Bluebasser86

Getting ready for a road trip with the family this week, taking the boat and kayak because I have a kayak tournament at the lake we're staying at Saturday. Doing the normal checks and noticed grease inside the wheel cover ?‍♂️ So I spent this morning tearing apart my trailer hub and cleaning the grease out and then remembered it's a holiday so there's no way I'm getting any bearings. So the trailer sat on jacks and blocked the whole garage all day waiting to hopefully get fixed tomorrow when I can buy the needed supplies. I get closer every time I have to mess with junk like this to selling it and becoming a full time kayak angler. The amount of hassle and stress that could be avoided. If my family didn't enjoy going with me, it'd be long gone.

These have been my wacky hooks of choice for a year or two now. They're excellent, get almost 100% hookup ratio with them.

I have a mold to pour my own 5/8, 3/4, and 1oz. I use the 3/4 a lot to make my own what I call "big ugly", spinnerbaits. The heavy head is required to counterbalance the huge Colorado blades I mount on them for maximum thump. A lot of them are tied with rubber skirts too.

Welcome!

Old Town Sportsman 120pdl

But they kind of tie the whole outfit together though?

Sight fishing gar is wildly underrated. Not only are they very willing biters, but they're hard fighters and acrobatic when hooked and they grow large.

Got out to SMP in the kayak for a while Saturday and had a pretty nice morning.

I have the Full Contact Finesse. It's a really versatile rod in the baits it will handle. I've used it for more finesse sized ball jigs or 1/4oz swing heads, to 5/8oz jigs for flipping heavy wood. It's done all of it no problems.

I use 5/0 and 6/0 on 3/8oz.

I use a Frabill telescoping pole. It's pretty dang close to 100% when I get it out.

Mine was either this or a Roadrunner with a curly tail. I always liked the chartreuse head with a camo grub. Caught a ton of everything on those prerigged worms though.

Get one headed your way in a hurry if you need it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/192815340934?hash=item2ce4b09d86:g:qa4AAOxyeR9TLb2P

My fairly short trip to avoid as much holiday traffic as possible. Local park lake that gets a lot of traffic but has some nice fish. Found one flipping a Backwater blue Rage bug in the grass and lost one on a Black Neon YUM Wooly Bug that made the trip worthwhile. Water was dirtier than usual, had them up shallow cruising the water willows, right where I like them.

They're both a soft bait, that's about where the similarities end for me. Tube is bigger, fished on the bottom, on a heavier head, with heavier gear, on a weedless head or open hook. Ned is fished off the bottom, on a light head, with lighter gear, a smaller profile and slower fall, with an open hook.

I'm not getting on a horse. Rode a little bit growing up and them stupid, spooky things aren't my idea of a fun time. I could pull off something like this.

That's barely noticeable compared to a lot of them that I see during the spring and early summer here. I feel bad about catching some of them they look like they've been caught so many times.

I thought about staying home but decided to take the kayak to a park lake that doesn't allow gas motors but is usually really crowded. Felt like I outsmarted everyone. Fished for 5 hours, there was a couple other people kayaking and only 1 other fisherman by the time I left.

Happened in July back in 2019.

You're not going to avoid any holiday shenanigans at Miami. There's going to be 10 tents on every pier (where the fish are), and probably 15-20 boats/kayaks/canoes. Plus there's no patrol out there so it gets pretty rough. Had a guy get attacked by a random stranger a few years ago for no apparent reason who tried to drown him and they never caught the guy.

I saw some balls of fry at Kill Creek and Gardner both last week. There were still fish on beds at Milford last weekend.

I'll be at Wilson next Wenesday-Sunday so I might just skip it this weekend. I'll just end up mad if I go to the lake this weekend I imagine. Maybe sneak out to one of the small, local lakes for a few hours early in the morning or something.

Thanks to all that have given the ultimate sacrifice. I've had the honor of working with a lot of Vets, one who did just that. He always had this saying posted on his locker and now I always have it with me to remind me of him and his constant fighting spirit. "If today is to be THE DAY, so be it. If you seek to do battle with me this day you will receive the best that I am capable of giving. It may not be enough, but it will be everything that I have to give and it will be impressive for I have constantly prepared myself for this day. I have trained, drilled and rehearsed my actions so that I might have the best chance of defeating you. I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in art of living and have become proficient in the application of survival. You may defeat me, but you will pay a severe price and will be lucky to escape me. You may kill me, but I am willing to die if necessary. I do not fear Death, for I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me. But I do fear the loss of my Family and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without Courage. So I WILL FIGHT YOU, no matter how insurmountable it may seem, and to the death if need be, in order that it may never be said of me that I was not a Warrior." Steven R. Watt "One Warrior's Creed"

Do this with a nightcrawler and use a worm blower to inflate part of the worm with air to keep it floating off the bottom. If you're set on using the trout worm, use a cylinder foam float like what is used for walleye rigs in front of the worm.

Sounds like you're looking at hand carved or small batch wakes. Those baits are more expensive simply because of supply and demand. The amount of R&D that goes into them and time spent creating them is another big factor. If you want a cheap wake bait, the Strike King 2.5 wake or Berkley Surge Shad are both under $8 and really good wakes. One is the longer profile, the other is the shorter, fatter profile.