Bluebasser86

No way to avoid it. Don't feel too bad, I've caught lots of bass that were partially or completely blind and having no problem feeding. If a bass loses it's vision it have other ways of finding food that still make it a completely capable predator. A fish living in super muddy water can't see it's food right? Pretty similar situation, they can't see their food so their other senses take over.

If the water is calm enough you will see the line shoot forward quickly when a fish inhales your bait. This is the "twitch" or "jump" that you hear about. Usually you'll notice small ripples caused by this movement. Another thing I'd suggest is learning how to unhook deeply hooked fish properly. There are a couple techniques that you can use that will cause little to no harm to the fish so they can be released with the best chance possible to survive.

Drum can be fun to fight when they get that big no doubt. They'll hit a moving bait too, I've caught a bunch on crankbaits and even a few on spinnerbaits.

It's still a great drum fishery this time of year! I bet it felt like bath water though! I'm probably down for a week or two, my motor was running like crap last night, loud and would barely get on plane and lots of vibration. Hopefully it's not too expensive but if I know anything about boat repairs they don't make anything cheap for them

Bluegill. You can find their beds in the shallows throughout the warm water months. I don't believe bullheads build beds the same as bass and panfish. Bluegills beds will usually be in clusters and look like a bunch of tires on the bottom of the lake.

Hard to tell from the pic, looks a little small to be a pound a half but could just be the angle. Either way it's your first smallmouth and that's all that really matters!

Anyone every fish Heritage Park Lake for bass? I tried to fish it once from the bank and only managed a couple superdinks under 10". I didn't expect much because JOCO parks can't seem to figure out how to get any kind of fishable population of bass in any of it's lakes but I thought maybe it would be like Kill Creek that I think is just out there far enough that it doesn't get a ton of pressure and keeps it decent. I know it has a small ramp I could put my 12' john boat in there from but just looking for any info so I might know if it's even worth my time? Also found Paola Lake off Cedar Niles just north of 287th St which is just south of Hillsdale. This is a different lake from Miola that's actually in the city of Paola. Can't find anything to say whether its public or private. Doesn't have a boat ramp it doesn't look like but I could get my john boat in it since the road goes right across the dam. Looks like it has a good amount of trees around almost the entire lake with some maybe even in the water, but it has houses at a couple points on the lake too.

Summer will usually be a great time to fish topwater. Don't know what the conditions have been up there but we're suffering from extreme drought and heat. Dropping water backs the fish off the banks and the high 80 to low 90 degree water temps makes the bass sluggish during the day. I'm sure the water temps aren't that hot up there but still those fish are used to a different climate than they are here. I would for sure suggest trying topwater during low light conditions like early morning, late evening, at night, or while it's overcast. It's usually pretty slow going once the sun gets up high during the summer time though.

I use 80lb braid and a 8" Terminator Titanium leader with enough 20lb mono that a 150 yard spool fills my Calcutta 400B. I'm by no means a seasoned musky fisherman, I've only caught 8 my entire life and all of those were in Missouri, 5 of them in 3 days on my last trip to a little lake in Northeastern, MO. I like the Titanium leader because they don't get all bent and kinked up just from being in the box or after a fish chomps one. Actually have only had a leader on for 2 of the 8 I've caught but I was bass fishing the other 6 I caught so I wouldn't suggest trying to fish for them without one.

If they aren't hitting topwater try something subsurface. If you don't catch anything then you might be in the wrong area or they just not be biting. Right now it's tough on topwater. Water temps are at their highest they'll be all year and some places it gets so hot they just don't want to chase their food very far, making a topwater not the best choice. Something like a popper with long pauses might get them or a buzzbait fished as slow as you can. Otherwise I'd probably switch to something subsurface.

Whether they're there or not bass will eat craw imitations. I'm sure bass just see something that they could possibly eat that they can catch so they grab it. A brush hog looks like nothing yet fish eat it. Bass eat shad and trout colored lures in lakes where there aren't any.

Fluke, swimbait, or rattle trap would be my pick.

Fishing off an old, abandoned dock I had a board break and I fell through and landed on the concrete slab under it after a 4-5 foot drop. I was all scraped and bruised up. Probably the funniest one was night fishing one night. I was walking down the bank and smelled the dead carp before I realized there was a large raccoon feeding on that dead carp. He growled and my headlamp caught him right before he charged me. I headed down the bank and down hill and dove over a big blackberry bush, that I didn't entirely clear, and landed at the waters edge, face down, in some slimy, stinky mud. I don't know if he figured he'd chased me far enough or maybe he was laughing so hard he couldn't run anymore but the raccoon was back over eating the carp. I was scratched up and bleeding from the stickers on the blackberry bush and I smelled terrible from the mud I was covered head to toe in. I think I probably injured my pride about as bad as anything on that one.

Honestly I'm not really sure if there are any with a truly good deep cranking bite that you can just set up on a hump or ledge and catch them all day. I know a couple smaller lakes with a pretty decent deep cranking bite around here (Pleasanton City Lake East, Olathe Lake, Lake Fort Scott, Bourban State Lake, Wyandotte, and Leavenworth are best for me). There's a couple places in Miami that seem like they should be good deep cranking spots but I just can't seem to get them to hit. I can catch them on a shakeyhead or C-rig but not a deep crank. A lot of the time I'm not fishing water deeper than 10', probably why I like baits like a series 5 or medium sized fat free shad, they get to the bottom and bounce around but don't dig a trench. Still, even those baits were a little too much for my regular glass cranking rod. The little lake I got access to in KCK is a pretty good deep cranking lake, so is Lake Quivira when I get to fish it. I'll also get to use it when I make my trips to Table Rock, Lake of the Ozarks, Pomme, Bull Shoals, and any of those other lakes that I drive the few hours to because the fishing is so much better than the lakes around here.

I went with P-line C21 copolymer. I don't think it stretches quite as bad as mono and that stuff is crazy strong! I bet that big drum had your hopes up didn't it? I caught one about that size on a deep running crankbait out there a couple years ago and I thought I had a monster until I saw it. It never rolled like they normally do, just bulldogged around like a big mama bass.

6lb is pretty light to be using with a texas rigged worm. You might try switching to 8 or even 10. Make sure you thoroughly wet the knot down before you tighten it because the line will damage itself because of the heat from the friction while you're cinching the knot down. Fluroclear has a reputation of breaking on the hookset too I'm afraid. I have had decent success with it but have also had some breakoffs that shouldn't have happened. Other than making sure your knots are wet before tightening you'll also want to retie, probably after every fish if you stick with 6lb test.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/105398-swimbait-help/

Stick with it. I've been fishing my whole life but only really been fishing for bass since I was 13 and I'm almost completely self taught too. Never really had anyone to teach me much about it, maybe why I enjoy helping people get into this sport now. There's other guys on here who are much more accomplished swimbait fishermen than I am that I'm sure will give you some input also but the info I gave you should be good to get yourself started and get a feel for it.

You don't have to get fluoro, it's just what I use on mine. I also fish t-rigs on the same rod and I have it on that rod more for the T-rigs than the swimbaits. P-line C21 is what I would use if I was using it strictly for a small swimbait rod. It's strong and easy to fish and only 4.99 a 300yd spool. I'd probably go with 15lb if I was going to try to fish cranks and swimbaits on the same rod. If you're fishing really heavy cover I'd step up to 17 or 20 though.

It's mainly because it's a fairly large hook you're trying to drive in and big bass have very tough mouths. That is actually very light for most swimbait fishing. With bigger baits I actually fish them on 25lb copolymer with a 7' H/F rod and a medium size round reel. Also it helps when fishing around heavy cover and horsing a big fish in.

Walleye, sauger, white bass, wipers, stripers, pike, musky, even catfish, pretty much anything that will eat baitfish. Never have caught a carp though, I doubt they could get the bait in their mouth fast enough to get the hook in. You might be able to snag one if your bait runs into one though.

http://www.basspro.com/Berkley-Havoc-Grass-Pig-Softbaits/product/1111030500567/309619 There's the Grass Pig and Decoy bait. There's a hard bait called a Banshee that is pretty cheap and effective also. The Storm prerigged baits are also pretty decent bait but try to stick with the 4" or bigger baits, they just don't swim very well when you go smaller than that. Good thing is you can buy them at Wal Mart or about anywhere else.

It is more sensitive but you won't have a hard time feeling the bites with either, they crush those things. TW has a few of the weedless grass minnows in stock, I orded 3 today. I keep a stockpile of the shads and order a few whenever they get some in. I've fished the ripple shads but couldn't get them to swim right on a weighted swimbait hook. They are cheap and durable but couldn't keep them from rolling over. The Decoy Hydratails are another good option for a little bigger swimbait that aren't too expensive and lasts very well.

Lucky you! My wife's family owns a trailer supply company (Jayhawk Camper Sales in Bonner Springs) so I got a big discount on the parts I had to get to fix my trailer thankfully. That stuff gets expensive really quick! If he fishes I'd say take him on a trip or two to pay him back

Are you looking for big swimbaits or just swimbaits in general? Hard or soft? Prerigged or not? If you don't mind ordering them offline Huddleston makes a 4" weedless shad that is a great bait and it can really build your confidence in swimbaits because it only takes about a 12" fish to completely engulf the bait. They can be fished on pretty much the same setup as you fish your worms or jigs on. I fish them on a 7' M/F Mojo with a Curado 200E7 and 15lb fluoro. Make sure to sturdy them up some before you fish them because they will tear pretty easily if you aren't careful. Check out Mattlures website for tips on how to make your soft baits last longer. The Havoc Grass Pig is a great boot tail style bait that you can do lots of things with and at $3 a pack they won't break the bank on you. I prefer baitfish colors and I fish them pretty much everywhere. The weedless Hudds you can fish through timber, grass, around docks or rocks, pretty much anywhere. The grass pig you can fish in the same areas on a weedless swimbait hook or put it on a swimbait jighead or football head and slow roll it along the bottom.