Bluebasser86

Welcome!

I've heard TN has some really big ones, but they're not easy to find. Last time I fished for them in MO, I caught 9 in 3 days and saw several more but the biggest was 42" and it was by far the biggest.

Had a full weekend of just me and the boys. What else is there to do? My youngest, Finn, is closing in on 3 and I hadn't gotten him his first fish yet, so we went out and changed that. He didn't want to hold them yet, but he was having a good time cranking the gills and sunfish in one after the other. Big brother was holding his own just fine too.

I'm going to miss him on Gridiron Heights

I love them, which is really unfortunate considering I live in a state where none reside. I've managed to catch 11 of them in my life in 5 or 6 attempts at catching them, all from Missouri.

Not as a trailer, but I've thrown a buzzbait with just a toad and it works pretty well. I like the extra weight, helps a lot with casting accuracy.

I do better with the dressed ones, but the hooks tend to rust on me because they're so hard to get them to dry out.

Got out for my only short little trip this weekend (which got cut even shorter by a bad storm that came ripping through). Started out with a bang, right off the dock before I even parked the truck on the FishLab Bio Wake Gill. Got a couple on the FishLab Rattle Toad, the bigger one about took the rod away from when it bit not far from the boat right before I reeled in to make another cast. and my biggest one of the day ate one of my homemade bladed jigs right before the storm really let loose and I had to break the no wake rule for the lake ?

I fish bladed jigs a ton. I'll pitch them about anywhere and can't tell you how many times I've caught fish in small little lanes, holes, and spots where a jig, plastic, or other bait made more sense. Likely, because the other baits make more sense, nobody is throwing that chatterbait in there, so the fish aren't seeing it there while they're used to seeing jigs and plastics all the time. So you showed them something different and they reacted.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

I have a few different ones. Back in the magical days before the interwebs, that and magazines is where I consumed my bass fishing propaganda and learned a lot of what I learned to get myself started out.

They'll do that when carp are spawning, frogs are mating, birds are hatching over water, ducklings are hatching, anytime there's food there. I managed to sight fish one in the 10lb range on a jig several years ago in about a foot of water way up a creek.

Found a neat little fishing hole with Lake today.

In my limited experience of fishing in the salt, everything there fights hard. Bass, especially largemouth, aren't really known for their fighting skills in terms of being hard fighter. Not to say that they can't put on a brief show of strength, but they're not going to overpower many saltwater fish.

I take them off my walking baits, I don't like how much drag they create and I don't fish walking baits slow enough to feel they have much effect.

The Scheel's in KC had a bunch. My son was scared of them, pretty realistic looking. No doubt a fish will eat them, but I have no doubt that a fish that will eat them wouldn't have eaten another small topwater as well.

Tie direct on both and fish them on straight braid.

If nobody ever shared any information, this whole website would kind of be a moot point wouldn't it now? I've seen enough times when I gave the guy in the back of the boat the same bait I was catching fish with and they continued to not catch fish while I was whacking them that sharing a perceived "secret" bait doesn't really bother me.

When I say clothes pin, I mean the same thing as a safety pin, sorry for the confusion.

To actually bend out a 3/0 superline hook consistently, you're probably going to be looking around 30 or 40 pound braid. Treble hooks on lures will bend out much easier.

I'm typically dragging a swinging football head through rocks. Switching to a bullet weight would result in a lot more hang ups. I don't really see the benefit to a free swinging bait in any situation when I fish a T rig? I don't drag them often, usually pitching them in or around cover where I want the sinker and bait to stay as close together as possible.

Smallmouth and spots are notorious for those rapid fire "bluegill bites". They green sunfish kept tearing the legs off my pitboss I was using for a trailer while I was night fishing Monday. Normally 1 trailer gets me through a night on this lake easily, but I went through 3 in 1 night that night.

Sorry about the rough luck. I can unfortunately really relate and when you just want things to slow down around you, they just keep moving forward, makes it even tougher. Keep your head up, it will get better. Good looking pup, and fish!