Smallie Seeker

I broke off a nice bass earlier this year who took off with my white bellied super spook jr. Picked up a yellow one but haven't been able to catch a bass on it! I want my white one back!

At the very end of winter almost all of the fishing gear at my local walmart goes on clearance. I was picking up some Ardent reel butter for half off and while in line the cashier told me that every so often they will take half off the clearance price for one day only. Had my eye on a Shimano Sahara that was clearence listed for $60. Sure enough I came in on the right day and got it for the ridiculously low price of $35. Paired it with a 7' medium Lightning Shock which was $15. That's $50 for a combo that if purchased at BPS would be $115 all day. I was a happy fisherman!

Some of my biggest bass have come out of less than 3 fow.

Bass hot dog!!!

#18 2.68lbs

#17 3.16lbs my biggest of the year so far.

Bite was way slow. Still waiting for my favorite 60 acre lake to pick up. Ended up throwing a 1/4 green pumpkin/orange brush jig w/ a green pumpkin paca craw, and a 3/8 black/chartreuse brush jig w/ a rattle and a chart yum craw trailer. Had hits on both and had pinchers bitten off but no fish landed. Stuck to the gameplan and threw those 2 jigs from 9 am till 3. Skunked. Gets worse. Watched my girlfriend catch 2 on her pretty lil purple St Croix Avid with a pretty lil rainbow Quantum Energy pt throwing her magic 6" weightless pumpkinseed GYB wacky wonderbait!!! FACEPALM!!! Beaten by a girl and a Senko again!!! Those baits are like bass hot dogs!

I'VE NEVER CAUGHT A BASS ON A JIG!!! Whew that was tough to say, but it's the truth. Caught em on spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jerkbaits, tubes, hard baits, soft baits, real bait, even no bait (casting net) just never tried to use or learn jig fishing. I've got so much confidence with pitching Texas rigged soft plastics that I never even tie a jig on. So in an effort to become a better and more versatile fishermen I'm gonna throw jigs and trailers tomorrow till I catch a fish or my arm falls off. I have picked up a good selection of jigs and trailers in several colors, including some uncle joshes pork rinds, and paca craws, (I know rage tails are the greatest!) So since I have zero confidence, what would be some good recommendations for size shape and color? I'll be fishing murky water with apprx 3 ft visibility, mainly soft weedy bottom, with a lot of brush piles. Football head? Trim my skirt or fish it as is?

Been on the water 4 times. I've caught 16 so far. 8 on white spinnerbait. 2 on jerk bait. 6 on KVD rodent. Same story here. Mainly short males which have moved up to the beds. No lady friends yet.

The fish in the pic is one of my better Missouri stream Smallies which I caught on a GYB creature bait. In fact most of my bigger smallies have came from the GYB. Don't get as many numbers but I'm usually the one out of the group who's got the biggest fish by the end. Now my personal best smallmouth it was on a Rebel crawdad crank bait when I was fishing a 20+ mile 2 day trip in a southern MO stream. It was late into the afternoon of day 2 and my buddy and I beach the canoe on the downside point of a small gravel island. Beautiful spot where the left and right channels of the stream merge back together and a good rapid forms. I catch several little smallies from the right and left side while wading in the middle. I toss my Rebel crawdad crank one last time to the right side channel and it gets slammed, rod buckles over and drag starts screaming on my Shimano Sahara as the fish bolts downstream. My buddy runs over and right as I'm saying how I think it's a catfish, the Smallie makes a huge jump at least 50 yrds downstream and my heart stops! My buddy grabs the net and I manage to fight her all the way back up stream, only to watch her dart through my buddies legs, and instincively right into the swift right side channel and back downstream again. Somehow I get her back upstream, and she breaks for the left side channel and back downstream once again?!?! For the third time I fight her all the way up the rapid, buddy nets her while toppling backwards in 3 ft of water, and all I see is his hand sticking up out of the water holding the net up with my fish in it! She was awesome! Lotta girth and had to be hovering around 4.5 lbs. We high five, take some nice pics with my phone, release her and finish the float. Fast forward to that evening, I'm nodding out in the passengers seat when buddy pulls over to the side of road to adjust the canoe on the roof and I hop out to help. Get back in car and a few miles down the highway he asks if I got my phone? I tell him it's in the middle console and he says that he had grabbed it thinking it was his and tossed it in my lap while i was sleeping... Well there's still a Blackberry cell phone on the side of hywy 44 in the weeds with pics of my trophy Smallie on it. I had marked the length on my pole and it turned out to be just over 22''. And I gots nothing but a story and an eyewitness!?!? By far the greatest bass fish fight I've ever had. Moral of the story? Just because you catch several little smallies out of a spot it doesn't mean there's not a hawg under there that's not as fast as the little ones. And don't drop your phone that has the only pics of your personal best in the weeds!!!

Ht. 5'8" Wt. 165 Casts: Right Reels: Left Hometown: St. Charles, MO Favorite baits: Custom White Spinnerbait, KVD Rodent, Luckycraft Pointer, GYB Creature Home Waters: Mark Twain Lake, Big Piney River, Lake of the Ozarks How ya dern' from the Show-Me State! I gotta problem. My freezer is full of fish. Trout, White bass, and crappie. My hands usually smell like fish. When the suns coming up I wanna go fish. When the suns going down I wanna go fish. Only solution? Feed the monkey by catching as many fish as possible! And sharing all the tips and stories with all you fellow anglers when I can't be on the water!