Bluebasser86

Another toothy critter, same lake and same bait as the last one. @gardnerjigman was so fish hungry I was afraid I might see him gnawing on it in the back of the boat like a giant raccoon at some point in the day. Thankfully it made it all the way home before consumption.

Happy, tired puppies on the way home from a day at the lake.

Thought about it but they're so hard to walk in any kind of chop, and you know how the wind is here. Kind of a double edged sword, if it's calm enough to fish a puppy, it's too calm to catch a smallmouth on topwater ?

I was running braid to a leader but had too many break offs on hooksets and then the problems with feeling fish when the wind was blowing. I've been running straight 8lb Hi Seas Grand Slam since last fall and have had really good luck with it.

I haven't got one yet but plan to at some point. Regular prop baits (non ploppers) don't get much use around here and the fish seem to react to them accordingly.

Bladed jig with a 5" paddle tail on the back, time to get those big shad eaters.

They actually seem to sink even faster than a standard Senko to me (haven't done any side to side comparison to confirm, but seems to sink noticeably faster to the eye test). This is great news for those of us who can't stand waiting for a Senko to do what it doesn't best, sink and catch fish.

Did you try changing colors or weights? Sounds to me like you had almost the right bait, just something wasn't quite right to get them to totally commit.

They won't even eat anything as big as a spook jr right now. A 3.8 fat impact is pushing it, a regular 4" swing impact is way more effective right now because of the thinner profile. The water isn't even that clear, amazing how they seem to be able to tell the difference.

The smallmouth here have been keying on brook silversides instead of shad for some reason. Normal bigger fall baits like Bullshads and spooks aren't working, but fishing a Duo Realis Rozante 77 jerkbait or a Ned rig with a white lightning TRD or one of the new TRD MinnowZ fish really quickly less than a foot below the surface has been smoking them.

Welcome!

Welcome!

What line are you using?

I pour my own with the screwlock. The 7.5 I caught in January on a shakyhead was on a screwlock shakyhead, followed by a 6.75 an hour later. Hooking them hasn't been an issue for me, keeping up with them can be though.

I'd suggest going about mid November when the shad really start to school up. There's usually a really good spinnerbait, crankbait, or jig big going by then as well as the potential for topwater still working or a jerkbait bite, depending on which type of fall we've had.

They're bigger than the 100, run a little deeper, but not as deep as a 200. The rattles are a bit louder too. I'd have to put them side to side but I don't think they're quite a big as a 2.5, more like a 2.0. The Rackits are not the same as the old Bandit squarebills though, much better baits imo. There is a Tennessee Shad but no Rootbeer.

Welcome!

OP lives on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas, which to date has had 150 homicides in 2018, 208 last year, 187 the year before. I lived in the same city for several years. It's a safe place for the most part, but it's close proximity to the inner city where gang activity, drugs, and violent crimes are a real problem makes a gun a pretty good insurance policy. KCK PD does an excellent job covering a large area and taking a lot of calls, worked with them a lot with my last department, very professional and good people. The mom of a good friend of mine was a dispatcher for KCK forever.

Yes, the Skinny Cutter offers much less resistance and offers a more lively action because of it. I personally prefer the Skinny Cutter to the regular.

If you're going off the pictures on TW, those pictures make the colors look really bad for some reason. They look much better in person, just like the dependable Bandit colors that have been catching fish for some many years.

There's been talk of fish being caught shallow, some good ones on buzzbaits in the backs of pockets, and fish eating deep crankbaits. There's always fish shallow, even on Table Rock. Last time I was there this time of year I could have left all my spinning rods at home. My dad and I caught a bunch of really nice fish and almost all of them were on topwater, spinnerbaits, or crankbaits.

My wife hand feeding her little pets.

Melvern was a little tougher Friday, but still caught plenty to keep it interesting. Both of us caught all 3 species, plus I had a couple drum and a keeper eye. Took the boy Thursday and caught a real nice one. My 5th fish over 6 for the year at 6.58 pounds on a homemade 1/8oz micro finesse jig.

The red is awful, I have some on my channel cat baitfeeders and it looks like my spools are bleeding.

These rods are $20 at one of the stores by me right now. I bought a new buzzbait rod recently and it's been pretty nice. Lightning Rods and if you can swing a little extra, the Lightning Rod Shocks are some of the nicest budget rods out there imo.