Bluebasser86

I've got an Old Town Sportsman 120PDL and really love it. Weeds can be difficult and I've heard a Hobie drive does better in weeds because they paddle instead of rotating but I can't confirm that. A lot of times, I can reverse pedal and blow the weeds off if I'm not in the thick stuff. If I am, then it's time to pull the drive and paddle.

Best time to fish for them is when you have time to. There's lots of rules out there for when "the best", times are, but fish can't read. 2 of my best days of fishing were in winter time. One day started -2 when we launched and never made it above 25*. I caught 1 over 7, 1 over 6.5, and my buddy caught a 5 to go along with 20 other solid fish in the 3-3.5lb range that day. The other day was barely into the 30's and I caught so many fish I lost count, bass and wipers. My biggest 5 bass were 30lbs 2oz, my biggest 5 fish limit ever in Kansas.

Kind of depends on the conditions but it's been a lot tougher than it has in the past, but better than it was for a few years when it crashed pretty hard. They aren't everywhere like they use to be.

I'd love to find some to sell, but I'm not at all interested in dealing with the ticks to find them.

I get small bags from Aldi's for about $4 a bag, I think they're 3.75oz bags. Pretty decent jerky and good snack sized bags to pack for a day of fishing.

That would be my guess, but I don't want to point fingers when I'm outside the situation.

The Berkley Surge Shad has been my favorite wake bait the last couple years.

I would lean more towards clear water/sunny conditions with that color. Looks kind of like a muted chrome/blue pattern.

Sounds like a tournament set up by someone who doesn't like bass.

It's a neat bait, 2 line ties so you adjust it to run either shallow or deeper. I actually switched mine depending on the depth and it worked as advertised.

I would fish a 1/4oz trap on it, but don't think I'd want to fish a 1/2oz with it. Oh yeah. I've fished a #7 Flicker Shad Shallow on mine (2/7oz) and 100 series Bandit (1/4oz), and it worked just fine.

Crappie are getting ready to spawn and getting aggressive This poor catfish was in rough shape.

I got the new St. Croix Legend Tournament "Finesse Glass Cranker" 7' 2" M/M. With a name like that, I thought it was going to be pretty limited in it's abilities, man I was wrong. It's actually a very versatile cranking rod. I've fished a variety of squarebills on it, but also a Spro Rock Crawler, which it handled nicely. I used it with a Spro Essential Series Hunter 65 squarebill to catch 2 of my 5 keepers in my first tournament win of the season. So if you're looking for a nice, all around cranking stick, don't see that word "finesse", and think this rod can't be it. https://stcroixrods.com/products/legend-tournament-bass-2022-new-models

Snaps, yes for a lot of baits. Snap-swivels, only for spoons or inline spinners. I use flash green Smackdown on a few rods with a leader and have no problems getting bites on it.

Not sure on the casting rods but I love my spinning Psycho stick. I didn't have any issues adjusting to the reel handle. I can say that I'm not a huge fan of rods with hook keepers below and behind the reel but I often remove my baits after a day of fishing anymore so it's not as big of an issue anymore.

Can't keep it, worthless if it's not comfortable to fish. I have issues with Abu Revos not fitting my hands. The shape of them hits a nerve or something near my thumb, can't use them. Similar with small reels like the 50/70 sized Curados. They were too small and I guess I felt like they were going to slip out of my hands so I gripped them really tight and my hand would start to hurt after awhile. Had to go back to larger sized reels and don't have that issue anymore.

I own a 6' 10" MH/M Legend Glass. I'm not a fan of glass rods for single hooked baits, but if I was ever going to try using any glass rod I'd ever owned for them, that would be it.

Very nice. This is my version of golden shiner on my bladed jigs. This is one of my most productive colors.

Late to get around posting, been really busy the last few days. Got out both days this past weekend. Saturday was the first warm day I've been able to fish in this year, so of course there was 30-35mph straight winds with gusts to 40-50mph. I fished 3 different lakes, hoping that somehow I'd be able to get out of it a little bit, but that wasn't ever really possible. I did manage to catch at least 1 good fish at each lake, including my first frog fish of the year, so that was nice. Big fish of the day and first one of the day on the Spro Wameku Shad in Electric Red Craw, it was one of my best producers of the day. The fish went 4 3/4. Every bass I caught at that lake was on the lipless and each one crushed it, but the weeds were so bad it was very difficult to fish it, so I moved to a little 30 acre lake nearby. Nothing around it to protect it, but I thought maybe the waves would be better. Never saw white caps on a lake that small before Saturday. Made the best of it though and caught several, mostly on a Strike King Hybrid Hunter Jr. There's another little 100 acre lake across the road that runs east/west. Since the wind was out of the south, I thought it would be protected. It was, kind of, but it was still just rolling up the lake. I went straight to the west end to try to get out of it. Very shallow and caught a couple dinks on a bladed jig before I got to some slop and caught my first frog fish of the year. Followed shortly with a much nicer frog fish. The Wameku shad caught several small ones here, and a bonus crappie. Sunday was much calmer so I took my kayak out to a creek I'd never fished before. I've heard that the bass move into it in the spring, and the lake has a great crappie population, so I was prepared for both. Crappie won out, but I did catch one healthy largemouth out of log jam on a crappie jig. I also caught a channel cat in serious need of a good chiropractor.

We had sustained 30-35 with gust to 40-50 last Saturday. First times I've ever seen white caps on the 30 acre lake I was fishing ?

I broke off one of my favorite lipless baits while bank fishing one day. Next day I was in my boat, fishing the same point. Got snagged for a second, then it popped free but my bait felt fouled. Reeled in my bait and the bait I'd lost the day before. Similar story; My then 4 year old was in the back of my boat playing with his trout net. We were fishing the dam of a 2,000 acre reservoir, about 14' of water, when he decided to see if his net would float, which it did not. Fast forward 4 months later, I'm fishing a 6XD on the same dam, when I catch his net. It was still in good shape, just a little dirty.

Since I attached them to the jig myself, they're put on ready to fish, no modifications needed.

Fished this bait a lot last Saturday on a very shallow lake, worked very well for me.

Most of our craws are olive/brown with some red/orange, but blue is one of my favorite craw colors.

I have one of the Magellen hooded shirts I got for Christmas. Wore it for the first time last weekend, you'll be happy with it.