Bluebasser86

I've put some pretty good sized hybrids in my kayak net no problem. Usually when I get a fish too big for my net, it comes with it's own built in handle to grab them, so it's not a problem.

Smallies have pretty tough mouths and the repeated impacted against their jaws and the typically rocky bottoms likely stuns the crawdads after it's done a few times over, making them easier to swallow. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

The wife and I are surprising our boys with a trip to Florida in a little over a month. My oldest son would love the chance to get to fish for shark so if anyone has any suggestions on a reasonably priced guide (short notice so availability may be limited I know), I'd really appreciate it. We're going to be staying in Orlando and have our car so we can drive a reasonable distance to where we need to be.

I couldn't imagine trying to use one to weave through the standing timber and stumps on some of our lakes ? My buddy tried with his, can't remember which model it was, but I remember he got to find out how good his warranty was ?

Maybe hoping one would accidentally breath it in while in the livewell? I wouldn't be able to keep fishing after catching the first one, I'd have been a wreck.

If I was going to pick only one type of line, yes I'd go with a good quality mono. Thankfully, I don't have to pick because frogging and flipping grass with mono is a nightmare, I don't like using it for treble hooked topwaters, spinning reels perform so much better with braid, C-rigging (as much as I hate it), is way easier with braid, and I like a good quality fluoro for bottom contact baits much better than mono. Mono all the way on jerks, cranks, traps, and single hook moving baits though.

I know for a fact that clips are a reason I've caught more fish this past year. I'll leave out a few different baits I want to rotate though and can quickly change them to just make a few cast whereas I never would have taken a bait off just to tie on another for a few cast and then switch back. I caught this fish in January. Switched from a sqarebill to a medium running flat sided crank because there's a short 20 yard portion of this bank that drops enough to allow the deeper running bait to be effective. I never would have made the switch if I had to retie my bait.

Don't know how many times I've pulled up to a ramp and had people in lawn chairs with their junk strewn all over the ramp, more people fishing off the launch ramp dock (usually right next to the "no fishing from dock" sign), and they act put off that they have to move so you can use the ramp for it's intended purpose.

My boys have just discovered Pokemon (man?). I showed them these tonight and boy declared they wanted them. Not likely at that price though ?

This is how I justify the price of buying a spool of expensive fluoro also. I mostly use it for bottom contact baits that I'm making shorter cast with anyways, I don't need even 70 yards of it. I get my 200 yard spools of Tatsu, put 50 yards of top-shot on over my cheap mono and I can spool 4 times of that one spool. Suddenly, my $40 spool of line is much more reasonable.

I've won lots of weeknight tournaments with less than that ?

Why not go to a 190 plopper then? Or a big muskie plopper? It'd be great if it was always so easy as just fish a big bait to catch a big fish, but we all know it doesn't work that way. Throw a 130 plopper on a glassy lake full of smallmouth around here and you're just going to get a bunch of casting practice, but they'll blast a 90. Plus, even a 90 is pushing it on my son's spinning rod, but he can handle the 60 with ease.

I use the Ocho for the most part in either solid black or Okeechobee craw. The YUM Cranberry color is a top producer too.

I use these in a size #0 for most my hard baits. They're very small but I haven't had one fail yet. I would not use one for frogs. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000691005244.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.40694c4d8TBWMJ

I switched to small duolock snaps for most of my treble hooked baits last year and wish I'd have done it sooner.

I have never fished an E6X, but I have held many in stores and they just feel underwhelming for the price point. I've got many hours with a Victory rod on the water and have been very happy with it. A couple of my biggest fish of the year have been caught with it in fact.

I try and pick molds that can use the same hooks also. Then I don't have to buy as many different types of hooks.

A slow reel will make keeping any buzzbait on the surface difficult. The weight of the buzzbait shouldn't matter. I fish a 3/4oz buzzbait pretty often and it has no trouble staying on the surface because of the head design, blade size, and I use the proper gear for it.

I like double prop baits on our lakes when it's calm out. Seems to get bigger bites than a popper but I fish it in the same situations. I don't use the Devil's Horse, I like the Berkley Spin Rocket for a double prop.

My son fished his a bit a few weeks ago. It wasn't an extended test given the patience of a 7 year old on a slow day, but the bait cast and ran well and I'm sure would have gotten bit if it had been given a little more time.

Ploppers are heavy baits, so you have to keep their heads down or they'll have a lot of leverage to toss the baits if they get to jumping and thrashing around. Smallmouth are really bad about it. I swap my hooks to short shank EWG Gamakatsu hooks that are lighter wire that let my bait float higher and seem to hold better because they don't let the bait move as much when the fish shakes.

We've had really mild temps lately, barely getting into the 80's. It's been a nice change of pace from the normal high 90's to triple digits with 100% humidity we normally have this time of year.

We did some of our weeknight tournaments on 100 acre lakes with 8-12 boats but we did catch, weight, release tournaments instead of hauling 5 fish around and risk killing fish. Some lakes have lots of productive water, others have select areas that are known to be much more productive than the rest and tend to get rotated through by most of the guys. I try to hit the secondary stops that get less pressure in those situations. Areas that might take more work to get through, or hold fewer fish, but I'll have them more to myself and hope that the rest of the field eat each other.

Happens to me all the time. I'll be going through a box or peg and find a bait that I have no recollection on when or where I bought it, but there it is so I must have at some point.