Bluebasser86

I have a 400 Calcutta that I can palm when fishing the really big swimmers, a 300 is easy and a 200 isn't much higher off the rod than a low profile reel. The Cardiffs have a recessed reel seat that keeps them from sitting as high off the rod as the old school round reels do. The Cardiffs are great, affordable swimbait reels.

I'll often do both with my fish. With the real big ones I'll get a weight, length, and girth in case any naysayers decide my scale is wrong they can feel free to punch the numbers into a fish weight calculator which almost always produces a larger number than my scale does

If you can keep them as close to that 15" mark as possible they'll taste better IMO. I wouldn't keep one bigger than 18", they taste awful once they get that big. We have quite a few slot limit lakes that we can keep 5 fish under 13 inches, those are the perfect eaters Plus those lakes have slots to encourage keeping of small fish because they're usually overpopulated with small fish.

Looks to be a spotted gar, but could be a shortnose gar. Lots of the shortnose variety around here but they don't usually get that big and aren't usually that colorful.

Jerkbaits and jigs when it's really cold. If you get an extended warming trend then I'd add a single Colorado bladed spinnerbait and a trap to the mix. Probably 90% of the time I'm fishing a suspending jerkbait though. I really like the Erratic shad when the water gets really cold. They have almost no roll on a slow, soft jerk that the big girls like when it's cold!

That's when you just order pizza!

Any idea on the length? Just going from the thickness of the fish and the size of the head and mouth I'd guess in the 2.5-3 pound range.

I've used the C21 for a variety of techniques and it's been great for the money. I pulled a tree bigger than my boat up off the bottom after playing tug-o-war back and forth with a 5.5 pounder for a few seconds and was able to get the tree up high enough to grab and then got ahold of the fish. There's a camping store that has 1lb spools of Mustad Ultra and Mustad Thor for $10 apiece. The 10lb I use for a lot of my cranking comes in a 4,500 yard spool. I use the 14lb a lot for jigging spoons in the winter and was able to land a 42lb flathead several years ago even after it pulled me into the remains of a sunken bridge, it's stout stuff but very manageable.

Can't like that news enough! Lots for you to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

We had similar conditions here today. I got out for about 30 minutes from the bank to play with a new combo. Didn't expect anything but I actually saw a fish boil through a school of shad I was watching and got pecked pretty good on my jig. Of course it caught me sleeping and I missed him. Going back in the morning with the boat to see if I can do a little better if I can get to some deeper water.

I think my abrasion resistance is better. As you well know, depth isn't a huge issue with so many lakes around here being pretty shallow. I probably don't get them down quite as deep when I do fish a deep crank but a 6XD will hit bottom in the deepest part in a good number of the lakes I fish, a few of them a Little N or Series 5 will get there. I fish them on either P-line C21 or Mustad Thor.

I buy way more than normal if I'm shopping with a fishing buddy, so I try to avoid that.

I fish 10 and 12 pound around docks all the time One of the lakes I fish the big girls are really line shy and that's what it takes. I get broke off more I'm sure, but I also catch bigger fish than I would fishing a heavier line. The lighter line also makes me retie more often to prevent break offs, which isn't a bad thing. I wasn't a believer until another forum member invited me out and told me to spool up with nothing heavier than 12lb on my jig rod. Caught more quality bass than I ever have from that lake that day including one that is still my biggest from out there.

Never been caught without one because I've always got mine on me. If I had it to do all over again, I would have bought the lifetime permit when I turned 16. Now they're double the price they were then and provided the price doesn't increase a bunch, I won't save any money by the time I'm old enough to not have to buy one anymore to make it worthwhile.

8-15 pound copolymer, depends on the situation.

Is it the old green 200B? If so, they're for sure one of the best workhorse reels ever made.

Thought for the day; A married man should forget his mistakes, there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Catfishing is what I grew up doing. I still love fishing for them, but I prefer to target the big boys since I don't eat them. For you guys that say it's slow and boring, you're doing it wrong! I have a technique I call bass fishing for catfish. I use a 7' MH spinning rod with a Okuma 30 Avenger baitfeeder spinning reel spooled with 20lb straight braid to a 2/0 Kahle hook, no weight, bobber, snap, swivel, nothing. Put a chunk of fresh cutbait on the hook and cast it to likely targets (I prefer along weed edges and rocky flats where they hunt gills and craws). Let it sink and settle to the bottom. Once it's on the bottom for a few seconds, fish it like you're fishing a plastic worm in extremely cold water. Lift it very slowly and try to hover it just off the bottom, only moving it a short distance. There will be zero question when a bite occurs. I've caught literally thousands of big channel cats doing this, along with some really big bass and surprisingly, a couple really nice walleye. When they're active it isn't difficult to catch 30-50 or more channel cats up to 20 pounds in a day, makes for a really sore wrist and forearm by the end of the day If I'm not after big channels in the lakes, it's big flatheads and blues in the rivers. I prefer the river fishing because that's where the true monsters live (Kansas owns the world record for flatheads at 123 pounds and also has a blue cat record over 100 pounds). I've not even come close to those marks but I've gotten about halfway to them . I used to guide for flatheads on a small lake when I was a teenager. We caught lots and lots of flatheads from the teens up to 50 pounds. Really miss fishing that lake now that it's been made private

Like WW2 said, buy plenty. I've lost a ton of them on the first cast because they just came off when I tried to skip them under a dock. It's frustrating but they're only $3 a bag and they flat out catch fish, best wacky rig bait I've used when I can keep them on the hook.

Depends on the boater you get. I've had some that worked just as hard to put me on fish as they did for themselves. Then I've had the ones that told me if it was up to them I wouldn't be getting much chance to fish. The good ones far outnumber the bad ones, but the bad ones are the ones you remember the longest.

I used to practice as a co-angler and more than once found the pattern/area that my boater and I ended up fishing. I don't want to fish the same baits as my boater does so it helps for me to go out and try to figure out what they're eating as well so I have an idea what is working before we hit the water. If my boater has a better pattern than what I found, lucky me

Send it here. http://www.delawarevalleytackle.com/ Great reels and if you send it to DVT and get it professionally cleaned and relubed it could serve you well for a long time!

I use rattles in my tubes a lot and anytime I'm fishing muddy water.

I have too much family to pull that off. My big one is to go fishing on New Year's Day or whatever my first day off in the new year is, wind permitting. We've had some great days on the 1st of January.

The one in KC does a Hometown Hero's event every couple months. Fire, paramedics, police, and military all get 10-20 percent off their purchase, just show a valid work ID. I've taken advantage of it a few times.