Hawkeye21

Are any of you going to be fishing the Hobie BOS kayak tournament at La Cross in a few weeks? It's going to be a huge event.

If all the local shops are out of inventory then there are plenty of online options available. If you want to stay away from the big box stores then check out the Facebook Marketplace.

Black/blue and green pumpkin are pretty much all I use for all my jigs and plastics. All my personal best fish have come from a black/blue chatterbait with matching trailer. The color has more contrast in lower clarity water and is easier for bass to see. Being in Iowa, most of the water I fish has low clarity.

It's about a 2.5 hour drive from me and haven't fished it yet. Hoping to fish a kayak tourney there this year.

MARK ROSE! That was AWESOME! Dude jumped in to get his bass with only about 30 seconds left. Now that's entertainment.

He had an electronics issue. The motor looked to work fine.

PayPal and Venmo are the best ways to do it. I recommend everyone download both apps because they are useful in numerous situations.

I've always been a fan of Spro but my favorite was the Ish's Phat Frog. I think he has River2Sea make frogs for him now.

I put in an order from Dick's a little over a week ago because of the sales they are having. Got about $100 worth of tackle for $58. The order shipped from multiple locations so I received them at different times but one showed up the next day and most of the other tackled showed up two days later. The rest showed up about a week later. I was pretty happy with the order.

I only use Elaztech trailers now, mostly the Diezel. I wasted way too much money on other trailers for how often I throw a chatterbait.

Z-Man Berkley Strike King Rage

I know some guys that fished there over the weekend and did well. Sounded like they caught some decent size too.

To me, that is not a good lake. I know it can be fun for the casual fishermen but catch the same size fish over and over again every trip can get redundant. I think keeping bass is what is needed on a lake like that because it sounds over populated. A good bass fishing lake should have a variety of sizes in it. My local sportsman's club lake is like that. You can catch a ton of bass there but nothing over 14". It's fun for a family outing but not great for someone who wants to catch large bass. They've never been able to get that lake figured out properly.

Dick's has some really good deals right now. Trokar hooks are buy 3 get 3 free. Its a great way to stock up on hooks. They have a lot of other brands with buy 3 get 1 free deals as well. I ended up getting almost $100 of gear for only $58.

I bought a new mounting cradle and it still didn't work. I was about to give up but thought I'd try a new fuse even though it looked like it was still good. I put in a new fuse and it turned right on.

Scheels has a decent sale going on now.

A Medium-Heavy powered rod with fast tip will handle the majority of bass fishing techniques so I recommend that. You can stick with the Ugly Stick brand if you want. Using around 16 pound test for fluorocarbon and 20 pound for braid will also cover most applications as well.

Expect stock of all kinds of items to not be available. Lot of manufacturing places are closed down which means they can't replenish supplies. My business is going to run into it shortly as my parts vendors are starting to get low on supply since the manufacturers are closed.

I'm 36 and know the reference. I'm an old soul though.

They are competitive with their prices and are hard to beat when you get free shipping. Myself and two others always go together on tackle orders to make sure we get free shipping.

Search for Fish the Moment on YouTube and watch his map study videos. I think he does a really good job of showing how to read lake structure maps.

I saw that WI just extended their stay-at-home order until Memorial Day. I've had plans for a fishing trip to northern WI Memorial weekend and have my hotel booked yet. I live in Iowa and would be traveling 5 hours. I'm assuming I have to cancel my trip now with this extension?

Looks like another scam site.

Do a search on that site's credibility. If it's a new domain then that's a dead giveaway that it's bogus. I've seen several other sites with deals like these.

Whatever you do, make sure you have an extra set of clothes with you in case you do fall in. Have some in a dry bag in the hatch of your kayak and have some in your vehicle. I fell in a few weeks ago on a cold, windy day. The surface temp was 42 and the air temp was also 42. I was about 12 feet from shore so I tried pulling my kayak with me to shore. I soon realized that I wasn't getting any closer to shore and thought it was the wind pushing me and the kayak away. It didn't take long before I started losing movement in my legs. I had to ditch my kayak to make sure I could get to shore. Luckily I had my PFD on and I then floated on my back and did the backstroke towards the shore. It felt like I just barely made it. I quickly stripped off PFD, jacket, and sweatshirt and then laid on the shore for a bit to try and catch my breath and gain some composure. I was on a small pond so I wasn't too far from my truck so I walked to it so I could strip off the rest of my clothes and get in my truck to dry off and warm up. There I was, laying in the backseat of my truck in my underwear, still trying to catch my breath and feeling like I was going to throw up. After I recovered some I looked out and say that my kayak was still in the same location on the water instead of blown up against the shore. I thought I had some clothes in a dry bag in the hatch but that didn't do me any good with it out on the water yet. It was a good thing that I usually have some clothing in my truck as well so I could put that on and then try to recover my kayak. I found that my kayak was stuck on a submerged tree and that's why I was unable to pull it to shore with me. All I could think about was how happy I was that I had my PFD on because I don't think I could've even made those 12 feet to shore in the shape I was after trying to pull my kayak with me. It was the scariest moment I've ever had on the water. I had early stages of hypothermia with loss of motion, hyperventilating, headache and nausea. It took me a couple days to feel back to normal. I've been back out on my kayak three times since then and I still feel shaky on it but I'm gaining more confidence back each time. Prepare for the worst case scenario because you can't predict when it's going to happen.