Russ E

it was hard to tell who I was. I was all bundled up like a demented camo eskimo. I fish shawnee quite a bit in the cold weather. our paths will probably cross again.

I saved a couple this summer for my neighbor. He said they taste like redfish. I had to clean the live well afterwards. They leave a pretty strong stink.

When I launched the boat this morning, air temp was 32 and water temp was 41. I was not expecting a lot of action. surprisingly I manged to catch a couple dozen 1 to 2 pound bass on a Jerkbait, a dropshot, and ned rig. Bass were not the only thing biting today. these three chunks gave my ned rig rod a workout.

Usually motor oil. You have to relube every pour. It will smoke a little, but it makes the wire come out easier. You can also use high temp grease, but it is messier if you want to paint them.

I do the same thing. I just lube a chunk of heavy spinnerbait wire and and put it through the mold. The wire pulls right out and you are in business.

Definitely a Baitcaster. the only time I use a spinning reel , is when I am fishing the micro Spinnerbaits. When I am throwing a large Spinnerbait it is usually around cover. Using heavier line than my spinning setups will handle. plus I have a lot more control with the Baitcaster.

you can tell winter is close, when these old threads get revisited. Since it is reopened, I will give my opinion on the ideal weightless fluke setup. I have fished soft jerkbaits since the sluggo first came out, nearly 30 years ago. After trying nearly every combination available, I have settled on a fairly simple and economical rig. I use a Dobyns fury 733c 7ft. 3in. Medium heavy fast action rod. (I have noticed Dobyns rate their rods a little heavier than other brands. this rod feels closer to a medium action to me.) With a 6.3 to 1 Diawa Tatula CT reel. I fill it with 12lb High seas Grand slam Flourocarbon coated copoly line. The rod cost $109.00 on amazon. the reel was $99.00 on ebay. This setup will cast a weightless Fluke or Senko a mile. Yet hook sets are still solid, when using heavier hooks.

Not sure what you consider cold water. for me it is usually anything under 45 degrees. in cold water the suspending jerkbait, shakyhead and ned rig sees the most action in my boat. If those will not elicit a strike, I will switch over to a dropshot. occasionally I will use a jig, but most of the time it is reserved for warmer water. your finesse worms will work well with a shakyhead or a dropshot

I was thinking about heading there Monday. Surprisingly, I did not catch any largemouth in the warmer water. The two I caught were on rip rap in cold water.

had a break in the cold weather and decided to head to the local power plant lake, to try out my new Kastking speed demon pro jerkbait rod. Put a tatula ct on it and threw a yozuri jerkbait around for 4 hours. The combination worked great. caught several white bass and wipers on the upper hot side of the lake. water temp was 54 degrees. went to the cold lower end of the lake and caught these 2 bass. water temp was 49 degrees. No monsters, but still gave the new rod a decent workout. felt good to get out on the water after a week of unseasonably cold weather.

if you are using the original midwest finesse retrieves, the reel does a lot of the work. generally a slower gear ratio works better for me. With the faster reels I tend to move the bait too fast. from Ned himself: https://www.cjonline.com/sports/outdoors/2017-05-12/ned-kehde-discusses-benefits-midwest-finesse-style-fishing

Don't give up. the brain is amazing, on how it can heal and reprogram itself.

I retired three years ago. I have crazy dreams of work all the time. I used to program robots. I have one recurring dream about trying to program a robot and it picks me up and swings me around like a rag doll. Then I wake up. not sure what it means, but i have no desire to go back to work.

Scheels, in Overland Park Kansas, has a big display of Googan baits. they must be running a special. nearly all of them are $5.99. Did not see anything that piqued my interest. I will just stick to the baits I currently use.

speed demon pro is my favorite. 9.3 to 1 gear ratio and very smooth. Paired up with a speed demon pro jig/worm rod. I use it in summer, to drag big worms around.

Type KastKing reel in the search bar. there are a lot of threads on these reels

after looking at the picture again, I agree.

looks like the swim bladder to me. The meat of a stocker trout is usually light in color. wild trout usually have darker meat.

I have played around with a lot of different setups for the ned rig. I finally settled on a 7ft med light moderate action falcon BuCoo rod. $99.00 at Cabelas. I paired it with a KastKing sharky III in 2000 size. $52.00 on Amazon. It is loaded with 10lb power pro. I usually use a 6 ft. flourocarbon 8lb leader. In my opinion,this setup works near perfect for the Ned Rig. It can still handle larger fish, but is soft enough to not tear the small ned rig hooks free. I lose very few fish with this setup. It also casts a mile. In a pinch it makes a pretty decent dropshot setup.

one upgrade I heard this year is Minn Kota is upgrading their US2 transducer to pair with hummingbird down imaging. I believe it will be available on Ultrex, Terrova and Ulterra. I have the original US2 transducer on my Ultrex. I personally don't use it. I prefer the external puck for down imaging and better sonar imaging. it would be nice if it were enclosed in the motor. I broke 2 pucks in 2 years on trees and shallow rocks. The third one has some battle scars.

^^ This. Except I am no Clint Eastwood. Probably closer to Tuco. (Eli Wallach)

Shakyhead is number one. Second is a Dropshot with some type of finesse worm or a super fluke jr.. Lately a Zman Trick Shotz has produced. Winter is about the only time I use a Dropshot.

4 out of 5 of mine were from that same lake. I fished it hard this year.

It was probably my best year for quality fish. I was talking more about the guys in Florida, Texas, and California. where the Florida strain fish live. our bass are all northern strain.

Nice bass. Also some nice wipers. I was going to fish it Friday, but did not feel like dragging the boat down there through the snow. Hopefully this friday. I would imagine the water temp will be pretty cold by then.