Bazoo

Looks like it's a Strike King? Pretty decent hooks, though they were rusty. I used a bronze brush on them and they are still sharp enough to use, with a little bite to them. My buddy caught a bass on it already.

Found this squarebill, cleaned it up, and gave to a friend. I haven't been able to ID it yet though. There are no markings on it, and I looked through Tacklewarehouse at their SBs and couldn't find a match. Anyone know what it might be?

I am over 30 pages into the thread now. Not really getting answers to the questions I posed yet, but I plan to go through the whole thread as there is plenty of good info there. I haven't tried drying my foam with a hairdryer yet, but I have doubts as I've seen other people saying they removed the foam and put in front of fan and it never did dry. Though... it may be that this is different foam than theirs. It's hard to research because I get lot of people talking about regular boats and not these bass busters. I'm considering breaking my boat in half, removing the soaked foam, and replacing it with the spray foam in a can. I would use plastic bags to capture the foam, and separate it into smaller sections. That would keep it from taking on water plus allow only sections of it be replaced if ever needed again. My boat is put together with rivets around the seam guard. I don't know if it's stapled below the seam or not. If I do take it apart, I'll use machine screws or Chicago screws to put it back together instead of rivets. I am, however, not going to do anything right now, as I'm still using the boat currently.

I've always thought that my short game was decent, but I realized the other day that it is better than decent. All that yard practice really pays off when you're fishing a bankline that is covered with brush from 30 feet. I was able to get right at the edge of the brush or under it and my fishing buddy was casting in the middle mostly.

Well, I'm up to page 32 now. I decided to work on adding some anchor locks to my Buster boat. I think I'll have to add some metal plates for them to attach to, which might become handy for other things as well. Here's what she looked like a few weeks ago.

I don’t get one every year. But I get one sometimes. I have some in the freezer from 3years ago. Learning how to freeze without freezer burn was a big thing for me. I learnt from a book called Game Care and Cookery by Sam Fadala. My boy and I both like it. I never found a way that I liked loin but I like meat well done. My boy likes it any way he can get it. I like roasts and stew and ground when it’s in helper or spaghetti. I wish I could figure out how to make deer sticks. A co worker had some years ago that were amazing. He had the processor make them.

Thank you! I just finished it, very informative, and good to hear again the things I already knew.

Thank you for that link, that is a good read.

Congratulations, on a nice one! I like roast.

Congratulations. Pretty awesome!

Just reading about the cookies has me hooked!

Wow, what a horrible shame, she was a beautiful old fish. Thanks for sharing with me, I'd not seen that. Second link; third picture is heart rendering to see her just wanting to go back home. I couldn't have done it. I'd have had to let her go.

Thank you for sharing. That's good info to know. I'd like to read about that study, do you have a link to it, or an idea of the name or people involved?

I don't know the Lake Erie SM record story. Do you hold it? Or, do you just know the story?

Thanks for sharing, that was pretty informative. I've never gotten into burning spinnerbaits, but I will have to give it a try.

Pretty wild man! Thanks for sharing. I have a friend who saw a bass grab a bat that was skimming the water for bugs.

That's sad news that in some places there is no way to catch, record, certify, and release a record fish. Not sure that I'd want to kill it. I'd probably take some video of the measuring and weighing and then release it, and use the video to draw attention to the issue. I'd have the "unofficial" record, and with a decent video perhaps enough attention to be able to get the laws changed to prevent the killing of record fish. I wasn't sure about the legality of transporting live fish in Kentucky, as I'd never thought of that aspect before. I did a search and found this https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/301/001/125/ section 2 gives exceptions, and includes sport fishermen that have caught fish. So I believe Ky anglers would have a chance to keep a trophy fish alive through the process.

Miss Crickety... your screen name begs the question: do you fish with crickets?

In this state, you have to have it weighed on a certified scale with 2 witnesses, and the fish has to be inspected by a biologist to certify species. Keeping a list of certified scales in your area would be a good idea. Post offices and grocery stores have certified scales, where else? You need to find out where your local biologist is, and get his number and keep it handy. More than one biologist would be a plus in case he's gone. To keep it alive, you would need a holding tank, have all the info you need for all the people you need to contact, and be on point to get it done as quickly as possible. I would like very much to know what tank size would be needed. I'd guess a 300 gallon tank would suffice. Knowing bass normally go no longer than 3 days without eating, I'd say you have 3 days to get it all taken care of and the bass back in its home waters. A very interesting subject, thanks for asking. I look forward to hearing what others more knowledgable will suggest for keeping a record fish alive through the process.

Thanks for the responses all. Lets say after 30 minutes it's time to change lures. Do you change to something else that is in the same aggressiveness range or do you go straight to soft plastics and slow way down? The fact that I like spinnerbaits is one reason I use them, but also, I've often found that they will produce when nothing else I try will. So, I do have a lot of confidence in them that's for sure. I do fish many things I don't have confidence in, and I think i'll use the 15-20 minute rule with those lures before I move on.

Not sure of the brand of the inline spinner, but it was freshly lost in a bush right next to where I'd lost my spinnerbait the trip previous. A friend bought it for me at our stop before the trip. I had been fishing from the bank and snagged it on the 3-4 cast. I was able to tie it off in a concealed manner and it was still there when I went back with the boat. I commenced to fish it a spell and caught a bass.

For a heavily pressured pond/lake, how much difference does it make to get away from shore when most of the pressure is from shore anglers? On Freeman Lake, there are a couple of stretches that are easily accessed and thus very popular and heavily fished shore areas. I've had seemingly better luck (but not a huge amount better) when I took the boat and got out past casting distance. There is also more cover there, falldowns, stumps, and grass. If there's that much pressure from shore, how leery does it make the bass close to or semi-close to those spots? I've had a little bit of luck from shore, mostly with weightless Texas Rigged Zoom Lizards. I've caught 1 or 2 fish there on spinnerbaits, caught a couple on a swimbait, and had a strike on the Whopper Plopper, but he shook it. To add to the clues as to what others are using, I caught one on a topwater frog out in the middle, though it's only 5' deep there. I don't think there are a lot of frogs in this part, and I don't think many people would use a frog there, thus probably something they don't see much. Anytime I get the chance to talk to other anglers or check out what they are using, I do so. I see a lot of topwater, a lot of soft plastics. I find a lot of cranks and spinners (both inline and spinnerbaits) and a lot of topwaters like poppers and Whopper Ploppers. I've heard many people say they've never caught a fish in there, or that they have never seen anyone catch anything. Indeed there has been many days I've gotten nary a bite for 3-4 hours of fishing, but I recognized right off that the pressure put on it will make them mighty tightmouthed. I also recognized that it's a good opportunity for me to learn and grow as a bass angler.

Thanks for this video @Glenn. You said at about 6:15 to figure out the water column they are biting on and then target that water column for the rest of the body of water. Have you ever seen the fish be in a particular water column, say 15' on one area, and then be biting in a different depth, say 8' on another area of the same pond or area of the lake? Like, for example opposite sides of the pond or of a bay? If so, why? Was it due to structure? Light penetration? Current? Or has it ever been the case without any apparent reason?

Thanks for the responses. @Glenn thanks for the video. Most of the time, I expect a bite on every cast, and I still have confidence with my spinnerbait or other lures I'm using. It takes me hours without a bite for me to get to the point to where I feel it's not working and I should change. That is the basis for my question. I anticipate a fish much longer than say, my wife, or my buddy. After 2 hours without a bite, I'll try something else, then I give that an hour, then try something else a while. There has been several occasions that we fished for a couple hours, and the wife finally talked me into leaving because the fish weren't biting, and I caught one as I was fixing to pack up and leave. So my experience tells me to stay with it.

I have an older rod that had guides that do not have inserts. They are all metal, stainless steel I think. I wonder how braid would do with one of those? For the record, I'm not planning to use it for braid, but I am just curious if the all metal guides would hold up.