Bluebasser86

Welcome!

Prime example on why it's important to fish high percentage areas from different angles, great fish!

I have a Supreme XT and a Stradic C14. Both have been excellent, although I'm not a big fan of the handle on the Stradic, it's not a big issue.

Go with the hippy rat. My buddy kills them on the 50 size in that color.

I'm not gonna lie, I've noticed it as well.

For me it would depend on how "ok", your current ride works. If you mean it takes a minute to get it started on cold days but it's good otherwise, I'm running it until I can't anymore. If you mean sometimes it runs, sometimes it doesn't, I'm going a different direction.

What makes you think you're missing lots of bites? or do you mean your getting strikes and missing them?

I catch fish on a rat and MS Slammer all the time in KS. You could fish that little Spro Rat 30 on standard gear no problem. Don't be afraid, I promise the fish aren't.

I always put a lifejacket at the front of the locker so if the lid falls shut, the lifejacket catches it before it shuts on my rod. I've saved a few rods because of it.

I enjoy your show as well Mike. Recently caught an episode of you catching hermit crabs and fishing with a pieced together rod and reel, it was pretty entertaining. If you ever get the urge to come to the fishing mecca that is NE Kansas, I'll put you on some fish

To this day I still have my "practice lake". Anytime I'm trying to learn something new, I head to the local dink factory. I was there not to long doing exactly that in fact! For all the northern bassers that keep posting pics of their "buddy" bass, I finally caught a few!

Will likely be there as well with 3-5 others.

15.5 pounds or 15.5 kg? That's the biggest 15 1/2 pound fish I've ever seen if so.

I'd just explain to him that you didn't use to be able to palm a reel and he shouldn't feel the need to yet either. I started at about that age with a 200B Curado that I either held my hand in front of, or behind the reel because I couldn't palm it, now it's no problem.

I use black the most because I can buy it in bulk from Harbor Freight for cheap! I really don't think it makes much difference though.

Not exactly a big fish factory here in KS either, but I still catch plenty of fish on swimbaits. The Deps 175, Slammer, and Bull Shad did the most damage for me last year. I'd say get a Slammer and a 168 S waver or the 7 1/4" Savage Gear Shine Glide and learn those baits. If you like it then you can dive in deeper. It isn't for everyone and you can spend a lot of money in a hurry just to find out you don't like fishing big baits. The Slammer gets tons of action from all sizes of fish for me and was a big part of why I decided to jump into fishing big baits even more.

Welcome!

About once a month around here. A lot of times there will be certain models on sale that aren't advertised but if you scan them, they'll come up as being discounted. Just check their website every Sunday for your local stores.

-13 with the windchill a couple days ago. Dropping into the teens today from low 30's, ready for it to be over.

I highly recommend trying it at least once. It's a blast when it's working.

They do hit hard as well, and I've never caught a big pea, but it wasn't like a strike from a convict on an A-rig.

Rod socks and reel covers man. I put mine on at the end of every day to put in the rod locker or in the rare occasion I'm fishing from someone else's boat. No reason they have to get beat up. I use a small bungee to hold the top ends of the rods together so they're not smacking off each other and no rod socks fly off.

Agreed. BPS "sale" prices are usually getting close to what you can find items for normal price elsewhere everyday. Plus, our sales tax pretty much kills any slight savings I might get from their sale prices. Only time I go there anymore is if I need something before it could be shipped to my house.

I actually prefer there to be at least a little chop for walking baits, especially if I'm fishing for smallmouth. Even when there's waves crashing into an area, a walking bait gets bit for me. I think they see too many spinnerbaits around here though, they're just not as effective for me as they use to be. Now I use swimbaits in their place most of the time anyways.

I've heard too many stories of newer Nitros getting stress fractures and worse from what is claimed as normal use. Even if the warranty covers that stuff, I wouldn't want to have to deal with it.