Bluebasser86

The hook is likely too small so you don't have enough gap to get the bait rigged right or clear enough of the plastic to get a good hookset.

It's easy for me, the Rage Bug catches fish and the D Bomb doesn't. No idea why but I can put a D Bomb in all the fish holding places in the world and they don't touch it, but switch to a Rage Bug or one of my other favorite beaver baits and I'm back in business.

That's a strange one, doesn't look real healthy so I'd venture a guess that it's some kind of illness.

Yeah just one of those foods that doesn't seem to agree with me real well. I guess it works out because I can't ever find morels when I look for them anyways.

I culled several times in a kayak tournament earlier this year with a split shot rigged mid sized Rage Bug, enough to finish in the money. When they called me up to get my prize and talk and I said a split shot rig saved the day, I saw several guys just look confused and one even came and asked me what that was afterwards. I guess I didn't realized it was that long forgotten. There was a couple kids fishing derbies yesterday but we went to the one put on by my old high school that now has a fishing team. I have only fished the lake it was at maybe twice so didn't know much but we set up just inside the only point on the lake going back into a little feeder creek cove with some cattails and grass. Both my boys were there as well as my 2 older nieces Lily and Zoey. There was little bluegills swimming all over right in front of us and a prize for first fish in all the age groups, so when the horn blew I had the girls drop their worms right in front of them and pretty much instantly doubled on 4 inch bluegill. We had an score keeper in a tent right behind us and both got on the board before the tournament was a minute old, so they both ended up winning "first fish", in their age groups. I set Lake up with a #10 mosquito hook and a BB sized split shot with a piece of nightcrawler and he was perch jerking as fast as he could go for awhile. I guess the Tournament Director actually called to make sure his score was right because he has 8 fish on the board in the first 5 minutes. I was casting Finn's for him but he was doing the rest, it was pretty much just cast and hand it to him and he could go ahead and reel the fish in. I also brought a rod to set out for catfish and saved a couple of the tiny sunfish they caught to put on it. First one barely hit the bottom before a little 12" bass ate it, Lily got that one. I put a bobber on it and floated the next one over the grass and a nice 15.5" largemouth ate it and did everything it could to get away but Finn finally beached him. Lily got tired of catching bluegills and wanted to fish for bass. She's never fished much so I gave her a wacky rig and told her to try the back of the cove in front of the cattails. Wasn't long before she was carrying her own bass back, a 16" fish that was the second biggest fish in her age group. She was extremely proud of catching it on her own. When the 2 hours was up, the girls got their prizes for the first fish in the groups, Finn won most fish in his age group with 36, and Lake won the most out of everyone with 46.

Rock stacking is a thing people seem to like to do for some reason.

Sorry to hear about this Hammer. Hope she gets feeling better.

Pretty much any kind of mushroom has that effect on me.

I've had a couple hooks gets wedged perfectly around their jaws and landed them. The hook shank through their jaw sideways, bend around the side of their top jaw and point of the hook on the topside of their top jaw with the barb dug down into it. Seems like my Ned rig hooks fit their jaws pretty perfectly and they have a tough time letting go of those stretchy Z-man baits as it is.

Where would a bass be waiting to eat a rat? Right below a low water waterfall seemed like a good spot. This one seemed to really like (hate?) the FishLab rat when it came over his head, really smashed it. Then this little champion pulled it down.

Welcome!

Lots of cherry tomatoes and a few beefsteak and romas. Got a few cantaloupes and 2 watermelons on the vines. Jalapenos are producing a lot but they're very small for some reason. Cilantro did well but it was our first time doing it and didn't know you have to keep cutting it so it went to seed and was no good anymore so we pulled it. Also did a tomatillo, which looks great with lots of blooms, but turns out you have to have 2 of them for them to produce any fruit so I guess it will just be a pretty plant in our garden.

A single, small hook is a better choice for gar, just have to let them run for a long time, they'll most likely swallow the hook. Even guys that target giant gator gar use very small hooks. I use straight braid to help drive the hooks and their teeth won't cut it so you don't need to use a leader. You might also look at something like a rope fly if you're really wanting to try for them.

I fish mine on a M/F with straight 20lb braid.

Would likely work for weightless plastics like a fluke or senko as well as topwaters like walking bait, prop bait, or popper.

I have 2 boats at home, a pretty nice bass boat and a johnboat, but I choose to fish from my kayak a majority of the time. I fish by myself most of the time, so there is no reason to use the boats. The simplicity is a huge factor for me. I can put my gear in the cab of my truck and load the kayak in the back and go. No worrying about trailer tires/lights/bearings, how much gas/oil does the boat have, does the lake I'm going to have paved roads or a ramp I can get my trailer up and down? Are my batteries charged/holding a charge? Just so many issues I don't have to worry about when I'm in my kayak versus the boat.

I have a few Falcon Bucoo SR rods and really like them.

What are you wanting to do with them? I have the 7' 3" H/XF and really like it but if you're looking for a crankbait rod that wouldn't do you any good.

I've heard the Big Water aren't super stable. I'm in a Sportsman 120pdl, standing and fishing is easy in it.

Nothing, using a glass cranking rod and mono, the hooks just couldn't handle any kind of pressure from a bigger fish. This was probably 10 years or more ago, maybe their hooks are better now, but I'll never find out. Apparently a glass cranking rod with 10lb mono is the wrong gear for a crankbait, who knew? I watched the guy do everything right and the hooks fail him multiple times. You have to be able to pull on them a little bit or you'll never land a fish, but if as soon as the fish surged or he put any heat at all on them, they were gone.

Better quality hooks don't bend as easily as cheap hooks either.

I watched my buddy dump what would have been a 30lb bag worth of bass off stock Strike King hooks after I warned him to change the hooks when he bought the bait. Big fish after big fish straightened the hooks and tossed the bait. He salvaged a couple little 1-3 pound fish, but man it was sickening to watch it go down. I change hooks on mine because I want to give myself the best chance to land a big fish that I spend hours upon hours chasing. Do you have to do it to catch a big fish? Of course not, but it isn't hurting your odds.

Yes, for pitching especially, my arm ends up more sidearm.

I'll have 30 years in at my job at 51 years old. I can't imagine any desire to go beyond that.

20lb straight braid for the 90 size. I can launch them out there and don't even need to set the hook, just reel into them.