M Bruns

Took the Nucanoe out to do some panfishing. I was using my 5' ultralight, 6 lb test, and a small Aberdeen hook with a chunk of worm. Saw this guy tailing in the shallows so I instinctively dropped the bait in front of him. That was a mistake! He ended up dragging me around for 35 minutes and gave my drag a workout. Weighed 16 pounds. My arm wasn't long enough to get a full picture of him!

Caught in Illinois and the lake isn't known to have warmouth in it. It would be my first that I've ever caught or even seen. I'm positive it's not a green sunfish but it could be some hybrid I suppose. The lake has redear, bluegill, both crappie, bass, carp, catfish, and trout.

The smallest size Beetle Spin is the best bluegill lure for me. Fly-fishing works great for them too

After the winter before last, the private farm pond close to my house had a big fish kill. It used to be FULL of giant bull bluegills. I could usually catch a few over a pound most times out which is rare in the Midwest. Anyway, since the fish kill I've been looking for another pond with decent gills and I finally found it. They had an average length of 8 inches and pretty good girth. Picture of the glory days of the farm pond for comparison

Same for me. Picked up some white ones to try this year too. Zoom brand

Buy one livetarget baitball spinner get two free. Also bought a rod to get the free shipping, not bad.

I have a Nucanoe Frontier 10 and I love the quality of the kayak. I chose it over the Flint so I can use it for hunting ducks out on the big river. However, if I was just to use it for fishing I would have gone with the Flint. Can't go wrong with Nucanoe though

Gone 5 times this week alone and plan on going to a new-to-me lake in Missouri in the morning to try for some crappie.

I've been using a Berkley for several years now. I thought it crapped out on me but it just needed a new battery that I got from a dollar store. Good as new

No specific order: Texas rigged ribbon tail worm Buzzbait Chatterbait Spinnerbait Finesse TRD Ned Rig Jerkbait I choose these lures for their easy retrieve, easy hooksets, and they all flat out catch fish. Crankbaits are prone to snag, walk-the-dog topwaters can be difficult to get the dog to walk, and frogs need a strong hookset without setting too quick.

Finally got some clarification and luckily I was wrong.

Illinois now has a "stay at home" order until April 7 so we can't even drive to private lakes apparently as it's "non-essential".

This one was from the Jacks Fork river but they were also pretty common in a couple lakes nearby.

Went down to the Ozarks this weekend to chase smallmouth but the only thing biting were the pickerel, an unexpected bonus!

Surprised how early the catfish are active. Water temp of 43

Jerkbait bite is on. Soon the bass will start crushing a chatterbait, which is one of my favorite bites of the year.

First fish of 2020, caught swimming a ned. Been a long winter since we never got enough safe ice for ice fishing. Ice finally melted for the last time (hopefully) on Saturday, so the water is still pretty frigid.

Lipless crankbait for me

Mine's similar to #1. I few years back my family took a vacation to the Yellowstone area and I was pumped to fly fish for trout. I really wanted to catch some big brown trout but where we stayed the first few days I only caught a rainbow and a couple cutties. For the last night of the trip we stayed at cabin in Wyoming really close to the Snake River. I only got a couple hours of fishing in before dark but I kept getting bites. Like I'd get big fish after big fish to slurp my dry fly, I'd set the hook, fight it for 5-10 seconds, and they'd always get off. I fished until almost pitch black and felt defeated. As I went to secure my fly to the hook keeper I realized the hook was broke right in the middle of the bend... I must've snapped it off on the rocks during one of my back-casts. Have yet to get over that one.

If you have good luck with a frog like you say, maybe start with that. Make a pass over an area with the frog, then come back through and punch in areas where you had blow ups. That's just an idea but I like what others have suggested.

Agreed. If you want to cover some water while still being pretty finesse, a small TRD on a jig head works well for almost any fish. Just a straight retrieve with a few pops of the rod mixed in. Tried it last summer and caught smallies, largemouth, white bass, crappie, green sunfish, and apparently creek chubs too.

I have two kayaks. Started out with a cheap Aruba 10 from Walmart. It was well worth the money as it's served many purposes over the years. It let me fish ponds that have too much vegetation around the edges during summer and we also use it for hunting (top picture). Where it excelled was for retrieving ducks - it is quick, light, and easy to maneuver. For an upgrade, we got a Nucanoe Frontier 10. The first drawback is it's kinda heavy. However, the seat is so much more comfortable, I can stand and cast/fly-fish in any direction, and there's tons more space. I added a makeshift fish finder dash and a pvc transducer arm (bottom picture). The common saying in kayak purchasing is to save and buy your "second" kayak first. However, a cheap yak like the Aruba 10 (~$200) is great to finally get off the bank. Be warned, the sit-ins can sink when flipped. If I were to start over again, I'd look at the Lifetime Tamarack Angler, lots of good things said about it and it's a sit-on.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." -Bruce Lee

Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher in bullfrog. No scale on this trip of course but she was conservatively a 6 pounder.

It appears the two most hated things on this website are coming together. Googan is coming out with a NED BAIT! And it comes with a rattle!