Bluebasser86

The after it played a big role in my good finishes in a few of the last tournaments, including winning the championship for me in my kayak club, one of the guys asked "Why blue?" I told him and everyone else the same thing I tell everyone that ask, "Because it works". I have no idea why it works like it does, what the fish see in it, but it's a killer color in a bladed jig in the lakes around here. I've got so many pictures that look just like that one through the years, the thing just flat catches them for me.

The way my boys like to crash their bikes into things, that's a day I'm not looking forward to. Good luck buddy!

Only cranks I've had a lot of success with for crappie is shad raps or Bandits, trolling them. Suspending jerkbaits have been far more successful for crappie for me.

I've got the 7' 1" M/F that I've been using for weightless plastics and light T-rigs. The rod is very light and feels much more true to it's ratings than the past models. St. Croix's lower end spinning rods, especially anything with a medium or higher rating, have felt extremely stiff to me. That's not the case with this rod. I use it a ton in one of my last kayak tournaments with a 1/16oz EWG Ned head and a 5" Phenom worm, a very lightweight bait combo, and it casted it with ease but then had the power to muscle my largest fish of the tournament out of some sparse grass and past a standing tree.

Some of my biggest frog fish are when it's "too cold" or "not right" for a frog. First frog fish of the year this year was in March with the water temps in the high 40's. A slow moving popping frog looks like a big, easy meal that they'll come up to get.

I sell some stuff, give some away, some I save and convince myself I'll need it some day.

I always dunk mine in the water before throwing it, helps a lot.

Strike King is popular for good reason. They have reasonable prices, great selection, and they work. I fish with lots of different brands and always trying new things. I know guys who fish the same stuff now as they did 10-20 years ago and they have the same results and never improve.

Had the chance to get out for my first, and likely only night mission this year Saturday night. Water temps had already dropped to 71* much to my surprise and were much dingier than expected. Bite was pretty decent until it got dark, then the wind picked up a lot and made it pretty much impossible in the kayak. Finally found a nice one about 30 minutes before I called it a night.

Welcome!

I'm going to a different lake looking for big smallmouth or largemouth

Not Melvern or Perry, big youth tournaments on both this weekend.

They eat tons of bluegill and sunfish here, and they're very popular colors for those baits, just not for me.

Wacky rig stick worm or a Ned.

I rarely use bluegill or green pumpkin in either. Shad colors, solid blue, golden shiner, and chartreuse and white are my favorites.

They have common roosting areas here, you could chase them off 10 times a day and they'd keep coming back.

Those are my "Merica" colored Crocs.

Only had a couple hours to get out this morning in the kayak, but I got a couple pretty decent ones in the process, 1 on a glide and 1 on a jig.

Never caught one myself, but I'm positive that's what it is.

That's a chain pickerel. Half hour fight?? I landed my PB flathead catfish, 68.5lbs, on 15lb fluorocarbon in a little over 10 minutes.

I don't have any problem feeling light bites during the winter months when the bait just feels "different", with the Aird X. Not sure what your standards are for being able to feel the blade/bites, but I feel like I feel them just fine.

I use a 7' 3" and 7' 4" frog rod from my kayak. I was using a 7' 11" swimbait rod from my kayak this morning. I don't know about the Aird X, but I've used a 7' H/F Ethos from Academy for frogging before and it does well enough and can be found for around that price range.

Buzzbait and WTD topwaters are king in the fall when it's all about covering water.

I use the 3/4oz Crock O Gator pretty often. It's got a huge blade, no problem keeping it on top, and it cast well because it's so heavy. Great for fishing around docks.