Bluebasser86

Sounds like you're equipment is very similar to what lots of guys over here use for big catfish. Big flatheads live in nasty areas so some use shorter, heavier rods with strong baitcasters and heavy braided line to help move the brutes before they can bury back into the cover they live in. We also use a lot of big livebait or fresh cutbait. Wels and flathead look a lot alike in the front half of their bodies. Same huge mouth, big flat head, beady eyes, broad pectoral fins. This is my largest flathead as an example of the similarities. The tails are the only major difference.

Your videos make me want to go fish the lakes you're fishing. I haven't fished Mound City this year at all. I like that lake really well, there's some pigs in there. Pretty much every time I go out there I catch one over 4 but it can be a grind to get them.

Catfish are way more preditorial than most people give them credit for. I've got plenty of pictures of catfish on almost every kind of lure imaginable. They love baits with strong vibration like crankbaits and chatterbaits or baits that get down in their face like jigs and plastics. I've also caught several on topwater including a 10lb channel cat on a frog (thought I had a new state record bass) and several on buzzbaits (you've never seen a bass blow up like a catfish does on a buzzbait). My biggest catfish on an artificial to date was a 40lb flathead I caught on a jig his spring.

Those big wels look like they would be a blast to catch. They remind me a lot of the flathead catfish we have here, only bigger.

Thought I'd start a thread specifically for this so any members that aren't on the site as often might see it and not miss out if they're wanting to attend. Saturday October 20th there will be a get together at Melvern Lake for any KC area guys interested in attending. We'll have a free bragging rights paper tourny (no weigh in, just measuring fish), with food and drinks afterwards. No entry fee and no prizes for the tournament, it's just for fun and bragging rights afterwards. The only thing you'll be asked to contribute is some food or drinks if you're planning on staying and eating and some gas money for your boater if you're fishing as a nonboater, especially since it's already almost $4 a gallon. Some of the details still need to be hammered out (start time, who's bringing what, who's fishing with who) but we'll get that all figured out on here. If you haven't already sent me a PM and you're planning on coming and if you're wanting to fish as a boater or nonboater please do so, that way we have a headcount and can figure out the rest of the details. As of right now I have: Hi Salenity (Curtis) & Wachti (Peter)-team Chris Schauer & Sean-team retro basser (Matt) &Busy (Jeff)-team Kylek (Kyle) & father in law (Darrell)-team Bluebasser86 (Clayton) & kanasbasser08 (Chris)-team Basshunter0731 (Jon) & Ricky-Team tritonguy & AllDay (Dave)-team pbrussell (Blake) & CCC Drew (Drew)-team So it could be a pretty good turnout it looks like. We had one in late spring and minus the wind and one painful accident it was a lot of fun and I encourage anyone interested in attending and meeting some of the guys from the board! Food list: Bluebasser86-Grill, charcoal, beans Hi Salenity-brats CCC Drew-hotdogs/buns KlyeK-chips, dessert Allday-Burgers/condiments Chris S-Potato Salad Wachti-hamburger buns/chips and dip Basshunter0731-hotdog buns/plates pbrussell-hotdogs tritonguy-potato salad/brats Tournament rules/regs: Start time-7am End time-3pm Standard BASS rules apply (no live bait/1 rod per person/fish must be caught following all state laws). Fish are measured with mouth closed, bumped to the front edge of the board with the tail pinched, measure to the closest 1/4". All black bass (large,small,spots) qualify. Measurements are on the honor system (it's for fun and I don't believe anyone on here has an ego big enough to feel the need to exaggerate to win nothing other than bragging rights). Feel free to take pictures of your fish to show off afterwards and/or weigh them but it isn't required for the weigh in. It will be the total lengths of the longest 5 fish caught per boat/team. Doesn't matter if one person caught all of them, it's the overall length of the 5 longest combined. We're only doing measurements to prevent killing fish by carrying them around in a livewell all day. Plus there probably wouldn't be many fish brought in with the 18" length limit on smallmouth anyways. The main objective here is for everyone to catch some fish and have a good time and get to meet some of the guys from the board so remember to be courteous to everyone involved and others on the water. There's 7,000 acres for us to spread around on so if someone is catching fish please don't park on top of them unless you get the ok from them to share the spot regardless of if they're in the tournament or not. Just for fun I may add some spots for those inevitable "other" fish too since most of us are multispecies anglers. I'd be interested to hear who catches the biggest walleye/crappie/white bass/catfish/drum/ or whatever else we dredge out of the lake. This way if anyone is thinking about coming back to the lake to fish for something other than bass they might be able to get an idea of what else they could catch. This is just an idea I'm kicking around because I've seen it done in other tournaments and it's always interesting to hear what everyone catches while fishing for bass.

That was a nice fish, they're in there for sure. How did the rest of the adventure turn out?

I donno, the lateral line looks a little more filled in on the first fish than the second. Then again it looks like it has some weird marking/scarring right behind the end of her cheek plate the first time you caught her and it looks like you can still see similar markings like she might still be healing up in the more recent picture. I'd like to think there's more than one that size in there but it may very well be the same fish.

I've fished with it in various strengths and like it very well overall so far. It does have quite a bit of stretch but that makes it a good option for everything except contact baits likes jigs and plastics. Not saying it can't be used for that, I used the 25lb in some really heavy cover with big baits and it performed great. Really good abrasion resistance and good knot strength and when you get to that size line it doesn't seem to stretch as bad. I've got down to 6lb on my drop shot rod and it works well for that also when a real strong hookset isn't needed.

Nope, I just bought the wheels and tires a couple months ago and the axle a couple months before that. It wasn't too much grease, I took the dust cover off tonight and there was actually water still inside under the dust cover So I'm thinking it's the seal that needs replaced. Grease was looking a little milky so I'll probably just repack the bearings and clean all the old grease out and put a new seal on.

Yep, they are no more. They've been $10 at both the BPS by me for several months now. Rick Clunn isn't sponsored by Lucky Craft anymore, I believe that played a large part in the decision. Now they're selling the same bait for a dollar more with Takahiro Omori's name on them with a few new colors in the mix up.

Well you can camp at any of the pits but there isn't any designated areas or anything. I had people to stay with in Pittsburg and then we just drove to the pits each day. I'm sure you could find a hotel in Pittsburg to stay in if you didn't want to camp, getting pretty chilly at night now. The trout pit has some really cool little cabins you can rent but I doubt they have an opening this close to the date you're going to be there. If you're going to camp I'd probably do it on one of the ones just outside Pittsburg or one of the ones right by West Mineral.

I'm assuming you're talking about the pits down south around Columbus? The nice thing about them is lots of different bodies of water close by so if they aren't biting on one you can always hop to the next one. There's some really big fish in some of them, but there's lots of little fish in most of them.

No, haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet but that gives me a place to start looking thanks!

No where for something like that to hide around here. Then again, imaginary animals can hide about anywhere I guess

Yes they are still thick enough to use and they work well as trailers. Or, instead of buying the full sized ones and cutting them down you buy the pit boss trailers so you don't have to cut them down

Get some 3" Gulp Minnows, catfish love those things. We use them for walleye a lot in the spring when everything is up shallow and some days we catch more catfish than walleyes, some nice one too.

Now now, if I didn't have my own fish hooked at the time and could have gotten the net I believe you would have put a fish close to that size in the boat the first time we fished La Cygne last year. That one you have looks like a good fish, you just have the fish held at an angle in towards your body so it looks smaller.

I was doing my post trip inspection of the boat and trailer after my last trip and noticed several spots of axle grease on my trailer tire. Last time I saw this the bearing was shot and my wheel and tire were ruined because I didn't notice it until it was too late. The axle didn't feel any warmer than it should, is it possible it was just a little extra grease (the axle is fairly new) or is this a sign my bearings are about to go bad or need repacked or something? I know without a doubt it was not there before I left because I just put the wheels and tires on it this summer and they didn't have a spot on them before we left.

Is that a trick question? I prefer bluegill colored baits to match bluegills If you're talking soft plastics Zoom's "green weenie" and Berkley Havocs lime-purple passion imitate juvenile bluegills excellently.

Smallmouth without a doubt. I think it's just the angle of the camera that's making the head and mouth look big since that part of it's body is closest to the camera.

Wow that bass really needs to eat a few big meals. Nice fish still and a lot of fun when they eat the big bait.

It's been a rough summer in KS for sure. One of my local lakes has limited cover, most of it is shoreline weeds in the form of water willows. The water dropped so fast this spring that most of those weeds were high and dry by late May. The end result was a loss of almost all shoreline cover and a lot of deep, suspended, tough to catch bass. Smaller ponds get very low oxygen levels when the water drops and there isn't any rain for months and stresses the fish a lot. Other than maybe losing some fish from the low oxygen levels it shouldn't have an effect once the water comes up other than maybe having some new cover in the form of all the vegetation that has been able to grow along the shoreline with the water being down.

I fish a lot of small lakes around 100 acres and I usually give it about a week for things to settle back down once turnover starts.

I don't sweat real bad bad so t-shirts don't cling to me very much but the tournament jerseys just feel heavy and uncomfortable. Since I'm not fishing tournys anymore I don't really have to worry about it though

I haven't had too much trouble with it. To me it's kind of like casting a shad rap, some casts it flys great then other times it catches the wind and spins out. I find if I do more of a lob casts instead of trying to fire it like a normal crankbait it doesn't do it as bad, I'm using the 6" version. I'm guessing most guys are trying to really fire it out there and the extra force is causing it to spin out.