BradH

Chompers 4" straight tail worm in green pumpkin. On a jig, drop shot or split shot rig.

Tie on a fluorocarbon leader. As heavy as you can go without killing the action/depth. I fish the Missouri quite a bit and this year on some days I catch as many pike as bass, like today! The pike have been on fire following the high water and I LOVE it. As long as you check the leader after every pike you should be ok. You'll still get the freak bite off once or twice a year but it's all part of the game. Now if you get nuts and throw some 30 pound fluoro on for a leader you probably won't get bit off at all but the action may suffer on all but the really large jerkbaits that you would normally use for pike. That's ok, bass like big jerkbaits too.

That stinks! Hopefully they bring it back up or I'll have to find another mid-winter open water spot. I caught bass on about everything there in the winter but most of the bonus wipers came on jerkbaits.

I try to make a trip to LaCygne, a powerplant lake in Kansas, every winter. My go-to bait the last two years has been a Husky Jerk #12 in glass perch for largemouth, whites and wipers. It's also hard to beat for fall and spring largemouth and pike here in Nebraska.

Looks like Mike's Reel Repair has it for 52 cents. Google Mike's Reel Repair and plug in the part number. The shipping and the wait from Canada will be the worst part of the deal.

Thanks guys, now if I could just figure out how to get myself on the members map. Off to the faq page. I'll be bustin' some smallmouth on the Missouri tomorrow.

If you can get on Camp Robinson in NLR there are some lakes there with decent shore access.

I came across this site and I love it so I decided to join. I've been fishing for pretty much all of my 36 years on earth. I don't always fish for just bass but I would have to say smallmouth, pike and largemouth are my favorite fish to catch. I love my local Nebraska forum but this site has some great info that gets into the weeds a little more. Later. Brad