Bluebasser86

There's always fish shallow. One of my top 5 of the year last year was a 6.5lb fish in 3' of 41* water in January. A shallow, rocky shelf next to the river channel that she'd pulled up to feed on.

Welcome!

Welcome back!

Fish shallow water where the sun is hitting that is very close to deeper water. Shallow water shelves at the top of steep drops where fish can pull up to feed and move vertically quickly are your best bets.

I'd rather have a bait that runs a little too deep than too shallow, that's why I go with the 5xd instead of the series 5.

I run the 3XD, 5XD, and 6XD. Anything deeper than that I don't feel I can really fish effectively with a crankbait because it takes so long for it to get there and even on a really long cast, it's not at it's max running depth long. I can tell you a lot of other people use the same models because I find them all the time too. Don't worry too much about colors either. Not much of their color is going to be visible in the murky lake water at their max running depth anyways.

Got some baits from the Land of the Rising Sun today. They packed the box with newspapers and were nice enough to even include the daily comic for me. It was a real knee slapper too!

I always buy the 3 pole permit for KS and if it's calm enough, I'll float a micro jig while casting a spoon. Since it requires no action on my part, it's a great way to cover water faster with 2 different presentations. It's like a tiny version of a float-n-fly, the jigs I use most are 1/80 (that's 80th, not 8th) ounce.

I use the fluoro for only a few things, all bottom contact baits, and I don't use it for all my bottom contact baits. It's more for sensitivity than visibility for me as we have very few lakes I'd consider even relatively clear.

Welcome! Sorry to hear about your situation but at least it sounds you're making the best of it. I'm guessing you're located somewhere around the area I'm originally from (Manhattan area). Sounds like you've found a very serviceable little boat that will get you around just fine. Those Intruders were great motors and very dependable when taken care of.

Got a couple new little finesse cranks for the cold water months from overseas today. One Megabass, one Jackall, both for around $15 total, didn't figure it could hurt to try them.

If it's deeper than 20', I'll fish a spoon like a War Eagle or Bink's, if it's shallower I'm fishing a Ned rig.

I use to troll spot to spot when I was fishing out of a 2 man. Shad raps in various sizes were my bait of choice to pull because they caught everything. Now if I'm focusing just on bass, it's usually a lipless bait, bladed jig, or plopper depending on cover, depth, and time of year. The lipless I can fish any depth and any time of year so it gets used the most.

Every weekend during the summer months when I was out of school was family camping/fishing/swimming weekend. My dad would put a sheet of plywood in the back of his old Dodge truck with a camper shell. Mom and dad slept on the bottom, my little sister and I slept on top of the board in the back of his truck. There would be 2-3 dozen family members camping on a sandbar at the lake, big fire going, lots of rods out leaning in forked sticks waiting for catfish to bite, always be guitar playing and my great uncle playing his harmonica. Summer never lasted long enough.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Flashy_Swimmer_with_CPS_2pk/descpage-OFSCP.html 6/0

Academy

Maybe they don't offer sponsorships?

I really think you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. Stocked trout are one of the easiest fish there is to catch. The hardest part is locating them, and since you're in a small body of water, that part is done. I personally don't like powerbait, but if you're set on it, a small slip-sinker rig with either enough paste or eggs (I prefer the eggs by a large margin), to float the hook off the bottom will do the trick. If there's weeds, try a bobber with a micro jig floating just above the weeds. Don't give the bait any action, it's a tiny bait and tiny creatures don't do much other than drift around on whatever current is present. Add a waxworm to really spice it up if you like. You can use this even if there isn't any weeds, it's one of my most productive trout presentations.

I just cleaned all my old 200B Curados this past weekend. They're all in the regular lineup and somewhere around 20 years old and still working great. Also have some reels that were new this last year, but I don't jump on the hype train anything like I use to. Too much changing the name and color of a reel and pretending it's new going on anymore.

You can buy that blank painted up for about $8. With a custom paint job, you'd probably be able to find someone that would pay 10-20. Like they say, it's worth what someone will give you for it.

It's pretty popular in your area already. Big glide baits and especially big wake baits like Slammers and rats seem to be very popular (relatively speaking), in that area. It's a lot like muskie fishing, you're throwing a large bait in hopes for a couple bites a day most of the time. I get pretty excited when I get fish to follow, because I know I'm doing something right. If you're going to do it, buy the gear to handle the baits, don't try to make a flipping stick work. You can get a pretty decent swimbait setup for a pretty reasonable price. I wouldn't bury yourself too deep in baits right away either, but just the nature of the beast, you're going to have to spend a little money to get good quality baits. For glide baits, Savage Gear Shine Glide 185 is my personal favorite. The River2Sea SWaver 168 is popular as well. Deps 175 is a good bait but I liked the glide of the Shine Glide a lot better and the price is obviously way better. Soft baits, the Hudd 68 top hook or weedless is a good bait to start with. Savage Gear has some good boot tail trout baits and their line thru baits are great, especially if you're going to be dealing with pike and muskie as well. Wake baits are one of the funniest baits to fish IMO. A 7" or 9" Slammer is a must have and probably the priciest bait I feel like a beginner needs to own. A Spro Rat 50 is another solid option. Don't do like a lot of people do and try to buy the smallest sizes of everything hoping for more bites. It completely defeats the purpose of throwing swimbaits and loses a lot of their action and appeal when you downsize. I catch plenty of 1lb fish on 7" baits still, just not all the time like if I was fishing a Senko. I've also caught bigger bass than I've ever caught out of lakes that have reputations of never giving up bigger fish, so it's made a believer of me.

Bandit 200 Strike King HC Flat Side 1.5 Wiggle Wart Shad Rap Berkley Wild Thang

Welcome!

Welcome!