Russ E

high of 45 today and the local lakes are still frozen. haven't fished for a couple weeks , so I decided to take a trip to the local power plant lake. I wasn't the only one with that idea. there were 22 trailers in the boat ramp parking lot when I got there. decided to give it a shot anyway. Once on the lake all of my favorite spots had multiple boats on them. decided to venture out and find new water. I found a couple shallow flats just upstream from the hot water outlet that were loaded with shad. I caught 8 bass on jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. No giants but at least I caught fish. Also had a couple large white bass hammer the jerkbait. when I talked to a few other anglers, all they caught were a few white bass, so I was pretty happy to catch a few.

In my opinion, they are a waste of time. No different than someone doing a reel review and all he does is open the box and hold it in front of the camera.

Welcome, from another east kansas member. I head your way occasionally to fish shawnee

The one negative is It has larger diameter than most pure flourocarbon lines. For the price it is hard to beat. I use the 12 and 15 pound line on my baitcasters. It has good abrasion resistance and knot strength. It has replaced pure flourocarbon on most of my casting rods. I also use the 8lb for leaders. It holds up to my Alberto knots better than any flourocarbon I have tried.

Illinois is one of the very few states that will not honor our permits.

4 main colors I use are pb&j, mud minnow, coppertreuse, and the deal. The deal probably gets used the most.

I use a 7ft falcon bucoo ml fast rod with a kastking 2000 sharky 3 reel. Line is 10lb kastpro braid with an 8lb copoly leader.

Don't need it in Kansas , but still have one. Makes transporting much easier. Especially across state lines. Also makes purchasing much easier. No background checks.

I agree. There are very few electric only lake within 50 miles of me. there are 5 reservoirs and a couple dozen mid size lakes. In addition Kansas is a windy state. That is why my bass boat sees a lot more action.

a lot of the discounts around KC are done. I was out in a few stores today and most of the good clearance stuff is already gone. January to mid February is usually the best.

A kayak is a lgood low cost way to get off of the bank. I have a bass boat and a kayak. I agree a kayak can get you into a few places a bass boat can't go . To me that is only helpful a small portion of the time. The bass boat may not be able to navigate as well n tight quarters, but I can cover a lot more water with it. Last year I put in around 800 hours on the water. 790 of those hours were in the bass boat. If I had to get rid of one, it would without a doubt be the kayak.

I almost bought one of those bundles on E-bay, but changed my mind. i didn't know what to do with over 500 bobber stops.

i should note that when I am not fishing, the boat is in my garage. it never gets below freezing or above around 85 degrees in there. If I had to leave it outside, I would probably not leave any plastics under the deck for long.

The dial does the same thing as the pins. There should be 6 brakes. I usually run mine on 3.

yes that is the chunker munker. this is the paca chunk.

I believe the chunker munker was around 2 3/4 inches. Don't have any left to check. the Paca Chunk comes in 3 sizes. Tiny is 2 inches standard is 3 inches Senior. is 3.25 inches

I believe they quit making them. they were supposed to mimic pork rind. I used them a few times. they worked ok. Didn't last long. They are pretty soft and tear easy. I use the netbait Paca chunk quite a bit. It is similar but a little more durable. plus the paca chunk has a little more action.

the Diawa Magforce z brake is a centrifugal magnetic brake. brake strength increases with spool speed. if you have the magnet set at 3 or 4 it will not do much. by tightening the spool control and turning down the brake you basically turn it into a standard magnetic brake reel. If I wanted to set the reel up that way, I would buy a cheaper reel. in my own experience, a Magforce brake reel, works better with a loose spool and higher brake setting. Most of the time my brakes are set in the middle.Even at a higher setting the magnetic braking is minimal at slow speeds. I very seldom ever get backlashes with my Diawas. If setup correctly thumb control is scarcely needed.

If you ask a Midwest finesse fisherman, some variation of the Ned Rig, works for every situation. there are several local fishermen that use nothing else. If you want to catch numbers, it is a hard bait to beat. I personally only use it when the fish are not biting. While it will attract big fish, there are often better baits for that.

I agree. I stock up this time of year. Nearly all stores are clearancing out last years fishing inventory. Sometimes you can get crazy deals on high end equipment. When it is too cold to fish, I enjoy visiting the local stores looking for discounts. It helps beat back the winter blues. Fortunately here in the Kansas City metro, there is no shortage of sporting goods stores.

while I target bass 99.9% of the time. I don't complain when I hook into a bonus monster Flathead catfish or buffalo. When I started this thread it was was more out of curiosity than anything else. How a fish most Americans see as trash, is highly prized in Europe.

I wondered the same thing. it also looked like it was a centrifugal brake reel, instead of the magnetic brakes of the RLE. If your baits are getting used on the MLF circuit that would be cool. They work pretty good for some of us amateurs.

I have tried nearly every style of rod possible for jerkbaits. Until this year I never found one that quite fit the bill. On a whim I bought a KastKing speed demon pro jerkbait rod and have to say it is the best rod I have ever used for jerkbaits. it is 6ft 10in long. Medium power fast action. in spite of the fast action it has a soft tip, that helps keep the fish buttoned once hooked. Not trying to make this sound like a sales pitch for a rod. I love my Dobyns rods. I just feel KastKing hit the sweet spot on this one.

^^this. The standard 2D does not have a very big coverage area in shallow water. Side imaging will show a lot of things from weedlines to rocks, that you would miss with the 2D.

Only reels that I adjust cast control knob,, are magnetic brake only reels like the royal legend elite. All other reels I let the 2 brakes control the cast. In my own experience using a little more centrifugal brake and less cast control will give better performance. I very seldom adjust anything on my reels once they are setup. Doesn't matter what bait I am throwing The only thing I adjust is the magnetic brake if it is windy. Centrifugal brakes are spring loaded and only engage when the spool reaches a certain speed.