Bluebasser86

@wanderful it's just kind of a weird lake. I've had success with things that didn't make any sense for them to be working at Olathe. I like fishing the lake but the waterpark has attracted so many "tourist" to the lake that it's almost unbearable in the warmer months.

I haven't fished Jacomo in a few years. You don't need a JOCO permit for Black Hoof or Olathe though. You only need a JOCO permit for SML, Lexington, Heritage (which is closed to fishing this year for renovations), and a couple JOCO ponds. No way I'd drop $127 to fish SML. I like fishing it, but I'm a resident and it only cost me $30 and even that feels like too mucj. No you're not. Those were uploaded through Photobucket which now charges you to use their services and I wasn't going to pay so all my pictures got wiped out by them from those years.

I use these, just open the bottom up a little and put the hook on then close it again. https://barlowstackle.com/Connector-Links-P835/ I use a different, highly modified mold, to pour heads down to 1/8oz and up to 1oz.

One of my best big fish producers in my homemade bladed jigs is my crappie pattern.

Not every puddle has a pond monster in it, but some do. My PB swimbait fish was out of a puddle so small that I could cast across it in any direction. I caught her deadsticking a MS Slammer. The easiest and surest way to find out if there's big fish though, bobber fish a 4" bluegill or a big golden shiner.

I've got a bunch in the boat and kayak both. I don't fish their worms though. I pair them with other small plastics usually, most often, a Croc-O-Gator Ring Craw. Something about that pairing early in the spring is magic.

I catch more trout on Ned rigs than I do when I actually try to target trout with trout lures.

They stock a few in the lakes here every year. I've caught a handful of them. Last year I caught 2 the same day, both on a Ned rig.

Just looks like their 10" grubs they use to sell? Nothing wrong with that, those were great fish catchers, I was just expecting something new.

Eagle Claw makes Trokar, which seem to be a lot of people's favorite hooks, but for some reason those same people seem to think that Eagle Claw makes junk hooks 🙄 I'm the other way around, I like Eagle Claw but despise Trokar hooks 😂 When money is on the line, I'm going to be using a premium hook more often than not though, like a Gamakatsu.

Yikes, you'd think those guys would have been seasoned enough to know their limitations, but sometimes we overestimate ourselves I guess. Glad everything turned out okay. The one time I flipped my old kayak was in similar water temps, but in calm water on a very small lake. Even still, the cold took my breath away instantly and made it hard for me to think for a couple seconds.

Started work really early yesterday because I was supposed to be on a 3 day trial, but we showed up at 8:30 to find out that one of the key witnesses had Covid so they had to continue it, which meant I got out of work early, on a 75* day, so I went fishing for a couple hours. Didn't set the world on fire, but I caught 10 in a little under 2 hours. Always nice to steal an extra trip during the middle of the week. Caught them all on a Ned or a Rogue.

Sounds like you're doing fine, but maybe wanting too much from yourself. It takes years on the water and lots of experience to develop the skills and intuition that is required to be regularly successful in tournament fishing. Even if you dedicate that time, it doesn't guarantee that you'll be successful either. Bass tournaments are extremely competitive and with the new technology, they're also very expensive if you want to compete at a higher level. Try not to make it too complicated for now. I've been fishing over 35 years, tournament fishing over 20, they still beat me bad some days. I've gotten better by focusing on myself instead of everything else. All the media sources you're talking about, that's a lot of extra clutter in your mind on tournament day. I find I do much better since I stopped trying to find recent fishing reports, youtube videos from the lake, and instead just look at a map and find areas where they should be based on my experience. It doesn't always work, but I feel better about it when I failed doing what I felt I should be instead of chasing someone else's bite.

I wear a NRS chinook in my kayak. I opted for a little more bulk in favor of the certainty that I'd float if I ever went in. I had an auto Mustang, but it went off twice in the rain. I have a manual now that I wear in the boat but I'm not sure the last time I wore it.

Went out this last Sunday to enjoy some of the unseasonably warm weather before it went back in the tank today (19* out this morning 🙄). My lake of choice was certainly a target rich environment. Fishing was a little tougher than I'd hoped, but I managed to nab about 15 of them before I had to call it a day. Saw water temps all the way to 51* already, makes the cold front hurt that much worse. Supposed to be back up to nearly 80* by Sunday though, just have to make it through a rough couple days.

Some days it just feels like the world is trying to tell you to stay home.

It's my phone's camera. 2 "Blaze", colored baits from Berkely (maybe red/orange), and a "Delta Red", Spro Speed Demon. Added another good one on a red/orange bait today.

Yes it is. Bought it back in 2020 and been addicted to fishing out of it ever since. My boat just sits in the garage for the most part.

It's a Berkley Stunna 112 in the Blaze color. 6th Sense makes one that I also have in a color called Ditchweed that is yellow on one side and red on the other.

Glides is a bait you don't want to go "too small", in my opinion. You'll lose a lot of the good gliding action and the drawing power of the bait. You don't need to go super expensive. I've got quite a few baits north of the $100 mark but I've probably caught as many on a Shine Glide as any of them.

I use my fingernails also. Strike King is about the only split rings I can't open with my fingers. As long as it isn't cold out I can swap a hook in a few seconds without any tools. I use a mix of EWG and round bend trebles. I don't like EWG's for jerks and topwaters, other than that, doesn't matter either way to me.

Are you able to fish a standard jig in the bodies of water you fish? If so, I'd be trying a swing head.

Red is a confidence color for me and not just in cold water months and not just in dirty water. It's been producing the last few trips.

Finally had a good trip Sunday. No really big ones but I did finally get a pretty decent one, biggest of the year so far. The day after a 2 day cold front, put over 40 in the kayak. They were eating the paint off my crankbaits. Water temps got up to 45-46 at the end of the day. Best cranks were an Evergreen Flat Force, Spro Speed Demon, and Berkley Money Badger.

Very popular thing in the catfishing world, especially for targeting big blues. The rattle and colors is supposed to help call them in. I know that I only rigged 1 rod with a rattle the last 2 trips we went last fall and probably 75% of the fish we caught hit that rod. One of my rattles has some pretty serious scratches from blues chomping it, so they're for sure attracted to it.