Bluebasser86

I'm not sure why, but I've always called lime green and chartreuse colored baits "Homer". I heard it somewhere, but don't know why it's called that.

I can't keep my stuff in my kayak, and have to pack my kayak box according to what I feel like I might encounter during a day on the water. I have a terminal box, 1 box of hard baits, 1 box of jigs/wire baits, and then a few bags of assorted plastics. Some of the plastics really never leave the box like my trailers, but I have a bag of what I call my "finesse" baits and another bag that is my basically all creature baits, and a bag that is all TPE baits that can't be mixed with regular baits. I'll swap stuff in and out of the bags as I see fit or leave entire bags out if I don't feel like I'll need them. I pack the stuff I know I'm likely to use instead of the "what if" baits. I'll just dump the entire bag out and run through it real quickly to see what I have and add/subtract as I see fit. Helps a lot with clutter and it keeps the bags stocked with fresh baits and typically prevents me from running out of something I use a lot of. I have space for about 10 rods and I rarely feel like I'm going to want more than that in a normal tournament day.

Mostly been using Smackdown and TactX but I've been trying the Seaguar PEX8 on a couple spinning rods this season and really liking it.

The most disappointing bite I've had in a tournament in a while. Saw several big fish in a brushpile, chucked the KO Coike over them and watched one come streaking out immediately on the scope and crush it. Fish boiled on the top and went ripping sideways, turning the yak. Same lake I caught the 22 incher out of a week ago, so it has giants and I was pretty sure that's what I'd gotten ahold of until the sideways run stopped and the under the boat rolling started. Really needed a big cull, sure would have helped it would have been the right flavor.

They're there, it's just the old ones so they're faded to almost white now, relegated to yard word duty.

It's me Are you telling me this face doesn't instill fear?

I have my graph on a RAM mount also and remove it almost 100% of the time. My kayaks are stored outside though. While they're pretty well hidden under the deck and behind our 6' fence, you never know when an unsavory charactor might show up and snoop around, like this guy.

I haven't used any recently but I use to have good luck with a Super Spot that was 1oz. I'm going to try the Bill Lewis Big Gizz at some point, which is sort of a hyprid giant blade bait/lipless. It has good reviews but I have areas and situations I think it would be effective. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bill_Lewis_Big_Gizz/descpage-BBGZ.html

Been a lot of stories lately of high dollar graphs stolen right off of people's boat in public places, some in broad daylight. Pretty cheap insurance to help protect our high dollar investments.

I don't enjoy targeting bedding bass and I also don't feel like they're really "easier", to catch. It's more that you just know they're there and won't leave if they're locked on, so if you mess with them long enough, you'll likely catch them.

I've learned quite a bit in my little over a year playing with FFS. There's a lot more fish just out in the middle of the lake "floating", than I ever would have guessed. The number of cast you make that a fish follows your bait and doesn't bite is so much higher than you could ever imagine. There's way more cover/structure in the lakes I fished than I ever knew. It's so much easier to catch offshore fish when I can visualize what I'm fishing. It's really easy to waste a lot of time just driving around looking and casting at fish if you're not careful. Fish very noticeably react to the boat, sonar, and bait splashing down. I think the only thing that it has really changed about my fishing is I'm much more willing to get off the bank and fish and I'm constantly aiming it offshore while fishing the bank, looking for anything that I think is worth making a cast I. I catch way more fish with my FFS by finding an object to cast at, than I do finding an actual fish to cast at.

I've never considered myself a big bass fisherman as much as I wish I was. I'm really good at making fish bite, even when they don't want to, which makes me consistent, and if you catch enough fish, a few of them are bound to be a little bigger.

I fish a frog way more than I should with our limited places we have than they're really effective at. The bites they get are just much bigger than other topwaters on average. I fished one quite a bit last night in our Tuesday night tournament and never had a bite. The confidence is just always there for me.

I mostly lean on my blue bladed jigs in the dark.

They spawned very late here and I've still be seeing fish on beds as recently as last weekend with water temps reaching 80. I'll catch one fish that looks like this that has obviously spawned recently if it wasn't actively spawning when I caught it. Then one like this that is still thick and tail has no signs of wear at all like it hasn't spawned yet. Then one like this that is long, lean, but looks completely healed up like it spawned over a month ago like they should l have, all from the same lake on the same day.

@Russ E was not a frequent contributer to the regular forums but posted often in the local forums in the KC Area Thread that use to be so active. He passed a year or two ago rather suddenly.

#1 Treble with a homemade Neko weight in the wire hole has been my best rigging. They were eating the gold one like crazy Sunday until I broke it off on one. That was the only one I had with me so I was pretty bummed until I found the scuppernog one in a tree rigged on probably a 3/4oz Strike King swimbait jighead. Rigged that one up and went right back to catching fish on that one including sight fishing my biggest of the day in less than a foot of water. I tried fishing them a lot of different Neko/Wacky hooks and also a belly weighted swimbait hook, which I liked the concept, but the hookup ratio was awful. I've missed very few with the treble hook rigging.

I use a Kistler Chromium MH/F with 17lb mono.

I have 2 for larger swimbaits, a 300E Curado on a Dobyns 795 and a 300 Tatula on an Okuma Guide Select. I also have a rod I use for smaller swimbaits like big boot tails, hollow bodies, smaller glides and wakes, and line thrus which is a St. Croix Mojo Trigon 7' 4" H with a Diawa Tatula 200.

Did some more prefishing for the upcoming state lake roadrunner tournament yesterday. I wish this lake was closer because it sure is fun. I caught my biggest (longest), 5 bass limit in Kansas and tied my longest kayak bass from Kansas both. T-rigged plastics and swim jigs were the deal. These gals were real tackle testers. I could hear that Seaguar Tatsu and Smackdown screaming in those laydowns and water willows while I was trying to drag them out. I got so close to the century mark, something I’ve only accomplished once before. I was catching 17 inchers and laughing knowing they wouldn’t have done anything for me in a tournament.

Mine survive the extreme heat in my kayak box, in the heat but not direct sunlight. I don't know if they'd make it if they were left in a car for repeatedly though.

The popper is a Bill Lews SpitFire, not sure on the walking bait.

I like them, but they do come in very limited color selection, they're difficult to tie/seperate, and fussy with what kind of weather you can take them out in. The best day I've ever had in the kayak was mostly thanks to a living rubber/silicone skirted jig though.

This rapidly has turned into a big whizzing match when it was supposed to be opinions, and we're not going to do that. LOCKDOWN!!