wanderful

I went searching the forums for wacky rig hooks and found this old post a month ago. I just tried these out for the first time and they're GREAT! Are you still using them?

Where do you currently fish, and what part of the KC area are you in?

How did your trip go?

I went this morning for the first time and had poor luck. Caught a small LMB in grass on the SW side but no bites anywhere along the dam or the inlet to the plant.

Over the weekend I picked up a 4lb pond mama on a chatterbait, and a 6lb cat on a spinnerbait.

Hi all, my wife and I live in KC and want to spend a weekend trout fishing for our upcoming anniversary. We've never fished for trout before, but we've read about Bennett Springs, Roaring River and Meramec. We're unsure where to start. I'm hoping to get some recommendations from the folks on this forum: Which park (or other location) would provide an easy starting point for two beginners? Do you have any recommendations for hotels/air bnbs? What gear should we be taking? We have 5' and 6'6 ULs - what lures should we be using? Thanks for any advice you can provide!

Looking at BFS reels on Tackle Warehouse, they almost all only offer gear ratios around 8:1, which all have around 28-32 ipt. Why is that? Do smaller moving baits not suffer from higher ipt?

Man, I'm embarrassed to ask this question but: What does it mean for a lake to be hard to figure out? Is that just where the fish are and what do they bite?

Great to know I don't need the joco permit for Olathe or Black Hoof! Thanks!

Hi Bluebasser86, resurrecting a 10-year old thread here: Do you still make it out to Jacomo? I'm out in Grandview, and I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a $30 resident boating permit for Jackson county or shell out $127 to be able to kayak fish the Johnson county lakes as a non-resident. I've had great luck at SML, Black Hoof and Olathe in the past, but I kind of want to save some money this year and try out the local MO lakes.

Great insight, thank you!

I'm looking for my first jerkbait rod but am having trouble finding something appropriate for my height. I'm 5'7" and mostly fish from a standing kayak or bank, neither of which give me significant clearance over the water. In my searching, it seems the vast majority of jerkbait-specific rods are 6'8" or longer, but I feel like I should be targeting something 6'3" or shorter. Can any bank-fishing short fellas weigh in here? Have you comfortably gotten away with a longer rod?

This was it! I had the black cables hooked up to the black contacts, and red cables hooked to the red contacts on the battery. When I swapped it so that it was black-red, black-red it suddenly worked! I'm confused because I had thought you always connect the same colors, but clearly not with this battery ? Thanks for the advice!

Great question - there's nothing connected except the power cable for the fishfinder. I called Garmin support and they think it's the cradle or power cable, so are shipping out new ones. I'll update this thread of that resolves the issue.

I checked the battery and cables - it's all red and red and black on black, which I think means the polarity is correct? Anywhere else I should check?

Would that just be at the battery, as in positive and negative switched?

I'm struggling to figure out why I can't power on my fishfinder, and I'm hoping the sharper and more experienced minds of this forum can help me make traction. Here's the situation: I recently purchased a Garmin Echomap UHD 93sv with GT54UHD transducer. I also purchased an Amped Outdoors 15Ah LiFePO4 battery to power it. My multi-meter is reading 14.5V at the battery, at the end of the power cable, and at the pins of the fishfinder cradle. The headunit needs 12V to power on, so I can confirm I'm getting enough power to the cradle. When I plug the head unit into the cradle, even though the cradle is getting 14.5V, it will not power on. This seemed like the issue would be a bad headunit or cradle. I took the headunit and cradle to Scheels to test on their power and confirm. I plugged the headunit and cradle into a demo station and the headunit powered on as soon as I hit the on button. So I'm at a loss. The issue clearly isn't the cradle or headunit, since it turned on at the store. So it must be my wiring setup, or my batter, right? But I'm reading 14.5V from the battery all the way to the cradle. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

These posts were very helpful, thank you everyone!

Hello! I recently purchased a Dobyns DC 736CB Glass and Shimano SLX XT 150 to serve as a dedicated chatterbait/crankbait/spinnerbait setup. I bought a roll of 20# Seaguar Tatsu to serve as the main line because I read Brett Hite uses 20lb fluoro for chatterbaits. While I was Googling to see if there were any cons to running mono backing, I ran across a few articles strongly recommending against running any straight fluoro over 8#. I run 30# braid to 15# fluoro leader on my jig rods so I don't mind doing the same for this rod and reel, but I wanted to check with the collective knowledge of BassResource before I made any decisions. What do you think? Will I run into significant issues by going straight 20# fluoro (w/ mono backing)? Should I return the roll and go back to 30# braid with a 15# fluoro leader? Thanks!

How crucial is balance in a drop shot combo? I recently purchased my first drop shot rod, a Dobyns Sierra SA 692SF, and put my old Daiwa BG 2500 on it. I want to upgrade to a nicer reel, but even at 9.3oz the BG 2500 balances farther forward of the reel seat than what's comfortable for me. I have small hands and have to use all 4 fingers in front of the reel seat to reach this balance point. I keep reading that balance is important for greater senstivity in finesse applications, but I'm having a hard time observing this better sensitivity when holding this rod at the balance point versus my usual grip (2 fingers in front of the real seet). Would a nicer, lighter reel be a detriment to this setup? Should I even go so far as to purchase a heavier reel to help balance the setup? Am I overthinking this? Thanks!

Any chance you'd share that local lake? I'm on an awful dry spell and would love to visit a body of water that might increase my luck - even if they're just dinks.

What lakes do you drive out to that give you better results and are any doable in a kayak? I've been having awful luck at Longview Lake and some ponds around it, and feel like I need to explore some other areas.

Your last paragraph is a great question. I've only ever used FG, alberto, and double uni - FG is the only knot that smoothly comes through the guides for me. It could be user error, but my alberto and double uni both get snagged on the top guide edge when I'm landing a fish. I can force them through, but I love the FG's ability to smoothly run past the edge of my guide. What knot would you recommend most for thinner diameters like what I'm running?

Great advice, thank you! I will work on my tension, and try a fewer number of loops.

I've recently changed over to a new braid and FC setup using matching diameters, but my FG knots fail when I try to cinch it. I had zero issues on my old setup, and I'm wondering if the diameter difference had something to do with it. New setup, matching diameters: 30# Seaguar Smackdown (.011) w/ 15# Seaguar FC Premier (.011) Old setup, thinner braid: 20# Daiwa J-braid (.009) w/ 10# Seaguar Red (.010) My old setup was barely mismatched, but is it possible that having a thinner braid helps to dig into the FC more effeciently? Could it be something else, like material type? Am I just a terrible knot-tyer, and I need to improve? I've since swapped over to an alberto knot, but it hangs on my top guide when landing a fish which is kind of annoying.