Bluebasser86

Sounds like you were hanging him on the metal hook that most scales come with. Get a pair of plastic fish grippers to hang on the hook instead to clamp on the fish's jaw and you won't have that problem anymore.

Montgomery Lake is/was an oxbow lake that really no longer exist. They tend to be shallow and fertile though for their relatively short lifespans. They silt in fast but maybe for a minute while everything was right with it, it had the right stuff to grow a giant bass. IMO, Kurita's fish is heavier, so it's the record. I think it's silly that it's not "heavier enough", to be consider the stand alone record.

It's a knock off brand, they're all over

I bought a dozen KO Dark Sleepers for $15 shipped last night. Just have to be patient because it takes afew weeks to get them.

That's where I got mine, they had every color in stock, I almost bought a black one too.

Looks like a 4.5-5lb fish to me. Pretty thick but not very long.

Try some of the KO's and save yourself some money. Little suckers are hard to get but someone posted on a FB swimbait group that a online swimbait store had some in stock and I finally got my white Shellcracker.

I couldn't even imagine how much work goes into putting a muskie into the boat on a fly.

If I'm pitching into grass, I'm going to be using straight braid no questions asked. If the weeds are thick enough I need to be using braid, I'm not worried about them being line shy.

I've got 8lb AbrasX on one reel and 8lb Tatsu on one. Both work very well, no line treatments needed.

A big flipping tube on an EWG hook with no weight is my substitute. It's heavy enough to cast with stout casting gear and dense enough the fish can sense it through light to moderate vegetation. Plus, when you hit an open spot it falls slowly into it and can be walked when you hit open water.

Get some fish grips and spend a quarter of what you're looking to spend on a few of these and you're set. I've had my current scale for 2 years and counting. Member Goose52 did a very in depth review on how accurate they are if you're so inclined to look it up. My findings have been the same, they're extremely accurate. https://www.ebay.com/itm/133487611104?_trkparms=aid%3D1110018%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.COMPLISTINGS%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111452%26meid%3D648e490b819b445590d1cd7bce146459%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D10%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D151427094964%26itm%3D133487611104%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DItemStripV101HighAdFeeWithCompV3Ranker&_trksid=p2047675.c101196.m2219&amdata=cksum%3A133487611104648e490b819b445590d1cd7bce146459|enc%3AAQAFAAACAMT%2Fgsoq1wRJGabl3l2zcTMmPSQUa%2FCSr75hCuoKr1CT%2Butr8mZaevIBAu7eMQ7ALILEV6sAIVOMBZ81tHEY3AbKxuFMzv08pnek00372EfRhWAZbIvmg22PcK3HZ%2BxVB4aqHFplkINaZo4R4k1VMkEkkx63vuAHz4rvrG5E53LbeG%2BY53c6UOpP7fAJmjTjbWmy%2FVMaVKnZs9heAf0gdEdb0VTurxpDueRaKEc2lWTlHv852buAVXtR9ihC8OtePccbwqgLYADXKcz7EcDo3XdU9YPes6SctaUStlklB%2FFl03R%2BcKLObGKuwaCv93CXJP22foUrzlw09XbUiOthpAchLxhlWvAOv6VU97%2BGWtMcatFmaSKxeNL5oXXOD%2BbQLBdzt6ROd%2BQaLo%2BEdRhNTGn1I8G5bzZteJaprEoZCyrsFDmXDDQYoxEfwV2W4yf%2FpH2lX18D9OXkHt8o1FqT5d5yKL1VOs8ApuXgexTeolx%2B5FfaFlmVNmtblHrLC22nO0C80fQAE4pa5LRZbab%2FHMnxz3pd84MVwqKf6f%2FlarB5gM%2FM6O1Oys3RNhX7W1fTkTuqWvuNGY%2FzxCTWs8C%2B4yhhlRRKXHd7pM%2BkMqXjTyaIR61x7dxMXr%2Byna30cBPbFMm35GjG%2FEDPfwSsP32WT7EqDlDCrnsckRmLU%2BuU95mB|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2047675

I understand the thinking and it's how I've tried to rationalize my big swimbait purchases to guys that think I'm crazy. I've got a Slammer that has caught hundreds of fish and could easily catch hundreds more. Initial cost of $50 sounds expensive, but price per fish is very low. The same people that laugh at buying a bait that expensive don't think twice of buying a pack of 1 fish per bait Senkos that are much less cost efficient. I still fish a lot of plastics, but the notion that they're "cheaper", is mostly not true.

Honestly, it's probably more that I just don't fish worms that often and they were kind of a casualty of my attempt at simplification a few years ago. If I'm fishing a bigger worm, it's going to be a couple colors by a couple makers and it just makes it easier that way, especially when I don't throw them that often.

Nope, they're a great bait still but not the shiny new thing is probably why I stopped using them.

Right as the sun went down at our campsite, the catfish went nuts. I'd kept about 10 white perch to use for live bait hoping for a big blue cat or striper. I don't know if they were all channel cats, but I finally hooked one of the stupid things after about 5 failed attempts at hooking them. Wish the people next to us would have wanted it, might have made me feel a little better ? My wife captured the action shot of me cranking all 4lbs of him in on 65lb braid, a 300 size baitcasting reel, and 8' xh catfish casting rod.

I usually call them a string of expletives when I've pulled for the hundredth time and it still hasn't started. There's something so satisfying about hammer throwing a finicky weedeater, except when you realize now a new one has to be purchased ?‍♂️

I fish a frog all day long around grass. Water willows are my favorite. They work well on some lakes and not so great on others. I don't like Lake Lenexa, so I can't tell you how they are out there. Gardner has a good frog bite and Olathe can at times. Middle Creek gets a great frog bite at times too. Side note to the frogging discussion, tried the new 6th Sense Vega frog, one of the most disappointing baits I've tried from 6th Sense. Difficult to walk and the hookup to landing ratio was even worse. Out of probably a dozen bites and hookups, 2 made it to the boat/kayak. They weren't little fish just nipping at it either, these were 15+ inch fish that were inhaling the frog and those hooks just don't do their job. Wish I'd have bought 2 Popping Pad Crashers instead.

It's the Super Slick. I tried it once for pitching grass, my usual 50lb test. I've never broke braid on the hookset so many times in my life as I did with that line. I'd check the knot to make sure it was good, no zebs to cut my line, no rocks, just water willows on muck bottoms. I pitch in, get bit, and whip, nothing was there anymore, just braid flapping in the breeze. Tore it off the reel and never had the issue before or since.

Man I'd never get to use mine if I followed that rule ?. A lot of it depends on the kayak I imagine though. I've had mine in 20mph plenty of times and never felt like it was too much. You certainly should watch the weather more and check it ahead of time because mistakes are greatly magnified in a kayak.

If you can find them anywhere, I bet these would be great for those with the cicada hatches right now. I have one, but no cicadas... https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Duo_Realis_Shinmushi_Cicada_Bug/descpage-DUOSHI.html

I use to fish the heck out of them growing up. Black neon was my go to color. I fished them with an 1/8oz weight and it was just enough to make the tail move on the fall.

Been pretty off the grid the last several days. Went on a camping/fishing trip to a lake in Kansas that's about as middle of nowhere as you can get and had zero service, which was pretty nice except for during my kayak tournament on Saturday there. My wife and kids went with me and got to experience it a little bit too of what all goes into prefishing for a tournament and trying to breakdown a lake, but we made time to have some fun swimming and relaxing around the campsite also. Little bit of everything out there. Caught my first striper I've ever caught in Kansas, and my first ever white perch (no picture since they're not really that exciting of a catch). Caught my first several bass on a Tiny Klash, really had a solid pattern down, and then it got completely ruined by wind and waves stirring up the water Saturday. That's the way it goes sometimes. Finn accidentally poached this smallmouth from me when he was reeling his Ned rig in right behind my swim jig. I missed the fish with my jig and it honed in on his Ned when it came spiraling by, his first fish by himself. There was a ton of walleye boats out practicing for a walleye tournament that was on Sunday. They were all complaining of how difficult the fishing was. I guess they were fishing too deep. I couldn't get them to leave a jerkbait alone. I took Lake out one afternoon because the guys in the campsite next to us that were also in the kayak group, said they wanted some walleye if I could catch them some. One of the few lakes in the state that still has a 15" length limit so getting good keeper sized fish is much easier. Tied on a Rozante for Lake and showed him how to fish it and we never had to move the boat to catch a 2 person limit of walleye, although we didn't keep that many. He caught a really nice one that we released also. Lake also caught a couple nice smallmouth and several white perch and white bass. Wore himself out so bad he fell asleep on our run to the next spot ? Had a walleye boat watching it go down came up and talked to us when we were packing up to move. Said he'd caught 1 all day and couldn't believe how we were catching them so easy like that. I told him what we were doing. Last I saw before we took off he was digging out a jerkbait from his box. q

The top fish is significantly longer than 18". It doesn't "appear" to me to be an 8lb 10oz bass, but I wasn't there to see it weighed so idk. I've caught some extremely fat fish from the power plant lake I winter fish, but nothing even close to 18" and 8lbs. One this winter was the closest at 18" and 5.5 pounds. Imagine what that fish would look like to be another 3.25lbs bigger than this fish at the same length ?

Largemouth