Bluebasser86

Went looking for a big one today and I found one, twice. First one was my heaviest of the year so far at 6.02 and the first I’ve seen with signs of spawning activity.

@Pat Brown I finally put a free rig on and made myself fish it this morning. Had one eat it as soon as it touched the water after I skipped it under the walkway of a dock on my first cast, and it broke off just as fast on the zebra mussels on the dock. I managed to catch several in the couple hours I had including the biggest one I’ve caught from the home lake in a couple years.

Both, but usually beforehand.

Right, like I said, little to no requirements. Virginia appears to be just like most states, you pay a small fee, take an online, open book "test", and they give you certification that is good for life. I don't know of any that requires anything close to what you have to do to get a DL for a car. When I took mine, I had it in less than 30 minutes and a good portion of it was about navigation buoys that I'll never encounter in an inland body of water. I've not been checked many times on the water for my fishing license, but I have never in my life been asked to show my boater's certificate. Obviously, we have courses for vehicles and wrecks happen every second of every day, so it won't fix the issue, but it wouldn't hurt anything to have people a lot more educated before they got behind the wheel of something as powerful as a bass boat. One of the first tournaments I ever fished, we had a co-angler miss the trailer and put a brand new bass boat on the rocks because he "couldn't find the brakes". That same guy was old enough to go out and buy a boat and not need to get a boater's certificate to operate any watercraft in Missouri or Kansas just because of his age.

Last night was the first Tuesday night kayak tournament of the year. Weather was not great with winds howling 25+ from the south on a north/south facing lake. Made it impossible to do what I wanted to do and I didn't finish well, but on the way out to the lake, I stopped at a different lake to make a few cast from the bank. When I walked down I saw a big fish floating dead on the bank, turned out to be this nice walleye that had choked on a probably 8-9 inch crappie. The gills had enough color, I thought about cleaning it, but it was already getting stiff, didn't want to risk it. The only good part about the tournament was I put an absolute beatdown on some monster warmouth. I caught 3 of them over 8", this was the biggest that completely engulfed a free rigged 3.8" Bellow's Gill

I'm not sure how it works there, but here the highschool anglers don't drive the boat, they have a boat captain (adult over 18), that operates the outboard. I've done it before in highschool tournaments and it's a pretty fun time watching the young anglers do their things. Take off can be a real mess though. I've seen all sizes of boats and motors, so when the 16' Tracker takes off with the 40 year old 50hp Merc at the front of the pack, then everyone else is dodging it on their way out. I think one of the biggest issues with boats in general, there is litte to no licensing requirements to own and operate a boat of any size in most states. So I can go buy a 22' bass boat with a 300hp motor on it with absolutely zero experience operating it, and cook a cool 90mph across a lake with no idea of how to read the water, how right of ways work, what different buoys mean, or how to operate in rough water. I had to get a "Boater's Permit", to operate in Missouri, but it was literally a free online course that I could search for all the answers online while I took the test and I only have to do it once in my lifetime. It's the same for all the big cabin cruisers, wake boats, and speed boats though.

Let him go with you or shop online for a new reel, that thing is done.

I wish it could be the Berkley Frittside, but the bill is too fragile, same issue I have with the DT6. It's a suicide mission to send either either out on a day of fishing riprap because at some point, the Frittside is going to come back missing some or all of the bill, and the DT6 is going to come back with just the bill. My choice would be a Strike King 1.5 Hard Knock for shallow rip rap, and a Spro Rock Crawler for deeper rocks.

I have a few of the Coike style baits, several dice, and some other small baits that are like the Coike but much smaller. I certainly have more of that style bait than I've caught fish with them, and I just ordered a few more yesterday. They look good in the water, and obviously they catch fish, but our fish seem very unimpressed with them so far. I'm doing my best to change their minds though.

It's pretty rare I keep fish, and a good portion of those rare trips end up with me releasing the fish in the end because I decide it's more hassle than it's worth to clean them. Countless walleye, crappie, catfish, white bass, and big bluegills have been released to see another day because I'm too lazy to clean them.

Another vote for the shallow side. If you suspect the fish are in all stages of the spawn, they're not going to be spawning in deep water. Fish in those type of lakes also usually only come shallow for a couple reasons, to make more bass, and to feed.

Yes, I have 2 boards laid across the back well with his little camp chair sitting on top of them, with a rachet strap through the frame of his chair and racheted down so he can't dump out. He uses the back rod tube on my box and he's close enough to the water to splash his feet, which he did a lot of. I've been slowly saving because Dad wants one of the new PDL pros and then everyone could have their own, but until then, this will have to work.

Owner and Gammy are premium hooks, but you're not slumming it with the other two.

Took the boys out in the kayaks Sunday and we all put it on them pretty good. Not sure what their final tallies were, but they both had good numbers of fish that were camera shy.

Such an awesome dad moment. I don't know how you kept it together though, I would have been a mess.

I’m going fishing tomorrow and a little torn on where to go. I was thinking of going and chasing a big smallie but I just checked my Deep Dive app and see the lake has come up almost 3’ this week, which probably also means it’s muddy, not ideal smallie conditions, so it looks like I’ll have to go somewhere else. How do you decide where to go when you’re struggling with indecision?

Most baitfish have white in them and in dirty water, fish like crappie and bluegill often get “washed out”, which just makes them more pale white colored.

I have several fishing buddies. My buddy Deric that I met through the Kansas Kayak Anglers, he's always good for a lost big fish story. My wife, who ususally catches the big fish of the day even though she'll spend way less time fishing during the day than I will. Jon who has been my fishing buddy for almost 2 decades now. We've been through everything together through our jobs and the closest thing to a brother I'll ever have. My boys, they're probably never going to be as into it as I am, but I love it when they go with me. And my buddy Stony who is one of the nicest people you could meet.

The fish really seemed to be biting yesterday. I got out for 1.5 hours after work last night and put 18 in the kayak and lost several others just skipping docks with a finesse jig. It was a really nice evening.

I love Table Rock, I wish I got down there more often. It's unfortunate how busy that lake has gotten with pleasure boats anymore though. It's not much better than LOZ during the summer months around the dam.

It was either @A-Jay or @J Francho that said something that finally made it click for me with a drop shot. It was the concept of thinking of the sinker like an anchor that you're trying not to move and just shake the bait in place. That's when I realized I was moving my drop shots way too much. Once I started fishing them by trying to shake them in place without moving the weight, my catch rate with it went way up.

Abrasx isn't designed to be a leader material, it's a mainline. So something like Abrazx, while a very good line, isn't the best option for leader material. A true leader material like Pounce is a harder material and even more abrasion resistant and also has less stretch. A mainline like Abrasx is softer because it's designed to be cast while trying to spool up with a line as hard as a leader material would be a nightmare.

I drug a bass over a zebra mussel covered dock crossbar tonight with 10lb Pounce. There isn’t much that can stand up to those things.

Mine wasn't nearly as fat as the other fish I was catching. I'm pretty sure a lot of the bites I was getting was bedding fish that I couldn't see, and I'm guessing that one had already dropped her eggs. The other fish I was catching were crazy thick. I would have thought a fish that length would have been close to 7 from that lake. The smaller fish were hanging off both sides of the board.

I guess I'll get in on the largemouth side before it gets too far up there. 5.97/11.88x100=50.25