Bluebasser86

Nothing about that fish looks like a bullhead. I saw this a couple days ago and had a facepalm moment. Can't believe that Outdoor Life published it. I hope someone at IGFA actually knows what a bullhead looks like or that's going to be a giant mistake of a record.

A did a dum-dum move this weekend. Trying to get my gear ready for the morning after being away for 30+ hours, I wasn't exactly laser focused so when one of my rods slid down a bit into the door out of the passenger seat of my truck before I closed it, didn't notice until I heard the crunch. My bladed jig rod, that I didn't even end up needed or using all weekend, got squished. It split the handle section from top to bottom but I can put pressure on it and it doesn't fold so I don't know if there's a way it can be saved possibly? One of my favorite rods so I hate to scrap it but it's 110% my fault so I guess if I have to buy a new one, then that's what I have to do.

I bought my Fuego SV from Aliexpress and have bought a lot of other products from them. Never had any issues other than shipping can be a lengthy process.

This is similar to how I make them, but I cut down to where the line tie of the hook is suppose to be so there's a grove to drop the blade in. So the blade is poured on a closed loop instead of an open loop. It's a little more tedious painting it, but for guys that like straight braid, it won't open up. Plus I used a swinging poison mold so I've got the 3/4 and 1oz for magnum bladed jigs too all in 1 mold.

Which one is it? There's a 4" shiner, 4" bluegill, 4" baitfish. I've got all of them. As with any weedless bait, the hookup ratio isn't as good as it would be with an exposed hook, but with the right equipment and by prepping the bait, you can increase it quite a bit.

Owner ST 36 are my main hook of choice. The Berkley Fusion 19 trebles are also very nice and an overlooked option as well.

Used a jerkbait that is literally all 3 colors combined to catch one of my 5 Saturday. If anyone has and Duo Realis Rozante 77's in Florida II color they want to sell, I'm your guy.

I'm sure you probably know what a Butch Brown Rig is, but I'll mention it just in case.

Guys, guys, just turn your attention to YUM if you want some cheap and effective baits. Or don't and leave them all to me, I don't care either way but don't want everyone getting so worked up about it. I've got more YUM than Zoom in my boat and if I had to go all the YUM baits tomorrow, I doubt I'd miss them. Plus they do bulk packs of a lot of their baits, which is huge plus in my book.

A wacky jighead

Lots of different baits but there's a good chance it will be a spinnerbait, bladed jig, or jig.

Went through a whole pack of the tubes this past weekend, the 3.75" size in the "Five Large", color. I was fishing for smallmouth, but those silly green fish kept eating it.

Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm

Black Dog Shellcracker 18" to be 3lbs is a good benchmark but not a definite. I've caught a lot of 16" 3lbers and some 18" fish that went over 5. Just got back from 3 days of camping and prefishing/tournament fishing so this is going to get windy. Kayak tournament #3 of the year was at Milford Lake, KS a little over 2 hours from the house, a bit too far to do the day trip thing. So I got a camping spot and with my wife's blessing, spent the night in a tiny tent (that wasn't water tight as it turns out), camping right on the shoreline of the reservoir. I got to the lake around 4:30am after leaving work at 2am. As I prepped my gear on the shoreline, I'd brought 3 catfish rods to spend some time fishing for blue cats and found a near dead crappie on the shoreline (legal bait in Kansas as long as they're keeper sized), so I cut it and lobbed it out. Had a hard time getting set up because my rods kept getting hit while I was doing that. Not sure how many I caught just getting everything set up but right before I reeled them in I got a double with a 12 pounder and a smaller one. This kind of set the pace for the day as it was a big time multispecies day. I caught a ton of blue cats with my dragging rod I had in the rod holder dragging cut white bass behind the kayak all day. With that said, I obviously also caught white bass, along with largemouth, smallmouth, a ton of crappie, a couple channel cats, a drum, a few wipers, and more walleye than I've caught in a single day in a long time. When a blue cat this size hits the dragging rod with the drag tight and a circle hook, it stops the kayak in it's tracks I found out. Day 2 I focused more on some different areas for bass. Milford is primarily a smallmouth lake, and I'd caught and seen very few the first day so I knew I needed to find some more. I fished the arm I was camping in. Found a bunch more largemouth, including some bigger ones, some spotted bass on beds which are a pretty rare fish on this lake, and again a multispecies bonanza. Saturday was tournament morning. I didn't have a solid plan because I'd never found the smallmouth, but I had 1 bank where I'd caught the largemouth that I'd shook off a lot of bites on a tube that felt like smallmouth, so I was hoping that was what I was getting hit by. Problem was, this bank is one of the most popular shore fishing spots for crappie and catfish (I HATE the crappie spawn btw). I put in the sailboat ramp because it was close and well lit. Since it was going to be dark for the first 30 minutes, and I've never caught many smallies in the dark, I decided to go behind the marina docks and see if I could catch any of the largemouth of spots I'd seen the day before. I don't think it even took 30 minutes of fishing a Chug Bug my oldest son had ironically found on the shore on our previous trip to the same lake before I had a limit of small largemouth. As soon as the sun started to get up, I booked it to my good bank from the day before. A couple cast into it with a Duo Rozante, I hooked a good fish, saw it was the biggest smallmouth I'd hooked the whole time. I was taking my time playing her around the kayak when she dove and stopped, everything stopped. 8lb test Tatsu and zebra mussels everywhere and she'd found something to dive into. My stomach sank, I dropped the rod, and by some miracle, she swam out and I scooped a 17" smallmouth and made my first cull of the day. I was pumped, thought my smallmouth plan was going to come together. Let me tell you, I've never had such an awful time hooking fish anywhere else than this lake. I remember fishing a tournament when I was teenager with my friend when I worked at Cabela's. He caught our entire limit and made fun of me for setting the hook on rocks all day. I even showed him at one point when a fish was swimming off with my bait, made him stop and look at my line moving off, set the hook and got nothing. I felt like I was reliving it this day. I was fishing a tube and I'd be surprised if I had a 25% hookup ratio, it was awful. When I did hook one, it was a dink or a crappie. The bank was only 100 yards long. Fished up and down 3 or 4 times before I moved on, discouraged by all the solid fish I'd felt on the hookset that never made it to the boat. When back to the sailboat marina and found one of the nice spotted bass on a bed. Caught it, 15.75", not much of a cull but a little over an inch. Took a picture with the tournament app, something I'd just learned how to do, tried to submit but the water drops on my phone made it click the "back" button instead. I'd released the fish already and the picture was gone. It doesn't go to a gallery like when I use my camera app on my phone, like salt in an open wound after missing all those fish. I pedaled across the cove and out to a big windblown point. Caught a few white bass and another crappie. Figured I would swing for the fences and the conditions were right. Tied on a 5" Bull Shad and started fan casting this long, shallow point. Took about 3 cast before it got hammered, and I completely missed it. Spent another 10 minutes casting the point and it never came back. I'd had the lead all morning, but as I pedaled back to where I'd camped at, I checked again and saw my lead quickly disappearing and knew it was going to be gone if I didn't start catching fish. I made a switch on my Ned rig from a PB&J 10,000 Fish Sukoshi Bug to a PB&J TRD. Not sure if it was the color or the profile, but second cast to a point I'd fished a couple times already, I pulled a 16" smallmouth. Went down the bank I'd missed all the fish on again, except everyone had showed up now. There was a couple set up with 6 catfish rods launched out into the lake, a guy crappie fishing, and someone who decided not to use the boat ramp but just launch their jetskis right off the bank there. I picked through the areas I could hit, found they were still there and biting. I squeezed in next to the crappie guy on the spot where it goes from deep to shallow and changed from sand to big chunk rock. I think it was my first cast I hooked a heavy fish. I was afraid it was a drum by the way it was moving, but I started feeling big, fast head shakes. I knew it couldn't be a drum and started to get excited. I saw it and it was clearly the biggest smallmouth I'd had on all weekend. Another competitor had pulled in next to me and got to watch as I scooped the net under an 18" smallmouth and finally felt like I could breath a little. They really liked the change in my Ned rig on this spot and I pulled 10-15 in short order, catching the attention of a pontoon passing by. They pulled up right behind me and were literally casting on either side of my kayak to the bank. I just kept fishing, I'd dealt with too much to let a couple clueless jerks bother me at this point. When the Ned bite died, I hesitantly picked up my tube rod again. I switched to a softer Power tube from the one I'd fished in the morning. Made a few cast, they really wanted the tube snapped pretty hard off the bottom. One of the snaps, I felt the tick of a fish eating the tube. Slammed the rod back and it dug this time and another solid smallmouth went airborne. The only good one I caught on the tube all day, but it happened when it mattered and I put another 17" fish on the board. I worked the spot for 45 minutes and cleaned it out the best I could. Had about 20 minutes left so I ran quickly to the back of the sailboat marina again to try once more for a big largemouth. I didn't find any but I did see the biggest spotted bass I'd seen on a bed in between 2 cables. It was pretty snappy at my Ned my first drop so I knew I could get it to bite. It only took a few minutes of working on it before I got it stuck and worked between the cables. It was my last cull and my smallest fish of the day but a heck of a nice spotted bass for Kansas at 16.75". I know my luck will run out, but I'm enjoying this while it last.

Looks like it could be in that range to me at the top end. I wouldn't have guessed any higher just seeing the picture though.

Don't feel bad, I took a rod with me last weekend for my tournament that I never even took the cover off and still managed to close the handle in the truck door and crush it ? At least you caught fish with yours.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

How'd this guy sneak back in here ?

Welcome!

Lynn Dollar has a channel with a bunch of older Bassmaster tournaments. I won't call them old, because I remember watch a lot of them when I was a kid ?

When I say "cut", I'm talking about a small cove. I imagine there's lots of folks that use the term differently.

Caught this one last summer.

A friend at work has really bad allergies. He gets an injection a couple times a year and says that makes all the difference for him. Mine haven't been bad this year.