Bluebasser86

Agree with the hookset being light for the bait you were fishing. Fine for moving baits with a treble hook but you'll never get away with that on a bigger fish with a soft plastic. Keep the rod in closer to your body so it's easier to control it. Sticking it out that far, if a big fish surges, it's going to move your arms and potentially gain that extra distance it needs to reach a snag and be gone. Plus, your arms will fatigue faster if the fight is an extended one. Try not to reel the fish so close to the rod tip, and never lift a fish with the rod like that. 100%, you will break a rod doing that in the future if you haven't already. From the bank, it's easiest to get the fish close enough to where you can drag them up to the shoreline and then lip them instead of lifting them with the rod.

I fish them a lot. All I do is drag them on the bottom like a football jig.

Don't be scared of Eagle Claw, it's all I use in my molds and what I use for at least 75% of my hooks. They're upped their quality big time the last several years. Look for models with the "BP" (black platinum) designation as those are their top of the line quality hooks, but still way cheaper than most others.

Commonly referred to as "scrubbing a grub", on the Ozark lakes. You're attempting to "scrub", the rocks with your grub. I do it a lot on Table Rock. It's painfully boring but man does it get bit.

I fish green pumpkin more, but if I had to pick 1 soft plastic color for the rest of my life, I'd go with solid black.

Warmest day in the 10 day forecast for me is 25*, only 1 other day in that span over 20*. Real winter has reared it's ugly head. Bad thing is I can't even go lure hunting because it's snowing too ?

I wouldn't bring anything other than hair jigs, roadrunners, Ned rigs, maybe small blade baits, in a cold river. Even with that, I'd be shocked to get bit.

Been a fan since the 80s. This winning thing is new to me. Even when they were "good", it was obvious they weren't good enough in past seasons. This was a winner either way scenario.

I remember hearing something about that. I know some places have "Hunters feeding the hungry", programs, we do here in Kansas. I've donated several deer to them. I've given a lot of Asian carp away at various boat ramps on the Kansas river also. Folks fishing for whatever will bite just looking for a meal are more than happy to take them. It's too bad common sense isn't allowed anymore and every single thing has to be regulated.

Wasn't real worried about drowning in water not even up to my shoulders, and I had someone there more than capable of helping in a life threatening situation.

They're so disgusting up close. They just look nasty, start bleeding the instant they land in the boat, slime everywhere, they stink, that weird eye and mouth, just not a visually appealing creature at all. They make terrific cut bait for catfish and gar though. I would think there would be some way they could be used in homeless shelters as a form of cheap protein? They aren't bottom feeders so assume their PCB levels would be much lower.

A bit of an understatement; Mitchell Swartz, starting pro bowl right tackle, IR with a back injury Eric Fischer, starting left tackle, IR with torn achilles Kelechi Osemele, starting guard, IR with torn tendons in both knees Lucas Niang, projected future starting right tackle, opted out, only rookie to do so in the entire league Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, starting guard, opted out to help fight Covid in Canada Britt Reid going and getting into a serious crash that badly hurt a child just over a day before the Super Bowl I'm sure didn't help Andy Reid concentrate on his play calling. It certainly didn't sound like it was any good. The better team of the night won. It went exactly how I thought it was going to. Congrats and thanks to TB12 and Tampa for the new Costa sunglasses I bought from my bet on the game ?

My first attempt at an underspin swim jig. Turned out pretty well and functions like it's supposed to. Wouldn't want to make a bunch, but it was fun trying to do one.

YUM Christie Craw or Craw Papi. Christie craw comes in a bulk pack too, which is nice.

In my experience, there is no training needed to get a cat to chase a jig. Getting them to release the jig without hooking themselves is the difficult part. A hooked house cat puts up a crazy fight and is very difficult to release though, I highly recommend thick leather gloves, maybe a powerful tranquilizer ?

They don't work in every situation though. I've swam after a few baits, last one I can remember was actually my friends Triple Trout he was casting in a pond and snagged a stump. He's scared to swim anywhere other than a swimming pool and I'm a good friend so I got it for him, in 50 degree water ? I've swam down into a tree to unsnag a bass that got me hung up. I thought she was way bigger than she turned out to be. Probably 22" long and paper thin, barely 4lbs. Also swam out to unsnag a 40+lb flathead that wrapped my line up while I actually targeting them one night. Swimming out into the lake and diving down to try and find a big flathead with your hands in the dark is a bit, unsettling, but I got it done.

x2 on the coppernose. Look very similar to a regular bluegill.

The last Pfluegar President spinning reel I bought. Started feeling rough after about a month, all the paint started to blister really quickly. Basically unusable after a month. That was about when I found out they'd sold out, so at least I knew not to buy any more.

Get some shrink tubing and use that instead of braid to clean it up a little.

Lots of guys buying $17 Jackhammers because the pros tell them to. Do they work? Sure. Are they catching anyone any more fish than a cheaper bait? Who knows but as long as the pros are catching fish on them and hawking them, they'll be getting sold. We seem to be very gullible to any bait that we can see catching fish or hear about catching fish repeatedly.

For an actual brown craw colored bait, I like a Pitboss in Texan color.

I've done well with red lipless baits in ponds. Seems to depend on the pond though. It works great in some and I flail the water with it in others.

Classic bait would be a Hula Popper maybe? I don't own any and haven't owned one for years. Popular bait would be a Fat Ika. I've tried them several times and they rarely got bit for me and the hookup ratio is horrible.

I think a flutter spoon is the only bait I've spent any time with that hasn't been productive for me. Jigging spoon, great producer, flutter spoon, nadda.

I had a big owl smash a jitterbug, break my rod, crash land into some briars, then tear the hooks out of it's feet when it took back off again. Thought it was a giant bass when I heard the splash but then my line just kept going up and up and once I saw him fly in front of the moon, I realized what had happened.