Bluebasser86

I have 3 Revros, they're great, been slowly switching my dying Presidents over to them.

That's crazy. There isn't a day that goes by that the bait sales pages aren't flooded with direct connect bladed jigs. They must not be patrolling too hard or haven't found all the pages.

Catfishermen stay put typically. Trout guys are mobile and not afraid to cast over your line, and come right over next to you if they see you catch a fish. Plus it's a very short season so they come out in mass when the trout are first dumped. Trout guys in boats are the apex of idiocy.

I got one of the newer ones and it's been awful. I'd like to return it but the finish is flaking off and looks like I've been hammering nails with it even though I've hardly used it so I'll likely just eat my money and count it as a loss.

I've had both. Save yourself a couple bucks and get a Daiwa Revros instead. The newer Presidents just aren't the same and the Mettle was geary after a year of moderate use. I've been switching my budget spinners over the the Revros after a couple years of testing the first and couldn't be happier.

Falcon has some spinning rods designed for cranking in the Bucoo SR series. I haven't used one personally but want to try one because I throw a lot of shad raps and 1.0 cranks on spinning gear. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Falcon_BuCoo_SR_Spinning_Rods/descpage-FSR0.html

Didn't the patent run out? I see direct connect bladed jigs for sale from independent builders on Facebook all the time. I make my own, not with a swim jig though. I pour my own with the blade directly connected to the head.

We had a good amount of snow Sunday, a little more snow Monday, and temps barely climbing above 20 with 10-15 mph north winds, but that's my day to fish so away I went. I forgot my snow shovel, and they hadn't cleared or salted the ramp. Thankfully they maintenance guys forgot to put their snow shovel away before they left the shop by the ramp so I borrowed theirs and spent half and hour clearing snow and ice. Still slid a little launching, forgot to take my motor support off so got my hand wet removing that. Did my customary flip to the end of the dock jetty with a Ned and thought I bumped a rock but it felt mushy? Swung and nothing but looked like a little swirl came to the top. Flipped back at it, felt a for sure peck and missed it again. Dropped it on him again and it mushed up again, bam, snow bass. My guides were icing up fast, so were my reels. My braid was freezing on my Ned rig reel so it was almost refusing to go onto the reel and knotted up on me bad twice, plus I'm pretty sure the ice cut my line on the hookset once (still got the fish though). I worked for 8-10 fish in the 4 hours I could stand it before I threw in the towel. I did get one pretty healthy fish on a sexy gold 2tap.

Jerkbait and Ned rig are both great choices. Just fish slow and then slow it down. Warm clothes are about as important as what you're fishing also. If you're cold, you won't fish well and it takes tons of concentration to fish properly in cold water/weather.

Smallmouth are slow growing and it's a short season. Those 7lb fish are probably 20 years old or more.

LOZ has very few smallmouth, but Table Rock has an excellent population. Problem with Table Rock is it can be a very difficult lake as well. If you can figure out the fish on that day (because it will be different the next day almost without a doubt), you can really catch them. It doesn't have the biggest fish, but plenty of quality keeper range fish up to around 4 pounds are available with some even bigger occasionally. There's a couple really good smallmouth lakes in Kansas, but that all depends if it rains and floods them out or not. They were flooded this last year until late summer, but it was excellent once the waters finally came down with 100 fish days not being out of the question.

3 years and 1 day. Wasn't intentional, just how it worked out. And my wife's birthday is January. Got a lot crammed into a month.

We're celebrating both our boys Bdays today (actually the 16th and 17th). Turning 6 and 3, going to be a busy day.

We've got a couple inches on the ground and it's falling steady still. Hoping they get the roads cleared off enough for me to get to the lake in the morning ?

It's a custom made balsa bait that a local guy makes. It's been my best producing crank the last month.

Trout stocking season brings out the worst kind of fishermen here. No respect for anyone or anything really. I've had more rude and inconsiderate contact with trout fishermen those 1 or 2 months of every year than any other group of fishermen all season long. I'd rather deal with pleasure boaters than trout fishermen, at least they can plead ignorance.

Not sure about those particular hooks, but I put 3 #4 Owner ST 36s on the KVD 300 jerkbaits.

I'm gonna be nervous tossing it, but I'm excited to try this thing out.

Most of them were in 1-3 feet of water. I've tried with a dropshot in the same places and they will not eat it, have never even had a bite on it.

Welcome!

Snow moving in Sunday, I'd be out there then if I could. Cold with a low pressure system usually means good fishing out there.

Hasn't needed it yet, but for sure one of those things that's better to have and not need than need and not have.

There wasn't Monday, but it changes day to day out there. I had one bite that missed and one small one on a jerkbait out of lots of cast with one. Thought with the clouds and wind it would have been a good jerkbait bite but it wasn't happening for me.

Run to a different part of the lake and it's that cold, all depends on the wind direction, speed, and generation. The wind changed direction and the water temp dropped 3 degrees in that spot from when I started until when I left. Guys complain about figuring a normal lake out, try a power plant lake where water temps vary wildly from day to day and hour to hour.

We just can't shake this stuff this winter. Poor guy got sent home from school with a 103* fever.