retro basser

Pullin 4lb smallies in December! Wish i coulda gone... Nice fish!

Those are some d**n fine free tips right there... props! (respect) I couldn't believe how much switching down to a lighter power rod helped me.. there should be some kind of 'official' record for how big of smallie could be caught on crappie gear with 4lb test and a ned rig... A good thing to try on any modern sonar unit if that happens is pulling the fuse for that circuit and plugging it back in after a couple seconds. I think they might have internal circuits in the unit that never really reset unless the voltage drops to 0 on them for a couple seconds. you know what always seems like it would work good for me is those little football jigs with the 1/0 hook and the wire weedguard at cabelas. I think they call them wacky rig hooks. if they werent $2 apiece i'd probably see if it worked for 'Neddin at least.. Ya think?

Dang.. Nice one! At least the work paid off for ya... think i'm gonna go for one more spin this week to burn up the last of my gas and call it a year.

Heck ya!... nice trip. Day three of a sustained warm SW wind... I think I like that for fall bassin. When do you expect the floor to fall out of this thing? With this cold snap i'm thinkin it might slow em down for the year.. I went into late november last year but i'm not sure i'm gonna this season..

Did the atchison run monday eve/ tuesday morning. I wasn't too impressed with Warnock despite pulling a 2 pounder out of a brushpile on my 3rd cast. Wind was coming in brutal and the were mostly just hiding down in the channel by the (damm) dam so i didnt stay long at all and just went to town for some dinner. Atchison was great again, this was my second time this year, both times I'm the only boat on the lake and caught 20+ bass. Which is pretty much exactly all i ask for I didn't land anything of great size but i know there are in there. I've never seen so many 5lbers jump within feet of my boat. I really regret running with my dock light on pre-dawn because 4 fatties jumped basically 30 feet in every direction surrounding my boat, you could hear from the smack they were landing fat side on purpose just to make noise to warn the others. Maybe i'm over thinking it but i think on these small lakes on a still morning, stealth is just so frigging important. Anyways it was real good up there I caught fish on jigs, cranks, and once i patterned the jerkbait bite: senkos, flukes, and stickbaits. The only thing i devoted any time to that wasn't working was a spinnerbait, but thats easy to forgive when everything else works The jerk-jerk-pause pattern was MONEY but i couldn't get any of the fatties to bite it. What do you tie on when a 5-in senko or rogue isnt big enough? I couldnt get em much bigger than this to bite, 16in on a 5in rogue: Overachiever of the day, thats only a 3/0 hook, set through both sides of his jaw like you would string up a line of em.. That sweet new cabin that they rent out up there. Think were gonna do an easy family vacation up there in the spring.

Looks like a great spot to go. 320 miles isnt as far as I thought it would be but still way to far for my old rig. Shoot mid 40's are hot if you got a good sleeping bag. Bet it will be a blast!

Damm I quit throwing a spinnerbait after 15 minutes during the tourney cause i was just catching a bunch of whites. Never thought you could catch a smallie that big on one. Helluva Fish! Glad you got some good pictures of her.

Heck ya, good times... Razor clam classic lol. I caught like 10 of em.. .does that win anything?? Not a bad way to end a season... buuuut I think i'll still hit a few more trips anyway. Next week is lookin nice.

That sounds like a winner...gonna have to get me some of those... It does sound like a real tough bite.. but at least the wind is gonna be easy. Team Name: The Lawnmowers! (cuz those basses ***** are grass(es?)!!!

If you just wanna make sure you catch some saturday fish the dam and you shouldn't be let down. They'll likely hit traps, cranks, buzzbaits in the morning and pick plastics up off of 8-10ft all day. There is a good amount of rock out there everywhere, but seems to me i remember some pebble/sand in the coves too

Anyone staying at melvern saturday night and going out sunday too? I'm considering it..

That was a rough bluebird day allright. Good thing is the pigs eat in any weather during the fall so your breakoff was probably a monster... you must have done something right... I'm glad Jeff (Busy) got one up up at leavenworth cause Perry was pretty tough in my opinion.. I'm no moving expert but i think packing wipers in moving boxes is gonna make a stink after a few days...

Hoooley schmoley... i was just wondering why noone is talking about the 'Fall Classic' much on the other thread and now i know!! Looks like i got some reading to do! Dont know if it's been mentioned yet but I was thinkin we should at least have the option available to use the ramp on the west of the state park instead of the one on the dam side. When you get out of that cove you can either go deep or shallow by taking a left or right depending on your plan and the lake is pretty much split in half. Whaddya guys think?

Had a real nice day out at Lonestar on Thursday morning. There was a big low pressure system coming in and the winds were from the SW and they were finally hitting a moving bait. Cranks early in the morning and when a cloud would go overhead a white spinnerbait was killin the big ones, especially on the fall. What I really like about that lake is that it has more variety of structure to fish than almost any lake i've been to. Dam, Dock, Points, Submerged timber, there's even a good amount of grass still alive. You can throw alot of techniques at the lake and fish the whole thing nearly in a day. I caught three 15in keepers with the biggest approaching 3 pounds so you got a chance of getting into one. The big one just absolutely destroyed a spinner on a fall next to some deeper timber and tried to run to mexico. There was no way to mess up that hookset. It was great. Check em out:

Both were on the west side, main channel, north of the last cove on small rocky points. Thing i liked about it most is the water level wasn't as horribly low as some I've been to. There was a pretty consistent 5ft depth all the way around the lake from which to work. Of course all the good cover is above water, but at least you're not running the trolling motor into the ground all day.

No kiddin, especially the fall. Feels like that stretch of 110 days was just a couple weeks ago.. The good news is the fat girls are up shallow and feedin. It's like a golden corral on ladies night

Made the trip out to Shawnee State Fishing Lake which is about 15 minutes NW of Topeka today.. had the exact opposite bite: 2 bites all day, but both went over 4lbs I lost one but he didnt spit it on the first jump... he got me by racing in straight back on my hands and knocking free somewhere before I could catch up to him. Oh well, Live and learn.. That cold front made it pretty miserable to be on the water but aside from that the lake is a gem. It's an easy drive, a well maintained lake, and big bass are in there. 57 degree water temps main lake up there!

I'm planning to roll out to Shawnee State fishing lake NW of Topeka this week. Never been before... anyone have a scouting report?

That's awesome. Leavenworth might be the one lake that gained water level this season. How's that ramp doing? I have a 17' boat and always assumed the trailer would probably roll off the bottom of the ramp If i tried to boat it this year...

Just got back from an overnighter down south to check out Mound City and Pleasanton lakes... Loved the lakes, but man the fishing was SLOW. I didn't see a single cloud in the sky both days..it was as bluebird as it gets. It was nice to have it so calm out when the water level is so insanely low, but damm hard to buy a bite. They wouldnt hit a moving bait anywhere so the best I could figure out was to deadstick plastics on the bottom and just twitch em then and again. It was agonizingly slow... and so hard when your on new water and you want to try the whole lake. I really dug Mound City and the geography around there. A Bald Eagle had taken up residence there and by 'there' I mean he owned the entire friggin lake. If anything with wings came flying in: hawk, heron, you name it, the eagle convinced them quickly that there was a lake somewhere else that they better go find... The fish were still sticking deep, in the mouths of coves and dams in all 3 locations. I bet after this weekend they'll start marching up though.. Most of this vegetation was dying out, but there were some green spots that seemed to be holding fish. Any of you ever pattern vegetation?

It was big enough that i thought it might be a 7lber at the time... once i calmed down, i realized it was more like 5-6. I got her along the far back wall of the marina not too far from the last cable block. I stuck another very heavy one that was fighting like a smallie near the other cable on that back wall, the line stopped and then I felt and heard a vibration through the line that sounded like someone using a wood file.. on the fourth creak the bugger busted my line on the cable... like I said, I learned alot that day... See! It grows on ya... You should bring up that color combo to your next clients I'm going on a multi-lake bass bender to see if i can blow out the transmission on the truck again now that I finally got it back Bout time I get to try out some of these sweet southern lakes you guys have been talking about. Hopefully i'll have some good reports later this week..

Weather patterns have been so wierd this week and the bite was so bad at DGCO and Clintion earlier that I almost didnt go out to Perry yesterday afternoon but i'm sure glad I did. FINALLY that lake paid me back with a good day after so many where I usually don't pull out half as many bass as drums.. Got out about 3 and the evening bite was on right away cause it was so overcast. Ironically it slowed down alot before sunset as the sky cleared, so i just left before dusk. I got more quality bites from keeper bass in those 3 hours than i usually get in a whole day, lost or missed several good fish, but sure did learn alot in the process. Of course i stuck my share too... This one was the biggest at 21'' even. Threw away my scale because weighing a 5# sack of flour it said 1 pound... I know it was bigger than the 4.5# i landed in spring out there... the jaw was just huge. Got her out of the marina that Blue likes, now I see why..

Got the truck back yesterday! Think they finally worked all the demons out of the transmission, feels like it could pull a house now... not even breakin a sweat for my old boat. Of course i had to run it out to the state lake a couple hours for a 'test drive' Wierd day to be out there. Felt like a front was coming in but the wind was out of the east, bass were flat out hiding, what biting fish I could find were tucked up under logs, the rest were taking cover suspending deep by the dam.. I'm headin out to clinton today on a buddies boat, I hear stories out of clinton, but everywhere has stories... we'll see. One more thing, couple of the ones I caught out at DGCO had blistered scales on the side and one had a good patch of scales flat out rubbed off. I heard the females will rub on logs during spawn but does that seem normal in the fall?

Allday: Is that one of those Go Pro HD helmet cams? That thing is really smooth. It is nice to see different lakes structure and water level. Fortunately because of this forum I haven't had to spend time on too much dead water, but it really sucks when you do, considering the investment to get out there and all. Blue: It's white spinnerbait season all right. couple weekends ago i hit the garnett city lake from the bank with one. The old salts fishing chicken liver on the bottom couldnt believe the 12lb cats i was bringing them.. they were up shallow in the afternoon just nailing that thing.. I told em the easiest way to catch catfish is just fish for bass hehe. Truck is back TOMMOROW if the gods are merciful. I'm gonna go on a bender!

Got nothing that exciting to report but good news i guess for anyone wondering about Lonestar. My buddy took his ski boat out there last wednesday and I tagged along a little early to throw a line before our friends came out... For what little fishing we got done off of that boat they sure did cooperate. Lot of healthy small bass in the dink range but even better the keeper i caught was fat and healthy looking. I've talked to old salts out there on the dock that say the 3+ pounders are back as well... It's a long way off from being a great bass lake, but hopefully they've shrugged off the bass virus and the younger fish are starting to grow again.. Caught this one in the spring and I know for a fact it didn't go #2 and I was surprised because it was an 18in bass: This is the one from last week a full two inches shorter but weighed about the same... It was more like you'd expect on a healthy lake..