Bluebasser86

Get on your porch and look for the 'Nader. That's the SOP when there's a warning here but we get several every year. I've only seen a couple in my life, one almost set down on top of my truck while I was driving and ended up going down the road right behind the way I had just came.

I use a lot of mono for moving baits.

Between a Rozante 77 and Pointer 78.

Like others have stated, it's more of a thing in the big swimbait world where the fish can get lots of leverage using the weight of the heavy bait against the hooks.

The crankbait is the exact same blank as the Ozark Trail crankbaits from Walmart, but I don't see that color on their website. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-1-3-Ounce-Lime-Blue-Crankbait-Fishing-Lure/520689324?selected=true

It's a bass, just a deformity of some sort. It happens in every species to some degree. It appears healthy otherwise and is obviously eating. I'd send the picture to your DNR just to be sure but other than that wouldn't worry.

Had my championship tournament for my kayak club this past weekend. It was on a lake I've fished a lot and was really good last year but has been tough this year. I only fished it twice very early in the year, so I was not sure how it was doing as of late. Went out to the lake Thursday morning and prefished all day Thursday and Friday. Caught very few fish in the 15" range and only one large fish that went 19". I was thinking about 80" a day would win, so those 15" fish were about the bare minimum I was looking for and they were proving to be difficult to find. Also, I had planned on targeting smallmouth. In 2 days, I had found 4, none of which measured 15". Saturday morning during the Captain's meeting, I decided I was going to go to the area I'd caught my biggest fish in prefishing because I'd also caught several fish there. My hopes were to at least catch a limit and then maybe try to move areas to fish for the (normally), bigger smallmouth. Of the 16 people in the tournament, I was 1 of 2 that went to the area I'd decided to fish, so I knew I at least had first crack at a lot of fish. As I stood at the ramp looking at the water and decided how to start, I made a last minute change to my lineup. My bladed jig rod was still in the truck. I'd caught no fish with it in prefishing, never had a bite, but something told me in the early morning darkness, I needed it. Grabbed it and tied on one of my homemade blue bladed jigs and decided that's what I was starting with. It didn't take long to get my first bite, looked to be a good 15-18 inch fish, jumped and tossed the bait. Landed the next one, little over 16". Caught a 12" fish about 5 minutes later before I ran into the marina walkway and had to turn around and work back the way I came. Right as I got to where I caught my first fish, I hooked another 15-18 inch fish. Grabbed the net, it jumped and tossed it right at the kayak, not a good start. Fished the rest of the way down the bridge riprap and about halfway down the back side. I'd been snagged several times and was thinking maybe that bite window was over, when my bait stopped right at the start of my retrieve. Just as fast, a massive fish was jumping, and jumping, and jumping. I've never seen a fish that size so determined to jump so many times. I was sure I was going to lose her, but after much begging and pleading, she slid into my net and I found the hook buried firmly into the roof of her jaw. The tournament was only an hour into the first morning, and I felt pretty confident I had big bass wrapped up. At 22" and 6.92lbs, she was my new kayak PB, new lake PB, and new PB on one of my bladed jigs and gave me a massive boost in confidence. And that was the last bite I got from a bass on that bait the rest of the day. I almost stopped throwing it a few minutes earlier, sure glad I didn't. At the end of the riprap, it got shallower and fish were popping shad. 2 cast in a row with a Bullet Pop produced a 13" and 11.75" fish, so I had my limit by about 7:15. I scored one more 13.25" fish on the Bullet pop to cull the 11.75" before I had a long lull of non-bass species and short fish. Finally popped a fat 15 incher out from under a dock swimming a White Lightning TRD for a solid cull. About a hour later, I made a pretty good pedal to a short area between 2 long marina docks (not allowed to fish the docks themselves but you can fish the banks behind them). I was second guessing myself the whole way there because I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure what it was like but I was running out of ideas other than going to target smallmouth and that required loading up the kayak and moving areas. Very first cast with a swinging football head and a Rage Bug resulted it a 15.75" fish and a another good cull. I still had a 13.25" fish in my bag though and really wanted to get rid of it, so with about 2 hours left in the day, I loaded up to go search for brown fish I never found in practice. This area had several other fishermen on it that had been working the area all day, so I did what I do best, found the ugliest areas and went fishing. First was an overlooked pocket I knew from previous experience. It looks like a mud/sand pocket but it's a lot of big rock mixed in out in the water a ways. I picked that apart with the white Ned rig and scored a 16.25" smallmouth, a huge 3" cull late in the day. With 30 minutes left, I knew the next cove over had a similar pocket, but I'd never fished it. Nothing really to lose at this point so I made the jump over. Same deal, swimming a white Ned when it just took off. A brown football was in the air immediately and then again before it dug deep for what felt like forever. My hands started cramping and I even felt like I was losing my grip on the rod at one point. The fish eventually gave up and I put 17" of brown bass in the net, another 2" upgrade. I worked that area a little more but day 1 was over. I ended with 87.25", second and third were tight at 73.5 and 73.25 inches, then it dropped all the way to 65.5". I figured going into day 2, all I needed to do was catch about 70" and it would be pretty impossible for someone to catch me with the way the lake was fishing.

I was in highschool, in American History class ironically enough. I had about all my buddies in that class and we were screwing around and not paying any attention when the classroom phone rang. Teacher walked out and came back in with a TV and turned the news on. Probably the fastest we ever quieted down in that class.

Not the thing I wanted to see next to the toilet in the bathroom stall at the campsite I was staying in. Too late to abort the mission by the time I noticed it, and then the motion lights went out and left us in the darkness, hopefully my screams didn't wake any other campers up at 4am.

Prefishing for my kayak clubs championship this past Friday. Had a rough stretch for a while catching everything except bass. Sunfish, bluegill, crappie, a truckload of white bass, drum, channel cats, sauger, even managed to snag a pair of smallmouth buffalo on back to back cast with a grub off the same rocky point. Didn't land the first one, but the second was hooked in the soft area right by the mouth.

The rope lures are your best chance for landing them. Jigheads like grubs or swimbaits have decent success but minnow style baits and jerkbaits have the best landing percentage for me (although it's still not great).

Those are flatheads for most part. Most noodlers despise finding blues in their holes because they bite so hard compared to a flathead. Back either right when they first started the season here, or maybe before it was legal, a guy noodling in the Kansas River where I've fished many times was drowned by a big blue cat. It was in the 90-100 pound range if I remember correctly.

Palmability is going to vary person to person. I know a lot of people that love the tiny casting reels because they're supposed to be so easy to palm. They're too small in my hands and I end up with hand cramps from trying to hold them. The last couple Gens of Revos felt odd in my hand, like they were too long, and they pushed on a nerve in my hand that made them uncomfortable to fish. Nothing wrong with them, but comfort should be a big deciding factor when selecting a reel. If the Shimanos feel more comfortable to you, you'll likely fish them more and better. The larger frame of the Tatulas reminds me of the old Curado 200B that I fished so much growing up and is very comfortable to fish with so I use them for about everything.

I do sometimes, sometimes I don't. It's something I do subconsciously.

Couple new snack sized jerkbaits came in the mail while I was gone at my tournament this weekend. Glad I didn't get them before I left so I didn't feed them to all the voracious white bass that were all over the lake. Comparison with a Rozante 77 and Pointer 78.

It's a generic swimbait you can buy from a bunch of different places for a buck or two. Most are very fragile and will pull apart if you hook a big fish.

6th Sense, Berkley, and Duo are the only baits I really like the hooks straight out of the box.

The middle right is a Rapala Scatter Rap Shad.

Never 2 smallmouth, but a smallmouth and a white bass, smallmouth and largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass have all happened to me. Also had several white bass doubles, a green sunfish/largemouth double, and a bunch of largemouth doubles.

Welcome!

Top is a Bandit Flat Maxx, bottom is a Mann's C4 crankbait.

Flatheads are fine but you're taking a risk with any of the others. A local guy got his wrist broke by a big blue that he tried to hand land when she clamped down and did a death roll like a gator. Channels, blues, and bullheads have tooth pads that come together and crush food. Flatheads have a severe underbite so you'll only lose some skin if they clamp down, just don't jerk your hand back if it happens, that's what makes it the worst.

My kayak clubs championship tournament is this weekend, today was day 1. Not good enough service to post pictures but I caught a new kayak PB 22" and 6.92lbs. I ended day 1 with 87.25", second is 73.5".

I have the 6' 10" MH/M Legend Glass, it's a very nice rod. I'd jump all over another if I could find it for the price I paid for the one I have.

The Ima Flit 100 is the one I usually fish if I need a really shallow running suspending jerkbait.