Bluebasser86

Pretty tough to tell even with the shoes in the picture. Looks like a nice fish either way, I don't know anyone who wouldn't be happy to catch it. Just fyi if you're planning on releasing your fish you may not want to lay them on that rough concrete like that, it's really rough on their protective slime coat. Hate for you to release a nice fish like that hoping to catch her again later just to have her not make it

shakyheads and jigging spoons should probably be in your arsenal as well. Look for steeper rock banks, preferably with channel swings nearby.

Stay tuned for further info as the date gets closer. If we have enough boaters we could pair you with a boater so you don't have to fish out of the 2 man. The time we'll be there jerkbaits and spinnerbaits could both actually be very big players. I tried to fish a Ned rig last April and it was almost impossible because of the mass numbers of white bass and crappie in the shallows. Anyways, I found a bait this winter that isn't a senko style bait that I'm planning on fishing like a Ned rig that's going to mop the floor I'll put you down for Ft.Scott. What I'll probably do is if the day of wind forecast is too much we'll use the second most voted lake as a back up,which looks like Ft.Scott is going to be in that spot. It's looking the the 27th so far unless we get a big surge in new members who want a different day since there's only been 2 votes for a day other than the 27th. I couldn't make the 4th for sure, I'll be on the White River in Arkansas again

I fish some of my smaller baits on a 7.1 and some of them on a 6.2. I don't have any problem slowing down on a retrieve but some people have a really tough time reeling slowly enough with a fast reel.

I use red cranks and traps year round, especially in stained to dirty water.

It will be fine for fishing most of those swimbaits on that link. If you start flinging bigger baits a higher capacity/slower gear ratio reel will suit you better. Main thing will be getting yourself to slow down your retrieve enough to fish those baits.

Good electronics are a huge help when you decide to fish offshore structure. Deeper water is generally the first place I look during the heat of the summer and then again in the winter time. Other times I listen to the fish. I'll start shallow and then if nothing is going on there I'll drop back into deeper water in search of fish. Good thing about finding fish in deeper water is when you catch one there's normally more.

I'd love to be able to make it but the money just isn't there and neither is the time off. Pickwick and Guntersville are both on my must fish list.

We went to Bixhoma since it was small and close to the BOK Center. It was almost 20 degrees when we got to the ramp and the 10mph wind was sharp as a knife coming across the water. It started out good when I dropped the trolling motor not only was the prop frozen in place but once it broke loose it wouldn't work. Cleaned and redid a couple connections and all the battery connections and terminals and finally got it going after about in hour. We tossed an A-rig for a couple hours and I had one for sure bite but didn't hook up. We got tired of flinging that clumsy thing around so we started tossing jerkbaits and jigs and fishing them really slowly in the 43 degree water. Took awhile but my buddy finally caught a 15 incher on a chartreuse shad 78 pointer. About 30 minutes later I had a big fish on just long enough to feel a lot of weight and then it came loose. Buddy caught another 15 incher on a foxy shad colored Erratic shad and we had to get to the expo.

Looks very nice, kind of looks like the Culprit Fire and ice color I used to catch a lot of fish on when I was a kid.

If it seems like it would be a good day for a spinnerbait or topwater, they'll probably eat a swimbait. I like to have some overcast and some wind is almost always a must but like with anything else, there are always exceptions. Fish them in high percentage areas, weedlines, docks, wind blown points and other obvious ambush areas are some of my favorite places to fish them. They'll work in most any water color but there's better options in muddy water. As for #4 both have their time and place. I like a jig head for fishing deeper water where there isn't lots of snags. The keel weighted hooks are better around heavier cover and in shallower water.

The only thing it seems to effect is how many crappie I catch on my jerkbait.

Muddy water, heavy cover, and at night I will but even then I don't worry about it too much.

The right thing? all a matter of personal opinion there. A fish that size in a central state probably doesn't have many years left anyways if he did keep it. In some states they have release records now, either they go off the live weight of the fish or they do length records if you don't want to keep it. I'd have a hard time killing a fish like that just to get my name in a book of records that very few people will ever even see.

Always can use more boaters. Just as long as he's willing to contribute food if he's going to eat and knows that it's just for fun, no money or prizes.

43 degree water is a whole lot better than frozen water Finally got some warmer weather headed our way to hopefully melt off the ice and almost 2' of snow we have on the ground.

The original Big O dates back to 1967 when he first started hand carving them out of balsa wood. They certainly have to be in the conversation if you're talking about the roots of what we call a square bill today. Depending on your definition of square bill though, lots of even older baits had short metal diving lips screwed into the front of them.

So are you getting bit and not hooking up or just not getting bit at all on them? Swimbaits seem to either be a home run or a dud from day to day in our lakes. Either they're not even looking at them or they're swallowing them and hitting them like they've never seen a bait before. Best way to increase the numbers of fish you're catching on them is to fish them more often

Last time I owned/saw one the better part of the stringer and most of the crappie I had on it were somewhere inside the mouth of a very large flathead catfish that was slowly dragging my 2 man boat and refusing to let go of those crappie . Thankfully the stringer tore through their soft mouths and my boat didn't end up looking like the buoys from JAWS.

The Dotte is a little rough for bass early in the year until the water gets to the high 40's or the magic 50 degree mark. Seems to get a lot of moss on the bottom early in the year so a slowly fished jerkbait is usually one of the best options early on or a jigging spoon along deep water structure.

Great bait on a slider head or split shot rig.

They're similar to a Senko but they make a good T-rig bait to peg and toss into heavy cover. They're a good C-rig bait too.

Check out the Fat CB DBS Zero if you like the 0.5. 1 3/4" and 1/4 makes it easy to fish on baitcasting gear and it seems to draw strikes from bigger than average fish for a small bait, one of my 3 PB 5lb smallmouths ate one in the American Shad color. http://www.luckycraft.com/luckycrafthome/Products/crankbait/fatcbbds0.htm The Strike King 1.0 is just a tad bigger but another good, small squarebill. They do still make the 0.5 since they started making the new version for Tak, just harder to find. http://www.luckycraft.com/luckycrafthome/Products/crankbait/lc0-5.html

I would either use them as is or hold onto them and take them back and get one piece rods. You don't lose a ton of sensitivity, especially in a lower end rod like that. I'd suggest just using them for moving baits and using them as is.

Yes, the 1/4oz has to be moved quite a bit faster, that's why I prefer the 3/8oz. The tri winged Strike King Buzz King Jr can be fished extremely slowly but something about the Cavitron just catches me more and bigger fish.