mbtharp1

You can get a diawa fuego ct for $69 on eBay, and get a berkley lightning rod for cheap. I think the fuego is a much better reel than the blackmax and silvermax.

Took the family fishing at my Wife’s Grandpa’s pond! Ellie is 6 and caught tons of fish by herself for the first time. I’ve got her using an under spin with a left hand retrieve so I can convert her to “lefty” like me. My son Logan was my wife’s fishing assistant until he got hungry and grumpy lol.

Went to Clinton last week, figured I'd share! Fished main lake banks/riprap all morning with no luck. Switched it up and pitched a craw around in the backs of coves when the sun came out and got some good bites!

Here’s the video from Sangchris ?

Caught a bunch of fish on Sangchris on Wednesday. 60* water and they were crushing topwater. I love power plants video will be up soon.

7' medium spinning rod, 15lb braided line with 8lb fluoro leader, good for shaky heads, wacky rigs, drop shots, lighter baits. 7' medium moderate action baitcasting rod, 6:1 gear ratio reel, 12-15lb copolymer line, good for shallow/medium crankbaits, topwater walking baits, poppers. 7'2" Medium heavy fast action baitcasting rod, 7:1 gear ratio reel, 17lb fluorocarbon line. Good for fishing jigs, texas rigs, swing heads, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits. I got by for a long time with 3 set ups like this and it worked really well.

Use whatever you have the most confidence in. My home lake has 1.5ft visibility at its absolute clearest, and is usually really muddy. Green pumpkin chatterbaits and craws still outfish black/blue or black/red 3 to 1. It doesn't always make sense lol. In your situation I would definitely stick with greens and browns.

Haha you know Patrick?? Small world

Anyone that's looking for open water needs to get out on one of our powerplant lakes. Went to Coffeen with a friend and caught some fish last week, it was a good time!

I only throw 1/2oz chatterbaits, so I may have to try that blank out! I had my eye on that one, just wanted to be sure it had enough backbone for a good hookset, and ripping the bait from grass.

Looking to build a glass rod for bladed jigs, and I want to build something similar to evergreen's combat stick 7'3" H glass rod. Have any of you built something similar and have any suggestions for blanks? This will be my first rod build.

Academy H20 Express brand squarebills. They go on sale for 2.99 pretty often, come with vmc hooks, and take a beating. They're also heavy and cast well for a 1.5 sized crank.

I got a $50 BPS card for christmas, and I'm going to buy 3 Evergreen Jackhammer chatterbaits because I could never pay the price for them out of pocket, it would hurt too much lol.

Went out on Sangchris a little over a week ago. Got some decent fish on the jig. Check out the video I made while I was out! Anyone else in IL fishing power plant lakes this time of year?

Yum Christie Craw. Cheap, durable, and they catch fish like crazy.

May take you up on that offer when they start the winter tournaments this year. I've been wanting to fish those for a while.

Jig fishing took me a lot of time to get used to, but once you get confidence in them it's worth it. My fish on Shelbyville came on a square bill early on, then a 6xd and a 10" worm later in the morning. Ive been wanting to get down to newton and fish some deep cranks! My boat is only 25hp so it's nice to be able to fish limit lakes.

Went to Shelbyville this past weekend and caught 3 around 3-4lbs and 2 others around 15". Starting to figure out how to fish deep and it's starting to be really fun!

I fished a power plant lake today and had the same thing happen. I went offshore and fished some main lake points with steep drop offs with a shaky head christie craw and caught quite a few more fish.

Happy to say my friend and I placed 3rd out of 27 boats on Lake Decatur tonight. It was a tough day, but I can't complain about 3rd place in my first tournament It's nice being in the money!

You're given two options in the question, neither of which are "no". I understand you're trying to complicate things and say that I'm presenting a false dilemma but this wasn't posted for philosophical purposes. If you're not willing to contribute to the conversation, why even participate? I bet you're really fun at parties.

This is theoretical, and obviously you don't have to have anything high end. Also, this isn't a yes or no question.

Would you rather use high end expensive tackle(rods, reels, line) and use sub $4 lures, or use sub $50 rods and reels and high end baits? I'd like to hear what you guys would pick if you had to choose.

Went out from 4-7 on Lake Decatur yesterday, pre fishing for my first bass tournament this coming Wednesday. Let's just say if they're eating like they were yesterday it should go pretty well

I recently took my little one to a local pond after some casting practice and let her throw a wacky rigged senko around. On her first cast, she landed a 4lb bass on 4lb test.. needless to say she's having trouble being patient now. I'm thinking about having her throw a senko under a bobber next time we go to keep her attention.