Russ E

Between $110.00 and $120.00 you can get a Dobyns fury. That would be my choice.

I have used and lost a lot of jerkbaits over the years. Lately I have had a lot of success with the duo realis line. Especially the suspending 110sp and the duo realis Rozante suspending 75. Another bait that has impressed me are the academy h2o express jerkbaits. While they are not sold as suspending baits. They have a very slow rise when paused. Selling at $5.99 A piece is a bonus.

I had a helix 5 di on the bow of my last boat. All I used was the 2d. My current boat has a helix 7 di on the bow. I use the down imaging a lot more with it. From my own experience down imaging on the bow is useless with a 5 inch screen, unless you have great eyesight. The 7 can still be hard to see sometimes.

I was there today. It was a little slow. a lot of short strikers. Spinnerbait got most of the bites.Every fish I caught was on the trailer hook. Caught 8 total. The largest was 3.25 lbs. the stack had a little smoke but the outlet water was 53 degrees. South end of the lake was 54 degrees.

If you are getting a lot of backlashes, your reel is not set properly. If you are starting out, keep the braking set pretty high, until you get used to using your thumb. you may lose distance, but will get less backlashes. In regards to loading the rod. A lighter rod will load easier than a heavy rod.your rods should be fine for a 3/8 oz. bait. To load a rod, all you do is swing the rod back. Then cast while the rod still has a bend. this loads the rod and improves distance and control. I have a dozen med/hvy fast action baitcasters. From 4 different manufacturers. They will all throw a 3/8 oz. bait without backlashes. If I am using pure flourocarbon I never go smaller than 12 pound test on my baitcasters. flourocarbon has a smaller diameter than most copoly. Smaller diameter line backlashes easier than larger diameter line.

my go to arsenal in that situation would be: 1: lipless crankbaits. 2: suspending jerkbaits 3: spinnerbait that I could slow roll. 4: ned rig.

When I am on the water, nothing else matters. All of life's problems float away. When not fishing, I am monitoring the weather forecast and planning the next trip. You can call it a passion or an obsession. Either way it influences nearly every aspect of my life.

not a bad way to start the year. wipers are always fun to catch

Fortunately for me besides my resident Kansas License, the only other license I buy is for Missouri. their website is surprisingly simple. My Issue is, 2 of the lakes I fish are managed by the counties instead of the state. They charge individual fees for boating and fishing. I pay around $175.00 a year extra for those 2 lakes.

I don't have a particular bag or box. there is usually always a ned rig ready on my deck for that. Lately I have not used it much. I prefer to target larger fish. Most of the time there are better baits for that. It is my security bait. Just in case I am getting skunked.

The wind does not usually keep me off the water, but it will dictate how and where I fish. In my kayak 15 mph is about tops. And that is only on select lakes. Anymore and it is hard to control. In my bass boat I have fished in 25 mph straight line winds with 40 mph gusts. Different bodies of water react differently to wind. One local reservoir will get 4 foot rollers at 10mph. It is usually reserved for calm days. Another local lake ,I often fish, will only get small waves at 25 mph. This lake turns on when the winds gust.

A cooling lake is the only thing that keeps me sane January and February. fortunately the cold water lakes are now open here. Planning my first non power plant lake excursion of the year on Monday.

welcome from another Kansas Resident. this thread covers quite a bit of eastern and central Kansas. it may help.

I agree. Anything to sell more baits. I have seen a few people trying the z man modification on a couple lakes locally. I still don't see a purpose for it. If I am fishing a ned rig, It is because the bite is tough and nothing else is working. in that circumstance I want the subtle action of the zinkerz or trd tail. a spinner hinders that. If I am looking for more flash, there are a lot better baits. ie. spinnerbait,chatterbait,or underspin.

Thats awesome. Congratulations. I caught a tagged bass in Iowa 20 years ago. At the time a couple local businesses were giving away prizes for bass that they tagged. I was all excited. thought I won something. I called the number on the tag. It was the Iowa DNR. they were tagging bass to check bass movement in that reservoir. All they wanted was,where I caught it. I didn't even get a hat.

I hve a love/hate relationship with braid. I love the sensitivity and zero stretch when setting he hook on long casts. the wind knots on the other hand are definitely on the hate list.

That is very true. The first year I fished that lake, it kicked my butt several times. I still don't have the success you do, but at least I catch a few nice fish. Congratulations on getting mentioned in Infisherman.

midwest finesse. aka the ned rig.

I agree. the banks at Wyco get pounded by the MWF guys. last year was good to me there. I caught quite a few quality fish. Most of them were offshore and less than 10 of them were on the ned rig. I very seldom use the ned rig at La Cygne. Usually isn't even one rigged on the deck. Olathe was a different story, most of the quality fish I caught there were on the ned rig.

He told me last year, La Cygne was dying. Then he said wyco was also hurting, because they could not catch 50 fish a day. I respect what he contributes to the sport, but sometimes he may not be 100% correct on his views.

hopefully it was just a strange year. According the kwdpt bass forecast for 2019. the populations of both bass species seem to be improving at Perry and Clinton. So hopefully there is some good news ahead. https://ksoutdoors.com/Fishing/Fishing-Forecast

They are a pretty nice bait. I just use my 7 foot medium heavy crankbait rod, with 12 lb copoly.

well that doesn't sound good. hopefully I have one of the 50% that works.

it is amazing how your location determine how firearms sales are conducted. with my ccw in Kansas, I fill out the 1 page federal form and walk out with my new handgun. I have lived in Iowa, Missouri , and Kansas.. Until this thread I did not know what an FOID was. Glad I don't live in Illinois.

There is still ice on the cold water lakes here. In the 6 years I lived around Kansas City, this is the first time the lakes were frozen in March. Several years they did not freeze at all. 2 years ago I was breaking in my new outboard, in January, on a cold water reservoir. With the warm weather forecast they should finally be open by the end of the week.