Bluebasser86

I take my boys to them during the summer months to wade and catch whatever will bite. It’s what made me fall in love with fishing when I was a kid and they seem to really enjoy it also.

The Cavitron is still one of my favorites but I fish the Croc-O-Gator more often anymore. The 1/4oz gold blade/black skirt is just a killer little bait.

I like them, much better than a Fluke IMO. I like the clam shell because one of my biggest gripes with a fluke is they get bent and ruined easily.

I’m slacking, so far this week I’ve only caught 37 bass 😔

Well I've got another tournament recap to type up but I'm too tired to do it right now. So for now, enjoy this super aggressive bite from prefishing, back when I thought it was going to be a fun tournament. The Okuma X Series rod and reel and Seaguar Smackdown were putting in work on the practice day.

It is, the blade is somewhat diamond shaped and connected right in front of the head and again towards the end of the wire.

I record my trips, and see a fair number of other people doing the same around here. There's a few in our kayak group that record their trips, and several local guys that boat fish and record their trips. I get recognized occasionally from my channel, I never really know how to react to it.

PY-6.02 Ned Rig BioSpawn ExoNed/Homemade 1/16oz head CY-9.72 Homemade Blk/Blue 1/2oz Flipping Jig PB-10lb 2oz Zoom Mag Lizard Watermelonseed I haven't caught any notable smallmouth the last couple years. I only remember weighing one this year that was 3.51 on a 6th Sense Provoke 106DD. Not sure I put one on a scale last year.

I saw a video of that bait online somewhere and the action intrigued me so I had to make my own. It's pretty unique but not a complete bladed jig replacement IMO. The vibration isn't as hard and it can't be fished nearly as slowly as a bladed jig. Not really any way to effectively lift and drop the bait off the bottom either. It's basically a pretty straight retrieve type bait.

I wish we had officers checking people here. I couldn't tell you the last time I got checked. I'd guess it was before my wife and I were even married, over 15 years ago.

That's a small longnose gar. Shortnose and spotted gar have a much shorter, but wider, snout, than longnose gar do. A longnose gar's snout is much longer than it's head. Shortnose also don't have the spots on their body like a longnose, just a few towards the tail.

White bass are fun for a couple fish, then I'm tired of the spiny things. I do like finding them when I'm looking for catfish bait though. They're real bloody and big blues and flatheads love them. No limit most lakes that have them here, size or numbers, so they're a great option for bait. They're nice when I've got my kids with me though, they put up a perfect amount of fight for them and are always eager biters.

My dad did most of his bass fishing in ponds when I was a kid, so he had a pretty limited selection of bass baits. I remember a black rubber popping frog that he always fished on the lightest spinning rod he had for some reason (probably because it was hollow and hard to cast on a baitcaster I imagine). Then there was the spinnerbaits with rubber skirts and big hammered, Colorado blades. He had a chartreuse one and a white one, both were probably 3/4oz heads. He fished those a lot and caught quite a few fish on them. The Mann's Snatrix and Jellyworm (both in black), were the only worms I remember him fishing back then and they were always just loose in the slots of his tacklebox. The only crankbaits I remember are ones he used to troll for walleye (his preferred target species). There was the crawdad colored #7 Shad Rap, Storm Hot-N-Tots, and Cotton Cordell Wall-e Divers. He had one Zara Spook in a baby bass color I'm pretty sure he still has to this day. He's got a little more selection now, a lot of baits that I've bought for him or given to him since he fishes lakes. He's even got a Megabass 110, which after he first bought it, he immediately caught a trout on it that in turn, buried the hook under his fingernail and sent him to the ER.

Trick worms, and just straight tail worms in general like the Mag Finesse and Mag Trick Worm style baits, are one of the best fish catching designs available. They're not exciting to look at, but you can rig them so many different ways and they'll produce no matter how you want to fish them. The standard Zoom versions are great, but YUM and Big Bite Baits both offer good versions that I also use.

This is the only way my baits get "retired". In this case, my beloved Berkley Canewalker had an unfortunate run in with my kayak's trolling motor on the cast last weekend. RIP to this brave soldier that has fought and won many a battle 😪 The fish don't just bite this bait, they try to kill it.

I carry a bottle but I forget to use it a lot of the time.

Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, South Carolina,Florida, Ontario, and Sinaloa.

Length is a more consistent measurement IMO. Weight can vary so much, especially the longer a fish gets. I caught a 23.5” fish in March that was 8.5 pounds. Then 2 days later caught a 23.25” fish that was 9.76lbs. The longest fish I ever caught was 24.5” but only weighed 7.5lbs.

For me, a 5lb or 20” largemouth is what I consider a big Kansas bass. For smallmouth, it’s 3lbs or 18”.

Fished a little tournament yesterday and my oldest son Lake decided to join me. I had to put him together a kayak crate to be able to mount a light, flag, and a 3 rod holder. This was the longest tournament he’s done, only the second one, and he was by far the youngest of the 16 people competing. We got to our first spot a few minutes after lines in. I caught one my first cast on a homemade black and blue bladed jig (what I caught all my keepers on). I was giving Lake instructions on how to fish a wacky rig since he almost only uses a Ned rig. I told him to cast to the back corner of a dock and let it sink, and he made a perfect cast. I was telling him to lift it slowly to feel for a fish but a fish interrupted my lesson. I heard the splash and barely saw the fish in the early morning light, I could tell it was a good one. The drag was screeching on the St. Croix GXR spinning reel as the fish dove under the boat. He did a great job though and got it in the net. On a lake where the average fish is probably 12”, his 19.75” fish was a monster and I immediately realized I hadn’t entered us in the big bass pot. I was probably more excited than he was, knowing that one fish 5 minutes into the morning gave him a real, legitimate chance to win some money. We kept going and I filled out a very small limit pretty fast. I was mainly focused on Lake getting his 5 fish and coached him and kept cheering him on. He picked up his next 3 pretty quickly and I thought he’d get a limit easy, but then the wind started blowing and it really made it tough in a kayak with no reverse and no motor. He still kept battling and looked like he’d been doing it forever out there. I picked up a couple little better quality fish and Lake finally got his limit fish. It wasn’t a big limit but it was 5 and he could cull up some really small ones. Unfortunately, those culls never came. I was not really thinking about winning when I caught another small cull. Then my next cast, another fish boiled on my bladed jig. When I set the hook, it didn’t move, then it started moving away from me, fast. I thought it was going to break me off. “It has to be a catfish or wiper”, is what I told Lake. Then I saw the green fish swim by the boat and rio my whole rod down into the water, I told him it was a bass. I’ve never seen a bass shaped like this before, but it gave him some serious torque. I thought that one put me around 75”, I thought I probably needed a little more to win but was running out of time. The sun finally came out and I tried a micro jig and had a fish pick it up. It ran straight to the kayak and jumped, tossing the bait. It was a solid 16” fish, would have been a good cull, I thought that was the fish I needed. I only caught one more fish before we went to weigh in. When I tallied it up, I actually had 77.50”, which turned out to be enough for the win! Lake ended up in 7th place, not bad for an 11 year old fishing against adults.

I watch a lot of local guys and a few bigger names, not all bass fishermen. Damien Thao Kristine Fischer Greg Blanchard PigpatrolTV (I actually took Josh fishing once before he was a full time YouTuber). Kayak Catfish River Certified

I’ve only been to MC once this year a couple weeks ago but I did well. Caught my longest Kansas bass of the year so far with a 21” fish. Been to Melvern several times between tournaments and fun fishing. I won both tournaments I fished out there and was out there on Mother’s Day and caught several really nice fish on a tube.

40lb is fine around sparse grass. I'm a big fan of Smackdown as well.

Daiwa Tatula SV 6.3

I have my kids using the Daiwa Revros. Super nice reels for the money.