senile1

They didn't show up last night. Come on Blues.

I use mostly the green gizzard shad and the orange belly craw. These were the colors I settled on when the baits first came out and they have worked well for me.

It is hell when a child dies. My children are all adults now and I always tell them that I am supposed to die before they do. My heart goes out to you, your daughter, and the family of Sam. What a hard thing to handle.

I will repair the end of a rod that has a parabolic bend such as a crankbait rod. You won't notice much if any difference with these rods. On the other hand, jig/worm/creature rods will typically be affected because they have fast/extra fast tips where the bulk of the bending occurs in the section of the rod near the tip. See diagram below.

I'm the same with the jig and probably fish it at times when I should be fishing a different lure. However, I'm not catching near the number of tanks you and your friends are in the video.

Nice fish!

Nice fish! It really swallowed that frog. When it decided to slurp it wasn't kidding around.

Yep. The word, hawg, was coined exactly for fish like that one! Goodness, what was the weight on her?

It looks like you've got a bass factory there, Shimmy. Awesome group of fish!

Fishing during a rain: No problem. Fishing during a thunderstorm: Make sure your life insurance is up-to-date.

That lake is an extraordinary example and is known for big fish. It is also more difficult to catch large numbers of fish in that particular lake. Many of our waters around here are lucky to have 10 - 15 percent over 15 inches, and some of the lakes have mainly 10 - 15 inch fish. I just wanted to show examples of these reports as they really help if you are wanting to look for larger fish.

It was nice to see the Blues get past the first round for a change, though they almost failed again. For a bit there, I thought they were going to blow it in the second round too. The San Jose Sharks are going to be tough. They have owned St. Louis in the past, similar to the Blackhawks. I hope the Blues can turn the tables like they did with Chicago in the first round.

Nice Hawg! Congrats.

That is a long fish! .

Those are some nice hefty fish. You guys continue to do well.

In Missouri the Department of Conservation provides annual prospect reports on many of the lakes they manage. In those reports they provide percentages of fish meeting specific lengths based on shocking samples. Below is verbiage from one of these reports for a lake known for large bass. . . . . contains a bass population that boasted almost 78 percent of the bass measuring over 15 inches, and 21 percent over 18 inches. Reports like this provide some idea as to the trophy-producing capability of a lake. Not all lakes have the same capability to support big fish resulting in a higher percentage of shorter fish. See the report excerpt for another lake below as an example. Recent surveys reveal high numbers of largemouth bass, with 25 percent of fish over 15” and 10 percent between 18 and 21”.

Although we have Blues, Flatheads, and Channel cats, I don't think we have that strain of yellow catfish in Missouri.

Sounds like a blast! Nice fish.

I was thinking about gators when I looked at the pics of you and your buddy standing on the bank. That's a nice hawg you got there! It sounds like a great day of fishing and exploring.

I don't mean to harp on the trim/tilt of the motor if that isn't the problem, but since you say that you know how to trim the motor are you sure your trim is working? When you look back at your outboard with the trim all the way down, the top of your outboard should appear to be tilted slightly away from the boat as in the diagram below (See the vertical line showing the tilt of the outboard). Once it comes out of the hole and goes on plane, then you trim it up which tilts the top of the motor back toward the boat while moving the prop away from the boat. Again, sorry to keep emphasizing that if you are sure your trim is working properly.

The OP is struggling to catch fish from the bank. Before I give the number of fish I typically catch from the bank I think it would be good to know what size of reservoir, pond, natural lake he is trying to fish. Why? If I fish a small 50 acre lake, at some point while traversing the bank, I should be able to occasionally find a spot where bass have structure and what they need close enough to the bank to catch some fish. However, if I am fishing a lake the size of Lake of the Ozarks with 1150 miles of shoreline there will be a lot of miles of that shoreline that do not have any fish. Only certain spots will have access to structure that bass use. There are some places on huge reservoirs where you can fish from the bank and never catch a bass.

Very nice fish, Jeff!

Nice report! You still caught some solid fish in those pics. You're right though. As soon as we think we have them figured out, they prove us wrong.

Nice! You gotta' love that topwater bite.

That may be but she is still a nice looking fish. With the girth she has, she doesn't need any exquisite markings. Very nice Fish!