Bluebasser86

I'm not real big on the match the hatch concept either. Our bass probably eat more bluegill than anything else, and bluegill imitations normally work well, but bluegill swimmers have produced poor results at best for me. I have my best luck on Hitch, Ayu, and Bone colored swimbaits it seems. Ayu is a bit of a bluegill/baby bass color at least, and hitch is shad/baitfish colored, but then my BIL does well with a rainbow trout colored S-waver in lakes with no trout in them. IMO, swimbaits are more attractive to fish because of the size and perceived easy meal.

Hammer it Slack lined Killed it

I have several bubble walker 80s, I can't tell the difference between them and the Pop Max. They walk super easy and flat out catch fish. I haven't been as big of a fan of the popper as it really is more of a standard popper.

The usual Lenexa dinks?

That is all.

Follow along and comment here so everyone that fishes them can get to know you a bit. Not about the tournaments because that isn't a topic that is allowed here, but just post some reports and get in on the conversation when you can. Like I said, it runs off trust and the honor system and the only way to really trust someone is to know them. Our season is winding down for this year but we'll start it back up in late March or April next year. We have a roster that you have to be on at the beginning of the season because we fish small lakes and had to find a way to put a cap on how many boats we had showing up (we had 12 boats on less than 200 acre lakes a few times, plus all the bank fishermen and other boats out fun fishing, it was a zoo).

4/0 Eagle Claw Jason Christie signature series heavy duty EWG.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Yeah, that's normal depending on supply. I have a JDM version, the Chibitrel, but the Gantarel Jr has been in the local shop for at least a couple months

That's close, I couldn't even see mine.

Welcome!

I can do it, but I have a difficult time with the hookset, just feels like a funny angle to me. For that reason, I've gone to mainly using spinning gear for my slow moving baits except for in very heavy cover.

Glides not only give out a fair amount of vibrations and fluid waves, the joints knocking together make some noise for the fish to hone in on. Of course, baitfish don't make more noise just because the water is dirty. Some of the best advice I was given when I first got into fishing swimbaits in stained water.

What size jighead and hook are you using? If you use the correct sized head and hook then you shouldn't be snagging often even with an open hook because it doesn't clear the plastic by much so it doesn't grab onto things as often. I fish it often, always using an open hook, and snags are very infrequent.

A very basic breakdown for you. Clear water-natural or light colors, silver blades. Dark water-dark or bright colors, gold/copper blades. Clear water, it's tough to beat some version of watermelon or green pumpkin. I'd suggest either a weightless T-rigged or wacky rigged stickworm (Senko).

Like the others said, get a lawyer and do exactly what they say to do/not do. You're working from behind the 8 ball in this case simply because you're a male and today's society gives the mom the benefit of the doubt on who is the more fit parent. The fastest way to lose contact with your daughter is to prove that notion correct by doing something foolish. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard this story; Boyfriend and Girlfriend have a kid and end up splitting. BF wants to see baby and GF isn't having it. BF decides it's his kid too and he has rights so he goes over anyways. GF calls the police and now he's telling me his story in a striped suit. Or even worse, GF says he can come over, then when BF gets there, GF calls police and makes up a story and gets him arrested. Now BF has a record and GF has a ton of leverage against him in the custody case and it's all on hearsay. I'm sorry about your situation, and you certainly have a potentially rocky road ahead of you. Tread lightly, and carefully follow all advice your lawyer gives you. I hope you are able to work everything out and keep things civil if for no other reason than your daughter is able to have both her parents in her life.

I use braid mainline with a leader of fluoro/copoly with my shakyheads. It makes a huge difference in the number of hookups I get with them and doesn't seem to effect the number of bites at all. Fluorocarbon has a lot of stretch, even more so the lighter the line you're using. Combine that with a fairly light rod, long cast, and potentially deep water fishing, hooksets can get pretty difficult.

I have used several different rods for frogs, including some from the St. Croix LTB line up, but eventually settled on a 7' 3" H/F Ethos Micro from Academy. It's the best frog/toad rod I've owned and even at full price is only $80.

I have a smaller Cabela's bag that I keep a few 3600 or smaller Planos and my plastics in. It sits on top of my rod pod near my feet. I'd like to keep it in the space behind me but there's usually 70 pounds of Golden Retriever occupying that area so I work with what I have left.

Fixed it for you.

Almost all the water I fish is stained. I like the hard baits because they put off more of a disturbance than the soft baits but they'll certainly eat the soft baits in stained water as well. You can put a worm rattle in the tail of a 68 or 8" Hudd to get a slight rattle.

Did a mix of night fishing and daytime exploring this past week. My buddy Tony and I fished Bourbon County State Lake in the dark Wednesday night and caught a bunch of largemouth and spots on jigs, plastics, spinnerbaits, and a wobbler. I fished Linn Valley Thursday night, sort of. I had my spotlight and wanted to just see what I could see in the clear water. Lots of bluegill, quite a few drum (a couple that I sight fished despite the spotlight glaring on them), with a splattering of carp and bass. Water was 87.5 and almost all the fish I was marking were out deeper in the clear water. Storms were moving in fast so I was off the water by 2 am. Friday I decided to explore a bit. I took the yak to Blue Mound City Lake. Interesting little place. Seems to be shallow because of the weeds growing nearly to the surface almost throughout the 19 acres, but then I extended my push pole out 10' and almost lost it when it never touched bottom through all the weeds. I wore the fish out with a Pit Boss popped through the weeds and lilly pads and a buzzbait fished over and around the weeds. Nothing very big, but still a lot of fun. Also found a homemade trotline with about a 10lb channel cat and a bass that had been on there so long there was nothing left but it's head and part of a spine, even it's eyes were gone. Got to love poachers man. At least I got a sweet homemade trotline out of the deal and the catfish got it's freedom back. After a few hours on Blue Mound I hopped over to Garnett South (Crystal Lake). Fished it from the bank for an hour because I knew if I unloaded the yak I would fish too long and not get any sleep. I caught 6, 5 on a wobbler and 1 on a Pit Boss, all very stocky fish in the 2-3 pound range. Big shad were flipping everywhere, so I'm guessing they eat really good in that little lake. I'll be back to try to find one of the 6-7 pounders they always sample out of there.

My first tournament when I was 16 I fished in an adult club. It was at Table Rock and I ended up in 4th place. I was using a 6' light Cabela's Fish Eagle II that I found in the bargain cave with a broken tip. I put a new tip on and slapped on a TX1000 with some 4lb Pline fluoroclear that I tied to a 1/8oz ballhead with a bronze hook from Wal-Mart with a 4 or 6 inch purple Mann's Jelly worm threaded on. The fish were spawning and I believe the light line and different looking bait was the difference. I enjoy my nice equipment I have now. Buying nice, new gear is half the fun of this sport, but it's certainly not required to be effective. Woo Daves used a Zebco 33 to catch some of his fish that helped him win a little derby called the Bassmaster Classic. It doesn't get much cheaper than that.

Clear water and spooky fish. There's less there for a fish to see and identify as a fake than a painted bait.