Russ E

If it is a large fish and you are flipping it onto the carpet of the boat I agree. on smaller fish I believe it is better to lift it into your hand and quickly release it. Less time stressing the fish while you are trying to grab it boat side or trying to net it. the two times that I did hook myself, it was trying to lip a larger fish at boat side. one was a jerkbait. the other was a crankbait.

if you want to take advantage of the chum fishermen. they often congregate just off shore of the rock creek campground at Perry in an area they call the hog trough. I have caught a lot of catfish around the area while bass fishing the rocky shoreline.

congratulations. Outdoor specialist sounds like a fun job

I also use these for the Ned Rig, but I use 1/16 oz. I like the bait keeper on these jigs. they have a slightly larger hook than the shroomz head and nearly all Walmarts around here carry them. I do sharpen these hooks before using them. sometimes they are not very sharp out of the package. Nearly any gopher/mushroom head will work for the ned rig. all you need is a good hook and a way to keep the z man bait on the hook.

I don't personally try to catch catfish very often, but I have caught a ton of channel cats and flatheads at Perry while bass fishing rocky shorelines with crankbaits. using rotten grain as chum is very popular at Perry. I have seen huge channel cats caught by the chum fishermen.

after reading the replies here I decided to learn the Alberto knot. much easier to tie than fg knot. seems strong and is relatively compact. thanks guys.

i made the decision to learn how to tie the fg knot this winter. It was a long road. I started out with large braid and flouocarbon, then worked my way down. after several failures I am now at the point that I can consistently tie 10 lb braid to 8 lb flourocarbon. the key for me was to have something to hold the mainline tag end. holding it in my mouth did not work well. I found this at Bass Pro. it attaches to your belt loop. we will see how it goes on the water. it is without a doubt the most streamlined and strongest knot I have ever tied. Goes through the rod guides nicely.

Nice. Fishing a Kansas reservoir with no drum, just doesn't seem right. Was it hard to launch the bass boat with the low water?

4.5 inch 1/2 oz jerkbait. Bite has been pretty slow for me.

the few fish I have caught this winter were on a white suspending jerkbait and a ned rig. we have hard water here. Hoping for a warming trend. A couple heavily fished power plant lakes are the only option until it warms.

here is a similar post that has ran for awhile

Last year my biggest largemouth was 5 lbs and my largest smallmouth was 4.5 lbs. Both were caught on a 6 inch trick worm on a shaky head.

I carry most of the time. if I am around others its usually my springfield XDM compact or S&W M&P 9c. I prefer not to draw attention, so i keep them concealed. If I am in the woods, it is usually my S&W 686 or my Sig emperor scorpion 1911. they go on my hip. I don't try to conceal them.

I live 5 minutes from Cabelas, 15 minutes from Bass pro, 1/2 hour from academy, and 1/2 hour from scheels. this time of year I spend quite a bit of time at all of them. While I buy a lot of tackle online,it's still nice to go into a store to see what is new. They all are similar in price, but carry different selections.

I have always owned firearms. Mainly for hunting. I have a carry permit, but rarely felt the need to carry. I had an incident at a stop light, near the Kansas city zoo 3 years ago, that changed my view on carrying. As my wife and I were waiting at the intersection, 2 men ran toward our vehicle. One toward the passenger door, one toward the drivers door. I immediately held up my Springfield XDM and yelled "this is not going to end well". They both turned around and ran. We immediately left the area. We were shaken, but luckily nobody was hurt. I still wonder what their intentions were and what would have happened if I were not armed.

I have only used the side imaging on hummingbirds. they work well if you get it setup correctly. my next fishfinder will have the hummingbird mega imaging. you have to move up to a 9 inch or larger for that.

i just use windows movie maker. If you have windows 10 or higher, you have to download it, but it is free.

i have owned both. Currently I have 2 helix 7s. To me it is like comparing ford to chevy. The GPS on my helix 7s are dead accurate. I have both Navionics and Lakemaster. On the lakes I fish, Lakemaster has a lot more detail. Navionics misses a lot of structure. If you are going to use side imaging, a 7 inch screen will give a lot more detail than a 5. I swapped a 5 inch side imaging helix for a 7 inch, because in my opinion the side imaging was useless on the 5 inch.

the Chatterbait is my go to vertical bait. I own all sizes, but 3/8 oz. gets used 99% of the time.

3. largemouth, smallmouth, spotted.

That is only partly true. If you use a good knot, like a shark knot, flourocarbon has a near 100%knot strength. I am not all that concerned about the sink rate of flouro vs copoly. The main reason I use flourocarbon is the sensitivity on a semi slack line, that you don't get with copoly or braid.

I agree. they have preformed better than all other brands I have tried.

it depends on what you have used in the past. I have used cable steer for over 30 years, so I went with the Ultrex. in regards to the auto deploy , the ultrex has the gas assist, so it is relatively easy to lift. I like being able to lift it in a hurry if I get into junk, which happens frequently in the waters I fish. in regards to auto trim, I don't recall a time where I needed it. I only use the remote control if I am retying or landing fish. then it is usually only to deploy spot lock.

KVD 1.5. sexy shad 90% of time.