retro basser

Damm guys what a sweet trip. Those muskies are AMAZING... Woulda been a riot to see you guys figguring out how to pull that 5.5er out of the tree. Helluva fish! I looked up that lake, it looks to be a real good size and layout. What a sweet find.

I hope the guys have better luck at Hazel creek than I have at perry the last couple times out. Wendsday morning was just brutal, so windy and only two breakoffs for excitement. I think the fish are moving out further on the ledges & channels..makes beating the bank not so productive..

My next door neighbor wont water his tomatoes without the Miracle-Gro attachment i swear... I blame him for the algae. I'm not dumb enough to think that it will ever stop so i just wish the'd invent a baitfish that would gorge on algae all day... I'm thinking Wednesday is the winner this week...

Dang Chris you got alot of good ones out there! I was impressed with the overall size of the fish... It was hard to catch one under a pound it seemed to me... even though Clayton probably convinced 50 or so shorties to jump in the boat I caught 30 at DGCO today before 9AM It was nice to set into that many, caught at least another 10 bluegill, sunnies, and crappie so i was throwin em back constantly. You only need a squarebill and a some kind of plastic worm to follow up the misses with... Might take my daughter out this weekend and let her throw a sinking bait for the first time

Our Melvern get together went down this weekend and was a good time but we had to earn it, thats for sure. Wind wasnt too bad until about 9 AM and then it was just bombing the whole north side of the lake. The moving bait bite was pretty much over after the first thing in the morning for us, then we just had to pick em off with plastics. My partner Chris is good with a shakeyhead and picked up quality fish with it throughout the day. I thought we were going to pick up a couple more coming over the side of the boat driving back across the 3 foot breaks at the end of the day. Chris Schauer was the only one lucky enough to camp out and fish it twice... since he wasnt as pressed for time he took a break to get a piercing done: Even with that in his finger he still toughed it out and stayed out in the chop longer than us... I think the big bass of the day went to the Chris on my boat, a smallie just shy of 3 pounds. Picture doesnt do it justice, the thing was raisin hell coming into the boat and just real healthy. I've had easier days on the lake by a long shot, but it was good to meet some of the guys, and the beers, brats, n burgers afterwards were all the better cause we earned em..

Holy ****, that's a trek! Canada is amazing from what I've seen. They take care of their lakes. Good luck!

You freaked me out for a minute when i thought it was this weekend Salenity... I thought for sure I was missing it. I didnt feel too bad for ya though when i realized you now have a perfect excuse to hit Melvern two weekends in a row Were they moving deeper already? I bet after a week of this heat it's gonna convince em... Might as well try to catch my first smallie on a #6 dropshot...hehe

That's so true there's gonna be a trillion spots. I'll bring an extension cord and a power strip. Does anyone have a sweet tailgatin grill? My campin grill isnt big enough to feed too many people. I guess if i'm there before 3 I'll just grab something on the point of the churchill loop and text Chris and Salenity what number I get. I'll PM you guys my cell #. If you see a bass boat with carpet so green it makes your eyes water at 300 yards.. that's me Gonna be hard to sit around and not get on that new water, but i'll try..

Yeah looks like Eisenhower State park has just about everything including a huge ramp area to get everyone together in the morning... Site #38 on the churchill loop seems to have the most room and electric.. I might just book that. You can have 8 tents per site but you might wanna just book another one next to it so we have plenty of room to bbq after the tourney etc. Whaddya think Chris? This link will hopefully show ya what i'm talking about: http://www.reserveamerica.com/campsiteFilterAction.do?sitefilter=Standard with Electric Hookup&startIdx=0&contractCode=KS&parkId=519126&map=true What insane pre-dawn hour should we be at the ramp Clayton? This must be why I bought a stove that boils water in under 2 minutes... Speed Coffee

Sure, I'll probably shoot for getting down there in the afternoon, 3-5 or so and prefish a little. (makes getting the boat on the water at dawn soooo much easier What campground are you all staying at?

Never heard of Lake Paho before that. Sounds like an awesome little lake.. Well I found a little shop I really like to take the transmission to so i'm having it rebuilt... it should easily be ready in time for Melvern. Hopefully before, cause I might have to *ahem* test out that drivetrain and hit some other lake earlier in the week getting rusty over here...

Well I've had a hell of a week. Transmission in the truck started slipping Monday and I've been trying everything I can think of to bring it back but I've given in. This old F-150 has survived being T-boned and a huge tree limb dropping on the roof not to mention the mechanical stuff i've kept up on. It just kills me to think that it's gone. Anyways I havent had much time to think about the Melvern weekend but I do have it free. I've been going back and forth between having a rebuilt tranny put in and buying a new one. If i opt for the rebuild I'll be able to get my boat down there in time but i never rush my vehicle buying. If anyone knows of a spare 94-96 F150 with the 300 I-6 I'd be very happy to know it One other scenario is if anyone is going who drives a tow ready truck we can certainly figure out the extra gas$. The back roads down to Melvern are pretty good going out of lawrence, you never have to go over 65.. Anyways I'm pretty sure I'll have it figgured out by then, just an update..tourney format and everything sounds real fun

Went out today to DGCO this morning cause I felt like catching a bunch and ended up catching 4 or something... All I know is i caught more little 4in redears than bass. Those little buggers were active. It was 72 and the water was the clearest i've ever seen on a KS lake. I could see a white jig off the bottom 15 ft down. I saw alot of beds... all empty, guess it's time to figure out what to fish post-spawn... Most of the strikes i got were quick at best and I guess i just didnt have my game on i got caught snoozin on more than a few. Most of the bass were suspending at 10-12ft over relatively deep water. The only pattern i guess i found was running a mid-diving crank over a shelf about 12 feet deep close to the channel. Most of the time they would just barely slap at it but you could catch em when they got tangled up by accident. Blue: Thanks for the good write-ups of Milford and that Nebo-Perry 1-2 punch that's an solid 2 lake day right there... Crazy about that 2nd bass jumping in the net. Wonder if that counts in a tourney? (when the cameras arent rolling of course) That chatterbait is tearing them UP. Knew i should have bought the dark color on mine but i sprung for the chartruse-white. Salenity: That saugeye is pretty freaky looking. The whole thing looks pre-historic even the colors. Thought your camera was on LSD again but it's only the fish

I dig that too. I guess if we get too many people out on a small lake all the spots would be spooked out pretty fast. A long day-tripper to melvern is a good plan. Although if you expect me to get my boat there by 6AM i'm going to be spending the night saturday anyway

I think it's awesome how much buzz is going on around here. Lots of good info for this area in one spot...shoot probably THE best who am I kiddin? I have my daughter that weekend but If not I'd get out there... Could make it, never know this time of year w graduations and things going on. I was gonna say I want to fish melvern sometime this summer. Also, they just built a brand new cabin up at atchison at the most prime spot on the lake, with plenty of tent room too. The drive in there is a trip, maybe too much for you shiny boat types, but the lake has both quantity and size, and if we got 6-8 boats up there it's small enough you'd get to B.S. with everyone on the water all day... we could take it over basically.. Hmmm left Hillsdale, instantly busted slump... I think i see a pattern That's kick ass. Sounds like from some of these Missourans that smithville might be the same way...

Good deal on a small-water basser rig. I had one like this and it fit in the back of my half ton ford just right http://lawrence.craigslist.org/boa/2948423994.html

Good deal, glad you liked it and got into some action all day, with that storm brewing i bet they were hungry. Sounds like you got a little of everything for sure. Were you cranking with a rattle mostly or pull fish off of a silent crankbait too? Blue: That Zell Pop looks like a really well made lure for sure. I'm not sure i'm ready to justify spending $10 on a lure but if i do it will be on something hard to lose like a topwater. I picked up my first chatterbait this weekend in tulsa at basspro and think i have a basic popper that looks like the zell somewhere. I'll see if i can try to convince em to hit on just every other cast with one of those I suppose

Homemade chatterbait sounds cool. Never know when you need to put some middlests in the well. hehe. I've been trying to get a good topwater bite going when i'm out early enough. Had some luck on trick worms and a mini-buzz bait but the bigger noisemakers arent getting any action. Maybe in summer. Maybe I dont have the patience to stick with it long enough. Well not gonna lie, it's all murky. I can put on the brightest neon lure i have and it's invisible even with polarized lenses after it gets just about a foot deep. The main lake is a little better than the channels, back in them I actually get a 'floating bottom' on the sonar from it hitting a layer of silt say at 3 feet where the real bottom you are fishing is 6 feet. It's way stronger than a thermocline. Good news is the bass don't seem to mind

Welp, Smoke colored Yamamoto tubes work at Perry

Well mostly I noticed that you better know where your fishing and make your casts count because while there are alot of spots to fish, they're just far enough away from each other that you wanna fire up the big engine to get to them usually. I'm usually picking apart where the channel swings by shore and the few pieces of underwater structure are gold cause it's mostly just a mudflat everywhere else. The water is insanely muddy (my gf just did a study for her chem class on a few of the different water bodies and the 'turbidity' or muddiness on Perry is off the charts.) I find dark lures or really strong bright lures either in flash or chartruse work well. I'm going to try a smoke tube texas rigged with a bead thrown in there tomm for a little noise. I'd say pick your spots very carefully, be careful to work them well and slow without spoiling them. Also on the presentation to the rocks try to get really close to the shoreline, with a good quiet entry, especially on a calm day (I'm talking under 6'' from shore) You dont get very many 'dinks' to tell you if you're doing things right so you have to be on your game with each presentation. Easier said than done if your like me and still have a few 'what the F*** were you thinking throwing there?' moments throughout the day. Just takes time eliminating bad water, but the fish are there.

Geez sounds like Miami is awesome. I want some easy topwater action like that. I'm still looking for that two day window that's just right to get down and camp there. It's just a little far for a day-tripper from over here, good for you OP guys sounds like. Fortunately I am pretty close to Perry, been getting up there a bit. Seems like i figure out a little more of the puzzle each time i get out there. After these rains it's just beyond muddy out there though. Seems like you really gotta hit em over the head with a lure for them to see it lol. The crappie were really turning on there yesterday. The whites are always good too, seems like they get born weighing a pound and go up from there...

Awesome day.. Nothing beats new waters... I'm suprised they were biting that well a day after that monster storm rolled through. Interesting jig color too. I feel like brown/orange/reds give them something that stands out well to look at over black/blue/purple. I've been having good luck with baits with a little 'fire' in em this year.

Salenity that one was 'just' 3 lbs, went 18.5''. As for the photography, I gave up on trying to get the phone to take the pics and just let a good digi cam do the work 700 huh Blue? Keep it up and we're going to have to start a betting pool. You ready for that kind of pressure?

Duuude, Sci-Fi pic! That's one hell of a catch too. Serious bass. Thanks for getting back, I took off before dawn and couldn't get very good reception at all up there but yeah what a fun lake. Adrenaline gets going with that 2 mile stretch of gravel to get there. Those are serious hills for a tiny little gravel road...My rig is so heavy i'm trying to hit 50 going down those valleys just to keep it above 10 by the time i hit the peaks, back end is all bustin loose, trailer flying around...what a trip. I wish i would have gotten to see what you said, i would have tried some cranks. The moving bite was so dead i switched over to a football jig pretty fast and started getting into them everywhere so i was happy. That is just a dang solid lake in so many ways. I'm going back and I'll check out Warnock too. Crappie guys were out in force with not much luck but it was a great day for bassin'

No kiddin, you are slayin em. Glad your keepin count, I think I lost track at uhhhh.... 500 Headin up to Atchison County State Lake tomm, looks like a well-maintained property. Anyone have any tips on fishing up there?