Bluebasser86

X3 My dropshot rod does not have the backbone that I'm looking for when fishing a shakeyhead because of the hookset you need to penetrate the fishes lip. Most of my wacky rigging is around docks/grass and I wouldn't be able to pull a big fish away from the dock very well with my dropshot rod.

I like the 7.1 for most fishing anymore. It's so nice to be able to catch up fast with a big fish coming straight at you on a jig or soft plastic. Buzzbaits and lipless cranks are a lot less work too. I think I over fish spinnerbaits with them and I would never use one for other crankbaits.

What's you're definition of a youth? I'm not in school or anything but at 24 I would still consider myself a youth. There is lots of finals coming up soon. Several of my friends and family members that are still in school are to busy to answer their phones or anything because they are studying so much. I think they call it "Having your priorities straight". I don't know though, all I know is I'm going hunting monday and fishing tuesday ;D

I've got one that I found stuck in the water willow last winter. About the same size and profile of a Rogue but a more slashing action like the pointer. I like it pretty well. You might check out Excaliber's jerkbaits. They have a smaller one the size of a 78 LC pointer and a bigger one the size of a Rogue, I've done very well with them and they are in between in price too.

I had a Shimano Calyx several years ago. It was my first "expensive" baitcaster. I think it was 79.99 and I'd bought it for my big trip to Canada with my dad. It made it through that trip but it didn't make it past many more before the thumb bar stuck and the levelwind quit at the same time. Thankfully I worked at Cabela's at the time and new the Shimano rep because he gave me credit towards a new reel and I got my first green Curado. That was the first time I realized that spending the extra money was worth it to get better performance from my gear.

I've caught most of my walleyes on accident in the spring fishing for bass with jerkbaits. This last year I had great success with a Berkley Gulp minnow on an 1/8 oz jighead, way more than on livebait. I've caught a bunch in the fall on rattle traps while fishing for bass also. I caught a surprising amount of them on hula grubs this last year from several different bodies of water. I've also caught them on bass crankbaits, shakey heads, eakins jigs, shad raps, and a few on spinnerbaits. It's not livebait but we catch a lot of catfish with chunks of bluegills under bobbers floated over submerged weeds. Last summer my dad caught a 22" walleye on a bluegill head under a bobber.

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I think this topic may be better in the General Bass Fishing forum but I'll give one of my stories anyways. I was night fishing a small state lake in northeast Kansas one night with a black jitterbug. A game warden I had talked to earlier in the day said the state biologist had sampled a bass the he guessed between 7 and 8 pounds from the area I was fishing earlier in the week. I was pretty hyped with the thought of catching a bass that big since it would have been my PB at the time. I was on a fishing pier casting down a tree lined bank and there was a bright full moon and very warm. It had been pretty slow and the mosquitos were biting bad so I was about to give up. I made a long cast down the bank and started the slow steady retrieve down the bank and heard a huge splash and felt a ton of weight. I got her, I knew I did right from the start. Then I felt my line heading up, she's going to jump so I stuck my rod as far down in the water as I could. My line went up and up and about the time I realized my line was above the water I saw a huge owl fly in front of the moon, funny thing was my line seemed to be following it! My excitement turned to digust I tried to pull the owl back towards me while deciding what I was going to do. In my frustration I tightened my drag down and when the owl surged it broke my brand new rod right above the cork handle. I decided I was just going to end it now and break the line before anything else bad happened. I grabbed the line with both hands and jerked. The owl fell from the sky and landed in a tangled mess of briers along the bank. After flapping around for a second, the owl flew off, thankfully my line was no longer following. I walked down the bank and found my jitterbugs with mangled hooks and bent lip hanging in the thornbush. I untangled it, cut the line, and called it a night. I was minus one big fish I thought I had hooked, a new All Pro casting rod, and a couple hooks on my bait, but it did give me one heck of a story to tell.

Mexico is an amazing trip that I would suggest everyone make at least once but with the state of things down there I don't know if I would do it now. Florida lakes could be magic in February if you hit it right and caught them during the big spawning movement. I would suggest if you really want to catch big fish, go to Florida, hire a guide, buy some really big shiners. You could fish artificals if you wanted to but if you float big shiners around the right area long enough a big fish will come along.

Mexico is an amazing trip that I would suggest everyone make at least once but with the state of things down there I don't know if I would do it now. Florida lakes could be magic in February if you hit it right and caught them during the big spawning movement. I would suggest if you really want to catch big fish, go to Florida, hire a guide, buy some really big shiners. You could fish artificals if you wanted to but if you float big shiners around the right area long enough a big fish will come along.

Mexico is an amazing trip that I would suggest everyone make at least once but with the state of things down there I don't know if I would do it now. Florida lakes could be magic in February if you hit it right and caught them during the big spawning movement. I would suggest if you really want to catch big fish, go to Florida, hire a guide, buy some really big shiners. You could fish artificals if you wanted to but if you float big shiners around the right area long enough a big fish will come along.

I've had very good luck with bonefish flies for largemouth and smallmouth. They come in pretty natural crawfish colors and usually have bead eyes to help keep them down. Lots of them have something to help keep them from getting snagged or from catching weeds and they usually have stronger, bigger hooks than most flies. The fly that I use most often is called a bonefish slider http://www.saltwaterflies.com/bonefishslider.html They look like they would be a very simple fly to tie but they are a very good fly.

I've had very good luck with bonefish flies for largemouth and smallmouth. They come in pretty natural crawfish colors and usually have bead eyes to help keep them down. Lots of them have something to help keep them from getting snagged or from catching weeds and they usually have stronger, bigger hooks than most flies. The fly that I use most often is called a bonefish slider http://www.saltwaterflies.com/bonefishslider.html They look like they would be a very simple fly to tie but they are a very good fly.

I've had very good luck with bonefish flies for largemouth and smallmouth. They come in pretty natural crawfish colors and usually have bead eyes to help keep them down. Lots of them have something to help keep them from getting snagged or from catching weeds and they usually have stronger, bigger hooks than most flies. The fly that I use most often is called a bonefish slider http://www.saltwaterflies.com/bonefishslider.html They look like they would be a very simple fly to tie but they are a very good fly.

I taught a beginners fishing class at a small community lake a few years ago. Only a few kids showed up but while I was showing them how to use one of my favorite beginner rigs (wacky rigged senko) one of the little girls yelled she was snagged. I started walking over and noticed the "snag" was pulling here line out towards deeper water. I told her to start reeling and when she did a nice largemouth jumped and then buried up in the milfoil. She did a good job and with a little coaching managed to drag in a large clump of weeds and a fish. After pulling away all the weeds we found a 4 1/4 pound largemouth in the middle of it all. It was a pretty cool experience for the little girl and myself, made me glad I took the time out from fishing myself to get the next generation involved!

I taught a beginners fishing class at a small community lake a few years ago. Only a few kids showed up but while I was showing them how to use one of my favorite beginner rigs (wacky rigged senko) one of the little girls yelled she was snagged. I started walking over and noticed the "snag" was pulling here line out towards deeper water. I told her to start reeling and when she did a nice largemouth jumped and then buried up in the milfoil. She did a good job and with a little coaching managed to drag in a large clump of weeds and a fish. After pulling away all the weeds we found a 4 1/4 pound largemouth in the middle of it all. It was a pretty cool experience for the little girl and myself, made me glad I took the time out from fishing myself to get the next generation involved!

I taught a beginners fishing class at a small community lake a few years ago. Only a few kids showed up but while I was showing them how to use one of my favorite beginner rigs (wacky rigged senko) one of the little girls yelled she was snagged. I started walking over and noticed the "snag" was pulling here line out towards deeper water. I told her to start reeling and when she did a nice largemouth jumped and then buried up in the milfoil. She did a good job and with a little coaching managed to drag in a large clump of weeds and a fish. After pulling away all the weeds we found a 4 1/4 pound largemouth in the middle of it all. It was a pretty cool experience for the little girl and myself, made me glad I took the time out from fishing myself to get the next generation involved!

Roadrunner, when you have to fish to eat you have to fish a bait that will catch anything!

Give the Falcon box another vote, I have the bigger one but the smaller one holds all the spinnerbaits you probably really need for a days fishing.

Yum Wooley Bug for the limited punching I get to do around here Zoom baby brush hog, Eakins Flip N jig, Yum craw papi, Strike King flip N tube for pitching and flipping.

Both of those baits are still pretty popular. The slug O was the original or one of the original soft plastic jerkbaits made by Lunker City. French frys are a style of bait, like a centipede. They're really popular C-rig baits and they're a really good bait on a shakey head too.

Pm sent, sounds like a good idea to me.

Most of the time I'm fishing either a Zoom trick worm or a BPS stick-o worm 4 or 5 inch. I've had really good luck with river smallmouth with a Zoom meathead and a Yum craw papi in the 2.75 inch size.

If I was picking between those two I would go with the stradic. Personally I use all Symetres. It's a bit cheaper and a very solid, smooth reel. They are very easy to clean and lube too so you can keep them spinning smooth 8-) .

A friend of mine's parents asked for help from KDWP with managing their pond. They not only came out and sampled the pond to see what was in it and what needed done with it but also offered to stock it with the fish that it was needing if they signed it up for the FISH program. You would have to be ok with people fishing your pond but after the first year you could opt out and your pond would still be stocked. They did it and now their pond has lots of really nice bass and crappie in it. I was surprised by how few people fished it while they were enrolled in the program, it is a long walk from the road so that may have had something to do with it. Stay away from "bucket biology" though. We've got zebra mussels and asian carp in many different bodies of water in Kansas, wouldn't want them to make it into your pond.