Bluebasser86

1/2oz should cast as far as you'd ever need to.

No, this are fished more like a popper with short twitches or rips, where the ploppers are more of a straight retrieve bait. They also have a different sound and surface commotion than a plopper. I mainly use short twitches, generally in a twitch-twitch-pause cadence. I like to fish them around shallow, shoreline cover where fish are feeding on shad. It was a great bait around shoreline grass when the shad were spawning this summer.

I prefer the popping Pad Crasher to the regular version. Cricket frog and Sunburn are my go to colors. Really wish they'd start offering Albino Frog in the popping version.

I had a few, very poor quality. I'd buy a 3 pack of Storm prerigged baits before I ever considered another LT swimbait. Savage Gear has some great swimbaits that are similar sizes and prices. I'd highly suggest checking them out.

Nice fish, it's a wiper or hybrid striped bass for sure. The shape and broken stripes are a dead giveaway. Several distinct lines below the lateral line indicate it's not a white bass either.

I've never hooked my wife, but my BIL hooked his wife (my wife's little sister), in the top of her head on the backcast. She didn't take it as well as your GF did.

You can still catch plenty of fish in clear water on straight braid. I fish bright pink braid in clear water for added visibility and have no problem catching fish. 30lb braid generally is going to be about the same diameter as an 8lb mono, which is really pretty thin. Add in a little murk of some algae and sediment floating in the water, a little distortion from the sunlight refraction at the water's surface, and that thin line becomes even harder to see. You're fishing for fun I assume, so maybe it cost you a bite or two over the course of a day of fishing. If you enjoy fishing it more, it sounds to me like a pretty fair trade off.

The 120 works best on a straight retrieve. Take it with you next time you go to the Ozarks and burn it through those riffles, they crush it.

They are simply the best thing going for me all year at one of the lakes for smallmouth. I had several trips with 3 guys, all throwing ploppers, all catching fish at a fever pitch. Your results may vary, but there's a reason there's over 20 of them in the boat.

You might call the courthouse. I got one for an equipment violation that I had the option to go to court or pay a fee in place. Wasn't much to fight, so I just paid. There's several lakes in Johnson County, at least 3 in Wyandotte County, and then several in Jackson County, MO that you need special county permits for. You're not missing out on anything, as you found out, there's no bass in Kansas anyways.

Wind is a way of life here and I fished out of a 16' aluminum for a lot of years. Put the biggest TM you can get on the front, point it straight into the wind, put your head down and fish. It takes time to learn to fight the wind and fish at the same time, but it can be done.

Fish often scatter in the fall and get into a funk. The whole "fall feedbag" thing rarely is a real thing for me.

My PB "eye"

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

A little surprise finding one of these guys in the very back of a cut in 1' of water along a weedline. Thought it was going to be a catfish at first.

I used to catch dozens of them a week to use as bait for big catfish. A 1/80oz jighead with about 1/2" of 2" orange grub or trout worm threaded on and dipped around rocks and any other piece of cover along the shoreline catches them very well.

We must have different strains of walleye here. I've had them straighten trebles on jerkbaits when I accidentally catch one in the spring. They pull almost as hard as similar sized smallmouth and largemouth. The ones that don't fight are the small ones that are well short of the 18" keeper line.

Sometimes I pause and let it settle to the bottom for 10 seconds or so, other times they want it moving right along. Most bites are very violent. I try to keep a little slack on the pause and watch the line to jump or go screaming off. Most of the fish I catch are quality sized channel cats from about 3 to over 10 and occasionally over 20 pounds, so they're not shy biters when they decide to eat. Catch a surprising number of nice bass, wipers, white bass, and even an occasional walleye doing it too.

I like it, I don't use conditioner on mine (or any of my lines), and it's been fine. Even have some 8lb on a spinning reel and up to 20lb on casting gear.

I use the same M/F for the 1/4 as I do the 1/2oz. It's a Ethos rod from Academy and it's worked great for traps. It's paired with a Kastking Assassin and 15lb Big Game.

Thanks, I have a lot of practice making them. I like fishing them a lot more though.