IndianaFinesse

Half of a zinkerz on a 1/16 ounce mushroom head.

Been great for me so far... Only one bomb (and he still might make Sunday) with 1st, 7th 19th, 24th, and 63rd. Up from 79% to 90%.

A: Kvd. One of the best with a spinnerbait and square bill. I wanted to pick a lot of guys in this bucket, headed by Greg hackney, Ott Defoe, and Jason Christie. B: Ish Monroe. A frog and a square bill are his things, but he also has great momentum coming in. If it wasn't for one bomb this year, he would be in bucket A. Allow picked Gerald swindle along with everybody else. C: Matt herren. He is a flipping stick. Almost picked bill lowen and Michael iaconelli. D: Skeet Reese. Pretty much because he has an incredible history here. Almost picked Stephen browning or Brock Mosley and there respective spinnerbaits. E: I went with an old veteran, Rick Clunn. Once or twice a year he posts an incredible finish, and the rest he bombs. Taking a big risk picking him, hopefully this is one of those incredible finishes.

I think @BigBassLoveSenkos might know a little about that...

One, because they are a creature of habit, and they follow seasonal patterns just because their instinct tells them to. They don't really have much of a choice in the matter. Two, how the heck would a bass know where the warmer/colder water is? It's not like a school of bass get together and one of them says "hey guys, I know where some warmer water is, let's go there!". Three, bass are cold blooded, which means that they are the same temperature as there surroundings. This means that since being cold/hot is relative in relation to the organism's internal body heat, a cold blooded animal is always comfortable in any temperature. There metabolism slows down in cold water and very hot water, which means that they don't have to eat as much and they move slower. It doesn't mean that they are uncomfortable.

All of the above... I tend to start out doing both until I figure out which way works best for that particular time.

Weightless and tex-posed, on a 3/0 hook. I change hooks depending on what fall rate I want, with a 3/0 trokar ewg hook falling the fastest, 3/0 owner ewg in the middle, and 3/0 gamakatsu normal gap offset hook. You would be surprised at the difference it makes in a weightless worm. I fish them just under the surface, twitching and jerking them to make them dart in different directions randomly. Bright colors such as bubblegum and merthiolite are my favorite for the added visibility, when the pink worm disappears I know its in a bass's mouth. One of the best post spawn bites (in addition to topwater) around here.

Thanks, I ended up ordering the 7'4" mh kvd tour cranking rod. If anyone else is looking for one, they are only 64$ after the 20% off on eBay from a place called Shelton's clothing. Considering that they retail for about $160, that's a pretty good deal.

Thanks for the info, good to hear about the e-glass. Are the micro guides very brittle? I have never owned a micro guide casting rod, but the micro guides on one of my spinning rods are very easily broken.

I went out today, possibly against my better judgement... Only caught a dozen in a few hours amidst a crap load of drunk pleasure boaters. Saw a few drivers so drunk that they were swerving all over the place, I saw one run into a shoreline. I managed to not get dumped or ran over (although I did spear two wake boarder waves), but I'm not sure how someone didn't end up crashing into another boat or completely wrecking there boat on the shore. I think security needs to spend less time enforcing no-wake laws and more time on drunk drivers.

Busy day on the lake today, at least until the rain pushed the pleasure boaters off for a little while. Caught 41 bass in 4 hours, on trick worms before the rain moved in and then buzzbaits in the rain. The better fish are starting to move out onto the main lake stuff now, but still a few back in the coves mixed in with lots of buck bass. Best five weighed a very nice ~17 pounds, anchored by a 5.36 pound lunker that hit a buzzbait. Second biggest bag I've ever pulled out of this particular lake. The finesse game changer buzzbait did most of the damage before it broke, then a cavitron kept on catching them. Also made a go at catfishing for an hour or two later on, got a couple hits but didn't connect.

The kvd is a lot better deal than the lews (150$ down to 60$), but I have heard some bad reviews on the kvd.

So I can get these three cranking rods for the same price, but have not felt any of them in person. Do any of you have experience with the 7' medium (3/8-1 ounce) lews David fritts cranking rod, one three fishing fate chrome cranking rod, or the kvd tour cranking rod? If you have more than one of them, which one is your favorite? They are all on memorial day sales, so they all are about 60$.

They just got the results finalized... And we're in the state championship this July!

If I had to guess, it would be a private lake similar to where the current state record came from. That said, I don't think it will be broken any time soon. It has been a long time since anyone came close to breaking it.

My over all favorites are the junior and popping pad crashers in cricket frog and dart frog, but this year the lunkerhunt pocket frogs with the legs swapped out for skirts has been my go to frog. Only time will tell if it earns a place with my booyahs, but i love the results i'm seeing so far. The finesse frog saved my butt at a tournament last weekend, with a decent 18th out of 84 finish. Thanks for the heads up on that @Master Bait'r.

Friday around noon.

Had an awesome day of fishing today. In 5 1/2 hours this evening we caught 99 fish, we fished for an hour after dark looking for that 100th bass but it never came. Would have caught even more if we had a trolling motor, it broke last week and we're still trying to fix it. So we used the outboard motor to limp around the lake, not ideal but it worked. Almost all of them hit a pop x walked right next to the bank around bluegill beds and near where the bass spawned. Also caught some on trick worms, rats, and whopper ploppers. Post spawn trick worm and topwater bite is at its peak right now. Around 20 of those bass were keepers with the best five weighing 16-17 pounds. It beat my previous record for numbers, and sure beat the heck out of fishing the dead sea of Monroe.

I don't have a brand preference, but I use and recommend using aluminum pliers. Other pliers rust quickly even if you take care of them (at least in humid Indiana) but aluminum never rusts.

Zman, zoom, bandit, Bagley, yum, Berkley, some strike kings, etc. Only buying things on sale will allow you to buy higher end stuff for the same price as lower end models. You can find most stuff significantly discounted most of the time, if you are patient. Keep an eye on the latest sale thread for deals.

No experience with the Cajuns, but I have a 1993 stratos I fish tournaments out of that does have the live well on a circulation timer, and a manuel fill.

10% off I believe. Could be 15% though, can't remember which one.

They are pretty easy to use, a steady retrieve with a pause or a quick speed change once a retrieve to trigger followers works well. Every quarry has ramps constructed for the machinery to drive in and out of the hole on, the fish will use those roads to travel from deep to shallow. Make sure to check those out as they as often the best structures in quarries and pits.

I use them weightless fished as a toad a lot, and if I miss a blow up I just slow down and use it as a swim bait.

I throw buzzbaits on mono, but braid will work fine as long as you make sure to wait till the bait is completely submerged and inside the bass's mouth. I use mono cause I have a hard time not setting the hook as soon as the bass blows up, and it gives me a little cushion for early hooksets. Either mono or braid will work fine though, it is mostly personal preference. Leave the skirt on if you want or take it off, either way will work. Taking the skirt off sometimes works better when pressure is high, but I usually fish with it on. If you decide to take take the skirt off, I would highly recommend putting a toad on it as a trailer. Makes it possible to skip the buzzbait a little, to. White