Bluebasser86

That would also make it the only buzzbait fish I've ever heard of anyone catching out of there, and I've tossed one a lot, well done.

Good to know. I love the Havoc line up, makes it that much better that it's made in the US. Just got my first packs of the sick fish the other day and they are just nasty! Great action and so durable. I rigged one on a weighted screw lock swimbait hook the other day and added a belly treble and managed to boat 13 largemouth, 2 white bass, 2 crappie, and a channel cat, all on the same bait and minus a few scratches and a missing eye it's in amazingly good condition. The catfish was probably 3 pounds and had the bait right between it's tooth pads, would have been a death sentence for most swimbaits, didn't seem to bother the sick fish.

You sir, are the first person I've ever heard of catching a fish out of those pads. I've fished them for hours and never had so much as a bite. Several of my friends have fished them and with the same results I've had. It isn't much to look at but it has an insane number of quality fish over 18". Thankfully it's small enough, far enough away from the major cities, and down enough dusty dirt roads that it doesn't get a ton of pressure.

Send some of that rain to Kansas! I saw pictures of one of our biggest lakes yesterday and the top of the outlet at the dam is almost out of the water now! You can literally walk across the Kansas river in a lot of places right now and some lakes aren't going to be accessible by boat next year at the rate we're going because the ramps are so far out of the water.

If you decide to sell the the 200Bs let me know! I loan a lot of gear out to friends and families if I don't use it but don't want to get rid of it.

Send me a PM and I'll answer any questions I can for you.

I fish them on the same rod I fish spinnerbaits on, 6' 6" MH/F.

It is great line for a few techniques. I love Nanofil for swimming grubs, wacky rigs, weightless senkos and flukes, small cranks. After a season and a half of fishing Nanofil I have not had the breakage issues that most others seem to have. Tie your knots carefully and give them a good pull to make sure it isn't going to slip and you're good to go. I always use a short fluoro leader with mine. It's terrible for bottom contact baits. Any kind of breeze blows a big bow into it and you can't feel anything. I've never fished a line that casts like Nanofil on a spinning reel. I've tried a lot of different kinds of line and Nanofil is in a category of it's own when it comes to launching a bait a long ways.

Cast again. It wanted it the first time, why not again? If that doesn't work a wacky rigged senko style bait is my next option.

I'd be pulling a suspending crank or deep diving jerkbait over those weeds and letting it sit for a long time. Also any steep shoreline, like 45 degree angle or more, with sun shining on it would be a place I'd hit. Pull a jerkbait along the drop or drag a jig or shakyhead slowly along the bottom.

I have a knotted rope I pitch around the living room and down the hallway that our puppy loves to chase. Good practice for me and good exercise for her!

The biggest reasons I see big bass lost are lack of preparation, and the angler panicking at the sight of a big fish. I spend all that time on the water trying to get the right combination of timing, luck, presentation, and whatever other factors might play in to hook a big fish, I'm not losing it because I didn't check my knot or didn't retie after dragging a fish out of a brushpile because I'm feeling lazy. Almost without fail it's when I lose focus of the little details and get lazy when a big fish comes calling and makes me regret it. The second factor I watched happen no less than half a dozen times just this past season. I watched what would have been a PB bass eat a guys swimbait next to the boat, he freaked out and tried to boat flip a 6+ pound fish with a 6' 6" medium rod and 12 pound test, it didn't work. My friend Jon has it terrible. I watched him lose what would have been his PB bass 3 times in the same day. First time he hooked a fish in the 7-8 pound range and just froze when he saw it. The fish knew what to do and wrapped around a branch several times and pulled off. Next was a 7lb class fish on a crankbait. Same thing, saw the fish and froze. Instead of trying to keep the fish down he just watched as the fish wallowed on top and tossed his bait. Last time was a 6lb class fish on the same crankbait. He at least was fighting the fish but still was in such a hurry to get her in that he forced her to the top and she jumped and tossed his bait back at him. He also was suffering from the first factor because he still had the stock hooks on his KVD 1.5 that are notoriously bad. Unfortunately the best way to get over the panic of hooking and losing a big bass is catching big bass. It helps to have a plan in your head what you're going to do when you hook a big fish. If you know what you're going to do beforehand you can concentrate on fighting the fish instead of trying to divide your attention between the fish and what you're going to try to do next.

I'll be there with my buddies Jon and Chris (Basshunter0731 and Kanasbassfisher08). I've got a question for you guys that have been there. We're staying at Jon's grandpas cabin on the lake and we can't make the drive back and forth each day so we plan on just being at the expo and weigh in the final day. Are we going to be missing out on a lot by just going to the expo the final day? I only took the weekend off but I'll have Friday off too so I'm thinking we could drive straight to Tulsa the first day and then to the lake after the first weigh in. Any thoughts from you guys that have been? I'm pumped up to be there! This will be the first tournament I've ever got to attend and for it to be the Classic is just that much more awesome!

I'm lucky to live close to a couple power plant lakes with good fishing in them. It does a lot to keep the winter time crazies away when I can get out to some soft water in the winter time.

I like to fish the 7" Bass Pro version on a T-rig with a 1/4oz weight and 5/0 hook. It's a great big fish bait o pitch into heavy cover because it has no appendages to hang up as it falls through the cover. The weight isn't for casting but to make the bait fall through the cover nose down so it doesn't land and rest on something before reaching the bottom.

You can make pretty good jerky out of them. Not as good as duck but I've eaten a lot worse.

Heavy grass, frog fishing, or C rig on a baitcaster.

Resistance is futile! You only cause yourself anguish by trying to fight this unbeatable foe! Best just to give in to him and keep him happy for awhile instead of trying to fight him and making him mad so he starts whispering about how you're going to need a new rod to put that new reel on

Frogg Toggs are the best lightweight, breathable, and affordable rain gear I've ever found. I've had lots of different rain gear, some of them really expensive, but none of them keep me dry like the Frogg Toggs have after several years.

What kind of catfish are supposed to be in there? If they're flatheads livebait will be the only way to go but don't expect to get them very fast. Flatheads are mainly nocturnal and in a pond environment they usually don't have to move much to eat so if your bait isn't right in front of them they probably aren't going to find it. If it's channels, blues, or bullheads I'd opt for fresh cut bait. Shad or some other kind of oily baitfish is best but bluegills or shiners work also. For channels and bullheads prepared stink baits, chicken livers, crawdads, nightcrawlers, grasshoppers, and a variety of other baits will catch them. Winter time is a tough time to catch catfish. Blues and channels will remain fairly active but flatheads go almost dormant. They can still be caught but you'll be best off waiting until warmer weather to try to catch them. Fish those baits on a slip sinker rig on flats, near any creeks that run into the pond, or coves.

Weighted swimbait hook, A rig, and a scrounger head are my favorite ways to rig them. Any baitfish color is good.

Jigs, traps, jerkbaits, shakyheads, and flat sided cranks are some of my favorite winter time baits in those water temps.

Got out to enjoy the nice weather today with my buddy Jon. We went to Coffey County Lake in search of pretty much anything that would bite and we weren't disappointed. There was hundreds of gulls diving in the warm water of the outlet and we started catching sturdy white bass and wipers as fast as we could get a bait in the water. Traps, cranks, swimbaits, and a flutter spoon all got pounded again and again. I had one nice, fat wiper on a Luck E Strike Smoothie crank. Jon got busted off by a really big fish and then came back and caught his new PB wiper, 4.87 pounds on a Series 5. Of course like normal the whites and wipers worked towards the cables and eventually out of reach and we switched to bass. We caught lots of largemouth and one smallmouth with some pretty solid ones up to 3lbs on flukes, swimbaits, and spoons. The lake has some monster crappie thanks to a 12" length limit so we decided to try for them a little bit. I'd been getting hit on a Havoc Sick Fish and not hooking up, turns out they were crappie trying to eat that bait. We started tossing 3" power minnows and smacking big crappie and then I got surprised by this gal, our biggest of the day. We managed to fill out both of our 5 fish limits of with 10 12.5-14.25 inch crappie which made the trip back home with us We ended up with 94 fish by the fish counter but I know I missed several clicks early in the morning when the whites and wipers where in a frenzy because I was in such a hurry to get my bait back in the water. I wouldn't be surprised if we caught over 100 fish but even if I remember to click the counter for every fish 94 fish isn't too bad for a days work