Lake Shawnee. We were just whacking the white bass out there last week on jerkbaits too so I'm hoping they'll keep playing this week also because they were a lot of fun too and a whole lot less slimy than trout.

All you need at Lake Shawnee is a state trout permit which is only $12.50. Jon and I don't have money to both buy Wyco permits, it will cost way less in gas to drive to Lake Shawnee than the permits for Wyco will for us, plus the trout are a lot bigger at Lake Shawnee

Supposed to be 56 this Thursday, anyone up for that Lake Shawnee trout tourny??

I've used them for bass on a couple occasions and they are pretty effective, about like using shiners. They're very popular for catfish bait around here but I'm not a fan of using them for catfish because they're expensive when they get as big as I like them to be for catfish bait. I've seen some monster koi in a couple of the local lakes.

I've found lots of hidden ponds on public land with Google Earth and it's a great way to scout a new lake so you have an idea of what it's like before you get to it.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, a lot of the more popular guides will book up months in advance.

I picked up a Mojo 7' 8" "Deep Crankster" this past summer and have been thrilled with how it's performed and how much my deep cranking success has improved.

Mexico is something every serious bass fisherman should experience at least once. Problem is after you experience it once you won't be able to stop thinking about next time you can get back. You guys look like you had an awesome trip.

I've never been to a Gander but I've never been to a DSG that was anywhere near as good as Academy. I'd go to Academy just for the H2O line up alone.

I've got a buddy at work that smokes some great BBQ that I'm sure whould be willing to do it if that's the route we wanted to go? Then I could just get a pork shoulder or pork butt and just figure what it costs a person. I've been to DGCO twice this year, only 1 fish from both trips but the water was 40.6 degrees last time I went.