Bluebasser86

My wife is only 5' 1". She doesn't like being called short, so I call her "fun sized", like the mini candy bars

@00 mod summed it up well recently, it was something like "How to night fish 101: Make a cast, if you hear a splash, fish it, if not, cuss like a sailor." I love night fishing and can attest to that being how it goes a lot of nights. Night fishing is much more comfortable during the summer time, temperature is much nicer and way fewer people. It's more of a big fish venture for me. True, I tend to catch more fish at night when it's hot, but the main reason I'm out there is looking for those big ones that go bump in the night. Jigs and bladed jigs are 90% of what I fish at night. I'll also fish a spinnerbait or big worm on occasion. I don't fish trebles at night, too dangerous for me. I also don't like topwater at night, because I don't like trying to dodge a bait I can't see after a missed strike. Keeping it simple after dark reduces clutter and improves my productivity most nights.

Nice fish! I'd like to give you a standing ovation for not guesstimating the weight and starting that war. Nobody ever agrees on it, but we can all agree that's a nice fish. Perfect post when the fish wasn't weighed

Welcome! I would start by reading into this thread a bit.

I'm switching to a bladed jig. Shallow water, fairly aggressive fish, and a grass line? That screams for a bladed jig.

Lucky Craft makes a good bluegill color in the pointer. I have a 78 Pointer that I've done well with in bluegill color.

SHHHH!! The fish are biting

Welcome!

I think you misread my post. I'm a Royals fan, but since they're out, I'll be routing for the Cubs to finally shake their curse. Believe me, I'll never forget the Royals winning the World Series. Being a sports fan in KC is rough. The Chiefs haven't been to the Super Bowl in my lifetime (and no prospects of that changing anytime in the near or far future), K-State hasn't ever won a championship in any sport that matters since I've been alive, and until the 2014-2015 seasons, the Royals were basically all the real teams farm club.

I don't have a dog in the fight anymore since the Royals couldn't make it to the playoffs for the third year in a row, so I think I'll be routing for the Cubs to win it. It felt great getting the monkey off our back last year after the 30 year drought, I'd love for the Cubs fans to get that 500lb gorilla of their backs.

This coyote came out of the trees growling at my MIL according to her. There's a house within 100 yards of us on the other side of the treeline (south), and several houses within the block to our north. The neighbors to the south have chickens and a large mutt that patrols the area and 2 houses to the north is the Undersheriff for the county whose German Shepard patrols basically the whole block during the day. I was afraid it was going to be one of those two dogs and my MIL was going to end up shooting them. There's been people living in the area for quite some time, so the coyotes know people are here and apparently aren't afraid. Our Golden stays inside unless we're outside and I always check outside at night before I let her our. I did this more for skunks than anything but I guess now I have to be on the lookout for yotes too. We have 2 young cats that we were trying to get used to being outside so they could be critter control, but I don't think we'll end up keeping them now, since they'll probably just end up coyote food. Easier to give them to someone else than find them scattered around the yard like I've seen happen a few times before when I was growing up. My wife is pretty shaken up over it but at least she gets to park inside in the garage instead of having to walk to the car in the dark like I do each night. I've enlisted the help of several avid predator hunters to see if they can curb the population a bit. I was thinking that my deer had disappeared off my trail camera because I had the pasture mowed, now I'm thinking there may be a different culprit.

Had a very interesting one just last night. My MIL and wife were planning on having a bonfire and making s'mores and enjoying the cooler weather. My wife was running to the store to get their supplies with our son and my MIL had a roaring bonfire going next to our shop. I got a migraine and was about to go to bed to sleep it off when my wife was leaving when she asked me to leave my .22 pistol with my MIL in case there were any coyotes out there. I had the shop bay door open, all the lights on (which lights the outside up like a rock concert), and my MIL has this fire the size of my car going behind the shop, no coyote is coming within half a mile of our house but I took it and showed her how to use it real quick and go in to go to bed. I'm just about asleep when my phone rings and it's my MIL. Irritated that she didn't just come inside to ask me for whatever it much be she's looking for, I was shocked when she starts yelling "There's a coyote out here trying to get me!". She'd grabbed the gun and got into her car and said it was still out there right in front of her car. I grabbed my .40 Glock and ran to the deck and sure enough, a big, healthy looking coyote was pacing the tree line 20' in front of her car. It's a good 50-60 yards to the tree line from our deck, I know guys who can make that shot with a Glock, but I'm not one of them. Ran back in and grabbed the only other thing I have, my scoped 30.06 I use for deer. Chambered a round and ran back out, got the crosshairs on him right as he got out of her headlights and I couldn't see him anymore. I tried kissing him back and my MIL said he was right next to my shop staring and growling at her car but it wouldn't come back out where I could see it. Sling my gun and grab the Glock and headed down the stairs to see if he wanted to be brave enough to try coming after me. She said as soon as I started crunching through the gravel he started trotting back towards our pond. The whole time this was all going on the rest of the pack was right across our driveway going nuts howling and yipping. I had her park her car and told her to go inside, closed the shop up and walked back in right when he started howling just inside the tree line again. I've lived around the things my whole life, never have I seen one be that brazen. I always kind of chuckled when someone gets nervous when they start howling around our place, I guess I'll take it much more serious now. To give an idea how close this all took place to my house, the fire was right on the other side of the trashcan in this picture and the coyote was outside of the treeline several feet in the taller grass when I first came out. The picture was taken from our deck almost exactly where I was standing trying to get a shot off.

I use 50lb braid to a brass/bead/clicker/swivel then 15lb Big Game leader.

Glad to hear you made it through the storm alright!

Are they the ones with copper blades? I have a chart/brown/copper blades that I've done well with in dirty water and in lakes with tannic stain.

A bladed jig far outproduces a spinnerbait for me throughout the year. I caught most of my fish last Thursday on a bladed jig, while a spinnerbait never produced a sniff. It was an overcast, windy day that should have been perfect spinnerbait weather, but they just ignored it. Bladed jigs also tend to produce larger fish than spinnerbaits for me. Anymore, the only time I reach for a spinnerbait is in cover too heavy for a bladed jig, in clear water, or if I'm targeting mainly smallies and/or spots.

I've used them for launching baits at wipers, but accuracy is not great when casting to targets where bass normally hang out. They're not the most sensitive thing out there either.

Are you flipping and pitching or punching grass? 3/4 to 1oz sounds like you're punching the thick stuff to me. Your height has nothing to do with how long a rod you can use. I use rods up to 8' with no issues and I'm only 6' tall. If you're punching, I'd get something closer to 8' because it allows you to lift up on the fish more to pull them up and out of the cover. If you're flipping and pitching wood or sparse grass, either of the rods you asked about will work, just pick which one feels best to you.

Agreed, they're a killer little pond bait and swim well for a cheap bait. If money isn't an object, Keitech of some variation and Rage Swimmer. If I'm trying to be cheap, then I'm using a BPS Speed Shad or Havoc Grass Pig.

The 18' version of this one. http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Telescopic-Lure-Retriever/product/37104/

As long as you got the new spark plugs in without issue you should be okay. I think the 04's were the first year they used the junk plugs that snapped off in the motor all the time. I had an 06 and when it was time to change mine the shop told me about it and said for every one they snap off it was $75 for them to dig it out. I started looking around online and found horror stories of people getting charged up to $4,700 to get their spark plugs changed. I also found there had been a recall but my truck was past the mileage to qualify. Then as soon as the warranty ran out, the transmission started slipping. I don't drive my vehicles hard, but it pulled my boat a ton, but that was also when I only had a 16' aluminum. Not trying to be a downer, just stuff to keep in mind so in case it starts having any problems you can bail out before it gets too bad to trade in for something else.

I have a Big Game Prowler II that I load into my Tundra by just putting the tailgate down with one strap across the nose and one through the handles, ratchet them down and go. Hooksets were different for me. I've gone to mainly using braid on spinning gear unless I'm in heavy cover for T rigs and such because it feels more natural but I'm getting better at a seated hookset with casting gear.

I spent almost twice that on my telescoping lure retriever, but I also have a nearly 100% retrieval ratio of snagged baits with it so it's paid for itself many, many times over.