Busy

I think some cheese cloth works better than nylon's. It's more environmentally friendly thats for sure. But really I don't use either. Be careful with your liver bait, cut it instead of ripping it and it should stay on the hook fine. I use big circle hooks with no barbs for catfish and they seem to have no problem holding chicken liver on. It's not all that frequent that the big guys will eat liver or worms. You want big flatheads use a whole fish. Shad works great but bluegill are heartier and will stay alive on the hook longer. You can also use cut sides from shad and bluegill. Found a channel cat one time in a big flatheads stomach that weighed a little over a pound (bigger bait, bigger fish). I've also had some success on channel cats using hot dogs for bait. Please let me know how cow tongue works if you try it

37# Flathead, caught out of Stranger Creek when it was flooded out. Shad sides. Biggest bass would be about 3#. I'm still learning. I've begun to catch more and more bass but just not bigger bass. So I keep going.

Hybrid between a white bass and a striped bass. They can spawn. http://www.grandfishingreport.com/pgs/lakeinfo/species/wiper/wiper.htm Here is some basic info on them. They look like a striped bass but their lines are broken.

I'm not from Texas but I'll put two cents in here. When the wind is up just enough to start some white caps in Eastern Kansas I notice that the Wipers start to get really active. I always catch decent wipers on windy days. Are you worried about being on a boat in rough water or you just don't like to fish when it's windy?

I fish from the shore all the time. I usually don't worry about distance that much. Most of the time while in a boat you cast right at the shore anyways. I generally fish the grass and weed beds that are in shallow waters. Find a corner of the lake with some shade and calm water and there should be some fish in there. When dusk hits and you see the fish popping the surface of the water I'll start casting out to where the fish are or a little past them. Then I'll slowly, slowly jig all the way back. Whatever bass you couldn't get out of the weeds are probably going out to feed in deeper water and you'll get them on their way out. I'm no expert and am open to suggestions also. I fish from the shore all the time and a lot of times only drop by the lake for the dusk part of the evening.

In another thread I noted as well that I think the fish tend to bite the best when the storm is coming in. I don't stick around for the lightning, but from about 30 minutes before it starts raining all the way into the decently heavy rains that the lightning comes with the fish will generally be very active. Seeing as how I don't have a boat, I don't fish a lot of lakes. I have noticed, however, that on the lake I fish (which is about 200 acres) the wipers start to go crazy when the tide gets rough, whether its raining or just very windy. I'm not sure about the lightning, but my advice is to stay far away from it.

I've really never heard of bass biting in the rain too much. It was my understanding that rains muddy up the water and that fish won't like to eat in the mud. If a big storm is coming, I always try to go fishing right up until it starts raining hard. Seems they know they'll be hungry for a day or so and try to fill up before it starts raining hard. As far as triggers go, I think that you have to fish the water too. More violent, or active water allows you to use bigger, louder, more violent lures. Calm waters require more subtlety. I think that movement and presentation are probably the biggest triggers there are for bass, and your presentation has to depend on the environment you are fishing.

Great post. I've been learning to never, ever think I'm hung up while fishing grass. You're not hung up, just getting into position . No jerking. Just gently work it out. As soon as you're free be ready to set the hook.

Ok, so if there are no standing trees to tell you where the channel is, you can find the drains and that will give you a rough idea of where the channel is. Having more experience with cat-fish I imagine that I typically ignore drains. We go straight for deep water most of the time. What are the benefits of knowing where the drains are for bass fishing? I don't know a whole lot about bass, which is why I'm here.

From my experience cutting, splitting, and burning wood for a wood stove, you should not have too much difficulty telling hardwoods from softwoods. Hardwoods should tend to keep a darker color also. Chances are if the tree is white or gray looking, it's a softwood. These are all excellent points. Also, now that I think of it most of the big hedge trees I've cut the past few years tend also to bend or fork over creek beds they are/were on. We follow treelines on lakes when we go for catfish because they help you find the channels. The bigger the tree, the closer to the channel it probably was. Also remember though that these are rules of thumb. In many lakes where the channels are huge and the channel drop-off can be 20-30 feet deep a lot of these trees you can use as indicators have actually wound up laying at the bottom of the channel. Especially in old lakes. I think fishfordollars mentions of drains would help more in this case, but I'm not quite sure what he means by a drain.

Sorry if I did not make myself clear. I do indeed want to learn more about identifying things in the landscape because I do not have all these little tech toys. Sure technology is nice but would you hike for 9 days with a GPS and not take a compass and map? No way. But I'd take a compass and map and forget the GPS easily. Especially if my destination is small and remote. A GPS will easily get you lost sometimes. Not like I'm seriously provoked or angry, just wishing more people would be talking about how things in the landscape effect bass and bass fishing, instead just claiming that people don't wanto to learn those things.

My biggest strength I feel is picking a lure/bait out of the box. Everyone always copies what i use. I believe this comes from fishing mountain trout for so long. And when was the last time you saw a bright pink or lime green bug in the water Keep it simple.

Thanks for all the help guys. Yesterday I went out and applied this information. I only caught 2 smallmouths but it was good because I didn't lose a single fish. That and I was fishing muddy water so I'm pleased. Thanks again!

I sort of resent where this thread is going! Lots of young guys like me go out fishing several times a week with no boat and no fish finder technology. We hike our way around the lake. Nothing makes my day like outfishing someone on a boat when they come in. I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about trees but I study the landscape at every body of water I go to. Valleys are easy to spot. Finding channels are a little bit trickier. I've been way more of a cat-fish guy but am trying to translate that knowledge into catching good bass. We find valleys and channels and hit the edges of them where cover is the most plentiful before the drop-off. I'm a bit tired of having to find vegetation and structure with my lures so please keep the information coming in this thread (without the throws to guys my age).

Jig may have been the wrong word there. I use big spinnerbaits like Strike Kings generally or Booyah. I use Sufix Siege 10lb mono line and a Quantum spinning reel on a 7' medium rod. I don't have a lot of money for a good set up but if all I could afford was a stick and some twine you couldn't keep me out of the water yet. I don't have any line problems at all and really dont pull up grass with the spinnerbaits. I just very slowly hop them up and down off the bottom and weave them through the weeds. I'll try keeping the rod tip down near the water also. I was thinking myself that would help but it's hard to break bad habits. That's why we keep practicing

I'm still fairly to new to fishing in Kansas for bass and I've been having a bit of trouble. Seems like since it's been warmer out the last few weeks about 1 out of every 2 bass I hook tries to take to the sky. I fish from the bank and run jigs through medium to heavy weed patches that are underwater. It's working great so far with one caveat. The bass that bite near the bottom of the lake swim straight out and up. They do a flip out of the water and after they flip my jig is usually out of their mouth. What are some techniques that could prevent losing fish this way? I'm thinking that when they hit the water top to either let the line out or pull down on the rod instead of up. When they get inverted the pressure i put on the hook my be pulling the hook out of the fish. Any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

HAHAHA nice try! KU JAYHAWKS K-State is in Manhattan .

Hello everyone. I've recently stumbled upon this site and already posted a thread in the "Other Fish Species" section of the forum that was very helpful. It's great folks like the ones here that get people like me coming back. A bit of background: I've fished trout in lakes and streams all my life in CO. Now I've taken to fishing in KS and boy is it a different game! I'm 21 years old and like to stay up late looking for big catfish. You may be seeing me around here a bit; seems like a great site! Most people should have a 3-day weekend coming up so maybe I'll see you all at the lake! Take care, Busy

We bowfish carp and gar at the big lakes around here every once in a while, but I can see the value of stocking grass carp in a pond. I'll be sure to leave him be, theres enough carp at the lakes to go after anyways . In fact, we actually consider carp to be kind of a nuisance species since they reproduce so prolifically and I've heard they compete with other fish. Honestly the dorsal fin looked more like that of a common carp. I'll get a snap shot of it sometime. Threw me a wrench because I've never seen an active carp or a carp in a pond before. Thanks for all the replies!

Thanks for the replies. I was guessing a carp also, but I can't figure what a carp would be doing in this pond. I'll have to ask the owner if he's thrown some in there from the lake.

I was recently fishing in some killer private ponds. They are loaded with largemouth bass, perch, bluegill, and sunfish. There's not a whole lot of structure but the pond I'm interested in is very secluded. While fishing my buddy kept screaming over at me asking "What is THAT in the water, you see it?" I said it was probably a beaver or an otter, but he wouldn't stop hollering. I finally went over there and saw a fat pig running around the top of the water. This fish must have been 2.5-3 feet long and was swimming on top of the water with his fin sticking above the water. He was just swimming all over on top hardly going below the water at all. I assume he was feeding as it was dusk out. My question is: what kind of fish would this be? The pond is only about an acre in size with only a small creek that runs into it. This fish has me very perplexed, any help figuring what it would be would be awesome. If the owner would let us keep fish I'd have shot it with my bow, but since I can't I need to do some diagnostics . Hopefully with your alls help I'll be back out there after this thing.