Bluebasser86

Wow, what a beast I'd freak if I caught a 'ski half that size! I don't think I could have kept it for a record either but never been in the situation before.

Won't find a better imitation than a U2 bluegill. You can even pick different colors for different times of year or for different species of sunfish.

Very nice catches there! I'd be afraid to through one of those with no hooks, that would be the only time I'd ever get a bite on the dang thing!

You need to catch the spring fever sale at BPS. Last year they had Cotton Cordell spots on sale for $1.99. Haven't tried the H20 lippless baits but if it isn't an Excalibur XR50 or XRK50 I'm probably not going to fish it

I think I'd rather do that at Melvern. At least at Melvern you can usually catch something. If La Cygne is off you might not get a bite all day. One problem with both could possibly be the wind. I think maybe we should get location suggestions from everyone and take a vote. I'll put mine in for Melvern

What do you guys use to heat your jighead when you're powder painting them? I usually just light a candle and use that but there has to be a better way that doesn't turn the jighead black before you dip it. Also, does anyone have any trick to keeping from clogging the hook eye with paint when you dip them or do you just have to deal with cleaning them out? Not that it's difficult, it's just kind of a hassle to clean every individual hook eye.

That drop out stuff does make a huge difference, at least it did for me. We poured 300 jigs the other day (mabye not a lot for some guys but that's a ton for me) and they poured and came out of the mold much easier.

I'd get it before Christmas and just call it a present to myself but I always give her a hard time about buying stuff before Christmas so I can't be doing it myself

Very good story. He may have made the difference in that kids life that will influence what happpens to him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately there are lots of young people that are never taught not to do things like that and are told that there is no other way for them to survive than to live off other people. Some people it doesn't matter how much you try they will never change but just maybe he might have altered that kids life and way of thinking.

Well if we did a get together we could probably have people pair up so gas money could be split and not everyone is pulling a boat. Would be kind of hard to fish together and get to know your fellow BR members if everyone is fishing alone in their own boat I can think of several lakes within about an hour and half that you'd never touch dirt road.

That new Pfluegar Supreme MGX is a sweet looking reel for $99. If my wife doesn't get me one for Christmas I've already got the money in my paypal account ready to go for one. I don't know anyone that owns a president that doesn't love it.

Small, natural colored finesse worms on a shakeyhead or open jighead if you can get away with it. Move the bait very slowly. You're trying to mimic something that is small that doesn't make big movements anyways and would be moving even slower in the cold water. Plus if it's moving slowly it looks like an easier meal for a sluggish bass. Look for deep water closest to where you caught them during the fall and you should find some fish. A jerkbait fished with long pauses is another good option. If you're in a boat you can try to graph bait with fish under them and hop a jigging spoon also.

They are a blast at that size! They stock them about that size in one of the local lakes every spring and it is a great way to catch some hard fighting fish while the water is still too cold to catch many bass. Now you need to catch one on a flyrod to get a real thrill out of them.

That thing shouldn't even be allowed into the court. There is no way you could say that someone willingly went into a verbal contract while at knifepoint and being threatened with at least bodily harm. It's a waste of time but you know he'd make a big deal about it as soon as he feels like the courts are taking to long with his case. They should hit him with another charge for trying to waste the courts time.

I enjoy hearing from all you guys also. I'm thinking we need to get some kind of local get together going. I don't have the time or money to make it to the roadtrip at Guntersville but maybe us local guys can plan a day trip or weekend trip to Melvern, Milford, Perry, Lake of the Ozarks or something? It's been discussed in the past I think but never really come together but it sounds like a good time to me if we can get a few people to show. Even if we do just a small get together at Kill Creek or Olathe the fishing might not be as good but would still be a good time. If you guys are interested I say we should try to get this off the ground.

Got out to Wyandotte for the last day before it closes for the winter. Weather was nice and the fish cooperated fairly well. I had my line break off in the reel on the first bite Got my bait back but no fish. Marked a bunch on the finder so I dropped a jigging spoon and caught a little largemouth on my second hop. Nothing else on the jigging spoon so went back to the shakeyhead. Caught a couple more largemouth and then a feisty smallmouth. My buddy showed up and went to work quickly. He caught a crappie on a pointer and then a healthy smallie on a shakeyhead. I caught a couple more little largemouth and then a really well colored smallmouth on the shakeyhead. Ended up with 6 largemouth, 3 smallmouth, and 1 crappie in 2 hours. Not bad for the last day of November in Kansas!

The stuff is pretty nice for moving baits because the stretch is a good shock absorber and the memory gets pulled out pretty fast.

Depends on the body of water I'm on. For most of them around here it's small, finesse soft plastics but a couple bodies of water I fish there isn't any reason to have anything other than a jerkbait or a jigging spoon. So if I have to pick one I'd go soft plastics.

I've caught them on bluegills up to 8-9 inches while fishing for flatheads but generally 3-6 inches is going to produce better numbers and still catch plenty of big fish also.

The Strike is a pretty decent game. I have a Shimano game also that is a couple years old that is pretty fun, mainly because you can also go bowfishing or spearfishing along with rod and reel fishing.

I've heard of several different techniques used to "call in" all kinds of different fish. Some local guys do it for flathead catfish around here. They swear it works well but never tried it myself. I imagine it just sounds like other fish feeding and they come to investigate. Or maybe it sounds like nothing they've heard and they come to investigate.

I fish them texas rigged or on a shakeyhead for smallmouth. They work great for a jig trailer for smallies too.

One of my buddies always makes it his goal to outfish me or catch more big fish than me. I didn't know he did that until one day we were driving home and he said "I thought I had you today." I didn't know what he meant and when I asked he said "Well I started with 2 four pounders and you only caught 1 fish to my first 6 but then you ended up catching a 3, 2 4's, 2 5.5s, and a couple big hybrids too. Everytime I think I'm going to outfish you it seems like you end up tearing them up." I told him if I knew it was a contest I would have been trying harder

I have had both but prefer the low profile for pitching for comfort and because I like the higher speeds that you can get with low profile reels.

Are you using a swivel like a barrel swivel to reduce line twist along with a leader or are you using a snap and a swivel to be able to change baits quickly? If you're using a swivel and leader to reduce line twist it would just depend on the type of bait as to if it would hurt the action or not, and a Rapala knot would be ok but not my first choice in that situation. If you're using a snap and swivel to attach your baits that will kill the action and effectivness of most baits and I would never attach one of those with a Rapala knot but other than with something like a flutter spoon, that spins and twists the line, I have no use for a snap and swivel.