Bluebasser86

The prettiest little fish we have in Kansas, a male longear sunfish in full blown spawning colors from a little creek.

There's people like that everywhere you go anymore. Key is to not let them get to you and just do what you do despite them. I try to focus even more and catch fish behind guys when they cut me off, making sure they splash around on the side of the boat so they can see them a little more than usual too Good job keeping your heads in the game and catching some good ones.

Wow! Those look great!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Oh I knew what it was, and I know it was close. I shot a 51" gar that wasnt nearly as thick that was 23lbs several years ago. This one was in a whole different size class. It was an awesome catch regardless and I don't think I would have killed it even if it was a state record. I know where it lives and it's a small area, hoping maybe I can catch it again.

If you have an Iphone, I don't think the app works on them anymore.

The no zippers part sounds great. Not just because zippers break after extended use, but no more zipping bags or pieces of the bag itself into the zipper and having to fight to open the zipper next time. My old bag I've been using for the kayak doesn't work that great, I'll have to check them out.

The mushroom head sits against the bait nicer, but a ball head works just fine too. I started out using a ballhead and caught a ton of fish with them before I started pouring my own mushroom heads.

Did you try manually entering a period/decimal point? I use the same app but mine has the decimal already in place constantly, it's a great free app.

That is without a doubt, a flathead catfish, congrats on your first one. They are one of the hardest pulling fish in freshwater in the US for sure, especially if you get ahold of a really large one.

8lb Hi-SEAS Grand Slam fluoro coated copolymer, great stuff.

They're normally smaller fish, no bigger than 5-7 pounds, no problem handling on spinning gear with no current (the only other one I caught yesterday was barely a foot long). I've seen some big ones, but never any dinosaurs like that thing. It wasn't as bad as it looked, looks like I tried to grab a stray cat. There's just so many cuts from all those needle teeth raking the back of the fingers and hand that I was bleeding from everywhere at once.

But I'll never know. Decided to stop by the little river in the town just north of the house about 10 minutes after work this morning. Loaded with gar and when the river gets low, they're really aggressive. I know most shun gar, but they're hard fighters, aggressive, and very acrobatic, on top of the fact that they're dang near impossible to hook. I was fishing a 6' 8" M/F Mojo with a 30 size Pflueger when I got that telltale sharp tap of a gar's beak slapping my grub. When I set the hook, it moved really slow, kind of started wondering if I hadn't missed the fish that bit and snagged a different fish, which happens because of how stacked up they get at times. A normal fish down there is 28-36 inch range, but when I saw this mammoth longnose gar's body, I seriously thought I might have hooked a rogue alligator gar that had somehow found it's way up the river. It was gigantic, I was positive it would swim into one of the 2 log jams pushed up against the concrete walls, but when I was able to slowly finesse it away between leaps and wild tailwalks across the small pool, I started to realize I had a real shot at landed this monster. I grabbed my grippers that were attached to my scale from my open bag and walked to the most opportune spot to try and beach it, really wishing I had a pair of gloves like I normally would so I could just grab the beak. The fish made several more slow, determined runs and at one point stopped and did some massive headshakes that resulted in my line being between it's teeth, I knew the clock was ticking on my 8lb leader then. One failed attempt to clamp the grippers on it's beak, then I lead it to shore once again and clamped further back and drug it onto shore, I could not believe the girth on the fish. I've never seen a gar look fat before, but this looked like a giant muskie's body with a gar head. I had a tape with me, it went right at 53" long. Tried to get a weight, wouldn't open it's mouth, so I tried to pry it open with pliers despite knowing it was a bad idea, and I was right. One huge headshake and I was dripping blood all over and just as fast the fish had propelled itself back to the water and bolted off. The pictures are terrible because they don't really show how truly massive the fish was, but it gives a little idea anyways if you take into consideration the size of the objects around it. It was as big around as my leg with scales the size of nickels.

Welcome!

Welcome!

This is one of my favorite catfish catches on a lure because I watched it cruise up behind my bladed jig right at the boat and when I stopped the retrieve and let it pendulum down it flared on it and when nuts when I set the hook. Not very often I get to watch one bite like that, especially a big channel cat like this one.

Those look like they would be awesome flathead bait, like a huge creek chub.

A 5" senko is plenty heavy to cast "weightless" on casting gear, even heavy gear. I was fishing one on a 7' H/F with 50lb braid and a Pflueger Supreme XT a couple weeks ago and it was no problem to launch a cast or make short pitches with the spool tension set right.

I'd be all over that sale if either Academy by me carried the jerk shad. The crack color (white/silver/chart belly), is a smallmouth killer and it doesn't hurt when the razor clams steal them from me.

Cinnamon senkos don't work, you should send them to me to be disposed of properly, especially if they're cinnamon/purple flake.

I get some from China off Ebay that are like $2 for a 100 pack that work just fine. I pour them in shakyheads instead of standard screwlocks.

I saw a video of a closeup aerial shot of the swim and it looks nasty. Bass will eat all kinds of critters, and I love that they're not afraid to drop baits to imitate some of the not so standard prey items that bass are still very willing to indulge in.

Owner Hyper Wire split rings, Owner ST 36 trebles, probably #1 sized hooks.