Russ E

This is just my opinion. I do not use a snap swivel on anything. In the past I have lost nice fish because of snap failures. with all of the other variables in fishing, I don't want to add another failure point. I do use crane swivels on a Carolina rig.

i think people put too much emphasis on time of day when fishing. I go whenever I have time. you can usually trigger a bite any time of day. I have caught most of my larger fish between noon and 3pm. most people are not on the water that time of day around here.

as everyone before has mentioned, you should be covered. I use medium heavy casting rods 90% of the time. the one place I tend to lean toward medium action rods is on smaller lakes. Around here these lakes tend to be clearer and there is less cover. Even though I only use medium action rods 10% of the time, the last 4 big bass I have caught has been on medium action bait casters with 12 lb fluorocarbon line.

had a good trip to lake shawnee today. water was pretty dirty from last nights storms, but fish were biting. all fish were on main lake points. caught a mixed bag of largemouth and smallmouth. most were on a chatterbait and swimjig. caught a couple on a neko rig. largest bass was 18 1/4 inches long 2lb 14 oz. it missed my chatterbait. Caught it on a follow up cast with a ned rig. tried a lipless crankbait, but the drum would not leave it alone.

i also use both also on pressured lakes. the ned rig can catch big fish, but you have to catch a lot of small ones in the process. This year the Neko, with a 6 inch trick worm, has produced some good sized fish for me. I use it in the same places as I would fish a shakyhead. a lot of the time the Neko will catch more than the shakyhead.

I agree with this. I have noticed a raw thumb is based on number of fish lipped, over time of year.

I would try a Ned rig. If there are any bass in the area, you should be able to catch a few.

I agree. Add a twin tail grub and a creature/craw style of bait. You should have it covered. You don't need trailers with a lot of action. The vibration of the blade will give the trailer plenty of action.

I just turn on the front camera of my phone, stand it between the seats, set the timer. I then step back until I can see myself on the screen and wait for the timer. may not be professional looking , but it is good enough for me. all of the pictures I have posted were taken this way.

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/hook-set-jig.html I have done this for years. It does work.

People using the boat ramp for non boating activities. My home lake is big with eagle and osprey watching. One time last year, there was a lady parked right in front of the boat ramp, filming an osprey eating a fish. I politely asked her to move, so I could launch the boat. I was told she was not going anywhere, until the osprey was done. I walked down the ramp and gently coaxed the osprey to move along. The lady was screaming at me as she drove away. Still wonder if I am on film, scaring away an osprey.

Thats what side imaging does. In a new area, I will make a pass running the big motor, to scan an area. My side imaging can accurately see around 100 feet on each side of the boat. you can find brushpiles, weed edges, etc. then mark it on the gps map and drive right back to it. Once you learn how to use it. it will change how you fish. I learned how to fish using a basic sonar flasher. The technology available today is incredible.

if you have a decent fishfinder and know how to use it. You can get a pretty good picture of what is under you in less than 10ft of water. Most of my bass fishing is in 15 foot of water or less. I rarely use it to find specific fish, but I am constantly watching it for contour change, weedbeds, brushpiles, trees, and everything else that is in the water. If you add GPS, down imaging, and side imaging it can be a valuable bass fishing tool. It definitely helps me eliminate unproductive water.

Kansas is bad also. heard on the news that 20% of all ticks around here are infected with either Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. I had a suspect tick bite during turkey season and was given 2 weeks of antibiotics just in case. I now do not venture in the outdoors without spraying all of my clothing and equipment with Sawyers Permethrin the night before.

Nice bag of fish. looks like he was having fun. I was going to fish that lake today, but there was a chance of thunderstorms, so I decided to stay close to home.

had my best day ever at Wyandotte lake today. 5 fish string that weighed over 16 pounds. these were the largest 3 5lb 7oz. 4lb 2oz. 3lb 8oz. also had 2 1.5 lb bass. and several sub legal fish. caught everything pretty shallow on a green pumpkin swimjig

my biggest bass of 2018 21.5 inches 5lb. 7oz. on a swimjig

I am revisiting this post because, after trying nearly every hook available, my hookup and land ratio for wacky rig and neko rigs is terrible. to the point I did not use these 2 rigs very often. today I bought some 1/0 VMC neko hooks and decided to try them out on my home lake. they do not look like anything special, but have a high rating from nearly all websites. My home lake has a lot of small bass that are nearly always eager to bite. I spent 3 hours today using only these new hooks with the neko and wacky rig. had 13 bites and landed 13 fish. the largest was 2.5 lbs. that is by far the best hookup ratio I have ever had with these 2 rigs.

I have used both aluminum and graphite framed casting and spinning reels for 30 years. have not had one problem with flexing in that time. I buy a reel on how it feels. Don't care if it is graphite or aluminum.

In spite of having 3 nice Smallmouth jump and throw my swimjig today, I had a blast at Lake Shawnee. No giants but,pretty consistent all day. Caught Smallmouth on rocky shorelines on a swim jig and a shaky head. Caught Largemouth on points and around docks on a wacky rig and a ned rig.

I agree. A mess of fried frog legs is hard to beat.

this is a savage 3d shine glide. looks nice , but I could not catch a fish with it.

After reading this I had to look up goggle eye. Didn't know what that was. when I lived in Iowa we called them a warmouth. Perry is loaded with those things. they will hit nearly anything that swims by. I have caught them off of baits twice their size.

same here. I have never caught a fish on the glide bait. It is not for lack of trying. I watch @bluebasser86 catch toads on glide baits, in winter, on his youtube channel. I fish the same lakes he does, but can't catch a fish on glide baits. last time I tried one, I lost it in a brushpile on the first cast of the day. One cast cost me $20.00. after that I gave up.

only bad days I have had is if the boat does not work. if I am able to fish it is a good day.