Black Hawk Basser

In January I bought a pair of Cabela brand boots that are basically a knockoff from Muck's. They were around $50-60. So far, so good, except the insoles could stand to be replaced. I wore them a few times ice fishing, a lot around the yard doing chores when it has been muddy, and shoreline fishing quite a few times now. I will say that they are really warm on the feet when it gets above 60 degrees, though. Probably not the best mid-summer option for bogging around.

The lake near me is a bass factory, so it doesn't bother me if people keep some bass so long as they're not taking home and eating a huge one. But, when I see guys keeping smallmouths from the local river, that irks me. This is a small river, would be considered a creek to some people, and it cannot sustain the smallmouth population with people keeping numbers of them. There are plenty of walleye and catfish to take home if they really want to eat, and they're generally easier to catch.

Fun afternoon at the river yesterday afternoon. A friend and I hit a few different locations throwing plastics on jigs for whatever would bite. We ended up getting at least 12 walleye between us and I got the only two smallies. The one pictured was a decent one right before heavy rain started dumping on us. The walleye my friend has in the picture went 25". They were snapping at B Fish'n Moxies and Pulse-Rs.

Aaannndd now my head hurts.

I just take a quick photo of a nice fish with the lure still in its lip and try to also get a glimpse of sky conditions. I save it to Google Drive and name each picture as the date and other details that I can't see in the photo. I make a folder for each body of water and save each photo to the corresponding body of water. Doing it this way helps me look back each year and at least have a starting point on what to throw in conditions I've faced in the past. I've tried to keep a written journal before, but I didn't stick with it.

C'mon, guys, I told myself that I'm done buying plastics until I use up at least a half dozen or more packs. This is not helping me stave off the urge! I'm trying, this year, to have a net loss in plastics, rather than a gain. I don't foresee it happening, though, when I see on here the countless baits that I've never tried.

This early in the game (at least here in IA), I'd opt for a squarebill and a spinnerbait for moving presentations. They're still pre-spawn here, so I'd also be trying a jig/craw combo worked aggressively until they tell me that I need to slow down.

Walleye in river fight like hell, but they still don't compete with smallmouths. I've never tried hard bodied swimbaits for walleye, but use lots of paddle tail soft swimmers in rivers and lakes with some success. I catch most of my bigger fish on jerkbaits, crankbaits and flukes.

I would not get a jon boat. I had a 12 footer and could never stand up in that dang thing.

I definitely miss the Havoc line. I still have a whole bunch of Grass Pigs and use them often. I really will miss the Grass Pig Jr. They are a great budget-friendly trailer for swim jigs and spinnerbaits.

Bomber Square A, firetiger.

For me it would be a fluke.

I favor a jig more often than not. Only thing that stops me is too much slop. If conditions are ideal for it, I get out a spinnerbait as much as possible. In the river, I almost exclusively use squarebills. They catch everything that swims there.

I like the Mustad 32746. Strong and sharp. I'm sure there's better, but these are great at the price point. I use these for all ballheads for plastics and also do a lot of jig tying on them.

Early summer is when a guy can bust out about whatever he wants and catch some fish. It may be faster to list things that wouldn't be on an early-summer bait list. I use everything in early summer, but my use of anything with trebles (other than topwaters) backs way off due to the amount of vegetation in local lakes.

I would say that you're onto something fishing during the afternoons once you've given the sun some time to warm up the water a bit. It might be a time when fish activity is increased from a warming trend. Even better would be to fish during the evening after an unseasonably warm day or two.

My best pond baits are spinnerbaits, square billed cranks, jigs and a plethora of plastics rigged weedless on 3/0 or 4/0 EWG hooks. Plastics include creatures and worms for bottom contact; flukes and buzz toads for topwater duty. Generally, ponds I fish have a distinct weedline that forms a mat on the surface 10 to 20 feet out from shore. It makes it easy to visually target the weedline. Outside of the line gets the cranks and spinnerbaits, and inside/on the mat gets the plastic offerings.

I'd say my jig hop/drag motion goes from 10 to 12 o'clock unless I'm really wanting to rip it off the bottom. Sometimes being pretty aggressive with a jig works well post-spawn.

I use the Biffle Bug on the hard head swing jig that it was designed for. However, I've had a lot of success just Texas rigging, or weightless with a EWG hook.

100% agree. I generally add 10 MPH to the prediction just to be prepared for the worst.

Ha, that's why profile name is what it is.

Trying to play teacher with my boy out of school. Planted a bunch of veggies this week with my boy. Watched the NFL Draft, complained a fair amount about the Eagle's decisions. Watching The Last Dance, documentary on 97-98 Chicago Bulls. Watching What We Do In The Shadows (hilarious). General yard and house improvement stuff. Installed Helix 5 on the boat - next is another transducer and mount for the kayak. Keeping the wife happy however I can. ?

I used to fish a mixed bag, but I've fished bass more and more as of recent years. I just get more fun out of it than with other species. I will say that getting into bruiser catfish is something I try to do a few times each year. I get quite a few panfish through ice holes, so I stick to them in the winter.

Casting distance with a weightless Senko or knockoff shouldn't be a problem. As suggested, just use medium spinning gear. Especially if you are wacky rigging - there isn't a lot of hook to drive home considering that they're usually of the thin wire variety.

To me, wacky worming means just the worm and hook, and the worm is hooked in the middle. I see no reason to complicate it further. If something that drops faster will work better, I'll switch to a jig or T-Rig.