BradGinKC

LaCygne fish are starting to get chunky. Caught several of these footballs on Saturday. Once I found the schools, shad color senkos worked the best. My gopro died and is being "fixed" by their warranty dept, so I'm stuck with taking selfies for now.

Better than decent, that's a good catch. Swap that Cards hat for a Royals hat and it'd be a perfect pic! Lol

Caught this last week just before sunset. Took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting a flathead to hit a topwater bait. It did put up a good fight.

Looks like a two-pronged deck plate key or a gas cap key.

The fun of fishing is not limited to a single species. We all have our favorites, but I won't pass up some big wipers or some schooling white bass. And walleye are a blast to catch. It's all about enjoying your time on the water.

^^^ This is what I meant by "good tips from those who know more than I do." Great advice.

Hope you get lots of good tips from those who know more than I do. I'm no expert. My one bit of advice (from experience) is to check your trailer wheels and tires. Make sure your bearings are in good shape, and make sure your tires are new(ish) and that you have a good spare. I always carry a separate bottle jack and lug wrench specifically for the trailer. It's much easier. The ones that came with my vehicle are a pain to use on the trailer. Also, if you haven't had to change any of your trailer tires in a while, check the lug nuts to make sure they aren't locked up. Better than trying to break them free while on the side of the road. Safe travels. Sounds like a fun trip.

Fished Cedar Valley in Garnett over the weekend. It was my first time on that lake. Topwater bite was on at sunrise. They seemed to like a spook better than a buzzbait or whopper plopper. The rest of the day I switched between a wacky rig, shakey head, and a bladed jig. Mainly stayed on the north end of the lake. Didn't try fishing the trees on the south end. Still had a good day, especially being the first time out there. It's a cool lake. I'll definitely be going back.

All of the above are great options. If there are some open pockets or weed lines, I'd also recommend a weightless fluke t-rigged. It's very weedless. My favorite is the Yum houdini shad. Walk it fast and it will skitter across the surface, or work it slow with long pauses in open pockets. It's deadly on the fall.

For numbers, the ned rig is hard to beat. Not the most exciting way to fish, but it's a great slump buster. A shakey head and a drop shot are also good choices for numbers. A lot depends on the lake(s) you are fishing. But those three presentations will get fish in the boat and help get your confidence back.

Take a look at the Shimano NASCI. It's only $99 and I've been really impressed with it. I have a Stradic FK and a NASCI, both in the 2500 size, and the NASCI holds up very well. It has a lot of the same features as the stradic at a fraction of the price (hagane gearing, xship, etc). I do like my stradic a little better, but for $99 I think you will be happy with it.

Haven't used the others, but if you go with the SC Mojo rod, you won't be disappointed. I have three of the casting rods and just recently added the 6'8" MXF spinning rod. I use it with a stradic fk for poppers, light jerkbaits, wacky rigs, and ned rigs. It's been great. The mojo rods definitely fish above their price point. Caught this with it last week.

Fished La Cygne on Sunday. It was a fun day, especially if you like panfish. The crappie are still in beast mode there. Spent most of the morning figuring out how to get baits past them and to the bass. I ended up with around a dozen bass, mostly on a black and blue jig. Three of them were (barely) keeper size, all right at 18", heaviest was 3.25. I also got to test the drag on my nasci spinning reel when a 25" flathead hit my shakey head.

Yeah, good thinking. It was definitely a drum! Glad I wasn't the only one who had a slow day with crankbaits. Was beginning to think it was just operator error. Hopefully that bite picks up next time I'm there. I have a new glass cranking rod that I'm itching to put to the test.

Caught my new PB on La Cygne this weekend at 6lbs 14oz and 22 1/2" (still cant manage to crack 7#). Got her on a sexy shad color bladed jig in about 8 fow. Also caught 5.2lb and 4lb keepers on a ned rig. Good day overall. Ended up with about 20 fish total, including a few drum and one nice size wiper. The bladed jig caught three or four and the rest came on the Ned. No luck with a black&blue jig, squarebills or lipless crank. I really thought the crankbaits would do well, but no takers. Ned was the winner. Water temp was around 65-66.

I fished lake Olathe for a couple hours last Saturday. Water temp was around 47 when I left at noon. Fish were moving a little slow, but they were shallow. Caught most in 2-5 ft on a bladed jig and slow rolling a spinnerbait. And, as always, I caught a few on a black & blue jig. Good numbers, not much size. I've never fished Olathe from the bank so I'm not sure which parts of the lake you can get to. But I know the dam is accessible, and this time of year you should have some luck along there. I think the city of olathe website has a map with brushpiles that are reachable from the shore. That might give you some targets to throw at.

@Cheetahsneverprosper Thanks for this info. Lots of good suggestions. You're right about an oversized tackle bag being a mistake. I once brought a big, ungainly beast of a tackle bag fishing as a backseater. I'll never make that mistake again! I don't fish as a non-boater very often, but I have a small jon boat that I use as my secondary boat to fish some of the smaller local lakes. I'm definitely going to steal a couple of your ideas for those situations. Thanks again

Good advice. I wish I would've learned how to pitch with my left hand years ago when I was first learning. This is one of my top priorities before the 2017 season gets going. I spend a lot of time pitching and most of the time switching hands isn't a big deal, but there were several times this past year where the fish were hitting the bait the instant it touched the water. I tried making a few pitches keeping the reel in my left hand. It was really bad. I'm sure I looked drunk.

Lol! My favorite quote in this thread so far

Awesome video! Even though he's young, that dude has a huge following and has built himself a pretty successful brand. The fact that he described your trip as one of the best days of bass fishing in his life, is quite an accomplishment. Nicely done. "Welcome to Kansas" (loved that part)

This certainly is nowhere near the quality of the Legend model, but a couple months ago I got the St Croix Mojo Glass target cranker 6'10" MM. This is my first glass rod, but I've been very happy with it. It's only 4.3oz, good sensitivity, and plenty of backbone once loaded up. I've thrown lots of sizes and styles of crankbaits with it and had nothing but good experiences. There are definitely some features on the Legend that I envy; the mojo has alum-oxide rings vs alconite on the Legend, mojo has only a 5yr warranty, and the color and finish on the Legend is just incredible. But, for those who can't quite afford the Legend (like me), the mojo glass is a very capable compromise. It actually put in some work this past weekend. Found some wipers that were hammering lipless cranks. I'm definitely a believer in glass rods under the right circumstances.

Did your hook points roll on their octopus hooks? Or has it happened on other types of trokar hooks too? I've never used the trokar octopus hooks, but I use the trokar finesse worm & flippin hooks a lot. This was only my first season using trokar hooks, but I fished them hard this year, especially the flippin hooks, and never had an issue. Then again, I didn't set any records for size either! Trokar hooks aren't cheap, so I'm curious how big of an issue this is before I stock up on them for next season.

You should take a look at the "big nasty" octopus hooks by Trokar (model TK11). They have a welded eye that takes away those sharp edges. Might work for you, as long as you don't need a small hook. I think 4/0 is the smallest size I've seen for these.

If you're not in a hurry, you can find some really good deals on used motors. I bought a used motorguide 43lb bow mount tm for $100 on craigslist last month. It has a few scrapes and scuffs from being used, but it works great on my 14ft aluminum boat and was a lot cheaper than even a reconditioned unit. I saw several other motors posted in that price range while I was shopping, so the deals are out there. There's definitely some risk buying anything used on CL, so bring a battery when you go look at it so you can hook it up and make sure everything works. And it's not cheap to ship these things so try to find something within driving distance. Good luck!

Every year I see the same marks on bucks in the fall. I've always wondered what causes it. And I mostly see it on decent size bucks, rarely on small forks or spikes. I'm sure some of it is from scrapping with other bucks or ducking under fences. But I think some of it is from their own antlers rubbing on their backs when they raise their heads to rub their orbital glands on tree branches. I've watched it happen while sitting in a treestand. If the antlers are big enough, they can dig into the hair on their back when they raise up to rub their face on limbs around rubs and scrapes. Not sure if that's actually what happened in your pic. Just a general theory I have. Hope you get a shot at him before rifle mayhem begins.