moguy1973

They do fight. We just got done with an overnighter float for smallies and even though the biggest ones were only 15-16" and a pound and a half, you would have thought we had a 5-6lb large mouth on there the way they fought!

While the Ascend kayaks that BPS has are nice and they work well, they tend to be a lot heavier than other brands because they use a high density polyethylene plastic where other companies use medium density. My buddy has one of the Ascend 12' SOT kayaks and it is HEAVY and very awkward even for 2 of us to put on top of a car. I can throw my 11.5' Ocean Kayak on top of my car by myself pretty easily. There are a lot of good brands out there though, Wilderness Systems, Native, Ocean, Jackson ($$$ but awesome fishing kayaks), Perception, etc. Like said above, make sure you budget in a decent paddle (Mine was like $40 on amazon), and GOOD pfd (I went all out and got a good fishing one that has pockets and a high back kayaks specific one, was usually $100 got it for $75, it can save your life after all)

What, about 20" and 3.5lbs or so? You can really tell the river smallies from the lake smallies. River ones have those huge tails!

Their servers were getting smashed last night. I started my d'load around 6:30pm(CDT) last night and when it first started it said there was 20 hours remaining, then it went to 17 hour, then to 39 hours, then to 35 hours, then to 86 HOURS!....Then finally it went down to 9 hours and then made it about halfway on the progress bar and all the way down to 9 minutes remaining, only to shoot back up to 2 hour and then 3 hours right before I went to bed around 11pm...My daughter woke me up around 1am and I noticed my phone said the update was not available at this time. So I got her calmed back down and I started the d'load again, only to find out it was almost done and started installing shortly after. It's a nice shiny new interface, but there really isn't much different about it. I do like the new command center or whatever it's called where you can turn off your BT, WiFi, and such without having to go into settings, but Android has had that for a while now so Apple is just now catching on with that. I don't like the new tan/peach/flesh/whatever colored folders. Makes it kind of hard to see what apps you have in each one. iRadio is kinda cool, and works better than Pandora IMO.

Nah, you need to get some regular super flukes and rig them weightless texas-rigged. Or you could get some swimming flukes and rig them with a swimbait hook.

Tubes, Rage Rigged Craws, jerk baits. Walk the dog lures, buzzbaits (top water)

While fun to catch, especially on a fly rod with a nylon rope fly, they usually only fight for a short while and then end up being logs that you have to drag in. Stripers are in large numbers in Bull Shoals and lower Taneycomo, if you can find them.

They typically work better on flatter water but they work in a little chop. They can be tricky to cast into the wind with a bait caster as they catch a lot of air with the blade and size of the lure. Color of the water usually doesn't matter much since they make so much noise. Black ones do work better in muddier water though as most black baits do though.

Early morning, late evening, during the day, during spawn...Can't really go wrong with a buzzbait and its one of the easiest lures to fish since you just cast, reel it in, and you know you have a fish on because they knock the crap out of it usually...The only time it really doesn't have a chance to work is in deep water, of course...

Not going to get much better than a smallmouth for fighting power here in Missouri. I guess you could say trout fight pretty good but I wouldn't put them on the level of smallies... Good luck finding less pressured waters down here

I find the Amp to be a very sensitive rod. I have it in medium power and it's a lot of fun, esp when fishing for smallmouth. The split grip isn't a big deal to me. Saves some weight even.

Huh...Those silly Michigan people...The traditional drop shot is in fact illegal...You have to have the hook on a short leader in order to be legal. Also, looking through the regs, you can't have a weight suspended below a treble hook. People here use that technique on rivers for catching catfish all the time. Big weight on bottom, triple swivel up a foot or so, and a treble with a big hunk of chicken liver or whatever on it at the end of a leader off the swivel.

I too had my Cherrywood spinning rod break not long after I bought it. Snapped right in two when I got hung up and was trying to get it loose. I replaced it with a Berkley Amp rod and I've caught many fish on it in and have had no issues the 2+ years I've had it.

Not sure why it wouldn't be legal. I think a lot of people ran to Erie because that's where the bigger fish were...

You can get a decent aluminum bass boat for $5k or less. Just make sure the person you buy it from is willing to let you take it to a lake to test drive it and check it out, and even maybe let you take it to a marine mechanic to check out the compression and the overall state of the engine/boat. Just to show that you can get a decent boat, especially this time of year towards the end of the fishing season when people don't want to store them over the winter, there's a nice looking 97 Skeeter on our local CL that is going for $3500. That's pretty much a steal though IMO.

My Revo S did the same thing.

It's for those windy days so there's less drag on the front of the reel for more efficient and longer casts.

Craft stores like Hobby Lobby have storage containers like that and they are relatively cheap there.

I have a Zebco 33 reel that I used as a child that was my grandpa's that I now have in my possesion again. Probably won't ever use it again until my daughter or any future kids are old enough to fish, but it gives me good memories of fishing with my grandpa from many years ago. I also have, while it's not old or anything special, my mother's St. Croix fly rod and BPS reel that I inherited when she passed away. It's caught me many fish since I've owned it and also brings back great memories of when she used to trout fish with me. She was quite the fisherwoman, and I have a lot of her custom tied flies that she made herself that always catch fish no matter where I'm fishing it seems...

Buzz baits althought it might be harder to keep them on the surface...

Yeah, but now every fisherman in the area that watched that news story knows there are fish, and some nice ones at that, in that golf pond. It's not going to stop people from going there after hours when no one is there, and now a whole lot of people know about it. Albuquerque is in New Mexico BTW

Wow. That's tempting. I have some Maui Jim's that I found on the side of the road in perfect condition but I need some new pairs for my vehicles. I just hate buying sunglasses without knowing how they fit.

So let's announce it on the local news to make sure no one goes and fishes there.

Eggs reside on the underside of the female's tail while they mature. I'm sure it was just looking for another water source.

I wish there was an Academy near my house.