Bluebasser86

I haven't used that exact model of SDP, but I had the shakyhead rod and it was really nice.

I've know 3 guys with 150 E Techs on their boats. All 3 motors blew up within 5 years of them buying the boats. Maybe coincidence, but no way I'd buy one. Not many techs around here work on them either, so it's hard to get them worked on when something needs done.

I go big or small for warm water jerkbaits. My favorite is the Duo Realis Rozante 77sp. After that, I like the Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 127MR. Fish them fast with very little pause. I've caught so many fish on the Duo in water into the 80's, and big ones too. One in particular stands out. Water was in the low 70's, so not really warm yet, but way above what most consider jerkbait temps.

The 2.8" Fat Impact is really good for bass in clear water when they're feeding on small shad. I use one of the heads out of the Midwest Finesse Mold, usually 1/8-1/4 with a 1/0 hook.

I wish I wouldn't have waited so late in the year to order my kayak so maybe I would have gotten to use it more this year in preparation to hopefully fish tournaments out of it next year. I got to fish with my wife and kids a lot this year, which was really enjoyable. When everything else is closed down and the outdoors is really the only option, it was great to be able to share it with them.

I try to be as cheap as I can, without sacrificing quality. Some of my favorite plastics are YUM's, which are certainly on the cheaper side. Then I use hard baits that range all over the place from 4 or 5 dollars, to upwards of $40 for some custom made balsa cranks. They all catch fish if you put them in the right place at the right time.

I'm still using them and still a really big fan of them. Sapphire blue, Flamethrower, and chartreuse white swirl are a few colors that you didn't list that I have and use. Their durability is truly surprising and they have a really nice action on a bladed jig. I need to give one a shot as a spinnerbait trailer also.

He responds to people's questions when he can. He's also a full time touring pro with a lot of responsibilities to keep up with while trying to make his living so he doesn't always have time to sit down and answer everyone's questions. We've had a couple other pros do a little posting on the forum, James has been the most interactive one I can remember and I personally feel we're very lucky to have someone in his position here at whatever level he can be.

This is my very amateur attempt at showing and explaining the hook removal method, but it works just as well on a jighead as it does a worm hook or wacky rig hook like I was dealing with in the video.

The Rapala Shadow Rap Shad dives pretty shallow and also floats up moderately fast. I've been using one over shallow weeds at the lake by my house with decent success.

I like the translucent ones, or muted flash in clear water. Solid, bright colors or bright flash in stained to dirty water. I've done pretty well on the Strike King Carolina Chrome color, doesn't get any flashier than that.

I have a couple I keep meaning to post up here, maybe I'll remember some day ?

I fish the 1/2oz 95% of the time, the 1/4oz 4.5%, and the 3/4 that last 0.5%. I use a bunch of different retrieves but either a straight retrieve, or a lift and drop retrieve are my best ones. I rarely reach for a standard RES anymore, it's almost always a 2tap. Trust me, they like the 2tap.

My own with a standup head in a color I call grasshopper with a YUM craw papi or Christie craw on the back.

Color doesn't matter, until it does. On my scale of what's important, I don't know what place it is, but it might not even be top 5. I have seen those days it makes all the difference in the world though. My best finish in the BASS weekend series (a tournament a rightfully won but that's a different story), I was a co-angler and I was fishing a shakyhead with a green pumpkin/red flake trick worm on an 1/8oz shakyhead behind my boater. After I caught my first 2 keepers, he declared he didn't not even have a shakyhead because he hated finesse fishing. So I gave him the exact same one with a green pumpkin trick worm. He scrounged up a few keepers but never got his limit while I culled several times behind him doing the exact same thing with almost the exact same bait. The red flake must have been doing something for them. That was at Lake of the Ozarks, which gets a ton of fishing pressure, so a tiny thing like that could make a big difference.

When I need to "heavy finesse", I tie a finesse cut skirt on a 1/4 or 3/8oz brush jig or hidden eye flipping jig with a 4/0 hook.

Got out in the kayak Friday to fight the wind. I wasn't supposed to have to fight the wind, but like usual, the weatherman was wrong. At a lake I haven't fished much but has a good population of big fish, so that's what I was hoping to find. I found them, but man, my execution on putting them in the boat was terrible. Both the bigger ones I caught were hooked in the bottom lip. Caught them off the same spot, on the same bait, on almost back to back cast. A homemade black and blue bladed jig caught a majority of the fish for me including my bigger ones. The bigger one is my newest kayak PB at 4.98lbs.

Smallies are a blast. They use to be pretty rare around here but they've taken hold in several lakes in the area thankfully. Congrats on your first one.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Nope, I fish year round, even when it's extremely cold out.

2 options I like in very pressured ponds, either small and super natural, or big swimbaits. The first option for obvious reasons, the second because they're not seeing them most likely, and big swimbaits draw even pressured fish in.

I was fishing a 7 acre city "lake" by our house a couple years ago when a catfish fisherman on shore blurted out to me that they'd shocked 3 10lb bass out of that year ? This puddle rarely produced fish over 3 lbs, most were 10-12 inches, no shad, in NE Kansas. I'd be shocked if there was a 6lb fish in it. I caught one that was 5 and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the pond boss. The Kansas City Star ran a picture several years ago of a guy that caught an alleged 11.5lb bass from a marina dock at one of the reservoirs I fish. On it's best day, the fish might have weighed 5.5 pounds. Apparently it was the marina pet that people frequently fed but the guy still decided to eat it, you know, like a jerk would do. When I worked at Cabela's, I had a guy tell me he caught a 13lb bass out of a backwater of the Kansas River. Usually, I just smiled at people who told pretty obvious lies, but this guy was so certain, I couldn't help myself. There's so few bass in the river, and he was claiming he smashed the state record, and then he offered to get a picture of it from his truck. I didn't think he'd come back when he went to get it, but he did and I had all the other guys who worked there waiting to see it. I'm sure the whole store heard us howling when he slapped that picture of his big drum down on the counter like he was really going to show me something.