Bluebasser86

We’re in the “In between”. We’re In between summer and fall but it isn’t really either one. September is historically the worst month of the year for me that isn’t the winter months. The fish are scattered everywhere and heavily pressured, baitfish are plentiful, lakes start to turn, it’s rough.

I’m lost, why do you need the fish to move? If you know it’s there, set the hook?

I have 2 double sided Plano boxes that have assorted gear and one small, double sided Plano with terminal gear. I have 3 bags of soft plastics divided into flipping/creatures/tubes, worms/finesse, and Ned baits. The top slide outs have trailers, dyes, specialty hooks, baits I plan to use that day, and a couple other misc. items. I keep everything pretty generic in the boxes and bags, but always add items I feel are needed for specific trips to try to keep clutter down. My crate is a Hart rolling tool box.

I like the baby brush hog and full size brush hog. Kind of an in between that gets overlooked by a lot of people but is one of my favorites for flipping, especially for big fish, is a Big Bite Baits Craw Tube in Hematoma. Kind of a tube, kind of a creature, kind of a craw, 100% a fish catcher.

I’ll always offer but I’ve seen enough times that 2 people in the same boat are fishing the same thing and one is catching while the other is blanking that I would really have to be struggling to go to the exact same thing. Happened Tuesday in the tournament with my buddy. I had struggled all night with a couple shorts while he had 2 solid keepers in the box. Instead of tying on a bluegill bladed jig like he was using, I went to my solid blue and ended up added 2 keepers of my own behind him. I doubt I would have caught those fish if I’d gone to the exact same thing because he never got another bite after I switched. Something changed and they wanted the different color.

I fish a Ned through weeds and wood that would shock most. Ned searches out weeds to target in most of his fishing trips and has lamented the states war against aquatic vegetation and its detrimental effect on our lakes in many of his reports. If you can find the tiniest space to fish one, they’ll pluck fish right out of those weeds if you’re willing to deal with the headache of cleaning weeds. I don’t think it’s probably worth the hassle from your reports though, doesn’t seem you have any issue getting bit on standard presentations.

They’re her favorite. She loves fishing a Ned so it makes sense. She somehow managed to only catch smallmouth Sunday too while I also caught drum, crappie, catfish, sunfish, and a spotted bass but fished a Ned way less 🤷🏼‍♂️

Took the family to the lake Sunday to meet my MIL with her pontoon and jetski. We got there a little before the rest of the group and caught some fish before they showed up. Once they were there, the kids hopped onto the pontoon to go swimming with their cousins. It was triple digit heat indexes but not awful with a good amount of wind blowing. Mrs. Blue and I had the rare chance to get out and fish by ourselves and the fish were more than willing to bite despite the heat. Not a lot of bigger fish, but lots of biters and hard pullers.

It was a good week. I took the family for a few hours Sunday and caught a bunch of smallmouth too.

Tuesday I met up with my good buddy Jon for an evening boat buddy tournament. Fishing is historically very difficult there, not unusual for a single 2lb fish to win, and he’d told me it was holding up to its reputation recently. Not expecting much, the lake held its own for the first hour, producing only 4 small fish that were well short of the 15” minimum. I was starting to feel like we’d be lucky to get a keeper as we ran to a new spot when we noticed that our favorite area had opened up, so we headed back to it. The usual stretch didn’t produce, but as we fished up the other side, Jon slowly leaned back into his bladed jig rod and what he thought was grass, started pulling back. I was ready with the net and we quickly had a very solid keeper in the box. I hopped into the back and went to make a cast when on his very next cast, Jon leaned into another one. Almost an exact replica of the first, things we’re looking up quickly. We decided this was our home for the remaining couple hours and started picking it apart. I caught a just barely short on a frog before we went across the cove and started worked back to where we had originally pulled into the cove at. As we did, we both noticed a sizeable wake pushing bait along the shallow grass line. I switched my bladed jig from green pumpkin to my favorite all blue as the sunlight faded and we neared the hunting fish. We were really working that area when a fish stopped my bait as hard as one has in a while. It wanted to jump bad but I buried the rod long enough for Jon to get the net and we put a third in the box. In the last 10 minutes, we were fishing through where Jon caught his keepers when my bladed jig got smacked again. I saw a flash and it looked small so I called Jon off with the net. When I swung it in, it was obvious I shouldn’t have and the board made it more clear when it stretched over the line. We had a good laugh about it as we headed for the ramp. Of the 13 boats, only 5 other fish were weighed and only one boat had 2 fish for 4.5 pounds. Our 4 were good for almost 9 pounds and the win!

Last Saturday was another stop for the Kansas Kayak Anglers tournament circuit, this time it was a roadrunner format. I thought it was the same as last year's format, but found out a month ago that it wasn't. Instead, this year we were allowed to fish any state lake in Kansas. This threw a major wrench in my plan because our state lakes are mostly terrible and especially the ones close to my area. I had time to prefish a couple of them leading up to the event and settled on Montgomery State Lake near Independence, KS as my destination despite having only ever fished the lake once just 2 weeks before. I camped near one of the ramps the night before and the "30% chance of storms", turned into wild thunderstorms with torrential downpours, high winds, excessive lightning, even hail, for about 6 hours straight. Everything in my tent was soaked and I got very little sleep. At least the storms had mostly passed by launch and there was only distant flashes by the time first cast came at 6AM. 2 other guys had chosen to fish the lake also but launched from a different ramp so I didn't know who they were. I started fishing right at the ramp and just a few cast into the morning with my bladed jig, I caught a 15.75". I fished around the cove a little and ended up catching a small limit, which was a surprise for me as my first trip I was averaging about a bite a hour and it wasn't even 7 when I caught my 5th fish. The lake is shallow and dirty with weeds all around it. I had heard lots of fish in the very shallow weeds, so I ran a toad between some cattails and water willows and got one to suck it down. A little better fish at 16.75" The lake had probably dropped a foot since I fished it the first time 2 weeks ago and a lot of the weeds I'd caught them in then were barely in the water, so I was really struggling. It had become clear that I didn't know the other 2 fishermen on the lake, but they knew each other. I was right across the small lake from them when I swear I heard one of them exclaim to the other "I just caught another 20!" Not what I was wanting to hear. I needed to make a change because the size had gone way down on the fish. So I took off the now useless frog that I had put on, I tied on a spinnerbait. Not ideal to fish a spinnerbait on a 7' 3" H/F with 65lb braid, but I didn't have high hopes for it in the 90* water anyways. So my second cast, it got slammed and she jumped as high as I've ever seen a fish that size get. Really glad I had a trailer hook because it wasn't hooked great, but I still got the 20.50" fish in the net and on the board. I caught several more small fish, including a small cull, but nothing like I needed. There is a pretty sizeable creek that I'd caught some fish out of in practice, but the bites I got were in the back. So I cranked the motor on high and ran to the back of the creek. Once I got there, I skipped my Texas rig into a big laid down tree. I hadn't caught anything out of it before, but this time, there was a little pressure when I picked up, and a big head came wallowing out when I set the hook. I kept her up and moving so she couldn't get back in the tree and slid the net under her. That was one of the only bites I got back there, but at 19", it was worth the effort. I fished around for the next couple hours and didn't catch much. My wife did her normal lunchtime check in that has a history of bringing me luck, and this time was no different. I flipped my T-rig into the grass and got thumped. Had to get off the phone so I could take the pictures of the 17 incher. I felt like I was close, but I still had a 15.75" I wanted to get rid of. I had some really good bites on the T-rig one lay downs, but they would just whack it and drop it for some reason. In the last 30 minutes, I ran to the same spot I caught my big one and ran a bladed jig across the grass line. I had a big fish load on. I set and she was immediately on the top, shook her head, and came off. That would be the last bite I'd get and proved to be the difference between me and the other guy on the lake that was doing a little better. Turns out they both lived right by the lake and fish it all the time. His buddy that also fishes it all the time, managed a single 10.25" fish, holding up to it's reputation as a lake with big fish that are difficult to catch.

Skipping bladed jigs under docks and overhanging trees has been a solid pattern for me lately.

I think I had 3 of them at one point? For sure still have one, too good of a bait not to own one.

Prefishing for a tournament Friday and for once was actually catching fish on a crank bait like I knew what I was doing. The Besotted squarebill caught probably 20 fish that all looked like they hatched from the same nest.

Minimum in these tournaments is 8”. These ones are at local lakes and only for 3 hours in the afternoons, so they usually have a much smaller big fish than the bigger tournaments. I’ve actually only caught 3 fish bigger than 16.25” in the Tuesday night tournaments all year and they were all in the same you tournament 😂

Last night the Tuesday night tournament finally swung by the lake by my house. I never fish the lake, but 5 minutes from me, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to fish if it worked out and I just happened to get off work early enough to make it. I asked my oldest son if he wanted to go with me and he said he did, but it was going to rushed because he had to go to a night before school started event. So I unloaded the kayaks and mom ran him out to me 5 minutes before the tournament started. I forgot my extra measuring board so we had to stay close so he could use my board for his fish. The weather was perfect, cloudy and cool with a decent breeze, so of course the bite was brutally tough. I missed a couple on a frog and it was 45 minutes into the tournament when I finally hooked up with a fish on a homemade micro jig off a dock ladder. I was a mess all night, skipped my frog under a dock and got it stuck so bad I had to get out and crawl across the dock to cut my line and get my frog back. Then cast my bladed jig so high in a tree I couldn’t reach it. I was so worried about Lake getting fish, I was having a hard time concentrating. Right where I got my bladed jig stuck, I caught another fish on a wacky rig. I was letting Lake lead, telling him where to cast, but the frustration was pretty obvious and he was having a hard time focusing and listening. I caught another behind him on a wacky rig right off the spot I’d just told him to cast his wacky rig to fill out my limit. I told him he just needed a few good cast and he was right back in it and there was still 1.5 hours left. We ran around a point to some deeper water and I crossed paths with another competitor who fished the lake a ton and he said it was really tough and he only had 3 dinks. Lake was behind me and right then I heard he had a fish on! It wasn’t a big fish in size, but it was his first ever tournament fish so it was a huge accomplishment and a big confidence boost for him. I had one dock on the south end that if you told me I had 5 minutes to catch a fish for a million dollars on that lake, that’s the dock I’d go to. So we fished all the way down to it, passing another competitor who said he had nothing but a bluegill. I made several pitches before I finally got bit but it was another decent fish. We turned and went back towards the ramp, fishing the opposite side of the lake. I caught 3 more, including a disappointing dink that hit a 6” Bull Shad Wake. With 11 minutes left, we ran to a main lake point that had 2 docks I wanted to fish. I was fishing one while Lake worked the point and he hooked up. He got it in and was holding it in the air over the water while I was about pleading with him to get it over his kayak, when it fell back in the water. I know he felt bad but I probably felt worse than he did. He kept casting though and just a few cast later he hooked up again and this time got it in the kayak and put it in the net. With 2 minutes left, he scored his second keeper. He got bit again while I was hurriedly taking his picture but missed it. It was an exciting final few minutes and he was so close to getting a limit in his first tournament, I was really proud of him. I thought for sure someone would have caught them, but turns out it was tough for everyone and my limit was good enough for the win. Lake finished ahead of a few guys and would have been right in the middle if he’d had that 3rd fish that was probably 12 inches.

I color my braid when it starts to get faded. I carry a fat Sharpie with the flat tip just for that purpose. Also works well for writing my identifiers for kayak tournaments.

I can understand why someone would buy one. Not every reel is an everyday use reel. The reel on my deep cranking rod is probably going to get 100 cast on it a season, it just doesn't get used, but I want to have one in the box because every once in a great while, I actually catch fish deep cranking. However, I don't want to buy another 150-200 reel like what most my workhorses have on them. I got lucky and found a Pflueger Supreme on FFO for $50, but I was looking for something cheaper that I could get by with and just happened to find them.

Excited about the BBB lineup, some solid looking colors coming and I like their plastics already. Yamamoto 4" grub, smoke/no flake on a 1/4 or 3/8 jighead just cast out and reeled back in is the easiest way to catch a fish on Table Rock.

Stunna, 6th Sense, Strike King 300, Head Hunter, and Duo all do a lot of work for me when I need a jerkbait.

I often joke that I get nervous if it's too deep for me to touch bottom. I'm a shallow water fisherman and that is almost always where you'll find me, regardless of time of year.

Bone Creek has a ton of vegetation of you're talking submerged grass. Same for Leavenworth State Lake. Olathe has a lot of water willows, so does Middle Creek. If you get the JOCO permit, Shawnee Mission Park and Lexington both have good amounts of vegetation. SMP is willows, Lexington has cattails, pads, and submerged grass.

Took the family out in the boat Saturday on a nice cool day. Supposed to be cloudy and no chance of rain, but it rained a good portion of the time unfortunately. They toughed it out a good portion of the time, the kids were pretty motivated by the promise of me paying them $1 for every fish they caught. It got a little heavy at one point and I took them back to the truck for a little while. Mrs. Blue had the hot hand on the toothy fish and kitties. Sunday, I took my buddy Deric out to my river spot. He use to fish the rivers a lot but hasn't been in years since nobody will go with him anymore. It was kind of a slow day, but he made his only bite of the day count.

You’ll have options but like was mentioned, it depends what you consider close. There’s quite a few options in that hour range. Not near as much water as what you’re use to in Minnesota, and it’s completely different fishing, but it’s all fishable by kayak I promise. I’m not sure what you’re use to with wind in Minnesota, but in that area, 20+ mph is pretty normal and 30-40 mph winds isn’t uncommon.

Got to get them out of those water willows fast or they’ll bury up and it’s impossible to get them out then. Not my fault they were miniatures 😂