Bluebasser86

Going to have an empty seat for Friday (and Thursday after work), if anyone wants to join. Probably stay close with Olathe or Doco Thursday. I'm looking at either CV or a return to MC after last week with a dark horse of Lake Shawnee for big smallies.

Yeah, should be able to catch some if they'll eat them where you're fishing them. I've run into a few lakes where they just won't eat big baits for whatever reason. This time of year is when I really like rats and wake baits like a Slammer.

The YUM Warning Shot is very similar and has a nice gliding action on a Ned rig. Cut the little head section so it sits flat and you're good to go.

I like water that is clear to stained with spring and fall being my favorite times of year. Winter is great at the power plant lakes. They seem to eat the Hudd in the colder water better than the glides. Water temps between 50-75 (broad I know). Main thing for me is the water clarity. As long as I can see the bait a couple feet down, I'll give them a try.

Trout love the Ned too. I actually target stocker trout with a Ned in the lakes around here.

I have not fished the chrome. That's probably the last color I'd choose (and obviously the same can be said for people in your area).

So glad it's a drop shot bait, now I don't have to worry about trying to fight the urge to buy any.

A backpack if it's just for transport. If you need to get into it while you're wading, I use the waterproof boxes from Ozark Trail (Wal-Mart). They're in the camping section and around $10 for a decent sized box. Not going to carry a ton of stuff but you shouldn't need a ton for wading.

I opt for a braid main line as well, usually 50lb braid with a 15lb Big Game leader.

Braid is stronger, but that doesn't equal better in all situations. If you're fishing in rocky areas I wouldn't suggest braid because it doesn't have good abrasion resistance in rocks. Spooky fish in clear water may be less likely to bite if they see your line. I'd suggest switching 1 or 2 combos to braid and see how you like it at first. If you fish around vegetation, it's a must though.

Why have you decided to switch to braid? I like braid on my spinning gear, and for around grass on my casting gear. I don't like it for moving/treble hooked baits and most bottom contact baits, just personal preference. Braid is really inexpensive in the long run. A single 20-30 dollar spool of line can easily last 4-5 seasons if not longer (I flip mine when it starts to get worn out). So you could be looking at a break down of $5 per reel each season. Compare that to anything other than very inexpensive mono, and it's easy to see it's a pretty cost efficient way to go. The time not spent respooling is nice too. As for backing, use cheap mono, no reason to waste fluoro unless you just have some laying around that you're not going to use for anything else (like leader material). I use leaders on my spinning rods most of the time, but never on casting gear. If I'm using braid on a casting rod, I'm fishing water/cover that I'm not worried about the line spooking the fish. It's just one more thing to fail otherwise.

Welcome!

They've all been done many times over. Asking which is best is only going to get you subjective answers, of which the value can still only be determined by you and what you choose to do with that information. No way to tell if the person who swears that company X makes the greatest Y ever, has ever even used another companies product or not. If I was going to try to find out which ones were "best", I'd search the forums and see what ones get mentioned the most, which baits are in the Fishing Reports a lot with people having success on them, and which companies are offering great customer service. I'm not saying not to make a poll, but a lot of people, myself included, will give probably give you a different answer today what I might give tomorrow. However, if you search back through the archives, the baits I had success with on this day 2 years ago will always be the same. Search a little more and see that same bait mentioned several more times, and just like in fishing, now you have a pattern to follow

I make some if you don't mind gluing the baits to the head and having a sickle hook (Eagle Claw, not Matzuo). You can get them at Mondo Tackle too along with a few other companies heads that BPS doesn't carry, mostly local guys.

I love traps for pond bass. Early spring especially before the weeds start growing.

I would fish at night if you can do it without worrying about being snack for a gator.

Is it worth it to you? That's the only real way to gauge their "worth". Most baits cost isn't in their production, it's in the R&D and materials. Livingston Lures have the little clicker, which I'm sure adds a good amount to the price. I wouldn't pay what they're asking for most of their baits, but I'll be getting a Walking Boss part II whenever I remember to order one.

Ned fishes the Finesse ShadZ a whole lot himself, one of the baits he always has rigged up it seems. Big kitties certainly love the Ned rig.

I caught 2 last weekend fishing for bass. One was on a Strike King 5XD, the other was on a bladed jig. Neither was very large. A crappie fisherman I am not but I still manage to catch a few big ones every year fishing for bass.

I would think a certain degree of comfort has to be thrown into the mix. My 6' 10" ML/XF LTB/ Supreme XT is very light and comfortable to fish with all day. A lot of cheaper rods and reels are very heavy and unwieldy. Even with a high end combo, line watching is a big part of my bite detection. It's almost like fly fishing across current where I'll start to see my line straighten before I ever feel a bite, or the obvious twitch or jump of the line. I'd like to spend a day in the boat with Ned once. We cross paths often and have spoken on several occasions. I would be really interested to see first hand the amount of attention to detail he pays during a trip.

I was feeling the same way to an extent today. Watching Mark Rose catch dink after dink and slowly creeping away. Then Bobby Lane picked up his frog rod and reminded everyone that you can still fish for bigger fish, you just have to get bit while you're doing it. I think EE would have walked away with it if he wasn't missing and losing so many fish, but that's fishing. Shaw could have been right there if the couple fish he lost were actually as big as they looked like they might be.

Good baits and very versatile. They're good on a regular T rig too.

http://www.basspro.com/Buckeye-Lures-Spot-Remover-Pro-Model-Jighead/product/89935/ I pour my own and wasn't a fan of the spot remover head but that's the one I'd get if I was buying them again. Netbait T-mac or finesse worm is my worm of choice. http://www.basspro.com/NetBait-Finesse-Worm-Softbaits/product/98293/

I have not had any issues with them swimming on their sides unless I tried to fish them too fast. It's actually kind of nice because I can cast it behind weed edges and fish it up to the edge of the weeds then pop it out and skip it across the weeds back to the boat. I have several of the SG gills in both sizes and both floating and slow sink. I really like the floating version of both sizes the best.

At your level, I see nothing wrong with trying to get sponsorship from whoever you can get it from. If it were me, I'd want to do it face-to-face. As a small business owner, I get lots of emails asking for sponsorship, which just seems lazy to me. Even I can copy/paste a well written letter into an email and send it out to 100 different businesses in a matter of minutes. Meeting in person, or at the very least getting a phone call, would mean a lot more to me if someone was trying to get sponsorship out of me.