Bluebasser86

I use a #6 gamakatsu octopus hook through the lips under a bobber. I really only use them when the water is extremely cold. Sitting and staring at a bobber and waiting for a bite loses a young kids attention really quickly. I like to give my son something he can cast and reel so he can constantly be doing something, keeps his attention much longer.

They'd be okay if they were $40, no way I'd pay $100 for them. I got a couple for next to nothing, very dead feeling, guides are terrible and pop out constantly. I broke the senko rod the second time I set the hook on a 1lb fish. I sold the crankbait rod before it had a chance to fall apart on me too. Pros can fish them because when they break they just get a new one.

Tatsu is extremely nice fishing line. 12lb on casting gear is more manageable than mono imo because it doesn't get the memory that mono does. I'm not sure what you'd define as "Easier to work with?" Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For crankbaits, you made the right call and went with a good mono line.

Some of the time with spinning gear, never with casting gear.

Not sure exactly what you're asking? Tilapia are going to be a forage option for the bass for sure, they'll mostly hang around the shallower water where their food source (vegetation), is at. Bass will feed on them very similar to a bluegill, stalk and ambush. Channel cats will eat anything they can get in their mouths. I've caught them on cut tilapia, I'm sure they'd eat whole ones too.

Had a way overserved, (and overstuffed), fella tell me and gardnerjigman to "Get out of here, we don't need you crowding us", when I guess he felt we got too close to his dock. There was a couple in a pontoon floating off the end of their dock talking back and forth so I tried to go around the back side, off towards the middle of the lake, but drunk #2 that was driving the boat started it up and began backing towards my boat, so I cut to the inside and kicked the motor up on 100% right before he threw it into ramming speed full speed ahead towards the dock. That's when the guy on the dock, who's shirtless stomach was about longer than his shorts, decided I was "crowding them", even though if his eyes hadn't been glassy and watering so bad, he probably could have seen I was just trying to avoid getting run into by his drunk buddy in his "vintage" (see also piece of junk), pontoon. It's really rare to have anyone say anything around here, usually it's the opposite where they want to know if you're catching anything and will even point out areas around their docks where they've seen fish. My BIL and I even had a conversation with a guy at 1AM who stumbled down to his dock from his backyard party to ask us how the fishing was and poured his heart out that he couldn't catch anything and wanted to know what he needed to do to catch a fish. I doubt he remembers what I told him, but it was funny that it was eating at him bad enough that he left his party to come talk to us about it. The rare times I've encountered a dock troll, I just move along, it isn't worth the hassle to me. Neighbors shoot each other over grass clippings getting blown into their yards and now gas getting thrown on people for fishing public water, nope, no little green fish is worth that to me. Kansas does have harassment laws though that you can't harass or interfere with a legal hunting or fishing party and I've heard of it being enforced. That would be the only advisable course of action if someone was being a problem.

This one was back in a little hole in the water willows and when the line popped off the willows, it just came off. I like to think it was just one of those fish that I did everything right and still lost, but I'm sure I could have done something different. I agree 100% about learning from watching myself though. I've cured some bad habits I didn't even know I had from watching myself fish on my videos and also been able to go back and break down the patterns I was on without even realizing I was on them. Right after the 2:00 mark is where I missed the good one on the Fruck. I did make up for it by catching a pretty decent one on it about 30 minutes later.

I'm pretty excited to try them as well. I've had great luck on the 3 smaller sizes of ploppers and even caught some on the monster 190, interested to see how these stack up. They have some very interesting colors too. I went with what I would describe as a translucent, holographic, black. After doing the conversions, it's going to be very similar in size to the 110 Plopper actually at just under 4" and a little less than 3/4oz. I ordered from Europe so I think they're more pike colors, interested to see if there will be more baitfish colors for the US or if they'll be the same. Savage Gear 3D Smash Tail Minnow 10cm 17g Estimated delivery Wednesday, Jun 20, 2018 - Monday, Jul 2, 2018

Seems like while it might hang in a fish's teeth to give you more time to set the hook, it could also make setting the hook more difficult. Well set Velcro is hard to move.

Mine is supposed to arrive by the end of the month sometime. I ordered the smaller one which is similar in size to the 130 plopper I believe.

The BPS baits are way thicker than a standard stick bait. I fish the 7" bait pretty often on a big swing head, they take a big hook just to clear all the plastic.

I don't have a pre-season, since my season never ends, in fact my largest bass of they year came on the second of January, my second bass of the year.

Nice! What river did you go to?

The current standings from those that have made entries as of the end of May. A lot more people entered, so I'm not sure if they haven't been fishing, or maybe they enter all their fish at once. Their total is a bit off from mine, not sure what happened there except for the smallmouth I guess didn't have it's mouth closed all the way so I lost an inch there, but that still leaves 5" unaccounted for. I added 4 more species and around 4' total length this weekend also. 9.5" White Crappie 7.75" bluegill 8.5" redear sunfish 27" channel catfish

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

bluegill, even tiny crappie have large mouths for their bodies like the adults do.

I learned the when, what, and where of the lake after years of trying. I learned they had very specific taste and developed baits just for them. I've been fishing it for 18 years and I'm still learning new tricks everytime I go there, just a very weird lake.

Yep, most states require keeping the fish whole to verify species and size as well amount of fish.

It's a gourami for sure, not sure which variation, but that's what it is.

It's a blast and kind of an advantage fish situation since they're so hard to hit and have a tendency to slam into the person trying to shoot them as well as anyone else onboard.

Run a Q-tip around the inside of your guides, if one of them catches and pulls fibers away from it, it's damaged and needs replaced. You can replace it yourself if you want, lots of DIY videos out there, or you can have someone replace it for you. Cost to have someone replace it will vary, it's usually around 10-20 dollars. Braid is pretty noisy coming through the guides though, so noise itself isn't a certain indicator.

Stress causes lactic acid to build up in the fish's muscles, which is part of what causes the fishy flavor. You'll be much better off if you catch them, gut them, rinse them, then put them on ice in a cooler.

Only kind we have that you can "catch" around here are the silver and bighead carp. I like to shoot the silvers out of the air. The bigheads are much more wary and don't jump, they also grow much larger, this is just a baby. Not considered invasive, since they don't survive here, but I found a dying blue tilapia on a gravel bar while fishing the Kansas River a few years ago. He made good cutbait, caught several nice channel cats on it.