Bluebasser86

The silent RES and the silent series 5 are both really good baits. I like the vibration I get from the RES without the loud rattles in clear water.

They catch fish but they also break pretty easy in my experience.

Thanks guys! I'll be floating a smallmouth river in the Ozarks this weekend to try to beat the heat a little bit, hopefully there will be lots of pics to follow!

Despite temps in the triple digits and heat indexs of 110+ I managed to talk a friend into going fishing last Tuesday. We get there really early and I catch a dink off the ramp on my second cast on a buzzbait. Thinking it's going to be a good day I keep chunking the buzzbait. 30 minutes and no bites later we're both fishing brush hogs trying to find a bite. My buddy catches a small flathead on his brush hog and then gets smacked on the backside of a marina walkway has to haul this fish over the walkway. His first one of the day went 4 on the button. I caught a couple small ones and then I caught my first good one of the day, 4lbs 3oz on a baby brush hog out from under a dock and we start to notice the big fish seem to be under docks. So we're running around fishing docks and catching a small one now and then when we pull into a different marina. It was getting real hot and we were both wanting to grab a snack so I start to troll over to the marina dock just when my shakeyhead gets thumped. Set into a solid fish that jumps and dives straight down and goes under a cable S@#T! Amazingly my 8lb test holds and I coax her back out and into my hand. My biggest of the day goes 4lbs 7oz. Things just stopped after that. We fished about 3 more hours with 3 bass, 1 drum, and a tiny flathead to show for it. All and all I can't really complain about the results considering the conditions and the fact that the water was 92 degrees in most areas of the lake!

I had something very similar happen to me only I caught the 5" sunfish that hit my bait and the 4 1/2 pound bass that hit the sunfish. I could see where that would be really confusing in the dark.

My friends swear I could catch a drum out of a mudpuddle and it feels like I could some days. I've caught them on cranks, jigs, traps, spoons, grubs, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, and others. If I could get one to eat a topwater I think I would really feel a sense of accomplishment.

I've almost run off the road to hit a possum, I hate those things. I got one on the way to the lake the other day. He just froze in the middle of the road so I got to line him up good, got him with both truck tires and the boat trailer I knew it was going to be a good day after that.

Went to Perry Tuesday and had a pretty good day up until about noon when it got really hot. My friends first bass was 4 even. About my 3rd one of the day was 4lbs 3oz. We went to the marina by the dam and were fishing next to that and just about to hope on the dock to get a snack when a 4lb 7oz fish grabbed my shakey head. She dove under a cable but I somehow managed to finesse her back out even with 8lb test. Had around 12 or 15 bass, 1 white, 2 flatheads, and of course a drum. Most fish were on either full sized or baby brush hogs or a trick worm on a shakeyhead.

I blew up a freshly spool of braid at a pond the other day. The land owner let me use his canoe and I was just drifting down the shoreline, never noticed the treelimb above me . I almost made it worst when I was trying to jerk the bait out of the tree and lost my balance and almost tipped the canoe

Hula grubs, twin tail grubs, plastic craws, brush hogs, pretty much any bait you want you can fish on them.

That's a longnose gar and they get a lot bigger than that. I shot one a couple years ago that was 51.5" long and I've seen ones that were quite a bit bigger. I agree that alligator gar should probably not be harvested by bowfishing but all of the smaller gar species that are more plentiful are fine.

I'm not 100% on it but from what I was told by a guy that builds his own rods the blank is built to bend one direction or the other and were not interchangable. I've seen people use spinning rods with casting reels but the only person who I knew that did it multiple times the rod ended up breaking on him after very few trips. I'm sure there is someone who can give you more information on it but just my experience with it. You can get a decent casting rod for pretty cheap so you don't have to worry about the problem also.

I've heard this argument many times before over whether or not bowfishing is ethical and it is a topic that irritates me. As long as you're following the laws set forth by whoever is in charge then I feel it's alright. Couldn't someone argue that bass fishing is unethical if not done properly? If you take over your limit or keep a fish just to put it on your wall is that ethical? I personally love bowfishing and shoot hundreds if not thousands of silver,bighead,grass,common, and buffalo carp along with drum and gar. A vast majority of these fish are given to the people who are always camped out on the boat ramp fishing when I get back. Some are used as cutbait, some for fertilizer, some are tossed on the river bank for whatever lucky animal comes across an easy meal. Carp are a problem in some waters. Our state spends thousands of dollars a year that could go towards stocking more fish or building nicer boatramps and facilitys but instead it goes towards control of roughfish populations. I don't agree with juglining or trotlining but as long as people follow the rules I'm not going to give them a hard time about it. We all enjoy the outdoors and seem to be facing an ever growing number of "antis" who would love nothing more than to see hunting and fishing outlawed and all of us living off of broccoli,carrots, and tofu. So I guess I really feel like we need to stick together more in protecting and promoting our sports and not worry so much about who is more "ethical". Now if you see someone shooting bass or other gamefish that you aren't supposed to shoot then it's a whole different story. Sorry for my rant, I'll get off the soap box now.

We do it when dove hunting a lot since we usually dove hunt around ponds. Shot birds in the morning until they stop flying, fish until evening when the birds start flying again. Do pretty much the same thing for turkeys in the spring. We also take .22s when we're setting lines on the river by my friends parents house to shoot squirrels while we're on the river. They don't seem to think much about a boat floating down the river for some reason.

I haven't fished many of them either because they're all 3 hours away or more for the most part. Seems like most of them have pretty good smallmouth fishing though. I don't think there is a much more enjoyable way to fish than wading for smallmouth. If you can find them eating topwater it's really easy to loose track of time and be late getting back from the river and find a ticked off wife at home, not that I know from experience or anything

I'm a Shimano guy and probably always will be. I'll admit I get tired of Shimano changing their lineup all the time but I know there's lots of guys out there that will change their entire arsenal as soon as all the new toys come out. It does seem like Shimano has just switched names and changed prices but without being at the factory while the reel is being assembled how do you know that they are really trying to pull a fast one on their customers? I highly doubt that Shimano thought they could simply change the names on a reel and jack the prices up and nobody would notice. In the end, the quality of your equipment only goes so far. Give someone who has never touched a fishing rod the highest end equipment from any brand name and they probably won't catch anything. If you give KVD a Zebco 33 combo I still like his odds against a vast majority of fishermen out there.

I had pretty decent luck with the smaller ones, still have a few of them. They have a similar action to a shad rap but with a bigger profile. I'd try a couple and see if you like them and if you don't then just sell them.

Is there any water under all those weeds? I love flipping weeds but we don't get anything nearly that thick around here, lots of fun to haul any size fish out of that stuff.

Looks like you've got some future bass pros on your hands Red! Also looks like you used the advice you got about fishing jigs in timber to your advantage!

Very nice fish and unfortunate about losing a couple of them to deep hooks but it happens to everyone at some point, the hot weather makes it even easier to do. That is some fishy looking shoreline in the background of your pictures!

Sounds like the fish were just actively feeding and wanted something moving. That would be your que to switch to something like a rattletrap or spinnerbait and give them what they want.

Wacky rigged stickbait skipped under a dock is great sometimes. Float one down under a dock over deep water and sometimes there will be whole schools of bass suspended under them picking off baitfish eating stuff off the dock floats. Spinnerbaits,chatterbaits,fluke style baits, dropshots, shakeyheads, squarebills, rattletraps, swimbaits, all can be good options for fishing docks. Personally I think the dock can be more important than the bait. Find a dock on a spot that would hold fish without the dock (breakline,point,rockpile,brushpile) and the dock just sweatens the deal and ups your odds of finding fish. Seems like broke down old docks and docks with foam floats hold fish better than nice new ones with plastic floats too. As for where the fish are on the dock that changes all the time. Just take you're time and pick a few docks apart with different presentations and when you catch a fish or get a bite make sure to take note of where it happened so you can start putting a pattern together.

Yea lots of people out fishing or doing something and people on vacations with families. I'm just on because I can get on while I'm at work and there isn't much going on here between midnight and 8 so it's a big help to pass the time!

I guess that just shows how good of a lake Melvern is. I fish almost none of the spots you marked and catch tons of fish. There must just really be that many fish in that lake. I know it's one of my favorites I just wish it was a little closer but I think the distance it is from the major cities is what helps keep it good. Skunked the smallie your dad has in that picture is a nice one and the main reason I keep making the trip down there!

What stream are you going to? I'll be on the Elk next weekend doing the same thing!