Bluebasser86

Congrats on the new PB. Hard to guess from the picture. Fish is angled back slightly from the camera but looks tall and well filled out, probably in the 20-21 inch range, I'd guess 5.1 pounds.

That's a great way to spend it, happy birthday!

I was guessing in the 4.5-5lb range. If it was really 22-23 inches it was likely more in the 5.5lb range even being on the lean side.

Welcome!

I work for the government, they ask if you're ready for the change after it's happened, it's never organized.

Are you trying to become chum? Because that's how you become chum.

My wife was out of town most of my weekend this week, so I was home with the boys, and that means we were going fishing. Wednesday we decided to go to a big creek, one of our favorite spots, right where it dumps into the Kansas River. Normally, it's a little more cut off from the river, but with the heavy rains we'd had and upriver releasing, the river was flowing over the natural barriers and directly connected to the creek, which I was hoping was bringing in fresh fish from the river. There was a lot more water in the creek, tons of silver carp filtering everywhere, along with lots of gar surfacing and good amounts of bait skipping, it looked promising. I went as far as I could get up the creek and struck out casting an inline spinner, which was surprising, but I managed a net full of good sized shad so things were really looking promising. First spot, 1 thump and nothing. Second spot, absolutely nothing. Losing the boys interest quickly so I asked if they wanted to try to make it through the shallows or go to the mouth of the creek. Both wanted to try the shallows. I got close, but it was a no go, let them get out and splash around for a minute so they could at least have some fun though since they hadn't done anything but play with the shad in the bucket so far. Made the call to go to the mouth of the creek for our last 45 minutes. I didn't have much hope for the spot, last time it produced 2 turtles and I figured this time would be more of the same. Once I parked the boat just inside the current seam on the bank, I saw at least a half dozen softshells waiting for me to put a bait in the water along with several surfacing gar. I wasn't excited, but at least there would be action here. It didn't take long before rods started clicking out line, both gar and turtles stealing bait. Not a big deal, maybe I'll hook one and the boys can finally see something bigger up close. I hooked and lost a gar because my drag slipped badly, I'm assuming someone was playing with the reel while I wasn't looking. Thankfully I tightened it down, because 5 minutes later it started feeding line again, but this time much steadier than the other bites had been. This was one of my channel cat rigs, a 7' M Ugly Stick Lite with a 30 size Okuma Avenger bait feeder and 20lb braid with a 1/2oz egg sinker to a 1/0 H2O baitholder hook. When I set the hook, it was immediately clear that I was outmatched. The rod folded, I honestly thought I'd missed the fish and snagged a log, but then it bowed deeper and line peeled and a huge boil hit the surface in the shallow water. I'd hooked it not 10' off the back of the boat, on the other side of a small sycamore tree that was laid in the water. I had 3 other lines in the water, snags everywhere, a hook I'd bent and bent back multiple times, a beached boat, and the fish was threatening to get into the river current and quickly empty my spool. Time for action, I asked Lake to reel in the other rods as fast as he could, and he jumped up and did a great job clearing lines for me. That let me lift the trolling motor off the mud bank and shove the boat off and start following the fish. There was snags to my left, right, front, and back, I was sure it would just swim in one and be gone. The fish would swim until it just caught the current, and then stop. I was hauling on it with everything that little rod had and both boys cheering me on and leaning and peering into the muddy water trying to see what it was. 10 minutes had to go by, big bubbles started coming up, I told them it was getting tired, then boils from a tail that was a long ways from where my line was attached to the fish. I asked Lake to get the net ready and he sprung to action again and extended the net out and waited. The sinker popped up, and then finally a broad head hit the surface for half a second before the water exploded again and it buried my rod in the water. The boys screaming high pitched screams of excitement over the huge fish they'd just caught a glimpse of, but I was more nervous than I had been the entire time, the fish was so lightly hooked I had no idea how I'd kept it on this long. I told Lake to put the net away, it wasn't going to do anything. I got it raised back up and asked if he was ready to help, he nodded and I stuck the rod out and told him to hold on with everything he had and lift. He grabbed and grunted with all a 6 year has got and got a grip on the jaw and slid it over the side. Screams and high fives all around. We were out of time anyways and only 100 yards from the ramp, so I quickly motored back to the ramp and beached the boat, found some rope and tied her off. Both my scales bounced around the 40lb mark, not nearly my biggest, but for sure one of my most memorable. The boys haven't stopped talking about it and keep recounting it to each other. I told them there was fish in that creek that were bigger than them, they believe me now. We got some pictures and videos, then sent it back and said we wanted to see it again when it's 80 pounds. This is all it was hooked by. 3 year and 6 year old hands for head size reference.

Playing "bucket biologist", is a really good way to spread diseases and ruin a fishery. Bluegill are going to directly compete with the trout for food as they're both mainly going to rely on small invertebrates, while offering very little to the trout since they'll only be small enough for the trout to eat for a very short while.

First time at the Dotte in a couple months. Numbers were plentiful, keepers were not. Water was very clear and lots of weeds. Lots more wind and way fewer clouds than expected. Caught 2 keepers, both off the boat ramp, one right when I got there and one right before I left.

Call them, St. Croix has excellent CS but I've always called them. Last time I sent a rod in I swear they had to have sent the replacement before mine got to them I had the new rod so fast.

The MWF mold keeper is easy, push it up, then pull the plastic down (forward towards the hook point), you'll feel a little "pop", it's rigged. I never use glue and it's easy to remove and change baits.

Last time I moved (last year), and went through all my extras I have in totes.

Holes in the bottom is how I did mine but they still die. I have a mesh floating bait tank and it keeps them better than the bucket, but they still die. I big shad tank is the only way you're keeping them alive for an extended period of time.

I can't hardly get a bite on a D Bomb ?‍♂️ This is the next best thing I've found to a Pit Boss with the similar profile and action. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Culprit_Incredi-Bug_6pk/descpage-CIBG.html

Swim jig-thick grass spinnerbait-clear water, heavy wood bladed jig-sparse grass, stained to muddy water That's my very simplistic breakdown of how I decide.

I'm right on about the same average, 25%, maybe up to 50% on a good day. I've tried multiple hook styles and different baits but it just doesn't seem to matter. The only plus side to it is the fish I do hook are the better fish, I think a lot of the fish I miss are dinks too small to fully eat the bait. I have a much better hookup ratio with frogs.

I use the full size beaver for flipping and the smallie as a jig trailer. I had some of the pocket rockets but they were underwhelming and very fragile.

Started and ended my day the same way, catching a keeper off the ramp boat ramp on a Ned rig. Only had to catch 38 shorts between the 2 ? My wife was out of town most of Wednesday and Thursday with her mom, so the boys and I did a bunch of fishing. Wednesday was creek fishing. No bass, not many fish, but we caught one that made up for it. I'll make a post of it in the Other Species forum though. Thursday we went to a reservoir and caught a mixed bag and a couple real nice smallmouth and Lake caught a great spotted bass for Kansas and had a really nice smallmouth to the boat when it just kind of let go. Finn helped me land a 3.69lb smallmouth Lake caught a healthy channel cat on his Ned rig. We caught several fish before making a run to my deep water spot and really catching a mixed bag. I probably caught 20 crappie, several white bass, a couple drum, my biggest smallmouth of the day, and Lake caught the spot and I caught one much smaller than his. Finn seems to be over his fear of touching fish too. While he wasn't looking I hooked this channel cat on his little Dock Demon and tossed it back in the water and told him he needed to check his pole. Man the giggles and excitement when he found out he actually had a fish (he normally has a crankbait with no hooks because he doesn't have great control of where his cast go yet), were priceless. He was so proud of his fish that he caught on his pole, it was great.

1 day is the longest in recent memory on a full day trip and that was during the winter on a lake with 36* water and the wind blowing to hard to fish effectively. I haven't skunked 2 days in a row in I can't remember how long.

Bladed jig for sure. That's the nasty looking water that I know for sure I'm going to get bit on my blue bladed jig and blue plastics.

Newly flooded cover and anywhere water is flowing in.

Caught a bunch of fish on a dropshot today. Enough to go through a couple bags of dropshot worms.

I doubt with them blowing around they would have been depleting it too much. It's mainly when a large stand of weeds is dying in an area without moving around that it's reducing the oxygen in the water.

Welcome!