Bluebasser86

Lots of guys collect older Rapala baits. The older original minnows, fat raps, risto raps, discontinued DT colors, among others, all are very valued by some anglers.

Welcome!

Welcome and thank you for your service!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Generally, it's the narrower wobbling baits that work best in cold water. The Storm Wiggle Wart would be the exception to that rule for me.

Zoom Trick Worm or a 5" BPS Stick O.

Welcome!

You mean this guy?

Yes, but if you have open water why would you want to fish a frog instead of a walking bait with treble hooks?

As a LEO, I 100% suggest you follow this suggestion along with making sure you save that email exchange.

Not so much the lake, but when topwaterrob took my wife and I out on the Everglades while we were on vacation, these guys made me a little more careful about how close to the edge of the boat I was standing.

Just use fresh cut bluegill. I use it all the time for what I call "bass fishing for catfish". Most of my average fish are under 10 pounds. The put out lots of fish feeders in most of the lakes around me, it's pretty much cheating.

They are both listed having sealed drags everywhere I've seen except on the Pfluegar website? Pfluegar just has it listed as a "corrosion resistant oil felt drag". TW has it listed as a "sealed oil felt drag". I'd be paranoid after using any of my reels in saltwater. Not a huge issue for me though, don't encounter much saltwater in Kansas

Gardnerjigman and I had a chance to get on one of the local power plant lakes this past Friday. Weather was a little chilly but the lake was as calm as it gets, which never happens on this lake. The fishing started hot and heavy, slowed just a little, and then went nuts towards the end. We had well over 100 fish with a mix of largemouth, smallmouth, whites, wipers, walleye, and a drum. I had to edit out a lot of white bass to make the video somewhat reasonable length, and it still ended up almost 25 minutes long. Not a bad problem to have I suppose.

The state record smallmouth in Kansas isn't even 7 pounds, so a 4 pounder is pretty huge, but I still seem to have better luck reaching that goal than I do the 6lb largemouth every year. I had a 4+ pound smallmouth in 2014 also, but fell just shy on the largemouth with a 5.89lb fish being my biggest. I'd love to hit the 7lb and 5lb mark in the same year. I haven't caught a 7lb largemouth in a few years and it's been several years since my last 5lb smallmouth.

You already posted this question a week ago.

The private lake that my buddy lives on in South Carolina

@okiangler do you take medication for your migraines? I get severe aura migraines that cause numbness in my extremities (usually my left hand/arm), temporary blindness (left eye, always), nausea and eventually vomiting. It's completely debilitating when I get one and sleep is the only thing that sort of makes it better. The last couple years I've been taking medication for it and went from getting 2 or 3 a month to getting 2 or 3 a year.

I agree with the suggestions to check out what Academy might have on sale if you're near one. I bought 2 Daiwa Arids from them last week for $26 apiece, no idea why they were priced like that since they're $90 reels. Then you can get their lower end Ethos on sale for $40 pretty often or they carry lots of lower end rods down to some that are $10 or $20 apiece. I doubt there's going to be many if any folks on here with any experience with those two you named.

I want to figure out how to catch fish on a drop shot. It seems like such a simple rig and concept, yet I can almost never have any success with it. I also would like to stick with my usual yearly goals of a largemouth over 6 and a smallmouth over 4. I haven't managed to do it two years in a row yet, so maybe this year will be that year.

Same thing I eat during a normal day, PB&J's along with a couple waters and probably a Monster.

I had it on LOZ, Table Rock, Grand, Beaver, Bull Shoals, Stockton, never had any issues. Had 3 of us in it running around at the Classic on Grand.