Bluebasser86

I hear the same thing every spring during trout season. Stuff isn't fit for human consumption in my mind. Not only does it taste bad, the texture is horrible. Only reason I keep them is they make good cutbait and I don't need nearly as many as I do with shad, which I imagine them tasting very similar to. People have different tastes, it isn't always how something was prepared.

Like usual, I didn't get our last 2 keepers because it was right at the end of the day and I missed several fish catches or the clips were too long and take forever to upload. Also left out the flathead video and just made it separate to keep this on reasonable. There's a pretty good story behind my Biffle quote at about 2:17, but unlike the guy we crossed paths with, I'm not a giant turd so you'll have to hear it in person if you want the story behind it.

I'd seriously consider doing some research or talking to someone in pond management before removing too many of the larger fish. Doing something like that is a good way to end up with a pond full of nothing but small, stunted fish. You might check with your state. There's programs here that they'll come out and sample your pond and test the water to give suggestions on what the best management program is. Might be something like that where you live as well.

If you've ever swam in water way too cold to be swimming in, there's a good chance you throw expensive swimbaits. I did some wading to about waist deep in early April a couple years ago because I found a stump I didn't know about with an expensive swimbait while I was fishing from the bank. Water took my breath away and made my voice a little higher, but I got my bait back.

Welcome!

I have the same results as you crankzilla. I don't catch as many fish, and they're not any bigger with the 2.5's so I stick with the 1.5's. Maybe see if someone wants to trade 2.5's for 1.5's?

Use a heavy bottom contact bait so it gets down faster. Put it in the high percentage areas so you can fish them the best you can before you're by them. It's just something you have to deal with as a co-angler.

I like the VMC HD flipping hooks, but I've broke 2 of them at the hook bend on a hook set. I still have some I'll use until they're gone for fun fishing, but when it's tournament time I'm using Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover flipping hooks.

Both have their perks. If I'm trying something new, I like to fish by myself in case I bomb. Owning a boat and being able to get on the fish pretty consistently makes it really easy to find people to go with you though.

Had an experience 2 years ago just like this. Fry everywhere, we could see big fish, but only the dinks were biting. Tried everything and out of desperation, flipped a Ned rig at some fry. We ended up with over 80 fish that day and several were over 18". It must have looked like some kind of small predator chasing the fry and the bass just couldn't stand it.

This is the kind of thing for the Tournament Director to decide if there was any wrongdoing. LOCKDOWN!!

That'll probably work, or you could get a BPS Pro Qualifier in 5.2 or 4.7 online right now for $69. You can get them used PQ any day of the week for even less. I used one for deep cranking for a few years and never had any complaints.

I've used them with a weighted wacky hook, they do fall a little slower than a standard trick worm.

As fat as she was, there may be a bass in that picture, you just can't see it.

That's a huge channel cat.

Where's your little P fish at? I saw a picture of literally a truck bed full of them a couple days ago.

Man, what a weekend.

I had a good weekend of fishing this past week, finally. Fished with @gardnerjigman the whole time. First day was not much fun as we prefished for a tournament Saturday. Bad enough we bailed after fishing for several hours with 5 shorts to show for it. The last 2 hours went great with Coty catching a couple solid fish on my bladed jigs. Then as we were leaving, I trimmed the motor up to far and snapped off a fitting that goes into my steering. The same thing happened to me at the Classic and it pretty much ruined the weekend then. I had a spare this time though and we were able to get it back together when we got back without getting too much slop in the steering. Day 2 was at Wabaunsee/Eskridge Lake where Coty hadn't ever fished before and I'd done well the previous week. We caught a lot of fish, mostly smaller largemouth, along with missing a lot of fish. I kept telling him it would happen eventually if we kept dragging jigs, and in the back of a major arm on top of a flat by a creek channel it finally did happen to me when this nice fish thumped my jig. As our day was winding down, I was dragging the same jig on a rock point in about 14' of water when I had an unmistakable bite. It felt like someone grabbed the jig and jerked as hard as they could. I called it before I even set the hook. It took a long time before I even started to gain anything on the fish after she swam out to the deepest water that was close by, which was almost 40' deep. From there, I sat as straight up and down as I could on her and did what I could to keep her away from the brushpiles, zebra mussel covered rocks, and dock pilings. I hadn't retied in way too long and I was sure that was going to come back to haunt me. I was fishing my finesse jig rod, a 7' MH/F LTB with a 70XG Curado and 15lb Red Label, so I was way undergunned. Even with that gear though, as the minutes ticked by and the fish didn't move, I knew this wasn't the teen to mid 20 pounders I'm use to catching. After several minutes I saw the telltale bubbles hitting the surface. When we finally saw that massive head, it really set in how big the fish was. Once I got her moving the fight was over pretty fast thankfully. The fish had inhaled my jig so hard that it went in her mouth, shot out her gills, and buried near her pectoral fin, never seen that before in my life. My scale wasn't large enough, and the boat house didn't have one big enough either. We've both caught some 50 pounders, and this one was noticeably larger. It's head and shoulders were almost as wide as my 220lb frame. We felt pretty comfortable putting her in the 65 pound range. Got a few pictures of her and watched her swim off strong. Day 3 was tournament day. Same lake as Thursday, where we struggled to catch 5 bass, none of which would have even been close to measuring. There were carp spawning everywhere in the weeds I wanted to fish, so we planned to do something else. Sometimes knowing what not to do is just as valuable as knowing what to do. 18 boats showed up, we were boat 16 to take off. We ran to an area I've caught fish before, and where we caught 2 of our fish a couple days ago. Coty caught a short (18" length limit), almost immediately on a jig. I followed up quickly with another close one, but still short. Just a few cast later, I put our first keeper of the day in the box on one of my bladed jigs. We caught fish pretty steadily all day, some that were really close, but just couldn't seem to get one to stretch. With about 30 minutes left in the day, we made the call to go to the dam and fish a Ned Rig and see if we could maybe scratch out one more. This tournament was a "Badges and Buds" tournament that carries an additional trophy for the team with a LEO/Fire/EMT that places the highest. That team wins the Badges Cup and gets to take it to their agency for the year and have their name engraved on a plaque on the side of the base of the trophy. I was holding onto some sliver of hope that maybe nobody had done any good and we'd get the cup at least. Then Coty hooked up, it was a hard pulling fish, and once she was in the net, I knew it was close. I massaged her belly a little and got her to cross the line. Keeper number 2 felt great, like we might actually get the cup. Not 5 minutes later, still high from Coty's fish, I hooked up with clearly the biggest fish of the day. When she got to the boat, we could see the bright pink head barely holding on to a piece of skin in the corner of her mouth. We were begging and pleading as I finessed her to the boat, and there was a huge sigh of relief when she slid into the net with 15 minutes left in the day. I really felt we might not only win the cup, but maybe our entry fee back at this point. At the ramp, there was lots of "We got 1 but just couldn't make another stretch". One team had weighed in 2 that went 9 something. Ours weren't much bigger than 18" each, so I was worried. Once they hit the scales and I heard 10.11, I knew it was serious. I knew one other boat had a hog and when I saw him put another fish in the bag, I was worried again. His big fish was 5.5, but his second was a squeaker that put him just shy of 9. That was it, no more fish. We were shocked, and I don't think you could have wiped the stupid grins off our face. Not only did I get my Badges Cup for my department, we won the thing, first time the Badges Cup team also won 1st place in the 20 years they've been doing the tournament. Oh yeah, and before the last minute heroics, I spent a couple minutes with some serious deja vu, even had the hook down the throat, out the gills, and buried in the belly again. This one was "only" 21 1/2 pounds for some size comparison.

I had 2 hits on a wake bait Friday, the time is now!

That's a color you don't hear about often, and it works really well.

My wife told me about this and then suggested that we go. I'd really hate to have to go to the Classic 2 years in a row

I caught this guy on a Ned Rig with a homemade jighead that I pour on a #1 Eagle Claw Lil' Nasty hook, it didn't even start to bend out. I use a 6' 10" ML/XF LTB with 24lb Gliss and 8lb leader. You shouldn't be having any problems as long as you aren't crossing their eyes on the hookset. I was putting a lot of heat on this fish too.

What are you wanting to use it for?

Large channels are by far the worst tasting of the catfish family. Why does your friend want to remove them from his pond? Unless they're eating everything else in there, you could really upset the balance if you remove very many large predators like that.