Hawkeye21

I usually stick to just 3 to 4 baits/lures. Always have some kind of crankbait, lipless or square bill. Always some kind of soft plastic, usually a wacky rigged senko. Always have a chatterbait. In the summer I will always have a topwater bait, usually an Ish's Phat Frog. Depending on the time of year and type of water I'll try a spinner bait. May sound like a lot but I'll have a pole rigged with each so I can just switch poles quick and fish. I can cover a ton of water this way.

I went to an auction last week where they had a bunch of damaged and opened leftover inventory from Gander Mountain after they closed. I had my eye on some Lews Mach 2 combos where the only issue was a cracked trigger on the handle but some kids got them for $65 each. Still a good deal if that's all that's wrong with them but I wasn't willing to go that high. There was a Gander Mountain brand combo that was the exact type of rod I was looking for. It was a 6'6" Medium Fast spinning rod with a basic reel on it. It looked to be used and not damaged but all I really wanted was the pole since I have a reel already. I ended up winning it for $25 which I though was a pretty good deal. Looked online and I think the combo sold for $80 new. Once bids started dropping more I decided to bid on one more thing I had my eye on. There was a rod that was snapped in half but it had a nice looking reel on it that I figured was worth some money. I didn't know for sure what it was worth but I managed to buy it for $12.50 since the rod was busted. The reel is a Lews Speed Spin TS200H. After looking online it looks like its about a $90 reel. I haven't used any of them yet but both seem to be in good shape. I think I ended up doing well for myself.

If he's really your buddy them tell him what you expect from him. I'd have no issues fishing the same hole but if he casts over you I'd let him know it bothers you. If it was one of my buddies I'd give him some crap in good fun.

I don't do any pitching at all so I can't help you there other than if you had a kayak you can stand on it would work. If this is your first time kayak fishing you'll notice how easy it is to get moved around on the water. The slightest breeze can move you some and a gust can move you along quickly. You'll even find that just reeling in lures will pull you. Once you get use to it you can actually use it to your advantage to move yourself into certain positions without having to use your paddle. I never really noticed any difference when trying to set the hook on fish. Like mentioned above you will notice the fish will pull you towards it's direction. If you pay attention enough you can reel the fish in from different directions in order to control the kayak. You'll want to do this to avoid floating into anything around you. Usually after catching a fish you're paying more attention to the fish and not where you're floating so it's nice to be in a good spot before you tend to your catch. If it's breezy you'll be glad you have that anchor.

Thanks! I knew I'd be really busy this month but I was excited and signed up for it anyway. I was able to fish last Saturday and get my 5 fish to put myself in 2nd place early. I'm not sure the next time I'll be able to get out again. Probably not until next weekend.

Yep. I'm signed up in one of the KBF State tourneys. I don't expect to do much but like the feeling of competition. If I did earn a spot in next year's championship I'm not sure if I'd go or not. That's a bit over my head.

Very big league stuff now. It will be even larger next year. I followed the whole tourney last week and they still have plenty of kinks that need to be worked out but it's pretty awesome. I just started kayak fishing last year and started fishing online tourneys this year. I'm currently in a month long state tourney and I'm really enjoying it. It just adds that extra level of excitement but not to the extreme a one day, boat tourney does. Just because it's large right now doesn't mean it's not in it's early stages. They are still learning a lot and tweaking the rules. It has a ways to go yet to be a well oiled machine but they are doing well. It got really big really fast.

I agree that once the sport is large enough there will most likely be separate divisions. Right now it's still in it's infant stage as for competitions. I can't afford a $3,000 kayak that pedals or a micro power pole. I have a trolling motor I could rig up but I don't really want to. Right now I just have a $500 fishing kayak with the usual mods and a nice fish finder. I don't have any issue going up against the guys with the better rigs because in the end it all comes down to fishing ability.

Advantage over who though? Every angler is allowed to do it. Just the same as every angler has the ability to use a pedal kayak instead of paddles or use a fish finder with side imaging or a power pole anchor system.

It's nice to see more people who don't see it as a big deal. This topic opened up a lengthy debate with Kayak Bass Fishing. Currently trolling motors and trolling lures is allowed in their kayak tournaments. Some feel that it's cheating, not ethical or just wrong for the sport of kayak fishing. There just seems to be some kayak bass fishing purists that feel a kayak has to only be self propelled only and that trolling for bass in general is not what bass fishing is about. I told them that I had no issue with it not being allowed since it's not one of my main techniques but I feel no reason to ban it if their isn't a valid reason too. Most of their reasons were because the bass boat tourneys don't allow it or that they just personally didn't like it. To me those are not valid reasons.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it's just not my primary technique for catching bass. I have no issue with allowing trolling to catch bass. Pros basically already do it with long lining strategies right now.

I agree. I honestly don't really think of it as being as effective as most other techniques. The one big advantage of it for kayak fishermen is that it allows us to continue fishing while moving to another spot to fish. Very different from trolling on a boat since kayaks are pretty much at trolling speed all the time.

Reason I brought this up is because in some kayak bass fishing tournaments it is allowed and some people seem to be upset about it. I found it interesting because every single person that didn't like it didn't have an actual legitimate reason as to why it should be allowed. Their only reasons were because the boat tourneys don't allow it and they personally felt it was wrong.

I've noticed in another forum that trolling seems to be the devil when it comes to bass fishing. It's like some irrational sense that's it's not what bass fishing is all about or that it's cheating. What are your thoughts on it? I meant to post this in the General Fishing Forum.

For me it wasn't so much of actual water coming through as it was foam. It left the floor of my kayak disgusting.

How do you know there isn't structure there already? We can't see underwater. The only thing we know for sure is that there isn't any shoreline structure that's visible.

Last year I found a brand new Abu Garcia Pro Max on eBay for $51. Pretty sweet deal.

I'm not sure it matters how much you spend on a kayak or how big you are, if the scupper holes are not plugged water will come up through them in some way. When I first took mine out I didn't put the scupper plugs in and noticed a bunch of foamy, dirty water that kept coming it. Plugging them helped a lot. Now the only water I get in my kayak is from the fish I catch and the water dropping off my paddle.

My local Sportsman's pond has this issue. When I was on the board there we drained the pond and started over. We had it dredged and had the Eagle Scouts do a project where they added a bunch of structure for bass. We stocked it and didn't allow fishing on it for 3 years. It's now been 8 years and while there are plenty of bass to catch the biggest I have seen was about 15". I fished there last Friday and Saturday and ended up catching about 30 total. The majority of those 30 fish were all 11" to 13" long. At one point I caught 4 fish in a row that were exactly 12.75" long. I had been saying for a couple years now that they need to start culling a bunch of small bass. Currently they have a sign up that says all bass must be put back. Was talking to a couple of the new board members a few weeks ago and they finally have decided that they need to start culling bass. I told them a fishery would be best. Have a bunch of kids and family come out and let them keep the bass they catch or throw them off to the side.

Pretty much anywhere I go and any time of the year I will throw the chatterbait for a little while because it can cover a lot of water. I usually avoid spinners this early in the year. When the water is still pretty cold I find the jerk bait works great. If you want to get out to the middle and fish deeper then I'd throw a lipless crankbait. Let it sink then reel in slowly. If a slow retrieve doesn't work then I'll try speeding it up. Then I'll go to a yo-yo like retrieve where I pull my rod back somewhat hard to make the bait go fast and vibrate then reel in the slack allowing the bait to drop and I just keep repeating. This triggers a lot of bites for me.

Watch the MLF tourney that was held in LaCross, WI on the river. KVD won it based on sheer quantity and not on large fish. Lots of those guys really struggled because it was so different from lake fishing. Bass don't have the benefit of warm water year round here like they do in the south. you can find some monsters up here but there are very few. I believe the state record for Iowa is over 10 pounds but it was caught back in the 80's. Not sure one of that size exist here any more.

Here in Iowa on the Mississippi it's similar. The big fish are around the 3 to 5 pound mark and there usually aren't that many caught. Most are around 1 to 2 pounds. I think that's just pretty common for bass in the northern half of the US. The biggest bass I've ever caught was 4.5 pounds in a pond and that's pretty big for here. I haven't seen too many larger than that caught in the area.

I generally will have a plan for how I want to fish before I go. Then I'll get at least 2 or 3 poles rigged up with different presentations. Once I get out on the water I'll try each of the poles I have to see what's working. Usually one of those will work and I just stick with that. If none of them work then I start to try something different or just a different color. Key is to be ready to fish right away and cover a lot of water. If that doesn't work then you can start messing with changing lures. You don't want to mess with changing lures right when you start.

I fished in a bass tourney on the Mississippi last year on May 1st and we went into a backwater are that just looked ideal for bass. It was picture perfect but we only managed one bite. It was that day that we realized that we couldn't fish the river like we do ponds. Talked to another guy in the tourney who went north like 20 miles to a spot he knew held big bass that time of year. We managed 2 bass for about 3 pounds and the guy we talked to got his 5 for close to 14 pounds. It was obvious he knew what he was doing and we didn't.

When most people think about fishing for largemouth bass they think of fishing ponds and lakes. When it comes to rivers most think of smallmouth, walleyes, catfish and many other species but rarely to they think of largemouth. Since I live close to the Mississippi River I like to bass fish there and I've noticed that it's completely different than fishing a pond or lake. I was curious if any members here are experienced river fisherman and wanted to know if you had any advice. How do you fish a river different than a lake and why? It really is amazing how different it can be.