Bluebasser86

I have had 2 now, I really like the reel a lot, but twice now I've set the hook and heard a terrible grinding noise when I tried to reel I couldn't hardly reel the fish in. I know I'm grinding the teeth off of a gear and have no idea why this is happening with this reel. I don't want to give up on these reels because I love the feel of them but I don't want to have to keep returning them for new ones. Any feedback would be great before I take this one back. If it's a frequent problem I guess I'll try something else but hopefully I just got a couple bad ones.

My Zell pop! It's the smaller size in the ghost color, cant' find them anywhere around here. It walked so nice and barely moved towards the boat so I could really aggitate a fish with one or make it look like a really easy meal. I took it off a rod on Sunday and set it in the boat somewhere and couldn't find it by the end of the day I'm afraid it may have blown out because of the 20+mph winds. I really hate to lose a bait like that. I've got the same size bait in the foxy momma that I found at the BPS in Springfield but it's just not the same yet. If anyone is at Melvern Lake, KS and finds a Zell pop that looks like this, I'd be more than willing to pay for shipping plus a reward.

20lb invis X or Red Label unless I'm in heavy weeds then I'll go to 65lb braid.

Friend and I fished from the time the gates opened, despite the thunderstorms, until 3pm. They were really biting good early while it was cloudy and I had a 15.5 and 16.5 inch keeper largemouth. Once the sun got up they started pushing shad to the surface by the dam and we spent a few hours launching surface walking baits at schooling fish and caught a bunch doing that but only one 15 inch largemouth. We did have a couple smallies over 15 doing that and my friend had one that might have been a keeper clear the surface after his bait but it completely missed it. They were spitting up dozens of tiny shad on the way in to the boat.

It was a lot of fun despite the wind. The fish were making us work since they wouldn't touch a moving bait, fishing slow in a wind like that isn't easy. I'm glad everyone was able to make it out there and catch some fish! Hopefully Chris got that hook out of his finger without an issue once he got to the hospital. We'll have to try to plan the next one a little further out so if more people want to go they'll have the chance to get the day off.

Not a chance. I couldn't stand being on a boat that long and going that long without sleep like they do. The money would be nice, if you catch a bunch of crabs. Or you might go out on a boat, freeze your arse off, go through sleep deprivation, just to waste a few months of your life looking for crabs that you never find.

I don't have kids but that would be something I would want to be there for. Tell your wife to put herself in your shoes, would she want to miss something so big as your kids first trip to Disneyworld? I'm guessing not. Like others have said I think it would be better to wait until the kids are older also, they're young enough they won't remember any of it.

Wouldn't even consider one for that price. Weren't they $119 when they were new??

early, late, cloudy days, or if the fish are shallow and feeding aggressively can all be good times to catch fish on a buzzbait. The best day I ever had fishing a buzzbait the biggest one of my 20lb limit blasted a black Cavitron at about 3pm right on the edge of a shallow weedline despite it being sunny and almost 90 out with flat calm conditions.

Wacky rigged senko is one of my most consistent producers in the strip pits in southeastern kansas. If there's big fish don't be afraid to fish a swimbait.

On smaller lakes and early in the year I have some of my best luck fishing dams if they're rocky.

I missed prefishing once for the same reason. Moral of the story, always have a backup alarm or 3. I usually set 2 alarms and my phone a few minutes apart. That way even if the power doesn't go out it doesn't give me a chance to hit the snooze and fall back asleep before the next one goes off.

Z man's are pretty tough but I've had a couple lose the pinchers on the first hookset also. They're probably about the toughest you can get though.

I think he means the he's fishing off the dam.

Yeah and what happens when someone smokes him? They'll go to prison because "He was just playing a prank" and "He wasn't going to hurt anyone." I'm all for a good prank but he may want to think about the potential for this to go very badly for him and others around him.

Man that's me every night, I'm usually pretty disappointed with the answer

I've colored blades with black sharpie markers and done very well with them. Sometimes a bright, shiney blade is just too much for them. Like others have said, fish them in cover. They'll work in open water but are so much better in and around weeds, wood, docks and such. Fish them as slow as possible, the easier it looks to catch the more likely a fish will try.

I forgot about this one from earlier this year. Not a great picture but this one did basically the same thing as the fish I mentioned earlier except it was a popper. The back hook was over it's top lip but hadn't penetrated it's mouth at all and the front hook was swinging freely, the popper was just wedged in it's mouth and I fought it to the boat like that.

My friend told me about that fish this morning, said it was a really healthy good looking fish. I really believe the lake has the potential to produce a new state record if one can go long enough without being caught and kept.

I like fishing spinnerbaits, not as effective as they used to be it seems but still a great option at times.

Have never held that particular rod but for a bait like that I like something with a soft tip that gives the bass a chance to inhale the bait before it's pulled away from them. You might try a lighter action rod and setting the hook as soon as you feel the bite. The bite on that bait is very much like what you described usually, either that or it just gets a little heavier.

Wouldn't consider that a shakeyhead, more of a grub really. I fish that same presentation a lot and rarely have trouble hooking fish with the proper equipment. What rod/reel/line are you using? I fish mine on a 6' 10" ML/F with a 20 size spinning reel and 8lb nanofil with an 8lb fluoro leader. With a bait that size I set the shook immediately upon feeling anything. Even an 8 inch bass is going to inhale a bait that small very easily but if you keep trying to reel or pull that "thump thump" is probably the bass inhaling you bait and then spitting it back out.

A finesse worm in a natural color on a shakeyhead has caught me smallmouths everywhere I've ever fished for them during all different times of the year. Not always the best choice but usually will get you bit.

Palomar for almost everything, make sure it's wet down good before you tighten it though or you'll damage your line. I've heard the San Diego Jam is a good strong knot but hard to tie. Uni knot is good for attaching leaders or backing.

I have a few hundred coworkers and there are several of them that I know of that bass fish. I'm a multispecies guy and so are several at the guys I work with so I have plenty of people to talk to. The hardest part is with me having a multipurpose boat that works probably just as good for duck hunting as it does fishing, I've got a long list of people wanting to go and it's tough to get schedules aligned for it to work out sometimes. I'm in Northeastern Kansas.