Russ E

^^^^This. If your drag is slipping while reeling, you will also end up with some nasty line twist. Another thing that helps is to learn how to fight a fish with the rod, instead of the reel.

I can see how it could help some people. If you have to pull the pedal out an put it on top of the deck, it seems to defeat the purpose of the recessed pedal box. This is just another storage compartment. As a lifelong cable drive user, I don't understand why anyone would want to use a trolling motor without the pedal feedback. I currently use an Ultrex. Everyone has their own opinion, but watching the trolling motor constantly to see which direction it is pointing seems counter productive.

The small local lakes have been finicky this year. I am not sure if it is the weather or increased fishing pressure from the closed reservoirs. Even though It has been a decent year, I have had to get creative to catch fish consistently.

I own a 2016 Chevy Colorado with the towing package. It is rated for 7000 pounds. Similar to the Tacoma. It was originally purchased to pull my aluminum boat. Shortly after I bought the truck I traded the Aluminum boat in for a Ranger Z175. Total weight with all equipment and trailer is around 2200 pounds. I debated trading in the Colorado for a Silverado. after a few trips I decided to keep the Colorado. My truck handles it fine, but if I traded up to a larger Ranger I would definitely get a bigger truck. I would not want to tow anything close to the max rating of my truck. I was wrong. The 2200 pounds was without any gear and 1/8 tank of gas. I had it weighed with all gear and full of gas. it was closer to 2500 pounds.

La Cygne gave me the first skunk of 2019 today. Assuming the cold front turned the fish off. Can't completely blame La Cygne. I blew the 2 big bites today. had one nice fish on until the boat. She spit the shakyhead at me when i tried to land it. There are still quality fish there, just could not catch them today.

Great video. It would be interesting to see how the Ultrex compares to these three. I love my Ultrex, It is a huge step up from the Fortrex, but there is room for improvement..

Welcome to the forum. interesting first post on a nearly 2 year old thread. Not sure where you live . Here in Kansas City, Cabelas and Bass Pro sold nearly the same brands of fishing equipment before the buyout. Most of that has not changed. The only real difference is with the store brand items. Fishing equipment is now mostly Bass Pro Brand and the hunting equipment mostly Cabelas brand. Besides tourists, I doubt many Metrosexuals regularly shop at Cabelas or Bass Pro Shops..?

depends on your knot. normally a Palomar is pretty strong with braid.

i use 30-40 lb power pro for heavier shakyheads on a medium action baitcaster. if the water is stained to murky, line visibility is not an issue. the only time I use a leader is if there are a lot of zebra mussels around. they are hard on braid. as mentioned above micro-guides and leader knots on a baitcaster can cause an issue. On spinning equipment it is usually not a problem , because the line is smaller diameter.

A couple things to think about. Are you losing fish once you hook them or never getting a hook in them? Is the hook buried in the fish on the ones you do catch? if you are never getting a hook in the fish. It is not necessarily the rod. If the hook is not buried, your equipment and hooks are mismatched. You have to match the hook to your equipment. A medium power fast action rod is enough for clean hooksets, if you are not using heavy wire hooks. Another thing that helps with hooking a fish on Texas rigs is lowering the rod and reeling in slack before setting the hook.

I have heard great things about Watkins mill near Lawson. Supposed to have a healthy population of quality bass. Have not fished it personally, but planning on a trip this fall. Smithville is not bad, but it can be tough from shore. Some days it is tough from a boat.

With Perry it depends on the boat ramp. There are daily fees for the Army Corp ramps. The state park ramps require an annual state park tag for your vehicle, which is good anywhere in Kansas. I believe the marina ramps are free, but can get pretty busy. Old town ramp by Ozawkie has a daily fee also. That is on the very North end of the lake. Perry is still around 20 feet high and all ramps are still closed. I am anxious to get out there, when it opens up. With no fishing pressure this summer it could be really good. Fishing was pretty good for smallmouth and largemouth there last summer.

One other lake that has smallies is Shawnee lake in Topeka. It is an hour west of kck. There are no boating or fishing fees. Roughly the same size as wyco. It is a fun lake to fish. Sometimes the smallmouth are hard to find, but it also has a decent population of largemouth.

^^^ this is a perfect explanation of what I try to accomplish. Especially if I am dragging big worms across offshore structure in summer. This is the one of the few times I put my pedestal seat in the boat, turn on spotlock, and slowly sneak worms across structure. This often produces some of my biggest fish of the year. If you are a run and gun fisherman this technique will drive you crazy, but it can produce big fish.

In my opinion, matching the bait they are eating can be over rated. often times trying something different can produce. there may be certain times where they are keying in on one specific type of food, but bass can often still be caught on other baits. One example is 10 inch worms fished deep in summer. On most the reservoirs I fish shad is the key forage. Early and late in the day shad imitating baits work well. Later in the day dragging big worms across deeper structure,just above the thermocline, can produce big fish. (Deep is relative to where you fish. On most Eastern Kansas lowland reservoirs the thermocline is less than 20 feet.) I don't know of any deep water forage, in the lakes I fish,that resemble s a monster worm. Personally I think it just looks like a big easy meal.

I have had sporadic breaks at the knot with flouro and hybrid line. I have tried every knot I could find. I was using the shark knot, but it slipped a couple times on a hard hookset. By chance I came upon a video with Shaw Grigsby on the double pitzen knot. It is very easy to tie and very strong. I have not broken off at the knot since then. I use it for all fluoro and hybrid lines. Gary Klein has a video also on the same knot.

I feel the same way about Smithville. I have to pay all the fees and buy an out of state license. The only reason I paid the Smithville fees this year is the reservoirs in eastern Kansas have been closed to boating for a while. I live 5 miles from Wyandotte. It is a great numbers lake. I was there this morning and caught 20 bass in 2 hours. Largest fish was 16 inches long. Bigger fish have been a little scarce this year. I think that is due to the increased pressure, from the reservoirs being closed.

Trolling motor started getting noisy today. Thought a bearing was going out. Removing the prop exposed the problem. Cutting around 50 yards of 80 pound braid off of of a trolling motor shaft is a lot of fun. Kudos to whoever emptied their reel into Wyandotte county lake KS.. I can't think of a better place to dispose of line. This lake has trash cans all over. It amazes me, that people are too lazy to use them.

I have 4 speed demon pro rods. They are nice rods for the price, I don't like the technique specific designation of each rod. I would personally just like to know the length, power, action, and number of eyelets on the rod. One persons worm rod might be an others, fluke rod. I mentioned the worm rod, because I think it is too light for that application. It does however make an awesome fluke rod. I must be in the minority, because they seem to be selling a lot of rods.

Smallies are pretty popular in Kansas, The catfish is probably king here. To some locals, Bass are considered bait. One other anomaly here, is sunfish are often called perch. ?

While I have had a decent year Bass fishing, bigger fish have been fairly scarce. last few weeks picked up a little. I caught one that was 5lb 3 oz a couple weeks ago and another 5lb. 2oz yesterday. Now that the weather has finally stabilized, hopefully the lakes clear up. Could be a good late summer/fall. Some of the local reservoirs have been closed to boating for a while. they could be good once opened.

A set of custom ranger fenders came with my boat. I used them once. Fenders are a pain. Unless the water is really rough, I don't see the need for them for launching/ loading. I just try to tie off downwind, so if the boat does move it is away from the dock. plus the rub rail on bass boats do a pretty good job of protecting the hull.

caught a few drum up in the water willows at la cygne also. there were gar porpoising everywhere.

went to La Cygne monday and found out one of my trolling motor batteries were bad. An hour drive there,. then an hour drive back with no fishing. Went back today and caught 6 bass, 3 were over 18 inches. caught small fish in water willows. Caught the bigger fish on an ol monster in around 15 foot of water. 5lb 2oz 3lb 9oz 3lb 1oz Also caught an old zebra mussel encrusted abu rod and reel. after it slimed my boat I threw it back in.

I use the standard power pro 10 or 15 pound test on my spinning reels. I have tried a lot of other brands, but always come back to power pro.