Bluebasser86

If I need something, I’ll pay for it 🤷‍♂️

I've seen some pretty good underwater camera videos of bass, especially smallmouth, follwing baits. In clear water especially, they follow baits a lot.

That's something you frame and put on the wall.

Jigs are an addition of mine as well. I don't even carry many colors and somehow still manage to have 3 boxes full of them. If I can get bit on a jig, I'd rather do that than anything else. You won't get a better price to value ratio than going through Siebert.

I like the resin bait better, but the Spro version is pretty solid. Only issue I had was the first one I got, the tail section got water inside it and balloned up. It still works and Spro offered to replace it for me, just made me a little uneasy about getting more.

They’re very pretty fish when they get colored up for the spawn like that.

I have a hard time considering a lot of the modern day guys masters the same as the old school guys. They did it with years and years of experience and raw skill. Too much of it today is tainted by guys chasing likes and leaning heavily on modern tech to allow them to chase open water fish around until they find one to bite. Not saying it doesn't take skill, but there's always going to be that question in my mind of could they do it like my heros did when I was growing up? That said, there's lots of guys in the big swimbait community that do nothing but chunk big baits, some from the bank, beat up jonboats with no electronics, even paddleboards, and catch giants. The amount of dedication it takes to lock in and throw nothing but big baits and accept that you're giving up the chance at a lot of bites you could get to just chase the biggest bass around is something I just can't do. Butch Brown is one of the best at chasing really huge bass with swimbaits.

Warmouth are vicious little fish. I've caught them on hollow body frogs in the grass before. Almost broke our state record several years ago on a beaver flipping some water willows. That's about average size for a warmouth most places. If it were a true shellcracker (redear sunfish), it would a pretty small one. It would also be a miracle for a redear that size to get hooked on a worm hook with their tiny mouths.

First local tournament of the year was this past Sunday. We had a major cold front roll through that dumped some rain and knocked our overnight temps down below freezing. I didn't prefish at all and just went completely off past knowledge. I was the only one of the group that decided to launch where I did, wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Water was way down and more stained than I'd expected. Did a quick check on my Deep Dive app and it's suggestions were pretty spot on with what I was planning on throwing. I had 4 different jerkbaits rigged up, 2 crankbaits, a tube, as well as a spinnerbait, and of course a Ned rig. I don't think any app could be calibrated to my confidence in a Ned rig, especially when smallmouth are involved, and that's what started the party, first with a white bass, then I jumped off a smallmouth. The jerkbaits got in on the action quickly though, with my first keeper smallmouth of the day at 16.50". I lost another on a different jerkbait, before I caught my second keeper on the same jerkbait I started with, a 15.75" fish. I switched back and forth between the Ned and jerkbaits frequently. I had one jerkbait they were really preferring it seemed. It was also the only one I was fishing on flouro (12lb InvisX), so maybe that was making a difference? It was a small area I was fishing, had to get what I could from it. I managed to pick up a small limit on the Ned before I caught a cull fish on the jerkbait, a 15.50" smallmouth. It wasn't long after that one I picked up another cull, another 15.75" fish on the jerkbait. My bite pretty much died at that point and I tried to get out in the wind and explore a little bit. After a hour of wasted time and only catching a drum on a jerkbait, I was back to my starting area with just over a hour left, feeling like I really needed at least one better quality bite to have a chance. I worked down my most productive bank from the morning, lost a heavy fish on a tube, and then started back up with a Ned. I had just about finished out that bank, when my Ned disappeared. When I found it, my line was almost under the boat and running along a dock cable. Real glad I had upgraded to the 10lb Pounce leader instead of my normal 8lb, because, there was a strong, dark smallmouth attatched to the other end, one that stretched the board to 17.50" to put me at 81" even. Not sure I would have got it off that cable otherwise. I must have got amnesia at that point, because I left my area, again, to go explore some more (there's a bigger tournament out there next weekend that I'm also not prefishing for, so this was kind of being used like a prefishing day for that). I caught one 13" smallmouth and a little walleye before my time ran out. I was leading when the board shut off, 1" ahead of my buddy Deric, but when I got to the meet up area I heard that he had culled in the last few minutes. After the scores were added up, we'd tied. In a kayak tournament, the tiebreaker is whoever has the biggest individual fish. Deric had a 17" largemouth, I had a 17.50" smallmouth. So I ended up winning with a tiebreaker and also getting big bass for the day. Turned out that it was a very tough day for most everyone else. Deric and I relaunced our kayaks and fished for a couple more hours and caught several more fish after the tournament. We fished and BS'd about how it had been a fun day and didn't understand why everyone was struggling. My fish were on very specific areas and only eating a few baits. The main reason for my lulls in activity were mainly my own doing. Deric said he had no lulls, just didn't get enough bigger bites. Completely different conditions this upcoming weekend. About 30 degrees warming after a warming trend and wind from the opposite direction. Not sure if I should hope I can go back and milk the same spot again, go to my usual favorite area, or to a 3rd area that I don't think will be as busy and hope I can pick off enough to have a chance.

I try to keep the rods I plan to use the most closer to me so they’re easier to reach, but I don’t have a particular order. I do try to keep my casting rods on my left and spinning rods on my right. Just makes it easier so I know which side a rod should be on.

If you're fishing docks with razor clams, you're going to get cut off, plain and simple. 20lb Tatsu has handled it best for me. Picking your cast helps to hopefully not rub on anything any more than you have to if you hook up with a fish.

I have a few different Okuma rods, including a X Series. IMO, they fish very true to their ratings. The X series is one of the lightest rods I’ve ever fished with. It looks nice, and feels nice. I think especially if you’re looking for a rod for a heavier application, it is really noticeable. I have a 7’ 3” H/F, and it barely feels like anything in my hands.

I had an early day at work (I’ve been working so many hours this week, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been home since Sunday). Getting off at 2 today felt great and the wind wasn’t howling for a change so I snuck out for a couple hours in the kayak. The fish were small but cooperative. I popped a couple under a dock on my Okuma X combo. Had to add a leader of 15lb Seaguar Pounce because I could see bottom in about 5’ of water. I was really impressed that I was able to accurately skip a 5” Bang Stickz with a 1/8oz tungsten. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it with a heavy action rod like that but it did it no problem. I also found someone’s boat in 8’ of water.

I forgot to look before I went out my first couple days at Lake Fork. I remembered to check after I had caught several big fish on a wacky rigged and T-rigged stick worm. When I did check, I noticed that those were 2 of the baits it suggested, even one of the colors I was using.

I did catch several on a slider head Sunday 😅

I’m mostly just out there crappie fishing for bass 😅 Everyone is out there powerfishing while I’m fishing a ML spinning rod with a 1/16oz jighead and a 4” piece of straight plastic that does almost nothing, except catch lots of fish.

Rainbow Trout 4.01 lbs

Sunday was supposed to be windy and much colder than it has been. I wanted to take the kayak out, but with it getting to be (hopefully), close to time that the family will want to go out in the boat, I decided to drag it out and make sure it still works. I was pretty rusty fishing from the boat. I booted 5 of the first 6 bites I had, but I think I had the hang of it pretty good by the end of the day. My biggest 5 were in the 24-25 pound range. Homemade bladed jig and a Ned did almost all the damage. Big fish was a little over 6 and just slurped in the Ned next to the boat. Barely felt the bite as I was bouncing all over in the white caps.

This method is very simple and IMO, much better than leaving a hook in the throat of a fish where it may keep the throat pinned shut and the fish will slowly starve to death. Even if removing it does kill it, it will be much faster than starvation.

Ocho 6th Sense Clout

I believe all my Heliums are KC9 blanks

What are you using it for? I have 6lb that I use for walleye and very finesse bass fishing applications and I've been happy with it but it isn't a line I use regularly.

I've had a lot of different sets of raingear, including Guide Wear and 2 different 100MPH suits. I finally decided to go with the "Buy once, cry once", motto and I really wish I'd done it a long time ago. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Simms_Challenger_Insulated_Jacket_Black/descpage-CHJ.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Simms_Challenger_Insulated_Bibs_Black/descpage-SICB.html

I wish it was as easy as having defined differences and when to use both, but there just isn't. The powerplant lake I fish all winter, great shakyhead bite, I could count my finesse jig fish on both hands in all the years I've fished it and man I run my head into that wall every year, determined to make them eat it, and it never works. The lake by my house, great finesse jig lake, I can't remember ever catching a shakyhead fish there. Why does one work at one and not the other? No idea, but I've discovered through trial and error that there is certainly a difference to the fish and that's all that really matters.

I have the Halloween Pumpkin and Flamingo colored Spro Bronzeye frogs and both have countless fish to their credit. I think sometimes the fish just get curious or want to see something different after seeing tons of white/yellow belly frogs.