Bluebasser86

I had 2 rage rods, broke the 7' 1" MH/F casting rod swinging a 2.5lb fish into the boat. Also had a 6' 10" ML/F spinning rod but the reel seat broke loose from the rod and started to spin around the rod when I was using the rod. Personally, I'd spend 30 dollars more and get an Avid unless you can get a really good deal on a Rage. I've gone to pretty much all LTB except for a couple Mojos and an Avid and love all of them.

You may try a finesse jig or play with the colors more. Jigs will catch bass anywhere they swim, crawdads or not. I've seen times where you had to drag a football jig really slowly and basically it couldn't lose contact with the bottom or they wouldn't touch it. One lake I fish they love jigs, but you have to have a mismatched jig and trailer, usually a craw color jig with a black and blue trailer. No idea why, just the way they are. Another lake it has to be a finesse jig and it has to be hopped fairly quickly along the bottom. Jigs will catch fish in your lake, just going to have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and figure them out. I'm willing to bet it will be very worth it when you do!

I guess if bass count it would be a small largemouth on a bluegill fly. First trout was a little rainbow fast stripping a streamer on Taneycomo. Found some trout chasing minnows and they were crushing a little white streamer.

I've never broken a SK crank but from everyone I've talked to that has they'll usually replace it and then some.

Lipless-Excaliber XRK50 in Ghost, or Rayburn Red Shallow-LC 1.5 in copper green shad or Bull Bream or Luck E Strike 300 in Copper Perch Deep-SK series 5 in Green Gizzard Shad

Went and walked the dam at Gardner with the dog looking for baits and making a few casts. Found 6 crankbaits and managed to catch one dink on a jerkbait. He may have gone 8" but my first fish of the year not from Coffey of La Cygne!

I bank fish at night a lot in small ponds and lakes. A lot of the nearby lakes and ponds get tons of pressure during the day so night fishing is usually way more productive. I normally only carry 2 rods, one will have a 3/8oz black on black Cavitron, the other will have a 10" worm or 3/8oz jig.

I had a very large owl pick up my musky jitterbug night fishing and get hooked in the foot. After a confusing fight for both of us I'm sure he crash landed in some sticker bushes and the hook pulled out when he took off again. Seagulls are a huge annoyance during the winter when I'm wiper fishing with live shad. Often times a free lined shad will make for the surface when it's being chased by a wiper and sometimes the gulls get them first. Never hooked one but never have gotten a shad back from one either.

American shad Chartreuse shad Crack Pro Blue Secret Night Skeet's Magic In the Rogue I like clown and avocado shad

If I'm fishing a slow bait while my buddy is fishing fast and his casts keep crossing my line I'll let my line sit when he's crossed me and doesn't know it. I wait until my line starts moving and give it a good jerk. Of course he'll set the hook thinking he just hooked his new PB only to find my bait on his line. Probably my favorite one I pulled was a few years ago on a trout fishing trip at Lake Taneycomo. It was a big group of friends, many who aren't fishermen and women, so I volunteered to go out on the pontoon and help everyone catch some fish. It was mainly little kids and their grandparents, one who had been like a grandfather to me since I was 13, my dad and his annoying, loudmouth friend. My dad's friend had been running his mouth the whole way down to the lake and the entire time we'd been there about how he was going to catch the biggest fish of the trip and he could outfish anyone, anytime, any place and it was getting on my nerves. I had everyone fishing bottom rigs with powerbait and they were catching trout about as fast as they could get a line in the water. Anyone that knows anything about inexperienced anglers using powerbait for trout knows that it results in a lot of swallowed hooks. Not a issue, we were keeping them to eat anyways so I'd just cut the line and get the hooks back later. I spent most of the time helping old Bill who was wheelchair bound and hadn't even had a chance to get my line in the water because I was so busy baiting hooks, tying hooks, unhooking fish, taking pictures, so loudmouth is in the back of the boat chipping away about how bad he's outfishing me . I'd just got done retying Bill's line when loudmouth catches a dink and swings it over to me like everyone else had been doing and insist I unhook his fish for him because "somebody around here has to catch dinner." The fish had the hook swallowed so I cut his line and tossed the fish in the livewell and got a new hook to tie on. I decide to have a little fun with him and instead of tying a good knot I tie a single overhand knot and pop a couple eggs on the hook. He casts out and I watched with much anticipation. Not long before I saw the telltale "tap, tap" of the rod tip and he set the hook into what was by far the largest trout anyone had hooked. He was hooting and hollering about how he was going to win the big fish pot until it got to the boat and he tried to swing it in and the knot slipped and the fish fell back in the water. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath and it took a minute for me to be able to explain what I'd done. Everyone else thought it was hilarious except loudmouth who insisted it wasn't fair and his fish should still be the biggest fish of the weekend because he would have caught it otherwise, everyone laughed even harder when old Bill said "what fish?"

I'll be there with Jon and Chris (basshunter0731 and kanasbassfisher08). Going to the Expo and weigh in the first day, be on the water day 2, and back for the expo and final weigh in day 3. There's a thread in the General Forum, trying to get some kind of BR meet and greet going for guys that are going to be there.

Great way to pass the time during the winter months. I think I have a disease, I've tied 4 3700 boxes packed full of jigs the last 2 winters, probably somewhere between 400 or 500 jigs and chatterbaits.

I've caught a lot of fish on the 4" minnow shaped one and quite a few on the 3" bluegill version. I changed the hooks out though, the stock ones seemed pretty flimsy. They're a really nice little bait for the price.

Great little baits. I stumbled across a couple in the Bargain Cave at Cabela's for $5 each. I've caught a lot of fish on them.

Baby brush hog for pitching and casting, full size for C-rigging. Pit Boss is another must have. I've done really well with a BPS Crack Craw also.

http://www.basspro.com/Norman-Lures-Thin-N-Crankbait/product/55078/ Looks like color 05, Chartreuse Killer.

I used to be brand loyal to Shimano reels until they started changing up the Curado every few years and I wasn't liking some of the new models as much. For me it wasn't so much brand loyalty as just having all my reels feel and work the same so it was easier to pick up any setup I had on the deck and start fishing it. Now I have Shimano, Lews, Abu, Pfluegar, Okuma, and BPS and I use and enjoy all of them. I am pretty brand loyal with rods, just haven't found anything that I like nearly as much as my St. Croix's.

nailed it

Believe they are called a Super Trap and they weigh in at a whopping 1.5 ounces. It is a Bill Lewis design. I tried heaving one for pike once but no luck.

I couldn't read the article, couldn't get past that sweet mustache the guy in the picture was rocking!

That's a monster crappie. I caught a 15-16 inch range crappie on a Zoom Horny Toad in a pond a few years ago. I'd just caught a 5lb bass in the exact same spot on the edge of the weed line when that crappie inhaled the bait just like the bass did. The pond had very tannic water and the white bait glowed under water. It was pretty cool watching it disappear and really surprising when it was a crappie.

Nice 'cuda. Looks like you're half in, half out of a shadow of a building or something.

I've got a Revo S that's a few years old. Lots of miles, fish, and abuse on it. Had to replace the pawl bearing this winter and had it supertuned also, feels even better than new now.

I bought one pack because Cabela's was sold out of Havoc Grass pigs so I thought I'd give them a try. Tried them on a belly weighted hook and a jighead and couldn't get them to swim right for the life of me. They're a pretty hard plastic so I"m sure they'd be durable but never could get anything to eat them to test that.

An 8" black jelly worm still tricks a lot of fish for me.