Bluebasser86

I'm in the year long Catch 2026 challenge, trying to CPR 2,026 bass like I did with 2,025 bass last year. I wasn't going to do it but when I was on the podcast for being the first person other than Marty Hughes to accomplish it, my son told me I had to do it again, so now I'm slogging through it all over again. I don't know how Marty does it every year, it's not a fun challenge. There are some night time kayak tournaments, but unfortunately, none around here. I'm sure, kind of a confidence thing though and they always seem to really like the blues at this lake. I do agree that the white seems to be a better option when the moon is bright.

Another vote for Seaguar Pounce. Affordable and very durable, great knot strength, just no complaints at all.

Drink lots of water, sun protection clothing, that's about it. Fish at night if you can get yourself to do it.

If I lived close to the ocean, I doubt I'd spend much time fishing for bass for many of the reasons you listed. The variety of fish in the ocean, the size, how hard they fight, and they taste good. I don't blame you one bit for choosing to fish for them instead of beating your head into the wall fishing for bass that don't want to cooperate.

The best day I ever had on Stockton was when it was flooded, flipping a big tube into the bushes.

Jig or bladed jig are my favorite baits to fish. My most effective is probably some kind of finesse bait, either a Ned or Neko.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-DOUBLECOL.html The hammered blades are hard to find on a bait in the stores anymore, I have to make my own to get those.

I bought a pack of the markers and never got to use them because they dried up in the pack? I will not go fishing without chartreuse Spike It dip though.

I've been catching fish with them almost every place I've tried them. I'm just using cheap KO TPE urchins from various places in assorted colors. I probably have 30 of them now. I've been using the treble rig with the most success. The hook I'm using is actually from Aliexpress, just like most of my baits and my weights. The hooks are a 3X #1 teflon coated treble, remind me of the hooks that come on Duo baits but a heavier hook, very sharp and strong hooks. I posted a picture of the weights on another thread but I'll post them again here if this is to be the official urchin thread. I push one of these through the wire hole and run one of my hook points through the eye of the weight, then use a bait keeper on the hook point. So far, I haven't lost a single bait with that setup and my hookup/landing ratio has been very high. I switched to a fishing it on a jig rod also, either a 7' or 7' 3", both MH with either 15 or 17lb Tatsu. The whole setup is plenty heavy to cast with them and skip under docks. I've been preferring the 7' rod, because I'm snapping the bait pretty much like a jerkbait and it's a little easier with the slightly shorter rod. They are catching larger than average fish for me in the lakes I'm using them and fooling fish that aren't biting other baits. They're not magic, but they're a very effective bite getter and big fish catcher.

Finally made myself get out Friday night and do some night fishing, boy am I glad that I did. The forecast was only calling for 4-7 mph winds, but they were blowing a lot harder than that, had me a little concerned right at the start to be honest. I got on the water right at 11, it's always kind of surreal at the power plant lake at night. The benefit is that visibility is way higher out there at night than any other lake you'll find. I really felt out of practice fishing in the dark, having not done it for a couple years, but it didn't take long before the bites started happening. The first one was a little 15" fish on my blue bladed jig, but the next one was much better. I like fishing a football jig on the rocky banks, but I don't carry many dark colored ones, mostly craw colors. Thankfully, I did have one @Siebert Outdoors 1/2oz black and blue football jig in the box. My first cast got pounded but it came off shortly after the hookset. A couple cast later, it got thumped again and the hookset stuck this time. My first big fish of the night was 20.75" and almost 5.5lbs. Not long after that fish, another big fish crushed my War Eagle night spinnerbait. A second 20.75" and nearly 5.5 pounder hit the net. After that, it was really a blur, I was getting so many bites and catching so many quality fish, I can't really remember what caught what or when except that I switched to a black and blue homemade bladed jig and started stroking it off the bottom and they really liked that. It didn't seem like there was many times during the night that I made more than 5-10 cast between bites, which is just hammering them on a lake where catching 10 fish is a real accomplishment a lot of days. I worked a 10" worm into the mix and I know that it caught one of the fish that was in my final 5 bag for the night, either a 19 or 19.50 inch fish, the other would have ate the black and blue bladed jig I believe. I do know for sure that one of my retrieves with the 10" power worm, I was just starting to reel in to make another cast when it was abruptly stopped, and then slowly pulled down. It was pretty obvious from the hookset it wasn't a bass. It had even my 7' 5" H rod folded over and that 20lb Tatsu was singing as it sliced through the water. I was not surprised at all to see what had engulfed my worm. I don't think I've ever made a night trip out there without catching at least one flathead, I caught 2 this night, the other was much smaller. As the night sky started to change from black to dark blue, my bladed jig again got thumped on the drop by another 20" fish, this one going 20.25" and and 4.75lbs. That fish put my total for the night at 100.25", the first time I've ever broke the century mark from the kayak in Kansas.

My bank trips the last two mornings have produced a larger than average fish both mornings. Both of them fell for this tiny bait fished weightless.

My grandpa took his teeth out in front of a very young me once and it scarred me for life. I've taken extra good care of my teeth my whole life and 40 years in have yet to have a cavity. This is the stuff of nightmares for me.

I can't even remember the last time i fished a crankbait 😅 Don't have to worry about which one to use if you don't use any of them.

Mike's baits are works of arts and I agree with them almost being so nice you don't want to fish with them.

Caught a monster of a green sunfish on an urchin last night in the Tuesday night tournament, pretty sure it would be a PB if I kept track of them for greenies.

I usually try to land them as quickly as possible but nothing I'd consider skiing them in. Spinning gear usually takes a little more wearing them down and so does treble hooked baits. Single hooked baits on baitcasting gear they usually get cranked in and landed pretty quickly.

I use the same tackle in my kayak that I do in my bass boat. Some things are easier to do in my boat than the kayak, like fishing big swimbaits is easier in my boat because of the stability and ability to control my position better, but I still catch plenty of swimbait fish from the kayak. I stand and fish less in my kayak than I do the boat, but that's kind of technique dependent.

I've been fishing it almost like a jerkbait, pretty aggressive snaps and the pause depends on how deep I'm fishing it.

I have an Aliexpress BFS reel that has been pretty good for what it is. I paid about $30 for it and it's been better than I'd hoped. The rod I bought for it was nice until I forgot where I was and set the hook into a concrete structure and broke it. Now it seems that it's pretty difficult to get another shipped here as I've had one lost in the mail for about a month now.

I carry a disc golf retriever in my kayak that works well for retrieving snagged baits. If I can't get something lose, I'll wrap it around my hand/arm and break it off though. Never cut it because it just adds to the mess of line in the water.

I'm using these run into the wire hole of the bait and then running a treble through the hold of the weight. Makes it pretty tough for the fish to toss them and seems to hook up well. Pretty sure I caught a new PB green sunfish on an urchin yesterday that had the whole thing in it's mouth.

I left some baits sitting at a popular fishing spot with the local kids the other morning, they were gone later that day. You could make a FB marketplace post offering it to someone, but your phone is going to get blown up offering free stuff. Last time I had a bunch of stuff to get rid of we had a garage sale and I sold about 20lbs of plastics and a bunch of old hard baits to a kid for $10, I thought he was going to cry for a minute 😂

Man I hate a C-rig, but I really need to get better at it. I'd probably be able to be a lot more effective with it now with Livescope where I can see the structure I want to fish instead of just fan casting points. It's not a very fun way to fish but it sure does catch big ones.

Keep your net in the same, easily to reach spot every time. I keep mine in the same, exact spot in my kayak every time and I can find it without even looking for it when I'm fighting a big fish. Staying calm and timing when to grab the net is important to reduce the amount of time you've only got one hand on the rod/reel. I get the fish worked to the boat and I don't touch my net until I'm going to pick it up and immediately net the fish. It basically ends up making it one, smooth motion from when I release a hand from the rod, grab the net, and scoop the fish. I see a lot of guys getting the fish to their kayak and then immediately grabbing the net while the fish still has a lot of fight left in it and then they're trying to control the fish with one hand and their net with the other and end up losing the fish.

I was actually able to track down and find more of them. It's a Duo Realis Rozante 77sp KO but I couldn't remember from where and finally found them.