Bluebasser86

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

Prefishing for my first club kayak tournament of the year Friday. I won this tournament last year on the same lake, also in April, so I felt like I knew what I wanted to do coming into it. After about 3 hours of fishing, I was sure I knew what I wanted to do. I had received some information about a little lake not too far away that was supposed to have real big ones, which always gets my attention, so I loaded up and headed down the road a little ways. Now it was not a numbers fishery at all, big fish lakes usually aren't around here, but it did not disappoint on the big fish. and of course, 2 cast after this one, I caught big momma. I thought she might be an 8 when I saw her jump, just because of how thick she was and how big the mouth was. Once I got her in the net, I knew the length wasn't there, but still one of the thickest fish I've ever seen.

Pretty rare I don't have a Texas rigged something in my lineup.

I like them as trailers for swimjigs, spinnerbaits, and bladed jigs. They don't swim as well as a Keitech at slower speeds, but they kick hard moving a little faster as a trailer. They seem to be a little more durable also, which is a bonus for a trailer.

I FINALLY broke the 5lb mark for the year, in fact I jumped right into the 6lb club with one of the thickest fish I've ever seen.

The lake I'm headed to is a 500 acre lake, so I don't have to worry about getting pulled downstream thankfully. I've caught 13 muskie in my life and 12 of them were from this lake (8 of them in 3 days one of my last trips there). Biggest was a 42" fish. It's a good bass lake also, so it's just a fun lake all around. Trolling motors only make it even more appealing for kayaking.

Big catfish (little catfish can kick rocks), are one of my favorite fish to catch. I also have a weekend off in October, planning to chase a muskie from my kayak, really looking forward to that.

The heavy green (pea soup), water is some of my favorite water to throw my blue bladed jigs in. We get a lot of that water color in the summertime.

I do both. Some days they like a straight retrieve, some they like stop and go or pumping the rod, and some they want it rippes and killed.

Those do not but still a great hook 👌

I'm too fast to switch to finesse tactics and target bites instead of big fish, hoping that I will catch enough fish that eventually some will be bigger. As far as what everyone else is doing, I have stopped worrying about that, it's out of my control and only effects me if I let it.

@August I stand and fish in mine very easily. I'm 6' and about 210 and carry more gear than I need but it handles it fine. I fish in a lot of very strong winds with big waves and it's not an issue as long as I'm not trying to cut across the waves.

Boat captained for the high school boys Saturday. Wind was bad and lake conditions were bad, but they put a couple keepers in the boat and managed a top 5 finish. Sunday, I took the boys out for a few hours. I should have taken them somewhere else to avoid the crowd but I didn't against my better judgement. The lake was crazy busy, not my cup of tea. We caught a few fish and enjoyed the nice weather. Finn and I teamed up on the big fish of the day, 4.11 pounds on a Ned rig.

You could easily get an Oldtown 120 Sportsman without the peddles and add a motor for under 2k. I have the peddle version, it's a very stable boat.

It has "wiggle wart", instead of "Rapala" stamped on the underside of the bill, which that one does.

Lots of good old baits. That's a good yard sale find.

Tubes for smallies are popular here, but big flipping tubes for largemouth have fallen by the wayside big time. I have to custom order my favorite colors of tubes in the bigger sizes. Pretty much my only option in a big, flipping tube is whatever store brand BPS has in stock at the moment.

They've wreaked havoc on one of my favorite smaller lakes. Use to be full of grass, now there isn't a strand of grass in the lake. I need to start making night trips out there with my bow and trying to take the lake back. Only a 200 acre lake, myself and a couple buddies could make a big impact in a summer I'd imagine.

They're a pretty good hook, but I have had quite a few points roll on me.

This year has been very poor for me so far. Have not fished nearly as much as usual, and have not had a lot of success when I have. Have not broke even 5 pounds yet this year, which I normally do many times in January alone. First kayak tournament of my circuit year is next weekend. Hopefully I can shake the funk then.

My pond in the jungle. It's tiny, you can see in the picture, not much bigger than the turn-around at the end of the dead-end road it's situated by. It's easy to cast all the way across in any direction and can't be more than 5' deep anywhere in the thing. Pretty sure the state killed it by clearing the trees off the dam and pushing a lot of them into it, basically filled the thing in. It use to have fish like this in it though.

Got my boat out for the first time in 6 months or so today. Doing the boat captain thing next weekend and the kids aren't going to get to prefish so I tried to go do it for them. Lake was super low and very muddy. I don't understand why they keep making these poor kids go back to this sorry excuse for a lake. I fished the marina for an hour without a bite. Tried to run to a different spot but got a constant beep warning when I did. Oil level was pretty low so I'm thinking that's what it was since it was peeing water just fine. Half-hearted tried the marina a little more before putting it right back on the trailer having had 1 bite from a big drum. On the way home, I stopped by a lake that never has any tournaments because it's a "bad lake", so I could remember what it's like to get a bite.

Mom and little brother were at a birthday party this afternoon, so Lake and I went fishing for a couple hours. Too windy to be on the water, so we stood on the bank and catfished. I was trying to catch something for bait with nightcrawlers on the bottom, but Lake ended up catching a channel cat and his first ever sturgeon on them instead.

There was a tournament that was either won by or almost won by a couple kids fishing Vision 110s with a piece of a Styrofoam cup suoerglued to the top of the bait. They were using upsized hooks, which caused the bait to sink. The foam was counteracting the added weight. Usually a thinner bill will create a wilder/more pronounced action, so you could try sanding a bill down thinner. Of course it risks weakening the bill or changing/ruining the action altogether.

@TnRiver46 it's a constant battle fighting the hairballs floating around on the hardwood and hair on everything in the house, but they're great dogs.