Bluebasser86

Bubble Walker 80 is one of my favorite poppers ever. Also not exactly a standard popper, but the Berkley Cane Walker does spit quite a bit when it's twitched and has a large profile. It's more in the pencil popper category though.

Got out for a few hours Saturday morning at a local park lake. Had one of the most explosive topwater strikes I've had in a long time from a skinny 20+ inch fish in the first 20 minutes on a Berkley Cane Walker. Caught several more small fish, it got really hot, busy, and tough. @HaydenS met me out there and caught a few of his own, I even got one of them on video. I only got 1 more that I measured, flipping a Havoc Pitboss into the water willows.

Depends on the type of grass. Filamentous algae, or moss as I like to call it, tend to be the worse. Pretty rare to be able to rip it off, usually won't even smack loose, has to be cleared by hand.

One issue they have with harvesters on the private lakes they use them on here is killing fish. The fish dive into the weeds to hide and they get picked up in the weeds and the whole mess gets hauled out. My buddy rode on the one on his lake on day and said he saw tons of sunfish, bass, and crappie that got hauled out in the weeds. Fish from fry sized to a couple pounds. Obviously, not as big an issue on a huge lake like Minnetonka, but on their less than 200 acre lake, a bit bigger problem as fish numbers have dropped drastically since they bought that harvester.

A lot of what Tom says is why I've never bought into the "You have to let them eat it", train of thought, even with really large worms or plastics. Even a 2-3 pound fish can very easily inhale a 10-12 inch worm, and just as quickly spit it out. That's why when I detect a strike, I swing on them. I've had so many of my bigger fish on jigs that were just bites that something wasn't right, or my hands had set the hook before my brain even fully registered I had a bite. This was just a light "tick", while my bait was falling. A 3/8oz jig looks pretty tiny in a 7+ pound fish's mouth though like Tom said.

Welcome!

I'm not a big muskie fisherman, as much as I'd love to be, the closest ones to me are 3 hours one way. I've caught 13 muskie in my few trips I've made for them, 10 of them were while I was targeting bass instead of muskie. I've caught 2 on a bucktail, 1 on a big safety pin spinner, the rest have been on sqaurebills, or soft plastics. They seem to really like spinnerbaits, but the lakes they live in here have good amounts of standing timber and a muskie hooked in standing timber on 15lb mono and a bass spinnerbait rod never seems to end well. If I was really targeting them, the smaller sized bucktails see to attract a lot of attention without being too much for your gear since they tend to run in the 1oz range. Having the proper tools that others mentioned to handle them is important, and keep them in the water as much as possible. Not sure if for wading/river fishing, a pair of grippers attached to a cord might be an option? I'd have to defer to the guys with more experience with them to say if that would potentially injure the fish but that's how I deal with bass in the kayak when I need time to prepare to measure them and don't want to keep them out of the water longer than necessary.

His aren't really C2C, they just show the catch part. Or if they are, you can't see the landing or bait used on the landing. I make sure to try and show all that part.

Difference is I have actual C2C videos of my fish ?

I have training all day today, so didn't work last night, so I jumped in a Thursday night tournament with a buddy last night. 12 boats and a really tough bite. CPR, length tournament. We managed a measly 80.5 inches, which was 7" better than 2nd. Nice little chunk of change in a winner take all deal.

Been on a swimbait buying kick lately.

How many craws are black and blue? Yet it's one of the top producing jig colors.

The bottom hooks are removed. Looks like the 250 might have hooks on each side that are banded together at the bottom. Would be a little more snag/weed resistant. In super clear water, maybe he's thinking the hooks hanging down are deterring strikes and the hooks on the side look more natural since there's normally fins and gill plates in those areas?

I have a big magnet on hand to sweep the floor with in an emergency, but it's very strong and can be difficult to remove tiny pieces from. I've got a special name for those clips, but it can't be repeated here.

Had a reel that was just screaming (literally every cast), for attention. Well it got it, all the way down to the frame. I only had 1 panic moment when I dropped a tiny pin that supports the clutch cam plate. By some miracle, I was able to spot it on the floor.

Sorry for your loss. Good dogs never live long enough.

I'm not sure how I missed this announcement. I love Tatsu, but always felt they needed something between their 15 and 20lb offerings. 17lb is the perfect sized for pitching to cover imo, so this is great news!

Looks like he probably just screwed a hook hanger into the bait?

A saltwater medium is a way different animal from a bass rod medium. I have a "medium" catfish casting rod that I lob 5oz of lead plus another half pound of bait with.

I use Owner ST36 for the most part but if you find a good deal on the Berkley Fusion 19 hooks, they're very good quality and I'd have no issues using them. Berkley baits are one of the only baits I fish with the stock hooks because the Fusions are so good.

I'm a big fan of 6th sense, except their new Vega frog. That thing has been horrible. Lots of bites, but I'm at about a 15-20% landing ratio on it. The really weird part is how many fish are throwing the frog, not just missing the hookset but actually tossing the bait during the fight. That black magic is a hit or miss color for me. It's either on fire, or they won't touch it.

Berkley Stunna 112 and Gilly, Super Spook Boyo, Seaguar camo braid.

Good thing is I was almost to the end of my 2 mile pedal to the creek I wanted to fish when it happened. Had to turn around and pedal all the way back, into the wind, without ever finding out if there was fish in that creek or not.

1/16oz is about the only size Ned head I ever use. I use the same size in a shakyhead and sometimes a bullet weight for my T-rigs also. A slow fall is more naturally than a fast fall and will get more bites at times. My Ned rigs rarely touch bottom either, so the lighter head makes it easier to keep them off the bottom.