Bluebasser86

I use the telescoping style. I have the Dotline and a Money Pole. Both work well.

They've been plastic for quite a while now. I use to fish a muskie jitterbug occasionally. I don't fish any of them anymore. Treble hooks are a no-no at night for me. A similar bait that I do like is the Livingston Walking Boss Part II. Only Livingston bait I've ever used and liked. Something about it really seems to fire them up. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Livingston_Walking_Boss_II_Tournament_/descpage-WAL.html

Wind. The lakes themselves, most of them suck and the fish are small. The trash, people and actual trash, they tend to go hand in hand I figure. The amount of carp, drum, and gar in the lakes. How our state is next to Missouri and Oklahoma, 2 lakes with great bass fishing and tons of nice, free ramps, but our fishing sucks and I have to pay to use every ramp with giant craters all over them. How the state will stock millions of catfish, walleye, and hybrids every year, but bass are left to fend for themselves.

I learned to Ned rig from one of Ned's friends that helped creat the rig/concept. I use to run into Ned on the water pretty often when I had weekdays off. The heaviest Ned rig head in my box is 1/16oz. I'm familiar with it.

That's a spawning channel cat. Their heads and lips swell up when they're spawning. The curved anal fin is the easiest tell. Blues have a very straight anal fin.

I've tried, haven't been able to make a fish eat one yet.

Did a little fishing Mother's Day morning and caught a bunch of fish, but never found any big ones. That Gamakatsu Nano Alpha hook was still sticking all of them so good. Pretty sure I caught my first topwater fish of the year also. Had a new addition to the kayak that I was playing with, that was the main reason for the trip.

Original and Magnum, rigged on it's side so the tail swims like a fish.

I did pretty decent with the 168 S Waver, but nothing crazy. I do agree that the Shine Glide is a killer entry level bait that seems to get no mention at all.

No gas motors and it's a very small lake. The main issue is the ramp. It has concrete walls on both sides you have to back through and it's not very wide. I use to put my 16' Lowe Roughneck on it, so I'd guess your Tracker would fit fine. Black and blue or a junebug jig will get you lots of bites.

If you have a boat small enough to get on it, Crystal Lake in Garnett always has a good jig bite. Bourbon State Lake and Wilson County Lale both have good jig bites also.

High percentage areas like marinas, bridges, and dams are always good places to just get some fish, not always a winning area though.

I've got several Kistler Rods. I fish a little bit and have never popped an insert out. I've broke 2, 1 completely my fault and 1 was a factory defect. They replaced it no issues and I definitely didn't pay full price for the replacement.

Usually for BASS, it's a 12" minimum length limit.

No, you can get information from other competitors though. I couldn't talk to my friends that were camping with me in Oklahoma because they weren't in the tournament. It was a weird deal not being able to talk fishing with my fishing buddy. @Koz Just have a positive attitude and try to learn as much as you can. I was just hoping for a limit both days and everything else was a bonus.

I tried to go to Mound yesterday but there must have been a tournament, 12-15 boats were already there and fishing when I got there at 6:30. Hate to see it on such a small lake. Went to a couple different small lakes and scratched a few here and there but nothing worth writing home about. Black and blue bladed jig, blue/chartreuse with orange/copper blades Covert spinnerbait, and a black/gold jig did most of the damage.

Had a busy weekend but an even busier week so just now getting around to posting the weekend report. Saturday I took the boys out to crappie fish to try and catch a few for a guy from work. "We", were successful in going through 2 dozen minnows, of which I used none of. Tons of shorts, but we did get him a dozen to eat. We also got a few donus bass. And I had Finn pose with my drum because I'd hate for @roadwarrior not to see it. Sunday I got out for a few hours on a local lake in some weird weather that changed rapidly in the few hours I was there. We've had a ton of rain the last couple weeks and it's still coming so the water was up and dirty. I figured that would mean aggressive fish eating moving baits. So of course they'd only eat a Ned rig. I caught a bunch like this. Then ended the day on the ramp with big fish of the day. Say it with me now "Ned rigs only catch little fish" 😂 I took Monday off for my birthday and tried to go to one of my favorite lakes 1.5 hours west to fish some docks. What is normally a clear lake full of docks was a chocolate milk lake full of docks and floating trash. I opted not to pay the $30 to fish for the day and drove 45 more minutes north to a lake I hadn't fished in several years but I fished a ton as a kid. It's not a great bass lake but I caught a couple dozen smallmouth like this one. A couple decent largemouth. and the main reason I went, a whole bunch of these guys. Just gobs of 1-3 pound wipers up shallow. Lots of fun and a change of pace. Wednesday I jumped in with my buddy Jon for a local weeknight boat tournament. I was a terrific back seater, netting all of his fish for him and not catching any of my own. I did get the big disappointment of the night in the very back of a muddy, weedy cove. Thankfully it was a team tournament and Jon's 3 keepers were enough for 1st. FWIW, they were all caught on baits I made for him 🤷

Numbers are great, no idea where the big fish are.

I fish a very similar bait, the Poc-it Phenom worm. I use a weedless Ned head, works great for thin pastics like that.

I pour my own. Tons of standing timber and the bite I was on, really didn't think it was going to be necessary.

The angry grumbles when the Tournament Director asks me what I caught them on and I said "A Ned Rig", were pretty comical. Wasn't what I wanted to be fishing, but it was what the fish wanted to be eating, so that's what I was fishing.

First tournament of the year for Kansas Kayak Anglers and Kansas Bass Nation was this past Saturday at Big Hill Lake in Cherryvale Kansas. Big Hill is a 1,200 acre, timber filled lake with only 3 ramps, so it was a crowded lake with 41 anglers participating. It's the same lake we started the season on last April, it went something like this. So I was cautiously optimistic going into the tournament, despite the fact that historically, Big Hill doesn't play very nicely with me. Prefishing conditions were very similar to last year, so I fished the same area as the previous year and caught several fish, as well as shook a bunch off. After just a few hours, I was off the water and went to a different lake where I caught my biggest bass of the year so far. Tournament morning, I started on my best bank and planned on catching a quick limit and building on it from there. At the end of my best bank, I had absolutely nothing to show for it, not even a bite. I fished the little pocket that was magic the year before, it wasn't magic this morning. It took almost 2 hours before I finally landed a squeaker 13" keeper on a Strike King Rodent. The next 2 bites I had were dirt shallow, which surprised me because of the cold front conditions, I lost both fish. Next fish got yanked clear out of the water because of my trying to make up for the 2 lost fish, and it only being 12" long. Well past 2 hours into the tournament, and I was sitting at a whopping 25" when I was sure I would have been culling by now. I fished down a bank I'd had no bites in practice, but was quickly running out of ideas. I missed one and then quickly got another bite on the Rodent that was little more like I was looking for, a 16.5" fish. There's a little pond attached to the lake I was hoping to maybe fill my limit out of. I don't normally fish it, but desperate times and all that. It wasn't much, but I found a 15.75" on a Ned rig and a 11.75" on a spinnerbait to fill out a very small limit. Cutting across the lake, I started catching fish fairly regularly, but they were very small culls. Instead of the 16-18 inch fish I needed, I was catching 13 inchers. I culled up to barely beyond the 70" mark, but it regularly takes 95"+ to win on this lake, I knew I had to make a change. I only had 2 spinning rods with me. Too much timber for the standard Ned, so I opted for the Big TRD on the weedless Ned head. I got bit by what felt like a good fish right away, but it came off. I caught what I thought was going to be a good upgrade, but it was just so fat it looked bigger, only a 13.75" fish, but I was getting bites and doing it behind people. Back to the bank I started on, fishing the big Ned along laydowns and stumps. It was after noon and things just weren't happening, I needed things to start happening, and this is when they did. I pulled into what I thought was grass, then it moved a little. Hookset was solid, and it launched eyeball high into the air. I had a long battle through the stumps in the wind before she was in the net. The 18.75" fish was over a 5" cull at this point in the day. I turned around and went back down the bank. Right in front of another laydown, I hooked another good one that was creating all kinds of commotion on the surface immediately. Another 18" fish hit the net and another big boost to my score. A few cast later next to a log, a little "tick", and I set into another good fish. This one not quite as long, but the 16.75" fish was still about a 2" cull. I could feel it now, I needed to get rid of one last 15" fish and I had a shot. My bank was suddenly crowded. No spot vultures, the lake was just busy and guys just happened to be working through at a bad time. I looked across the lake and one of my secondary spots was finally open after being occupied all day. It was almost 2PM, lines out was 2:30. I shot across, weaving through the timber. The wind was pounding the bank and the bait was hard to feel. I fired a long cast against the wind into a laydown. I worked the bait a little and by the time I got to it, I realized the line was headed out towards the kayak. I popped the rod straight up and it was on the top immediately and right in the net. I put the 17.50" fish on the board at 2:12PM. In the last 2 hours, I rocketed up from the low 70's, to 87.50", all on a big Ned rig. I didn't think it would be enough, but to my surprise, I had it when I caught the 18 incher.

Great day, definitely some signs of spawning activity in those fish.

You're going to love my new sticker on the kayak then 😆