Bluebasser86

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome from a fellow Kansas City area member!

Snapping it off the bottom, almost looks like you're setting the hook instead of just fishing the bait.

I did, twice, but your suggestion sounds like a good way to end up on Jerry Springer.

Going to be an uncle for the third time, and for the third time I'll be buying Barbie instead of Batman fishing poles.

An egg fly works during a berry hatch.

Must be thinking of a different bait, the rover is a walk the dog type bait.

It's true. The 190 takes special equipment to fish, swimbait gear really. I've caught 12" white bass on mine though, so it doesn't take big fish to hit them. I like to fish them when there's a good amount of chop on the surface and I really want something that is churning and making a disturbance. Having big fish around doesn't hurt in the decision making process.

After it tears through, turn the tube 180* and try to get another fish or two, that's how I do it. I'd be pretty happy with 5 fish per bait.

I've had lots of times when they will only eat a spinnerbait and completely ignore a bladed jig, swimjig, squarebill, buzzbait, swimbait, or anything else similar. Then I try to kick my own butt for being so stupid to stop fishing what was working just to find another bait that is also working.

Spinnerbaits die eventually if they're good, it's part of the game. My worn out white with gold blades War Eagle died on the last fish of the day in a tournament a few weeks ago. Went to swing in a little 2 pounder (that ended up would have culled and won it for me), I got the arm and the blades, fish kept the skirt and the hook. RIP old friend, we did lots of work together. You can tell in this picture the head is wallowed out where the wire runs into it. The head was gold too when I bought it. It's blades live on though, now on a homemade spinnerbait. If I get 20 fish out of a spinnerbait, I figure I got my money worth. I'd rather get 50, but I feel much better getting 20 out of a $6 spinnerbait, than I do getting 1 out of a $.50 Senko.

I use 20lb braid for most of my treble hook topwaters, no leader, no reason to. I don't set the hook, just reel until I feel weight and then lean into them. I've never had the issue with the line tangling on the hooks with braid. Hooks are below the surface, braid floats, they shouldn't come into contact except maybe during the cast or while fighting a fish. A leader knot is just one more thing to fail. Only baits it doesn't work for are baits with a front prop.

You can be as mad as you want, if it's legal then it's their right to do it. Someone caught a 10 pounder on a limbline set for flathead with a green sunfish last year out of the power plant lake I fish a lot. They kept it and ate it. Less than 2 pounds from the state record, and really frustrating to see a fish I've been chasing for years get eaten, but it's legal and within their rights so it really doesn't matter how I feel about it.

Electronics are certainly in the "You get what you pay for", category in most cases. Sorry you've had issues with yours. I bought my Garmins when I bought my boat and when I had an issue with a transducer they swapped it out no questions asked. I had a great customer service experience but I've only needed it once because they've both worked perfectly otherwise for 4 years of heavy use now. As for the whole down imaging thing, Garmin absolutely still makes lots of units with downward imaging, it's just called DownVu Scanning now. I can get on TW right now and buy one for under $200 with DownVu. I'm not sure what "people", are complaining about Garmin's service, most all my friends run Garmin and all of them are very happy. It sounds a lot like maybe you weren't happy with your experience, which is completely fine because not everyone has to like a product, but we don't allow complaining about a product/company on the forums just for complaining sake. I have a dispute with 'company X'. Can I post about it here? While we can empathize with your frustration, the best course of action is deal directly with the company. Escalate it up the ladder, file a grievance with PayPal or Ebay (if they were involved with the transaction). File a mail fraud complaint with the post office. There are other options, but attacking the company in a public forum is not appropriate nor allowed. Such posts will be removed.

I agree that it sounds like the issue could be the distance. In the thick vegetation, the more distance you have between you and the fish, the more stuff you're trying to get a hook set through, the more fish you're going to miss. They usually don't mind you getting pretty close when they're buried up in the slop, use that to your advantage. If you can't get any closer, you might need to step up to a longer rod, even up to the 8' range to give the reach and lift to get a better hook set.

Never. I set it once and then keep pressure on them. If you got a bad hookset and drop the rod to set a second time it just gives the line slack and the hook a chance to fall out.

Your odds of catching one on a hook out of a pond are almost zero unless there is next to no food for them in it. I'd blowfish them or snag them. I've removed them from ponds for several people and those are the best and fastest ways to get them out.

I use my dropshot rod for trout all the time as well as my Ned rig rod, the trout don't seem to mind.

I'm going to guess it was chasing after baitfish and ran into something that caused the gouge.

They're not always the finicky fish they're touted as being. I've caught them on 1/2oz bass jigs pitching docks, 3/8oz squarebills, 5/8oz traps, and 5" jerkbaits. Congrats on your first and second ones, that looks like a pretty nice one.

Great rods and you can get them for a steal if you look around a little bit.

Had some, didn't like them, very hard to walk. If you do get some, get the big one and either cut the dressing off the tail or replace it with an undressed hook and it helps them walk a little better.

Crankbaits. I caught a crappie on a crankbait during our Thursday night tournament tonight. I think that's the first fish I've caught on a lipped crankbait since January.

Welcome!