Bluebasser86

The one I use is my favorite jerkbait rod I've owned, and I've had a bunch. Okuma TCS 6' 9" MH/MF. It's not a MH, fishes much more like a medium and it's 10-17lb, 1/4-3/4 reflects more that of a medium than a MH.

It's a rod that I already own, a Falcon Bucoo SR 7' M/M 8-17lb, 1/4-1/2oz. Made to throw cranks with a spinning rod. They have a MH/M version also if you need one a little heavier. Right at $100.

Depends on the bait. I use a 7' MH/F Ethos Micro with a 7.3 Okuma Cerros and 20lb braid for walking baits, ploppers, and bigger poppers. For poppers and baits with a back prop only I use a 6' 6" ML Falcon/BPS Prolite with 20lb braid.

Aird X. I have 2 and bought my son one for his first "nice" rod and it's been great. It looks good too paired with the black and gold Revros.

Send me all your trash 90 ploppers, I'll dispose of them for you. I use the 90 a majority of the time. Swap the hooks, fished on 20lb braid with the rod tip up to get them started. I don't have any issues with them.

A wide gap wacky hook makes a great live bait hook.

I like the Strike King Ocho, but most any stick bait will work. Green pumpkins, watermelons, black, black and blue, white, and bubblegum all have their place.

Went fishing with my dad Thursday. I got there 30 minutes before he did and wanted to try and get a spotted bass off the dock by the ramp since I haven't caught one the last few trips to this lake. Not only did I get one, I got 3, and the first one was the biggest I've caught in Kansas in a long time. On a wacky rigged Ocho in Glacier color. Despite clouds and cooler temps, it was a surprisingly tough bite. I was sure there would be a moving bait bite, probably topwater, but there was nothing happening except for drum. A ned rig was hammering drum, so I switched colors on dad's and he started getting the right kind. Seems like it had to be purple. I switched mine to junebug and finally caught my first smallmouth since we'd started. We'd planned on trying my spot I'd caught several walleye on the week before, but there was a boat parked on it. We waited him out for a hour, and I actually caught 1 keeper and 1 short walleye near the spot while we were waiting, before he finally left. The fish weren't there like they had been, I think the lack of sun was actually hurting this spot since it's a deep water spot. I still caught several white bass on a spoon. Dad wasn't having any luck until he finally hooked a heavy fish, clearly not a white bass. There were gar everywhere, so we assumed that's what it was. He joked maybe it was a huge walleye. I laughed and said if it's a walleye it's the biggest one that's ever been in my boat. We saw it, and well, dad now holds the record for the biggest walleye ever caught from my boat. I was worried dad would want to keep it, but he didn't even hesitate about releasing her, then I was concerned coming out of deep water and the long fight it might not make it, but after a moments rest, she threw water in my face she kicked away so hard. We caught several more white bass, I had one really eyeballing my bait. Then the gar seemed to get hungry and started cutting us off left and right. I tried something different to stay over them and stumbled on a stray smallmouth. Not much else after we decided to leave that spot so we called it a day.

Caught my biggest fish of the day last week at 12:40PM on a sunny, hot day on a walking topwater bait. Thursday, it was overcast and cooler, I couldn't get them to touch a topwater. Turns out fish can't read.

Some timber in the middle of bluffs or something different in the middle can be a gold mine. Otherwise, fishing a long bluff bank is usually a waste for me. The ends are where I concentrate and skip the rest unless it's winter time.

I'm fairly confident I blinded a white bass with a jigging spoon Thursday...

Wasn't a big fan of the 175 SS, tends to nose up a lot, especially for a bait at that price. The Savage Gear Shine Glide 185 is my favorite glide, mainly the bone color. FishLab's wake gill, and the Savage Gear Pulse Tail baits are all great without breaking the bank. A Chad Shad is another great glide bait along with the Donut Shad. Got to have a Slammer, I prefer the 7" but everyone swears by the 9". Big crawlers are fun too if you decide to include those in the mix. I've had good luck with the Aventa Crawler.

Fish the areas that would hold fish if the trees weren't there.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

It's like the line is coming unwound or something. Like the end of a frayed rope but it runs up a few feet of the line and hinders casting distance a ton. Once it starts, it's game over for that spool. I found I could get some more use by flipping the line on the spool, but it still didn't last as long as I'd hoped it would.

Use to be all Shimano with some Pflueger spinning reels in the mix. Since Pflueger sold out and quality went downhill, and Shimanos mid range quality seemed to be slipping, I tried Daiwa. Now most of my reels are Daiwa. I have a few Okumas I like, a few KastKing that do their job, some older Pfluegers that are still hanging on, and 2 Shimano swimbait slingers.

10-20, just depends on the brand and diameter of the line. I like KastKing Super power in 10 and 12 pound, or Seaguar Smackdown in 15 or 20.

I refer to all Rage baits as "Rage turds" after their appendages get chewed off ?. Fish certainly will still bite them though.

I change all my hard swimbaits to hyper wire split rings. I've had some split ring failures, it's pretty impossible to guess which ring is going to fail and when. It's worth the investment when tossing big baits that aren't going to get many bites in the first place to avoid losing them when they do bite.

Don't take them out of the original pack, pretty simple. I keep them in the original bags, never had any issue with them not playing well with other baits because of that. I've made some messes on my work bench, but those are all used baits that weren't quite ready to be tossed anyways, so not a big loss. Zman and the 10,000 Fish Sukoshi bug are my Ned rig baits. Other baits work, but I don't have a need for them. The buoyancy of the Elaztech baits are a big part of why the Zman baits work, not just the durability.

It's the opposite for me. Bright moon is a tough bite, darker nights are much better. Only thing that's good about the bright moon is the bites I get seem to be good fish.

Welcome!