Bluebasser86

It's wide open just a little south in KS. We've got water temps all the way up into the low 70's in some of the small bodies of water. The guy that got 3rd in our tournament Saturday caught all 5 of his fish on a frog. Pretty much catch them on whatever you want to throw season around here.

I've always been "Use whatever I have laying around", guy, but after the last couple years of using Seaguar Pounce, I've seen what a true leader material is really capable of. The stuff is so much stronger and more abrasion resistant than a mainline flouro, it makes a huge difference when fishing around heavy cover. I was fishing 10lb TactX to a leader of 10lb Pounce last weekend during my tournament and pulled several fish out of the weeds and laydowns with it on my neko rig. It's made me a believer. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Seaguar_Pounce_Fluorocarbon_Leader_Line_25yd/descpage-SPFL.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Seaguar_TactX_Braid__Fluorocarbon_Kit/descpage-SETACT.html

The guy that bought these is planning on fishing them like a standard football jig according to what he was saying, mostly for smallmouth.

The Jackall Bling is a pretty small bait and cast really well. The Evergreen Flat Force is also small, although heavier than you're looking for, but one of the nicest casting baits I've fished.

I haven't but I did just have a guy order some white football jigs. I guess something I might have to try sometime.

Congrats, I've only ever caught one bass in Kansas big enough to qualify for a Master Angler award.

That's a heck of a find. I tried to get a big bucktail out of a tree last time I was at Hazel Creek but I knocked it off the tree and missed it on the way by into the water.

Can also confirm this rumor. This was a Shine Glide 185 fish, still my biggest glide bait fish. Still have that bone colored Shine Glide, it's covered in scratches, just never gets fished anymore in favor of the more expensive options.

I've started a fashion trend and now there's other guys copying my style so the fashion police are going to have to get use to it.

You certainly can get the Sexy Dawg in clear, but Strike King calls it Nude instead. I don't think it's any longer made, but you can still find them out there with a little searching. eBay1 Strike King HC KVD Sexy Dawg Walking Bait Topwater Fish...Bait Specs - Far Casting. - Allowing Nose to Glide Side to Side.

Sounds like most of what I fish. It's prime junk fishing territory. There isn't typically enough of any one kind of cover/structure to get on a single pattern and stick to it all day, so you just fish what is in front of you and you can't ignore anything because the fish are often limited in resources, so they make the most of what they have. I've caught so many nice fish in small bodies of water off of nothing in those little bowls. You have to pay attention to the small details. The little puddle I was fishing Friday afternoon is shallower than 10' throughout, mostly shallower than 5' with lots of grass and just a few laydowns. I started trying to force them to eat a bladed jig but they mostly weren't having it. I caught a couple off the laydowns on a light T-rig when I started to notice most of the shoreline weeds had a foot or two gap between the submerged grass line. I started pitching my plastic into that gap and catching pretty regular, including my biggest of the year. I would have had a mid 90" bag just doing that in a "lake" that's listed at 13 acres.

Had my first Kansas Kayak Anglers tournament of the year this past Saturday at Mined Wildlife Area in Southeast Kansas. It's one of the more unique areas you could ever get the chance to fish with over 1,000 different "pits", ranging in size from small enough to cast across to 50 acres, some deeper than 60' and spread all across 4 different counties. It really provides endless opportunities and only limits an angler by how hard they're willing to work to access some of the more remote pits. I've been fishing the pits occasionally for over 20 years, but I've never really felt like I had a good feel for them. They're so much different than fishing a typical lake or pond and you can fish 2 that are directly next to each other, but fish nothing alike. Also, since many are so small, it takes very little to greatly effect them, so a minor change to one can drastically effect how it fishes. I've had many that fished great in the past that suddenly stopped producing. Add in the local guys having the obvious huge advantage of knowing them better, it's a very intimdating place to try to tackle. With all that, I decided to spend a couple days prefishing to try some new pits, and check on a couple old standbys. I stopped by my favorite and made 5 cast from the bank and caught 2 fish, one 18.50 and one 17, so I never even dropped my kayak in, just kept moving. Another old favorite was much clearer and more weedy than normal, but I caught a nice one on a glide, lost a good one on a glide, and caught a nice one on a T-rig, so I left after a hour there. I jumped around several different pits on Thursday, most were just not what I was looking for. At the end of the day, I pulled up to one that I'd never fished before that was supposed to have a ramp, it didn't, it was about 30' to the water from the gravel turn around. I grabbed a spinning rod and Neko and walked down to the water. Way too clear, too much weeds, this wasn't it, but I had only about 2 hours left in the day and I was worn out, decided to just see if I could catch some dinky pit fish to add to my Catch 2026 total. My first cast was an 8.50" fish, just what I expected. Next cast, thought the fish was stuck in the weeds until it started moving and jumped. Super healthy looking, probably over 18", broke me off in the brush at my feet. Did not expect that at all. Walked back to the truck and rerigged another neko, walked back and cast at a different laydown. Line moves off again, set into another solid fish, another 17ish inch fish launched into the air and tossed my bait. I'd brought both kayaks since the Hobie is way lighter than my Oldtown. Went back to the truck, threw the seat on it, grabbed the pedals and paddle and my rod and measuring board and down the hill we went. Turned out, I was wrong about that pit. I was pretty excited leaving there and also seeing there was more, very similar pits just south of this pit, so I was going to be exploring that the next day and it was going to be a challenge to get to also, meaning likely unpressured fish. Friday rained almost all day. The other pit was almost exactly like the pit from the night before. The fish were either tiny, or really nice, which was just fine with me. I caught a few good ones and got out of there before anyone saw me. That after noon I went to a nearby city lake in search of a big fish for the year long Big Bass Bonanza. I caught so many nice fish from that little pond, and I got my big one, biggest fish of the year for me so far and anyone in the contest. 21.50" 5.97 lbs Tournament morning, I decided to go to my favorite pit that I'd caught the 2 nice ones from the bank and left. I started by getting broke off in a brush pile by what I assume was a big catfish, then caught a 15" fish on a bladed jig. It was a hour later before I finally got another bite, but it was an 18" fish. This pit isn't usually a numbers game, just good quality, but it was slow even for it. Then I heard an engine roar. Next thing I knew, a boat was flying by on plane. It's one of the larger pits, and there isn't any rules about wakes or speeds, but it's really frustrating to have someone do that in that environment when the fish tend to be so in tune with their surroundings. I think he was testing his motor or something, because he ripped back and forth several times before he finally stopped. At that point, my shoreline was all stirred up mud. My confidence was gone in this pit and I fished through my favorite part of it for the next hour and never had a bite, it was time to move. I threw the kayak on the trailer, all the stuff that would surely blow off into the truck, and away I went for the short 5 mile trip down the road to my new pits. I lightened my load by a lot, but should have done even more. I put the motor back on, but should have left it off because I never even dropped it. I also cut back to 5 rods, but only used 2. I only had 2 tackle trays and 2 plastic totes, but only used 1 of each. It was about 10:30 when I got back on the water, lines out was 3pm, so I had plenty of time still. My first fish was a little 13.50, but it was something. Next bite was a 17.75 on the neko, now I was getting somewhere. A few cast later, I caught a 16.50 to complete my limit. After that, things got weird. A little after 11:30, I hooked another solid fish, a 16.75". I slapped it on the board, happy to be culling out the 13" fish. Took the picture my TourneyX App and flopped it back in the water. What I never did do was one of the first things you learn when you start kayak tournaments, I never checked my picture. The TourneyX App sometimes has a slight delay between when you take the picture, and when it actually takes it, which is exactly what it did. All I got in my picture is a close up of my seat when I set my phone back down. The fish was gone and I still needed to cull a 13.50. Frustrated, I went back to fishing. I paddled through one narrow chute into a new pit and next to a big log, hooked a decent fish, but it popped off next to the kayak. 5 minutes later, I hooked a good one off the edge of a weedline on my Neko, but it also came off next to my kayak. I was really getting frustrated at this point. I fished to the end of the pit, which didn't go as far as I thought it looked like it did on Google Maps. I switched to a different color worm on my neko and worked back through the pit. By the weedline where I'd lost the last good one, I got bit again. This time I hooked it and fought it to the kayak, but it jumped and tossed my bait again! My head was spinning, I couldn't do anything different other than let them swallow the bait. Right next to that was the log I'd lost the first one on. I got stuck on it momentarily, popped it loose and as soon as I tried to reel it in, a good fish flashed and ate my bait. Set the hook, reeled a few times, and my bait popped out of the water. I've never felt so cursed. I just must not be my day today I was thinking. I had worked everything twice and there was just a little less than 2 hours to go. I knew this pit was about done producing bites, I decided to load up as fast as I could and move to the pit next to it and hope to make something happen in the hour I'd have left. After loading and unloading as fast as I could, I threw my seat, pedals, board, paddle, 2 rods, and a couple spare baits in the kayak. I had high hopes because this pit had produced a few good ones the day before in prefishing, but after the first 30 minutes, I was afraid that might have been due to the overcast, rainy conditions. It was much shallower than I realized and the water pretty clear, I could see bottom most everywhere. My wife called me and I was sort of breaking down the misfortune of the day, when I got a bite and admittedly kind of half-heartly fought it to the kayak. That's when it turned and I realized it was much larger than I realized. I scooped it with the net and knew I had a significant cull, it turned out to be a 17.50" fish, it was 2:27PM, 33 minutes left. I submitted that picture, made my next cast, and while I was working it, spotted another nice fish crusing by. I quickly reeled my back back past it, dropped it down, and it ate it immediately, another 17.50" fish. It was 2:30PM, 30 minutes left. Back out and around to where I pulled my kayak into the pit, I cast at a little laydown and worked it back. I gave up on the cast and tried to reel in when a good fish ate it. It fought like crazy before getting in the net, another 17.50" fish at 2:42PM, 18 minutes left. There was one little finger of the pit I hadn't fished that I had to push over a log to get to but there looked to be decent water past it. I shoved back there and as I floated into it, I spotted another good fish cruising. It took just 2 cast before she ate my bait. This time it was my biggest fish of the day, an 18.75" fish, at 2:52PM, 8 minutes left. I caught one more dink before time ran out. At 2PM I had 81.75", at 3PM I had 89.50", it was a wild last 35 minutes. I hadn't looked at the standings all day because my day was not going well, so I was just happy to find out I'd made the top 5 in the end. Then in the end, I ended up in 2nd place. It was really a great ending to such a roller coaster ride of a day.

I'm not sure if it's possible or not. The main thing I'm concerned about is tungsten not having an insert and being smooth through the middle.

Some nice fish being posted lately and I haven't been fishing in over a week. I think I'm starting to lose vision in my left ear and starting to taste colors 🤪

Academy still has their 10 packs of tungsten weights for $15 in 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, and 3/8 oz. Their bigger sizes are more expensive but that's the case for every other brand.

I use EWG with fluoro and straight shank with braid as the main rule of thumb. The only exception is I use some finesse straight shank hooks with Elastech style baits because they don't stay up on EWG hooks very well.

I would second the Real Prey. The Matt Lures are super realistic, but the most fish I've caught on one before they're completely destroyed is 2. None of them have been the hammer tail shad fwiw, but I can't imagine it's a different formula for the shad than the gills. Savage Gear also makes some very realisic shad baits that are durable and have a nice swim.

A heavy sinker on a cheap snap makes a good plug knocker for less than $1. I carry one of these in my kayak where a typical telescoping lure retriever isn't practical. Stored, it's 18", fully extends to 16'. Not as rigid as a standard lure retriever, but it's a great compromise when space is limited. Would also work good for a johnboat angler or someone who just wants to put someone in a storage locker instead of having a regular lure retriever in the boat. https://www.scheels.com/p/45100001133/?store=&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=22579165152&cq_con=191927930141&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22579165152&gclid=Cj0KCQjws83OBhD4ARIsACblj1-XI9BafL5oGpMLAaNJQfVqX7qcTFi_PyBlLKPFZOBomkv8lL3HfToaAg76EALw_wcB

Keitech Fat Impact and the apparently discontinued Strike King Swim-N-Shiner

Cheating will never make sense to me. You have to have no moral compass at all to do it. When I go out, it's me vs the fish, I'm not that worried about what other competitors are doing. If I go out there and "beat", the fish, the rest will take care of itself.

That's a solid list of baits. I'd add a bladed jig to that list for sure, at least for around here.

Wipers would drag a bass of the same size, any variety of the black bass species, to it's death in no time if they were tied tail to tail. They're stronger, faster, and have more stamina than a bass does. They're also very nomadic and can be difficult to locate. Texoma has always been a trip I've wanted to make to chase stripers. If I could find them consistently, I'd spend a lot more time chasing those striped bullies. The fight is very similar to a striper, but they also know how to use their flat sides to their advantage.

Him having video seems like a pretty simple solution to the FFS claims. Watch his video and see if he was using it or not. The getting information one is such a grey area thing that I really don't like. If a person is out, actively hunting for or buying information is one thing, but if a guy is passing another boat and they blurt out that they're killing them on white spinnerbaits, that angler is suppose to report himself for receiving information? I guess maybe it's just because I don't have an issue with "dock talk", it's part of the overall experience of fishing that makes it enjoyable to me and chasing someone else's bite has almost always come back to bite me, so I don't care if someone else is doing it.

Sorry you're going through this. I'm right there with you knowing that the time I have left with my old dog is getting short. She's lumpy and needs help getting up from being on her side a lot of the time. Our house is split level and I've started taking her out the garage so she can go up and down carpeted stairs to be a little easier on her. She's been my fishing buddy and best friend for 14 years, it's going to kill me when it's her time.

Sauger have white that runs the length of the bottom of the tail fin, as well as the spots on the dorsal fins. Walleye have a larger white spot on the tail and less distict spots on their dorsal fins. Looks like a sauger to me.