Bluebasser86

I miss muskies. Haven't caught one, or even fished in a lake with them for several years. I took a weekend off in October to chase them from my kayak though after my tournament season is over. I don't miss crappie. Our lakes have tons of them, big ones, and there is nothing that ruins a good day on the water faster than a hot crappie bite or even worse, the spawn. Everyone is the best fisherman in the world during the crappie spawn and it brings out some of the rudest fishermen that will be on the water all year. Then they go and harvest way over their limits of spawning 12-15 inch females that are full of eggs, and when the population crashes, they blame the bass and catfish for eating them all 🙄

That's supposed to be a catfish rattle, not a topwater. Someone must have added the hooks and rings to it. I use one very similar to them. https://www.amazon.com/Catfish-Rattle-Floats-Dragon-Phantom/dp/B0CGTKLPC4/ref=asc_df_B0CGTKLPC4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=675669231081&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5112633283193023640&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9023858&hvtargid=pla-2245160746769&psc=1&mcid=eb138832baab342c8c35118327af5cfd

My grandpa noodled snapping turtles. He'd walk a muddy creek/river/pond with stout stick in one hand, poking around and feeling around with his feet. Big snappers tend to bury up in the mud and he'd walk until he'd feel one, then stand on it's shell to hold it down. Once he was standing on it, he'd work around the shell with the stick until he felt a "tap". All he had to do then was reach down to the opposite end of the shell and grab the tail and pull the turtle out of the mud. He was good enough that I don't remember him ever getting bitten. Snappers won't take off your finger like a lot of people think they will, but they'll still put a hurting on you.

Haven't felt very good for about a week now. Really felt bad Saturday but felt a little better Sunday. Got up enough energy to go out for a couple hours before the Superb Owl. Thought I was going to have the first cast curse, but ended up catching one on my last cast as I was just getting back to the ramp. Both were ugly fish but better than a skunk.

The Mini Mag is a great bait and easy to fish. The KVD 8.0 is a good bait but it runs pretty deep for a squarebill. I wish they would make a version with a shorter bill that stays in that 2-5 foot range that most squarebills run in.

Didn't it come with a replacement? Every Shine Glide I've ever bought came with a spare and I've never needed one.

What setup are you using them on @A-Jay? I've got a couple Subwalks and have got a few bites but have issues making them walk consistently. I was using my jerkbait rod with 10lb mono and just trying to twitch it similar to fishing a jerkbait. Still got bit, but I felt like I wasn't getting the full potential out of the bait. Maybe a spinning rod with braid to a leader might have been better.

Birds are liars. I've ran to many flocks of diving gulls, just to find nothing but schools of shad with no fish in the area under them. Most memorable was at Table Rock. We rounded a bend and saw hundreds of gulls diving in the middle of the channel. I was so sure we were about to hammer them. We sat down off of plane, shad everywhere, but no fish. We casted for about 10 minutes at nothing, snagged countless shad and my buddy even almost caught a gull when it flew through his line. This is a more common experience than actually finding fish under them for me. Muskrats have no impact. Bass love hiding around beaver dams. Otters are a terrible sign. I've had several run-ins with them the last couple years and it's been bad for me every time. Gar have no effect on the bass but can be a pain to fish around. They get in massive schools in a couple of the lakes I fish and like to hold in the same areas as the bass and I've actually be cut off by gar when I have a bass hooked. Their scales are so sharp if the line goes the wrong way across their body that the bass have managed to pull the line across them the right way and cut me off.

This ladies tags were also very expired, so she's struggling pretty hard at following basic rules it seems like.

That's a wiper for sure. The bulging eyes are probably a result of an infection or running into the glass too many times. They're a very nomadic fish so keeping them in an aquarium is pretty hard on them. When I worked at Cabela's it was really difficult to keep them alive.

We use bottom bouncers a lot around here for walleye. You tie to the eye in the middle of the arm and clip a spinner rig onto the snap at the end of the arm. You slow troll them so they just tick along the bottom. We call them "Poor Man's Downriggers".

Only had a few hours yesterday. The lake I went to is mostly all dinks but that's all I've been catching this year so might as well stay close and catch them. Water just thawed back out 2 days ago, 40-42 degrees. Brought 5 rods and caught at least 1 on each rod. Also, every day I'm shocked by how clueless people are. Lady parked directly at the top of the ramp, blocking 1 of the 2 lanes, then went for a walk. I backed down and around her, then walked back up the ramp to take the picture.

I missed this post I guess. Something like 7:04AM on the 1st of January. The bait that fooled it.

As bad as the year has started, I'm going to go with 5.75lbs and 21.25". I'll go out on a limb and say it'll be on a jig. Smallmouth will be 3.75lbs 19.5" and I'm going to catch it next month in Oklahoma on a crankbait.

DUO makes a really nice little cicada bait. I bought one last time we had a big hatch and caught everything on it. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Duo_Realis_Shinmushi_Cicada_Bug/descpage-DUOSHI.html?from=gpmax&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAq4KuBhA6EiwArMAw1IUVms_d0uITVxjBsrGMex2opgnyQliMZNbJjLXRCjEw-Pf5lI4YqBoCTNAQAvD_BwE

No, just the front split ring that the line is tied to.

I'm sure I've told the story before but I'll tell it again. Friend of mine, avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, fished the PWT for a while, strong swimmer, went out by himself on a nice summer afternoon several years ago to chase walleye, he never came back. The found his body floating against some trees a couple hours after finding his boat floating across the lake without him in it. He wasn't wearing a lifejacket and they never really figured out how he ended up in the water. It wasn't rough, no damage to the boat or injuries to him. The only thing that is certain, he ended up in the water and didn't have a lifejacket and it cost him his life. I use to not wear mine except when I had to. Since Steve drown, my wife asked me to wear it all the time and I wear it every time from the time I step onboard, until the day is done.

I remove the rings on all my jerkbaits and use a small snap instead.

Fine, I'll make everyone mad, I use Eagle Claw Magworm EWG's. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Eagle_Claw_Magworm_Wide_Gap_Worm_Hook_5pk/descpage-ECMW.html

To help combat the weight/sinking issue, not sure if you guys saw the kid that was gluing a piece of a foam cup to the top of his MB 110 in a recent tournament and finished second doing it? Tournament in Florida so he upgraded to bigger, heavier hooks that made the bait sink. So to combat it, he glued a piece of a Chick-fil-A cup to the top of his baits and it made it suspend again.

I have a spinning rod that is specifically for fishing tiny cranks. The little 1.0 Strike King is a staple of my summertime smallmouth gear along with the Lucky Craft 0.5.

I don't think I really emulate anyone. I've always marched to the beat of my own drums and done things my own way. I have people I look up to and appreciate, but I've always been me. If I was going at it from a fishing perspective of who I think I'm most similar to, probably a little bit of Denny Brauer and George Cochran. I like Denny's style. He loves fishing a jig, so do I. He likes to swing for the fences and isn't afraid to strike out in the process. I was lucky enough to meet him once when I worked at Cabela's and really enjoyed talking to him. George, his quote "You can always find some fish shallow", has always stuck with me and I go out to prove that right every day I go fishing. He liked getting up in the mud and creeks where he had to raise the trolling motor up and trim the outboard, basically trying to get away from the crowds.

My range is mostly Kansas and Western Missouri but I enjoy fishing everywhere I can. A funny thing about my range, I've caught fish as far north as Ontario, as far south as Sinaloa, MX, and as far east as Hampton Island, SC. Farthest west though? Cedar Bluff Reservoir, KS. For some reason, my compass never points me that direction.

@Pat Brown

Got out for the first time in a few weeks Saturday. Don't know where the big fish have gone but I caught a dozen or so dinks. I think I had a good one pull off a SK 300 jerkbait but I never saw it so I'll never know. One upside, I wasn't completely gassed and actually able to kick it up a knotch while pedaling thanks to the winter cardio/workout routine. Trying to get ready for the big dance.