Bluebasser86

I love braid for walking baits and never use a leader. Never have had the issue of the hooks tangling the line but I never let the bait sit in place for long.

Has anyone had a chance to try one? I've been fishing one for a couple months now and really loving it. Really light without being a tiny reel, and feels very connected, zero slop or play anywhere in the reel. Love the handle too. Just one of those things that fits perfect in my hands. Was a very easy setup and haven't had to touch the settings on it since. I've got the 7.3:1 paired with an Okuma EVX 7' 5" H/F and spooled with 20lb Seaguar Flipping fluoro to put a whopping on some fish.

Took the boys to a truck or treat Friday night, Ferdinand and a Lion.

I love honeycrisp, unfortunate how expensive they are. I still eat one about every day at work.

If anyone has been thinking of going to Wolf Creek, don't, it's pretty terrible right now. Their weekly report for last week had 58 boats on the water and something like 105 smallmouth and 20 largemouth total? I didn't do much to increase their numbers either. Even white bass were hard to find. Catfish are biting great if you want to go through the hassle of getting on the water out there to catch catfish. La Cygne was pretty good but all smaller fish and shad are super thick. Only one over 18" on a Shine Glide early in the day. I was hoping they'd eat it all day but that was my only bite on a swimbait. Whites and wipers were biting really good though. They must have stocked a bunch of wipers recently because I was catching a bunch of 2lb wipers.

I use a 7' MH/F for the 110 with a 8:1 reel and 20lb braid. Just reel into the fish when they bite and then sweep when they load up. Lots of missed fish will come back repeatedly as long as I don't jerk the bait away.

Bass will eat an A rig in clear water with thick wire arms, big snap swivels, and stuff sticking out everywhere, but braid is going to spook them? There may be times, but maybe our fish are dumb because I haven't seen it. I fish leaders on spinning gear for abrasion resistance around rocks covered with zebra mussels and for ROF but rarely for visibility. Straight braid 100% of the time on casting gear.

I'm more than willing to hand over that coveted title to whoever wants it. Let one of the guys that is always critical of every decision get to be the one getting criticized for once. You know the ones I'm talking about.

Find banks with deep water nearby. If you can find a topo map, look for the areas with the lines close together near the bank and fish those areas with slow moving baits like a suspending jerkbait or shakyhead. Dams and bluff banks will usually have deep water nearby and the rocks hold heat and a couple degrees makes a big difference during the winter months.

Agree with WRB, dropping water is going to pull the fish out deeper, unless they're already deep. Fish mainlake drops and points where bass can go from shallow to deep quickly would be your best bet. Places like channel swing banks are usually good options.

One of just a few available for purchase so far, a Shine Glide 230. Next to it's beat up little brother.

I use them more than a T-rig in the winter, but I'm dragging them more than cranking them.

It catches bass of all sizes and I've caught several species of fish on it. Fish it with a slow, steady retrieve and they'll crush it.

The YUMbrella rig has a resign head that isn't heavy like lead models. Use a light jighead or a weightless screwlock hook to avoid adding extra weight.

If you want noisy and weedless, this is your bait. Stringy grass, algae, doesn't matter it will come through and not clog. It's a heavy bait too so it's really easy to cast on heavy casting gear and braid with just a hook and the bait.

I bought it at either BPS or Cabela's, which is basically the same store now I guess. I keep meaning to take a picture of what it looks like on a head but haven't remembered yet.

Not to nitpick but that snap swivel really messes with the suspending ability of your jerkbait. You'll get much better action and a better suspending bait without it. Yellow perch are a huge food source for northern largemouth and smallmouth, the main food source in a lot of lakes. No doubt that big fatty has a big perch down her gullet ?

Great fish!

Correct, a piebald blue catfish to be exact. There's quite a few in the lake. I don't fish it often and that was the second one I've caught. I'd love to catch one of the 30-50 solid white ones I've seen pictures of.

I've talked to several people who claim to have caught them. I've caught some very large white bass there. I have a feeling that they probably are catching whites and don't know the difference.

Think of the SB like a long popper, and the Cane Walker more like a chugging spook. The Cane Walker is the better one for covering water imo.

It's more of a walking popper, like a regular pencil popper, than the Showerblows is. The SB can almost be walked in place without moving it forward but still throws water due to the side face cups. I've tried a few of the new Berkley topwaters and have really liked all of them so far.

My farm boys getting ready to do some work

We had day one of our 2 day end of the year fish off at Shawnee Saturday. We had first place with 11.12 pounds, second was 6.63, everyone else was under 4 pounds, it was tough. We caught quite a few but couldn't get a bigger bite. All of our fish were in the very backs of the coves in really shallow water around grass where there was shad. We could have caught white bass until we were tired of catching them too.

Feels like it would be about the same as naming a new cruise ship "The Titanic".