Bluebasser86

Guys do it with heavy baits to make it harder for fish to get as much leverage to throw the bait (swimbaits especially). I don't personally do it, but I see it pretty often with swimbaiters. Even using heavy braided line in place of split rings.

Whatever you choose, fish it slow, then slow it down. I personally do best with baits like a shakyhead, suspending jerkbait, lipless crank, Ned rig, jig, and single Colorado bladed spinnerbait. Don't get too hung up on soft plastic color. Better to have the wrong color in the right place, than the right color in the wrong place. Green pumpkin is always a solid choice, watermelons in clear water, blacks/purples in dark water/conditions. Very generalized there, but a starting point anyways.

I've fished mine a bit, although the crankbait bite has been lackluster at best. They do have a strong vibration and cast excellent.

Something is wrong with this animal ?

The Assassin is the one I've had the longest and used the most and it's been a nice reel.

A wacky rig isn't a good heavy cover option in the first place. They've got hooks with weedguards, although I'm not at all a fan of them, I'd use one way before I'd go with that setup. That looks like a solution for a problem that's just going to be more of a problem than the original problem.

Double split rings? Hard pass if so.

I use a pegboard for hard baits and line. I have far too many plastics to use pegboards though. I have the stackable storage drawers for my plastics. Plastics on pegs are heavy if the peg is very long, and if you want a package towards the back, you're stuck either ripping the back off (and probably knocking a few things off other pegs in the process), or taking most everything off the peg in front of it and then putting it all back on. The drawers are easy to see what all I have and pull out what I need quickly.

100% of the baits in the picture of the box I posted are wire tied and fit snugly. Would I open it and flip it upside down? No, but why in the world would I do that anyways?

Red, chartreuse, candy purple, and pink are what I paint a majority of my Ned rig heads.

To add to this; Kansas does yearly shocking/netting samples and post the numbers in a "Fishing Forecast". A lot of the best bass lakes also rate highly for numbers and size of catfish.

Black Friday deals

Underrated; Okuma rods and reels you never seem to hear about, but they're excellent from top to bottom. I've got reels down to a cheap little Stratus? (white spinning reel bought on clearance for $20), that I use a ton for walking ponds and creeks and the thing has been really impressive. Then my normal starting lineup with my TCS rods and reels, all the way up to the Helios SX casting reel. Overrated; Any rod or reel that cost as much as a car payment.

Picked up 3 Tatula SVs this winter for 100-120, all NIB. Didn't need any of them, but couldn't pass up on them for that price.

I use big stickworms, like the 7" BPS Stick O, on a swinging football head I make just for them with an 1/8oz head and 7/0 monster worm hook. The light weight head combined with the shape of the makes it really glide along on the rocks and reduces snagging. I'll bet that giant turd would be good for the same deal.

Billed cranks, not so much. Lipless crankbaits are another story though.

If I go fishing for bass and don't catch a different species, I'm pretty surprised. Most of my PB's of other species have been caught while targeting bass. Flathead catfish-68lbs, finesse jig wiper-11lb 2oz, jerkbait crappie-2lb, spinnerbait walleye-4.75lb, keitech drum-22lb, blade bait white bass-4lb, squarebill warmouth-1lb, beaver grass carp-50ish, Swaver Saugeye-4lbs, finesse jig Sauger-3lbs, squarebill yellow perch-ned rig Bowfin-pitboss shortnose gar-jerkbait Rock bass-ned rig I'm sure there's others, but all those were PB's I caught while fishing for bass. Some days the bycatch far outnumber the bass.

Most were missing but I take them off if they aren't because I put them in my pocket while I'm walking.

I had some difficulties with hookups and keeping fish pinned with open style hooks on a DS for some reason. Have not had the same issue since I switched to the straight shank, weedless style DS hooks.

Green Pumpkin TRD on a 1/16oz Red head for both.

Walked a bank Thursday. Had a feeling it would be good being one of the only reservoirs that wasn't closed with the high water this year.

I always use willowleaf blades but I'll mix up some silver and gold blades.

Tough fishing for me this week. Went to my super secret pond in the woods and it wasn't nearly as productive as usual. Then it was so cold Thursday that I couldn't do much and when it seemed like I forgot what to do every time I did get a bite. I tried really hard to take my shakyhead away from this one, for some reason I though I was lifting up a limb but I finally realized it was a fish. I got cold and had a feeling that I'd be pretty successful walking the bank since this lake was one of the only reservoirs open in the spring when all the others were flooded, I was right.

In slow current they will, but not heavy current. In either situation, they'll be looking for current breaks and spawn on the down flow side of it.

Welcome!