Bluebasser86

Welcome!

Can't crawl a lip less slowly through the rocks like a lipped crank, or stop and go to get the slow float up. I wouldn't want to fish one in trees where I fish a lipped crank. I love lipless baits, but I need the lipped baits too, no matter how much I don't like fishing them.

I have had a few in both sizes and they all wanted to dive under the water if there was much chop. I have a Mega Dawg now that is really nice.

I have a chrome 30 that the smallmouth really smash at times.

This is funny and almost painful at the same time. My 2 best childhood fishing buddies choose drugs while I kept fishing. One of them was dead before he turned 20, the other has spent a majority of his life in prison and will continue to do so for the next several years at least. People think I'm addicted (in a bad way) or fish too much but when I see what the alternative very likely could have been, I know I made a really good choice. I have friends that have been saved from drugs and alcohol by the fishing addiction too. You spend all your money and time fishing, you don't have time for the bad stuff

I've really liked mine so far. Hoping it gets a good workout on some big smallmouth this week.

You could still fish a horny toad in your area. I was catching fish on a buzzbait just last week and I'm a ways north of you.

There's one in town near me but they cater more towards the crappie/catfishing crowd. Plus the owners smoke like a chimney and leave all the windows and doors closed so I can't hardly walk in there without hacking up a lung. I've bought minnows a couple times, mainly just to dump in my pond to give the bass something to chase around.

I've got 2 boats and a kayak and they've all been on the water more than a dozen times this year

Thanks to all my taxes being due this time of year with my last name ending in one of the last letters of the alphabet, both my boys birthdays being at the end of the year, Christmas, and my wife's birthday being in January, I never join in on much Black Friday shopping.

It will have changed the water temps for sure, but most likely not a really drastic change. Those few degrees are going to be enough to trigger some fish to start moving though. That's the issue you're dealing with. Some fish are moving, some are staying put, some are going to be already at the fall locations. When you spread the fish all throughout a body of water, it makes finding and catching them much more difficult.

You should wade upriver so that the debris and mud you stir up aren't being washed down into the water you're fishing, dirtying the water and alerting the fish to something out of place being in the water above them.

The H20 hardbaits are cheap and effective, plus come with decent hardware. YUM plastics are about the cheapest buy out there and among my favorites. The H2O brand hooks are also good for the price and you can buy about a 20pk for $5. Big Game line would be my choice for the cheapest and best line you can get.

I prefer a bladed jig, but I don't really care what I prefer, I'll fish whichever the fish want.

I can't ever get largemouth to eat a BS, just smallies, not that it's a bad thing. Congrats to your little brother on that beast.

I've actually caught quite a few smallmouth flipping bushes and laydowns when the water gets up at Melvern (very similar to Milford, just smaller). Like you noticed when you were here, our smallmouth don't seem to realize they're smallmouth. It will have been up for well over a week by the time we arrive. My 2 main plans of attack are fishing the old bank line, and fishing the newly flooded stuff. It has a decent largemouth population as well, and they very well may be taking advantage of all the new cover. I'm just glad it's fall and not spring. Fall fish still have to eat, spring time fish could really shut down in these conditions. I have a pair with the butt flap, not as warm as they seem like they'd be.

The water temps are what is important, not the air temps. 50 degree nights most likely haven't drastically dropped your water temps but have more likely started your late summer/early fall pattern when bass scatter around from the deepest water to a foot of water and everywhere in between. This makes patterning fish difficult because they'll be so spread out. It's a good time to tie on a moving bait and just cover water looking for a few active fish.

Yeah, our heat is on 28°LORealFeel® 26°Precipitation 1% Mainly clear; cold; there will be a freeze This "spring" we went straight from winter to summer. It was literally snowing one week in April, then 90's the next week. We had temps in the 90's and high 80's as recently as last week, now it's snowed yesterday and we've had freezes two nights in a row. Those hot days are a distant memory.

The rain was very spotty, pouring in some areas and missing others completely. I went to a little lake down south that fishes great when it's flooded. Apparently the rain missed it because it was still several feet low and almost got the boat stuck just launching. Those pictures are of the Marias Des Cygnes in Osawatomie, just a few miles north of where I live.

I agree about the unboxing videos, completely worthless. I like to hear from people I know for a fact have actually used a product and have some idea of what they're doing. Those factors combine to give what I consider a viable review of a product. One hour long trip at a neighborhood pond doesn't give an accurate review of a reel. Neither does me giving my Zillion TWS SV to someone who has no idea what they're doing and allowing them to backlash it again and again, of course they're going to think it's junk, they don't know what they're doing and it can't possibly be their fault. There's also a lot of very bias reviews out there and you can tell when they're either all positive or all negative. A real review is going to touch on the positive AND the negative, or at least what they'd like different about the item. If they go on and on about how great it is and have not one thing even slightly bad to say, I'm suspicious of the authenticity of their review.

This was my first thought. Tons and tons of KOs out there that look a lot like the real thing. If they're not in the package, make sure you look for the writing on the bait to confirm they're real. Having Katsuage hooks doesn't mean they're real either since you can buy those separate. I'm not a big fan of the Vision 110 due to their lack of durability and high price tag, but I'd be down for buying them at $10 a pop.

Not sure what baits you're looking at but I've been fishing a few of their new topwaters and they've been great!

I have a ton of stuff that is very loosely organized. Thing is, I know where about everything is at, provided my wife doesn't move it somewhere, at that point it's lost forever.

I'm not sure what wire baits and skirted baits would be considered, but my catch rate varies a lot depending on weather and water conditions. Topwaters, jerkbaits, and traps account for a large number of my catch each year.