Doc-Drew

My dad and I went out to Melvern in his new boat (Not sizzle's boat!) to break it in with some big lake smallies. Like Adam posted, fish were being caught but for us it was very isolated spots. And I mean like a 10' circle and nothing around it. Go to a new spot catch one, then keep casting there and catching more. It was like the fish were tightly schooled up and not wanting to take a recess. It was great because it allowed us to test out his new trolling motor with iPilot and spot lock. The biggest fish we caught , besides about a 4lb drum, was about a 16" smallmouth 2.5 lbs. We did have quite a multi species day though; smallmouth, largemouth, crappie, green sunfish, drum, and a walleye. After a nice cleaning of the boat, we went to Douglas County yesterday to install something on the trailer and get some "pre-fishing" done for this Thursday. Let me just say that lake was MUDDY! We talked to someone camping and he said they got over 4" of rain Saturday night. We figured they got hammered when we were by the dam and saw logs floating down the lake from the eastern of the two main arms. Took us a while but we were able to figure out some of the fish including two that were over the 15" slot. Since I have never been to that lake before, I cannot comment on how high the water was but judging by the amount of fresh vegetation in the water, it looked to be 2-4 feet high!

Never fished Shawnee Mission Park but I have been there plenty of times at the dog park. Every time I go, I think I should have brought a fishing rod. It looks pretty good from the bank and doesn't appear to get a ton of pressure. Regardless, Great Fish!

I will agree with that... Tough to fish this February when the lakes were frozen.

So much white!!

Conor and I got back from fishing Stockton yesterday. We were pretty excited leading into the weekend figuring we would be bed fishing in clear water. We had all our gear rigged up for bed fishing. We launched the boat Friday afternoon and the water temp was 54 Not exactly bed fishing temps. Apparently they had a lot of cold rain from the storm a week and a half ago and really dropped the temp. Previous weekend it was upper 50s low 60s. We ended up patterning the fish, howeber. Basically they were GLUED to the bottoms of standing timber in 8-12 FOW. Once we figured out how to catch them, we did pretty well. No big mommas though. The nice thing was there weren't a whole lot of dinks...other than the one smallmouth we caught. We did see quite a few beds in coves when we would head shallow but nothing around. It appears that that cold rain just pushed them out a bit. My guess is with the warm weather in the forecast this week, they will be moving in again. Below are some of the pictures from the trip.

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That wiper is sick! By the way, I am extremely jealous that you have been able to take advantage of this nice weather and get out and catch a bunch of fish! The only thing keeping me sane at this point is the fact that you are catching them on baits I painted for you. That could be making it worse, I don't know.

Well I am glad that my boat is 100% functional then...except for the lack of reverse, slow leak, hole in the floor (repaired), stripped screws in front pedestal rendering it useless...

Bigsteve, give it a couple weeks then get out there. The water is clear as I have ever seen it at the dam which makes fishing very difficult. The lake can be very difficult when the water is cold. When it warms up, however, fishing can be great. All you need for numbers is the Ned rig and you are good to go. Sifting past the dinks can be a challenge if you are after bigger fish though.

I am a chiropractor and deal with arthritic patients on a daily basis. Diet and exercise are the often biggest remedies that people are missing. Normal joints should not become arthritic without injury. Injury can be something as simple as a jammed finger that never gets fixed. My advice to you would be to see a chiropractor (I might be a little biased) rather than medicate. If you have any questions or wonder what chiropractors can do for you, feel free to message me. Regardless of what you decide to do, don't hesitate. Pain is the body's way of telling you something is wrong. The sooner you address and correct the problem, the less damage has been done.

Clayton catching fish had nothing to do with the timing... it was the custom painted lures

In my experience (which is limited to Badger Patriot, Master, and Badger Krome), the Badger airbrushes work better. The master seemed to always get tip dry and clog regardless how thinned the paint was. Plus it was a pain to take apart and clean. The two Badger brushes were a lot more simple to clean. For the most part, just run some hot water through them and they are good to go. Depending on how many baits you plan to paint, the Master might work for you but I hated using it.

I'd say my most fun job, not career, was working as a golf course clubhouse manager. Free golf whenever I wanted (I love golf), heavily discounted/custom items, and a golf pro that would give me lessons whenever I wanted.

Good luck finding "ethanol free"

Looks great. If you ever need a product tester for your "new colors" I'd be happy to give them a try

Count me in!

They are unpainted crankbait blanks.. made from plastic.

Here are a few more I finished

I am interested. Let me know!

I would love to! Unfortunately my parents are leaving on the trip south and taking the airbrushing materials with them.

Just don't want to lose it to a zebra mussel... Or I will be going in after it haha. Thank you

Thanks! Hopefully the fish will think so too.

I am a bit disappointed with the second picture. It looks white in the picture but it is actually a bone color.