Bluebasser86

Chris and I fished CV on Wednesday and did pretty decent. It started very slow, picked up a little, then got pretty fun right before we had to leave. During the dead time I started fishing a black and blue senko wacky rigged. Hooked a monster next to a stump that gave me some big headshakes and popped off. I'll pretend it was a drum, even though it probably wasn't. Started catching a few in the coves on wobblers as we worked south and the water muddied up. Then when we got into the river, Chris started pitching a black and blue beaver at any wood that was as close to the bank as possible and it paid off almost immediately. We caught several doing that, and I caught a decent one on a Raymond Red wobbler, which has become a solid dirty water color for me. Dad actually made the trip with me to Wolf Creek Thursday. WP 90 and a tube was pretty much all we used all day. I caught a few on Ivy, few on a Ned, but I pretty much fished a WP all day and my dad threw nothing but a tube except for about 10 minutes he fished a spinnerbait. Could have had over 100 pretty easy if all my WP fish were connecting but there were lots of fish slapping at it or never opening their mouths, just ramming the bait. Dad accidentally figured out the deal around 10 AM when he cast almost onto the bank, when we were already only in 3' of water, and caught a solid fish, no idea how we couldn't see it. A few cast later, I missed a big one and had a little one steal the plopper. The big one followed to the boat and was the biggest WC smallie I've ever seen, over 4 for sure. Dad followed that with his new PB smallie at 3 even. We caught several more off the same point before we moved on down the bank. Shallow water with deep water nearby was the key. Deep water had nothing but dinks, and shallow water only held fish here and there. My first fish of the day was a fat largemouth off the island, then I had back to back Ned rig drum, the rest were all smallmouth. Friday I made a short kayak trip to Critzer. I've never given the lake much of a chance, but now that I'm less than 30 minutes away and guys at work keep telling me about 6-8 pound fish, I guess I'm going to have to give it more of a try. I did catch several very healthy looking fish while I was there. I launched from the west end, so I'm not sure if the trees are thinning out, or if they've just never been that thick on that end. Either way, the west end what much easier to work my way through and fish than what I remember the east end being like.

I had to look it up the first time too, glad I did.

I have several #2 Mepp's in my grab and go bag because they catch everything. I really like them in the creeks off the big rivers when the water gets up and the wipers and white bass push up into them. They can be fished very fast and mimic any kind of silver baitfish they might want to eat.

I've been on a big bait kick lately. Not swimbaits, although there's been some of those in there, just bigger standard baits. The new YUM Magnum Christie Critter with a full sized brush hog bait and Pit Boss for scale. and the new magnum H2O squarebill from Academy with a Strike King 8.0 and LC 1.5 for scale.

Agreed. I've been around the water my entire life and consider myself a strong swimmer, but when I flipped my kayak back in March and submerged into the mid 50 degree water, all I could do was grab at my kayak to hold myself up. That cold water felt like it short circuited my brain for a minute, I was completely disoriented. It only took maybe 10 seconds to calm myself and get into recovery mode, but a lot could have happened if I didn't have my PFD on.

I posted my response on this back on May 1st. Mine is still in the package riding around in my boat somewhere. I suppose one day I'll eventually take it out and actually fish with it if I ever get over the disappointment I'm still feeling from when I first got the bait in my hands.

Suspending jerkbaits are a colder water bait, less than 60 degree water, for me. I've tried and tried during the warmer months, even following the advice of the man himself, KVD, on how to catch fish on jerks in warm water, just can't make it work.

I would suggest braid for sure. The one I hooked pulled drag and dove into a bunch of bushes and pulled off. I had one come out from under the boat at Table Rock chasing my jerkbait, really surprised me. Then he wouldn't leave us alone either and ended up having to move because I was afraid he was going to catch my bait and get hooked. They are really cool looking birds up close though.

Agreed. MDC charges me just a little more than what I pay for a year permit in KS while I'm a KS resident, plus I have to buy extra permits for everything while the one permit covers most everything in MO. Lots of free ramps in MO, even on the major reservoirs while I have to buy a year state park permit in KS, and that only gets me into the state park ramps without paying an extra fee. Then after paying that ramp fee, the ramps are junk. One of my favorite lakes I have to be careful not to hit the giant pothole in the middle of the ramp because it's so deep my trailer will scrape, and it's been that way since I started fishing the lake several years ago. Somehow MO lakes produce way more big fish than KS lakes, even though they're right next to each other. I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that KS cares way more about keeping the bucket brigade happy with truckload after truckload of channel cats and thousands of pounds of fish food they dump into the lakes every year, while they bass are left to fend for themselves. Those little MO conservation lakes produce more big bass than our best lakes in the state, while receiving far less pressure because there's probably another lake not far away that also produces well. It's really a constant source of frustration for me knowing what could be if the state just cared enough to make an effort.

Bladed jigs are one of my favorite baits to fish, part of why I started making my own was so I could get the exact bait and color I wanted. Some of my best muddy water colors; and one that is quickly becoming a new muddy water favorite, Clear water I like, For trailers on a black and blue, I like the Havoc Pit Boss, Rage Menace, and just recently added the Havoc Devil's Spear to the list. Black, black and blue, and sapphire blue are my favorite colors for trailers. Rig them vertically instead of horizontally, like this; It makes it swim more like a fish's tail and allows the trailer to work more with the natural movement of the bait instead of against it. For mostly white baits, I'll often fish a chartreuse trailer and with chartreuse and white baits, I'll usually go with a white trailer. Solid chartreuse is a hard color to find in much other than baits intended to be used as trailers, so I usually opt for a YUM split tail trailer. In the solid white, the Rage Menace is the first choice, followed closely by a solid white Devil's Spear. Fish the bait slowly, even bumping along the bottom. If anything feels different, set the hook. I think a lot of people miss a ton of strikes with bladed jigs because they expect a jarring strike, when a lot of the times you barely feel anything. I've watched fish eat my bait and didn't hardly feel anything, when in reality the bait was almost completely inside their mouths.

Pfluegar President is where it's at for and affordable, dependable spinning reel. I've gone almost completely to Pfluegar and Okuma for my spinning reels, save 1 Stradic CI4. The binding is a known issue with some of their spinning reels, especially the Sahara and Symetre.

Welcome!

I like the 105.

I use the same Garmin Virb Elite on my kayak as I do on my Stratos.

It'll work just fine. I have leftover spools of Invisx, Red Label, Big Game, C21 all laying around to use for leader material.

I've caught a seagull, owl, and as of a few weeks ago, a blue heron. For anyone interested, owls put up a pretty good fight on a medium baitcaster.

7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro is the best frog rod I've ever owned and they're only $80 if you pay full price but I got mine for $60 on sale.

One of my swimbait reels that I also use for muskie and big catfish occasionally is a 400B Calcutta. It's been through the ringer and still works perfectly.

In my experience, they're homebodies. A big muskie is the biggest, baddest fish out there so it can pick the best place on a lake and rule it with an iron jaw. I think the exception to that is on bodies of water with little cover or structure and the primary forage being pelagic baitfish.

Mono of those two but I prefer copolymer. Buzzbaits are for fishing in nasty areas and need a line to get them out of those areas.

Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Florida, and Ontario.

A 5" senko weighs around 3/8 ounce, you should have no issues casting it weightless on a baitcaster.

The smaller sized Zell Pop produces the largest popper bass for me every year since I started fishing it seems like. I think it's more how a bait moves and how it's fished when it comes to poppers being productive. If you want a big popper though, the R2S Bubble Walker 128 is a monster that fishes very nicely.

Welcome!

Welcome!