Bluebasser86

Are you fishing the same ways you did before the weeds? Weeds give bass lots of places to hide and spread out. A population of fish that may have been concentrated to smaller areas of cover can now utilize the entire lake and often what use to be empty mud flats will be thick weed beds that hold fish, so all that empty water is now fish habitat as well. They're still there, but they've adjusted to the new habitat.

I try to follow the "no longer than I can hold my breath" rule as well. No reason to cause them undue stress. Guy I was fishing with Friday caught a nice one we wanted to weigh but it was bleeding a little so I get the camera ready while he held it in the water quick picture and gone, probably took 20 seconds tops to give her every chance to survive. Wasn't a PB or record, so no reason to risk the fish just to have a number to tell people.

Sounds like what the schools of young of the year shad look like around here right now.

Our better catches from La Cygne on Friday. Flatheads were on a 6XD, Z-Craw, and Yo-Momma, bass was on the Z-Craw.

I'm sure you could find someone but the issue will probably be the quality of the person and gear you end up with, especially if you're looking for a shore fishing striper spot. Most striper fishing in the Midwest is done from a boat because they're offshore, roaming fish that are difficult to reach from shore. Shore spots where they can be caught are likely closely guarded and kept secret. I know guys on Beaver are more likely to give you their credit card pin number than their striper fishing spots. I know there's lots of places to catch the smaller cousins of stripers from shore, white bass and wipers, usually in tail races of dams below reservoirs. Fishing tends to be much more consistent because the water has a higher oxygen content and is cooler which keeps the bait and fish more active, provided there's some generation going on.

I have a mold to pour weighted hooks but it's more down around the bend of the hook instead of up near the eye like that. I'm not sure if I could shift the hook around to get the lead poured up that high.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Smackdown is so nice. I've been using it for frogs this year and it's been great to fish with.

We watched you land the flathead. We caught 3 of them today, 1 on a 6XD and 2 dragging plastic. All of them were carbon copies of each other. Only weighed one and it was 14 1/4. Caught around 15 bass, mostly on craws and beavers but had one on a spook and a couple on a Ned too. Didn't weigh any bass but had a couple in the 3lb range and one probably a little over 5.

Tennessee shad is a great color and pretty natural looking, I've caught a ton of fish on a 100 series in that color. It's a pretty good sized bait, kind of in between a 1.5 and 2.5 sized squarebill. I've got it in Viral Perch, chart/black back, pearl black back, and Mistake, they all look good. I've caught more big fish on their Mistake color than any other, so I'm excited to put that one to use. I imagine they'll come out with more colors if the bait takes off, just released the more popular colors to start with.

Plus they make a god awful noise when wounded and you're sure to not be real popular with the neighbors when they find you out there putting the finishing shot on a poor, defenseless bunny. We have so many coyotes that it's really rare to see a rabbit. No idea what the coyotes are eating, I assume mainly the neighbors cats and chickens the way they like to hang around.

Tons of good guides on Beaver Lake or Texoma if you're willing to go that far.

If I have time, I go. That's how I judge if fish are active or not.

If you'd been in the tournament you would have overthought and done something completely different and never caught those fish, that's just how it works. I enjoy fishing tournaments, but you're going to lose money, even if you win in most cases with small tournaments. It's more about the competition for me. 16 pounds wins a majority of tournaments here. I won the last 2 I've fished in, got big bass in one. Last one we won with a whopping 7.69lbs, the one before that was a little over 8 pounds with a massive 2.3lb "Big Bass" (our weight was almost double second place). Don't come to Kansas for the bass fishing would be the moral of that story.

Shooting a jig is really popular among crappie guys. I've got buddies that can shoot a little 1/16oz crappie jig way under a dock. Underspins are really popular for doing it. I've tried, but usually end up bleeding, so I stick to sidearm or underhand skips.

Very true, I bought 2 dozen bags of Ochos for $2 a bag this morning at Academy. Don't remember ever seeing a bag of Senkos for $2 in a store.

Welcome!

Welcome!

One of the biggest smallmouth I ever caught was off the bottom of a boat ramp. Ramps have wash out holes from boats powering onto the trailer, which often leaves a clean bottom and a high spot at some point behind the ramp that is a good ambush point for fish. It also collects debris that small baitfish and craws will hid in and feed on. I've found that right after a boat powers on and blows up a silt cloud that makes it tough for those baitfish to see, I can often catch an active fish trying to take advantage of the situation. The loading docks are almost always good too. Obviously, stay out of the way of boats loading and unloading, but if there's a break in activity, ramps are a huge confidence area for me.

Yeah it works, but the soft plastic of a senko will tend to allow you to snag more often as you found out.

I'm not sure how it works. It's only a 16k acre lake, so it isn't so huge that I'm sure they couldn't figure it out pretty well by themselves, but I do know a thing or two that might help find some of the 3-6 pound smallies roaming around out there.

They're their squarebill, dont think they had a number. The 300 is still in production, a smaller bodied deeper running bait.

50lb braid for frogs and 20lb copoly for jigs

I have that exact model of TCS, very nice rod, would highly suggest it. Makes a great jig rod too.