Bluebasser86

That would be great, but I'm going to use them with Zman plastics, so the hitchhiker isn't going to work. I might try attaching the trailer keeper to a metal post and see if that will stay put.

I'm working 8 hours of OT Saturday and 4 more hours on Monday, so no holiday vacation for me this weekend. If I do get to fish, it will be close to home.

Smackdown is my Ol' Reliable, but I've really been impressed with the SPRO Finesse 8X braid on my spinning reels. Holds it's color and shape great, very thin, strong, no fluff, and cast forever. Bonus that it's available in pink for my wife's reel too ? https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/SPRO_Finesse_8X_Braided_Line_Lime_Green/descpage-SFXB.html

Anybody ever tried to make these? https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_TRD_Spinz_Tail_Spinners_3pk/descpage-ZTRDS.html Shouldn't be too hard right? I'm thinking maybe a crane swivel will be okay instead of using a BB swivel and then just some wire with a bend at the end run up inside the bait a ways. I'm planning on using them with Zman plastics so it should hold well once in place.

I saw a wacky rig with about a 1/2oz bullet weight rigged above it in a tree last night. I bet that cast a mile.

25+mph winds Sat-Mon, 8 hours of OT between working 10pm-2am Friday into Saturday and 6-10pm Saturday night, and a dislike for idiots should keep me away from the water, but it probably won't.

Got a pretty warmouth on a wacky rig under a dock tonight.

My kids are out of school now so I can finally start sneaking out for occasional short, weekday trips. Tonight was the first one and it's going to be hard to top. I had 2.5 hours to fish and only took 3 rods. I had 1 swimbait rod with a 6" FishLab wake shad swimbait, 1 swimbait rod with a 7" Top Shelf Tackle line through swimbait, and 1 spinning rod with a wacky rig for a follow up bait. I caught multiple fish on all 3 rods, but the wake shad was doing work.

The "blowout", hole at the bottom is often overlooked and almost always productive. When boats power onto their trailers, they "blow out", a big hole in the bottom sediment and pile up small rocks and other debris a short distance from the end of the ramp. Bass will prowl the ramps right after boats load also because the clouded water camoflages them and can blow craws and small baitfish loose from their hiding spots and disorient them. Never overlook that little loading dock either.

8 and 5, just finished preschool and second grade.

My Ned heads cost less than $.20 a piece to pour while they're over $1 each to buy in store. I go through dozens a season, it really doesn't take long for them to pay for themselves. They aren't hard to pour either, one of the easier heads I make.

My PB swimbait fish was from a pond so small I could cast across it.

It's so hard to cast with the vest and all the gear mounted on it though.

I like to make people uncomfortable. I know Crocs make people squirm enough, so I try to go all out.

I rock the Crocs I have the NRS paddle shoes for colder weather though and do recommend them, but they're too hot once the temps get above about 50 for me.

Fish grips attached to a thin rope works, or I can drop them in my net and put the handle under my seat and they can sit in the net while I get stuff ready.

Took my boys to a creek for a few hours Sunday afternoon. Last time we went for 30 minutes to get bait before chasing flatheads and they were disappointed we had to leave, so this time we were just focused on the creek. Ultralights with tiny jigs with piece of an orange grub worked everything over for them. One of the most important parts of a fishing trip, the snacks! My youngest just destroying a snoball ?

Sure, but it's hard to grip because it's so rubbery. Mine usually have a fiberglass arrow shaft sticking out of their side for me to get a grip of though ?

Not sure on Missouri, but in Kansas it's the trolling motor that makes it so you have to have it registered. That's why I pedal, no registration required at the moment.

Call them, they might honor the discount? Doesn't hurt to ask. My regret is anything made by LiveTarget. I've let myself be fooled by them too many times.

Found several lures at my tournament this weekend, including another 90 plopper. None of the rest were overly exciting.

Duo makes a tiny popper I like to fish just for panfish, it's a lot of fun even though the hookup ratio is pretty bad.

Fished a kayak tournament this past weekend on a lake I'd never been to, only ever seen it once this year driving by for work. All I'd heard was it was terrible and we should go to a 3 fish limit for this tournament because we'd be lucky to have any limits caught. We've had tons of rain so the water was up a couple feet and even dirtier than it normally is. It was supposed to be very windy during the tournament so I prefished areas I thought I'd be able to fish during the tournament. One was a creek that produced a few small fish but I lost one big one and had another good blow up on a buzzbait. Second was the marina, which I didn't want to fish because I thought it would be packed with people, but it was an option. I caught several fish there, including one I think was the first meanmouth I've ever seen in Kansas. Tournament morning, I was very torn on where to fish. I made up my mind to go to the marina because I was sure I could get 5 there and not sure about the creek. Then as I was about to leave the campgrounds, I decided I wanted to fish for the win, not just 5 fish, and went to the creek. There was 2 of the other 24 anglers that decided to launch from the same spot, which was a little disappointing since I didn't think there were many fish to go around in that creek, but I wanted to give it a shot. First cast was 5:30, too dark to even see in a laydown loaded creek, so I dropped my anchor right by the launch and waiting a little bit, just running a buzzbait through the one tree I could see over and over again. After about 10 minutes I could finally make out a tree laying in a few inches of water on the bank, so I flipped a Bang StickZ into it, and when I lifted it my rod got pulled straight back down. Couldn't even see it, so I just boat flipped the fish and was real surprised by the size. Spawned out, but way bigger than any I'd caught in practice. That felt great to get in the boat right away, thought maybe I'd even win big bass. It was 5:46 when I submitted it, and it was already not the biggest fish submitted. Took awhile to get another bite, felt solid on the hookset next to a tree, but I never got it moving and it broke me off. Probably 45 minutes later, I got bit again by a small fish, set the hook and it flew over my kayak and came off. A few minutes later, I missed another bite that just thumped my bait and ran off, my big fish high was long gone. Finally caught another little 14" fish, not much but something. I fished until I got to the end of where I felt the productive water was in the creek and turned around. On the way back out, I cast my buzzbait over where the good fish had missed it the day before, and it got sucked under. Adding a 17" fish to my score helped take away the pain of the missed fish a little. I had a couple more missed bites on the Bang StickZ, and then I think I might have figured out what was causing it. Pretty disappointing when I thought I had my 4th keeper bass. No more bites the rest of the way out of the creek, and 2 more kayaks had shown up, I decided to go to the marina to try and find my last 2 keepers. It was about 10:30 when I got to the marina, lines out was 1:30PM, so I had some time to work with still, but it was pretty busy and not a big area. I peddled straight back to my most productive area the day before, and got no bites on the jig that had been getting bit steadily in practice. I floated up next to a service dock and made a long cast under the walkway with a tube, and missed a fish. Skipped my bladed jig under, and missed it again. I'm guessing fry guarding and just pushing the bait. By the other service dock, I had a better bite on the tube and again missed. I hadn't even brought my Ned rod out with me because it had been useless in practice, but I'd seen lots of small minnows jumping along the shoreline, so I'd rigged a white lightning TRD on a homemade 1/8oz weedless Ned head on a 7' 2" M/F Okuma Psycho Stick paired with a Okuma 2500 ITX and 14lb SPRO finesse braid. Cast back to where I missed the bite and hooked up with a smallmouth that jumped, then jumped again right as I tried to net it and came off. Getting 5 was looking less and less likely. I picked the tube up again and tried a couple cast into the pocked between the docks and felt like a fish was just following it along and pecking at it. Finally it gave a good thump and I stuck a 14.75" largemouth, but all I could think was how that should have been number 5. Since I'd hooked a smallmouth on the Ned, I went to my productive spot from the day before where I'd been getting smallmouth bites and tossed it. I got a quick bite but I was shocked when the fish jumped. I was just hoping for a little smallmouth. This fish was a smallmouth, but it wasn't little. A tense battle ensued before she was finally in the net. Another spawned out female, but a huge bump to my total and my 5th fish. I was so happy to get 5, I was still floating when a few minutes later I got another "tap, tap". This fish was immediately airborne and went into a crazy zig-zag fight right under the front of my kayak, knocked my paddle off the side of my yak, and the hooked popped out right as the net slide under her. Unfortunately, I was so excited about the last fish, I forgot to start my camera again and missed even getting the fish on camera at all ?‍♂️ Still, a 16.75" smallmouth culled out my 14" largemouth from the morning. I caught a little largemouth, and a green sunfish, before I peddled around all the marina docks to fish a 20 yard piece of gravel bank where I'd missed 1 bite the day before that I thought was probably a smallmouth bite. I caught 2 more smallmouth and missed 2 more on the Ned, one was a 15.25" fish that culled my 14.75" largemouth I'd caught 30 minutes before. I had about 30 minutes left in the day and was in the mid 80 inch range at that point. I kicked back over to where I'd caught my first 2 smallmouth and switched to a Coppertreuse TRD. I think it was maybe 3 cast before I stuck another good fish right next to a dock cable. It rubbed on my 8lb leader for a second, a dangerous thing anyways but coupled with zebra mussels and it's a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, she came up and I had the net ready. With 15 minutes left, a 17" fish culled the 15.25" smallmouth I'd just caught to give me an even 88" on the day. I felt pretty good at the awards ceremony. A tough lake that everyone was saying we'd be lucky to have a limit on and I got 88"? So I was pretty surprised to find out I got 3rd place. Apparently, the lake is better than people like to lead on. Still very happy with my ability to overcome the lost fish and tough conditions on a new lake and put together a strong finish. As you can see, it was a fast drop after the top 4.

I use 20lb braid on a couple baitcasters. Those rigs are for fishing treble hooked topwaters where I'm not doing big hooksets and the drag is set fairly loose. I've never had an issue with dig in on them.

If there are smallmouth, there's other fish (a food source), nearby. Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. Perch are extremely prolific spawners, smallmouth aren't eating all of them. That's as lame of an excuse as the crappie guys here saying smallmouth are eating all their crappie.