Bluebasser86

There's usually 30-40 in the rod locker and around that many more in the garage. I couldn't name all of them if my life depended on it.

I've done it long enough now that I'm saving money do it (plus I get the lead for free which saves a ton). At first I did it because I thought I was going to make lures for a living. I was young and dumb, didn't do my research on how much work that really is, so that idea got scrapped a long time ago. I still make a decent number of baits for sell, but I'd never do it for a living, too much work for too little money without the right equipment.

I can't catch anything on a plopper this year either. I bet I've found 25-30 ploppers this year and I'm guessing that's why I can't catch anything on them.

Welcome!

That's an awesome day of muskie fishing. They're one of those fish that's really hard to catch until they decide to be in a biting mood, then it's like you can do no wrong. I wish I had them closer to me. It's a 3 hour drive to the lake I muskie fish at ?

Well everyone has to pay to use the app, usually about $5 per person per tournament, so I'd assume they're getting paid.

They're very nice, but also wood so they get broken pretty easily. I tend to stick to foam style ones

There was one not long ago bending the old Ketch board in the bottom of his kayak, which is why they stopped using those ones that could be bent. Where there's a will, there's always going to be a guy figuring out a way to cheat.

Length tournaments are what tournaments should be in the future imo. Bass anglers will whine and cry about a person keeping a 5lb bass to eat, but have no issues hauling one around in a live well for 8 hours on a hot summer day, just to release it to die a day later of the stress from being hauled around. Either we care about the health of the fish and future of the sport, or we don't. In kayak tournaments there is an app used that all pictures must be submitted to. There are impartial judges that score all the photos that are submitted. Each picture has several criteria that must be met for the fish to count. The fish must be clearly visible (no glare from the sun blocking large portions of the fish or board), facing left with the dorsal fin up (away from you), the eye must be clear (to prove it's not dead and if the fish is blind or missing an eye, a video must be taken to show the fish is alive at the time), hands must not be covering the eye, inside the gill, or touching the tail of the fish. Only Ketch boards are allowed. Only original photos can be submitted (no edited or screenshot photos). Location must be turned on to allow the app to access where you are when the picture is submitted. There's usually a 30ish minute grace period after lines out to allow you to get your pictures submitted if you're in an area with bad signal. Photos are all time stamped so submitting the same fish multiple times would require hanging onto it and submitting it throughout the day and that's why you must take pictures of all fish the same way so they can inspect for similar markings if fish of the same sizes are submitted. The mouth of the fish must be closed and tail fully on the board. The identifier that we're given for each day must be clearly visible in the pictures. It's a laundry list of things that you must follow to prevent cheating and then the fish is returned immediately. It also levels the playing field. I've caught 18" fish that were not even 3lbs, I've caught them that weighed over 5. In a length tournament, an 18" fish is an 18" fish, regardless of how much it has or hasn't eaten recently. Cheating is still very possible in weigh in tournaments. We just saw it in the walleye tournament. Mike Long was thought to be one of the best big bass fishermen of all time until it was discovered he was tying up fish and also had a separate compartment in his boat to hide bass. Just as recently as 2 weeks ago I saw a post of FB of a fisherman that found a fish cage in the back of a cove on very popular tournament lake in Texas. Whenever money is involved, you'll never get rid of people looking to steal it from those looking to do it the right way.

Can I deal with it? Yes. Does it bother me? Yes. I've got an idea about how much blood a person is supposed to have in them, so the times I've dealt with someone who has a lot of what is supposed to be inside of them, outside of them, it's stuck with me.

Doesn't really matter but which one I'm using varies a lot depending on current and size of bait I'm floating.

I've got 8lb Tatsu on my shakyhead rod and 6lb Tatsu on my grub rod. Never had any issues with either of them.

Spoon and suspending jerkbait

It's a lot of work. Our last place had a pond. Very small but surrounded by cattails and held water well. Didn't have many if any fish when we moved in. I stocked baitfish, then bass after they were established. I doubt I caught 10 bass from that pond in the 2 years we lived there. Started stocking catfish instead and they did really well. Hopefully your experience goes better than mine did.

If you enjoy untangling hooks, then the mesh nets are what you want.

Sunday was another crazy numbers day. Took 8 rods with me in the kayak, caught at least 1 fish on every one of them ( @A-Jay I finally caught a smallmouth on a blade bait ?). Jerkbaits and a 3/8oz flipping jig did most of the work but also caught several on a Ned and wiggle wart. No real big ones, but a ton of them were in the 2.5-3lb range with the biggest being a hair over 18". Caught 10 fish out of 1 tree on the jig at one point. The big crappie were really wanting to join in the mix also, as well as several drum, a white bass, and a couple wipers. 2 days in a row of over 50 fish, been pretty nuts.

Colder water means jerkbaits, neds, traps, and cranks, and that means multispecies days. This past weekend was no exception. First fish of the day Sunday was a surprise big black crappie that smacked a 3/8oz flipping jig in a brushpile. If I'd been keeping them, could have had a decent bag. Probably a dozen, all in the 12" range, mostly on a Jackall Rerange 110. Also caught a few pig drum on a jerkbait and 1 on a micro jig, no pictures of those though. Caught 2 little wipers on the jerkbait, always a fun surprise. Of course the fish to take the cake this weekend was the monster 17.74lb channel. I was fishing a Berkley Stunna 112 and never saw my line move, but when I went to twitch it, felt like my line had broke because there was no resistance at all. I cranked like crazy and leaned into a ton of weight. Obviously was not a bass and I expected a drawn out fight, but it was in the net in less than a minute. The even bigger shocker there, it was hooked in the top of the tail. Channel cats are notorious for slapping at lures, so I'm guessing this one slapped at my bait on the pause and the hooks caught it's tail, because I felt no resistance the jerks before my bait "disappeared", on me. Either way, a true beast of channel, my second over 17lbs in the last 2 years.

If I had closer access to muskie or striper, I'd fish for bass a lot less. I grew up as a food fisherman, and through that developed an appreciation for all fish. Some fish it's their size, some their power, other their strikes or acrobatics, some their catchability. Not many fish that occur in any real numbers near me that I haven't fished for on purpose at one point or another.

Spent most of the day helping my BIL move but snuck out for the last 4 hours of the day. Took one of the high school kids that I boat captained for and we just whaled on them. Caught over 50 in our 4 hours, he had big bass honors with a 5+ lb fish that was almost black. I had big fish honors with a massive 17.74lb channel cat. Jerkbaits, micro jigs, Neds, and lipless did all the damage. Temps never made it above freezing and our guides were icing the entire time.

One of my best days in recent memory, we launched the boat into crisp -2 degree air temps. As long as the wind isn't blowing too hard and the water is soft, I'll try it.

I'm probably done also, added another kayak to the fleet. Found a deal on a Hobie Passport 12 that I just couldn't pass up.

Spinning

Whatever you decide to do, put one of these on your new keychain. No idea how many times this thing has help me find my truck keys. https://www.tile.com/products/deals?utm_campaign=(P:G) (CT:BRAND) (GEO:US) (CA:BRAND) (N:GSN) (AT:KWs) (AU:KWs-broad) tROAS_13870698657&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=632753016214&utm_term=tile key finder-e&adgroup=130386752571&gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmaibBhCAARIsAKUlaKSoYdnJiC_2G7U7EnLiFIszybD979GZOLxywT8Bma4d2A7fB5V53ogaAhnVEALw_wcB

PB striper was on it from Beaver Lake in Arkansas. It's also great for white bass and wipers. I've caught some nice walleye on it too.

Thought my son was going to break his rod deadlifting a big white bass into the boat Sunday. Really hard to find M/F 6' Daiwa Aird X and he tried to lift a 2+ lb white bass with it. Probably my fault, he'd watched me boat flip a bunch of fish on my spinning rod, but I was doing it like it's supposed to be done instead of deadlifting like he did, and most of my fish were smaller than his too ?