Bluebasser86

Nice fish, the wind was horrible out there today.

I've done it too many times, last time was a rattle trap in the side after I missed a fish and it came screaming back at me and stuck just back and below my armpit. Gardnerjigman was with me and he was able to push it through and cut the hook point so it could be backed out, you can see the threads from my shirt still stuck in the hook. My dad got a good one the very first fish he ever caught with a Vision 110 last spring, which happened to be a flopping, slimy trout.

Switch to the night shift.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Wolf sucked yesterday, and the wind blew, hard. I've been called off in a lot less wind and they hadn't called people off yet that I'm aware of when we were taking out. I could barely stand up and the trolling motor was popping a foot out of the water and waves were rolling halfway up the deck about every few waves. Fish were few and far between and not much size to them. Don't know what we were doing wrong, but they really wanted nothing to do with us. I lost what I think was a big walleye on a dropshot but didn't get a good look at it so who knows. Other than one skinny one and a nice one that missed my bull shad, we didn't see a fish over 15" even. Didn't catch anything but smallies and didn't see another boat catch a fish and we had a bunch around us. We bailed with the terrible wind and went to Melvern River Pond, only place I could think of. Caught probably 20-25 fat largemouth and missed several more, several drum including a monster I sight fished with a beaver, and Coty had a nice snapping turtle on a beaver It pretty much saved the day for us.

Solid for the money. Take the back hook off and upgrade the front hook to a better hook and 1 size larger.

It's still 6+ feet high and I'm sure it's muddy. I wouldn't go unless I absolutely had to. That's the toughest lake I know of when the water is up.

I use 20lb braid with a 10lb copolymer leader.

It works better to just remove it. It's a small bait to start with and just the location of the hook hangers is not the best. A size smaller than what is on the bait would be so tiny it would most likely not hold up (it's a #6 on the back so you'd be dropping to a #8). I did the same with the 4" hard shad style bait and can't think of any fish other than white bass that didn't get the hook still. They generally eat the bluegill bait head first, so the front hook is normally what you get them with anyways.

I can't, no. Maybe someone else can, but I can't. As mentioned, there's the torque factor as well. Cranking a spinnerbait on a 6.2 ratio is easy, put it on a 7.1, all the sudden I'm trying to crank a 5 gallon bucket through the water.

Yeah, I get tired of catching 5-8 pounders every once in awhile. ~Nobody

I've heard of guys having issues with Talons if they're used a lot on mud bottoms. It seems that every time the pole is retracted into the housing, it pulls mud inside with it, which eventually cause it to be unable to stow or deploy. I imagine some of that mud dries about as hard as concrete if it's stuck inside the housing for an extended amount of time. I'd love to have either, but can't afford either

I've never seen a bass eat a bullfrog, and there's lots of bullfrogs around here. I've used them for bait multiple times, catfish and turtles are the only thing that ever eat them in my experience. I've also noticed that if there's lots of bullfrogs on the weeds I'm fishing, there's almost never any bass, not that are eating anyways.

Bandits are some of the most durable cranks I've ever fished. Never need tuned and can't remember ever breaking one, even when they probably should have.

It hurt me when I had to sell my first "real", boat. Lots of good times, fish, and bad weather were enjoyed in that boat. Wish I could have afforded it an the new boat, but it just wasn't possible.

I only kept track for one year and used the clicker style counter as well. I skipped most of July and August due to extreme heat in favor of night fishing for big catfish on the rivers. I ended up with 2,776 on the year. I had to actually land each fish, none of them that fell off while landing them or weren't controlled were counted.

They don't get big in NE Kansas either, but I still catch plenty on swimbaits up to 8". I wouldn't get too hung up on the "match the hatch" thing. I catch them on shad swimbaits in lakes with no shad, trout swimbaits in lakes with no trout, and colors that don't look like any baitfish I've ever seen. The 168 S waver, 6" Savage Gear Line Thru, 5" Savage Gear bluegill, 7" or Mini MS Slammer, are all smaller baits that you can throw without specialized gear. Plus they'll catch numbers along with big fish to help build up your confidence.

Agree with having it checked out. If that motor checks out good, fuel lines aren't wrecked, no stress cracks or hull damage, I'd almost feel bad for getting that boat for 6,500.

The Shocks are nice rods and very popular. Personally like the Ethos rods from Academy for a rod under $100.

I use a 4/0 EWG for everything you listed a majority of the time.

I've caught lots of bass out of culverts but they always have water flowing through them, not just pieces of culvert. If it's public water you might be careful you don't get a ticket for littering though.

You can use it for any of those things, although I prefer not to for the cranks and spinnerbaits.

I've been very impressed with the new Berkley hardbaits. Haven't used the Digger much, but the Wild Thang has been a very good crank. Gave up on the DT line, tired of breaking baits for no apparent reason. Norman's are solid proven baits, but I've never had much luck on them save the Fat Boy and their crappie crank. 6th Sense baits are great, but I haven't used that particular one.