Bluebasser86

I use a Palomar or SDJ, either works fine.

I didn't know they DC'd the Baby 1-. I've got several of them still and haven't fished one in a long time. I actually just found one in a tree not long ago.

The Krej has been hard to keep in stock locally, but it's not being fished like it was intended. Fished quickly just below the surface for busting fish, it launches like a missle and then stays up easily with a subtle wobble on the retrieve. I've had good luck with it when they're seeing too many spinnerbaits or combing wind blown flats fished in the same fashion.

Had to hide several replies. No warnings sent, yet, but there's going to be warnings and timeouts real quick if we can't learn to get along. If you think I might be talking to you, I probably am.

It's a 5/8oz head, the blades are #5 and #6. I usually just do a slow, steady retrieve. It's tons of vibration and they about try to take the rod away from you when they eat it.

Double willows are for either fishing deep in cold water, or fishing in warm water IMO. Single or double Colorado is the way to go in cold water. I make one just special for fishing in cold water around here. It's a 5/8oz white/white with hammered copper Colorado blades. I call it the BUS (Big Ugly Spinnerbait). Tons of vibration and the big girls love it when the water is cold.

I love ploppers and choppos, but I don't consider them prop baits, because I don't fish them at all the same. So for the sake of argument, I'm not including them in this. My favorite prop bait is a Yo-Zuri 3DB Series Prop in Matte Pearl Shad. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Yo-Zuri_3DB_Series_Prop/descpage-YZ3PR.html You will not find another prop bait that sounds like they do and something about them just drives the fish crazy. The plastic prop also spins very easily, so it takes very little to make it spin and create a disturbance. The Berkley Spin Rocket in MF Shad, and the Devil's Horse in Chrome Black Back are also really good ones for double propped options.

I have better luck on a lightly weighted Baby Brush Hog on a T-rig or Shakyhead during winter than I do on a jig.

I had a gentleman land a mussle on his dropshot weight on a guide trip once. Said he felt a distinct tap, and then reeled in the musscle clamped on the weight. It was very difficult to remove. I've had an owl pick up a jitterbug while nightfishing and get hooked in the foot. Gave a heck of a battle before crash landing in some sticker bushes and pulling the hooks out. I've had more than one seagull pick up freelined shad and get themselves hooked. They're a headache but not overly hard to unhook. I hooked a Great Blue Heron night fishing with a bladed jig. Never saw it standing on the dock and when I cast it leaned it's head forward to fly off, line went over it's neck and when it hit the end of the line, the hook dug in. I was going to try to unhook it until it started stabbing it's bill at me, decided he could keep it after that. Hooked a goose in similar fashion this past fall with a finesse jig. I cranked up a nice diving knife and harness several years ago. The fire department practices their dives at the lake I was at, so I guess one of them must have lost it.

Got out yesterday for some day after Christmas bassing. Got all the way up to 64 degrees for a high in the afternoon, but the water was 39.3-40.7 in the morning, although I did find a couple areas close to 42 by the end of the day. I started out fishing a Ned and jerkbait mostly, and the bite was better than I expected, although it was a lot slower than the past couple trips to this lake. I set out in the morning telling myself I was going to force myself to get off the bank for at least a portion of the day. Late in the morning, I was scanning around off a swimming beach and found a rockpile that came sharply from 20' to 6' and top was flickering like crazy. When I threw a jerkbait across it, the bottom looked like it rose up behind it. Not sure how many fish were there, but I'm pretty sure they all wanted my jerkbait. I caught several on it before they started to scatter and I slowed down, picking them off with a Ned rig. I saw some big marks swimming around, and was hoping to get one to bite, and it seemed like they fired all at once. I caught a 20.75" fish that weighed 5.17 on the Ned, then a 17.50", a 16.75", a 20" walleye, and then lost probably the biggest fish I hooked off the pile on a finesse football jig right at the kayak. I got snagged and broke off about 3 cast in a row, and that was it, they seemed to all disappear and I never could locate them again. I did catch several more little fish scoping, but those were the only big ones I found.

Got out for an unplanned trip Sunday to the power plant lake that wasn't power planting. No smoke from the stack meant cold water (43.8* was the warmest I saw which is about 10* colder than normal), and the water was the lowest I've ever seen it. I almost didn't even launch, instead going to a nearby small lake with cold water, but decided to give it a try. The bite was slow, but better than I expected. I caught 10 or 12 in 5 hours I was on the water and every one was an absolute football. I also caught 1 catfish and a carp that both ate the same Ned rig that all my bass ate.

I made about $500 worth of baits to take to a show in Nebraska in January, and I have no idea what I did with them? I thought I put them in my garage in a bag, but they aren’t there. I’ve torn the house apart but I’m afraid they might have been thrown away during my kids birthday parties last week 🤦‍♂️

Merry Christmas to me. Didn't need it, but I have wanted one for a good while now. Clutch Baby Boss in "Yeesh Shad", color. Josh makes some baits that are almost too pretty to fish with, but I sure hope I get this thing all scratched up.

I like the screwlock style also. I pour my own with a centering-pin style screwlock.

I've got about 15 different gallon bags sorted by like types of baits that are in the original packages in my boat. In my kayak, there's 4 bags that are much more condensed. I don't mix TPE style baits with normal baits to try and avoid melting issues.

Hasn't been for lack of want to, but life has made getting out difficult lately. Last time I got out a couple weeks ago was awfully cold, barely breaking the freezing mark, and windy. The fish were biting really well but most were in the 12-14 inch range, still lots of fun. Right at the end of the day, I sight fished a lighting trout with a Ned rig also. The downside, my back locked up so bad at the end of the day that I thought I was going to have to call someone for help loading my kayak up. Couldn't even stand up straight for the next 4 days and ended up missing a whole week of work. Doing a lot better now, but it was pretty miserable for a while. Not sure I'll make it out again this season or not, but if I don't, I'll be ending the year with 2,121 bass caught, measured, photographed, and released. Glad to have accomplished the goal of catching 2,025 bass for the year 2,025, but I don't plan on trying to do it again in the future, at least not documenting every one like that 😅

Once I started kayak fishing, I switched to a foam life vest. I'd rather sacrifice a little bit of comfort (although my NRS Chinook is really comfortable as far as foam vest go), in favor of being 100% sure that it would float me if I needed it. I've only ever needed it once, and it did it's job perfectly.

I love the concept of a jet kayak for taking on the river here to fish for big catfish. Even in my kayak, I often have to drag against the current to get to my spots. Bad thing is, the Kansas River is mostly sand so if it sucked that into the impeller it might be a nightmare.

I have both kayaks and a bass boat, I much prefer to fish out of a kayak. It's cheaper, less maintanence, easier to haul, and I usually fish by myself on smaller lakes anyways, so not really any reason to use a bigger boat. The newer fishing kayaks are incredibly stable, it really takes a lot to flip one. For the most part, if I wouldn't go out in it on my kayak, I wouldn't go out in it on my boat either. Would it be a little safer in my boat? Sure, but I'm not doing anything dumb like crossing a bigger lake in rolling, whitecaps either. If I'm crossing a big lake where I expect boat traffic, I try to plan accordingly and pay attention to boats that are approaching. My kayak is orange and I have my flag up 100% of the time and the more I do it, the more I've started to wear bright colors just to make myself easier to see, but I know that still won't get some folks attention. I'm always ready to stand and make myself more obvious if necessary. The flip side of it, as a boater, if you wouldn't see a kayak on the water before hitting them, you're probaby not operating safely because even the camo colored ones are more obvious than a floating log or stump just above the surface.

It's pretty similar to the Dime series, so it was likely just phased out by those. I use a lot of Berkley cranks and have never broken a bill on one. Only Berkley bait I've broken was a Cane Walker when I slammed it into my trolling motor head on the cast, but I wouldn't expect any bait to survive that impact.

In clear water, twitching a floating jerkbait very gently in calm conditions is a great topwater presentation. I've caught a ton of fish off floating docks and out of deep cedars at Table Rock doing that.

I don't have a lot of experience with it, but it's been more of a novelty item for me. It's kind of a fun/different way to present small lures than I normally would with spinning gear. I do like that I don't have to worry about wind knots with my braid like I do on spinning gear. I haven't caught anything real big, but I've caught a couple decent fish on it. I just bought the combo late this year so it doesn't have a lot of use yet.

I fish one occasionally but not as often as I use to. The main reason is zebra mussels. I can’t drag a shaky head on the bottom because my line will get cut as soon as I try to set the hook. They didn’t use to be everywhere like they are now.

I’m sure people have, but they are a really big bait. I had one for a while that was 10 or 11 inches long I think? It was bigger than a lot of bass I catch on standard jerkbaits.