Busy

picked up a few megabass lures at a decent price at the sports show yesterday at bartle hall in KC anyone else go?

This. If you run a dog on a rabbit the rabbit will usually circle pretty tight. If you just stand in one spot he will eventually come back to you.

I will be going to Hillsdale for the first time ever in mid-April hopefully to run my new pup in a Hunting Test. Will be hard to get down there without fishing!

Welcome! There are a great group of guys here from around the KC area. Check out the regional forum if you get a chance.

They will eat them

I like baby rage craws on the bitsy bug. I like baby rage craws on nearly every other kind of jig too though. I lost my last bitsy bug jig at Melvern and will have to pick up some more! Had a nice strike from a smallie, set the hook, felt the jaw and when I went to lift him off the bottom I got zebra musseled. My favorites are the 3/16oz. Green and Cajun Craw colors paired with a Bama Craw color Baby Rage Craw trailer. I like this color trailer a lot. With the bright belly you can rig it upside down to fish on the bottom in dark water. I also feel confident swimming this combination. If I am throwing black and blue I will usually switch to a 3/8oz. jig. I have always been told that big hooks catch big fish but small hooks catch small & big fish. Nothing wrong with small baits in my opinion so long as you aren't straightening hooks out in fish.

Retro and I hit Perry today. The water was like glass and we had bluebird skies. He landed a few good LMB and a drum; I got skunked and missed a few. Had the day off today & couldn't take not catching a fish so I hit up LV this evening & finally hooked up with one but missed a few others! Not sure why I couldn't connect with them lol.

I use 20# braid at .009" diameter which is like the diameter of 5# mono. Is it the opaque green that is the problem or the line diameter?

I don't know about graduating to other baits, or TRigging worms being lazy baits. Not sure the shakey head is a "better technique" because it "tests your skills." It may just be that the fish are biting TRigs one day and Shakeys the next! In farm ponds I like to use a bigger profile worm. Maybe 8" in length. We used to lift haybales up with the tractor and get the worms out from underneath them that almost look like snakes and they would have yellowed undersides. Definitely not the canadian nightcrawlers you buy out of the gas station fridge. I always like to use worms that mimic these when fishing farm ponds, TRigged of course. The wacky rig and drop-shot I think of as vertical presentations and may not be the best choice if you are fishing from the shore. Pond bass (as I'm thinking of a pond) don't have the forage that lake bass do and I think that ponds have more personality. Fishing lakes if you can find the bass you should be able to get them to bite. In ponds finding the bass usually isn't the issue but getting them to bite is. There will often be a few specific things they will decimate and then ingnore almost everything else. Especially in ponds I stick to mimicking the natural forage.

Darker waters will have darker inhabitants. In muddy and stained water I used dirty craw colors or black. If these don't work a lot of times chartreuse will. More than color, in dark water I think it may be more important to make your bait profile larger, move more water with your spinners, or add rattles or beads to make a little noise. My go to in rain is raindow trout on topwater, but I couldn't tell you why, just seems to work.

I'm not sure it this will work for you but I use the Spyglass app on my iPhone. I've read mized reviews on iPhone GPS accuracy, but it uses radio tower triangulation as well as GPS systems so it has additional data that standalone GPS doesn't have. I think it cost $5.

It is a BPS XPS Lazer Eye 5 1/2" Minnow from ~2000 I think Now they have the Quiver Round Tail Minnow but not in this color http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-XPS-Quiver-Round-Tail-Minnow/product/44686/

Lol only a few times on trebles and when the law requires it for trout

they are vintage fred arbogast hawaiian wiggler blades & I dont want to lose them so I will put them on braid but Im too curious not to try them, likely from the 40's or 50's

Thanks blue I have some larger size roadrunners I should be able to use. I'm getting around to rigging up and I found a few old blades I didn't know I had and that if it got really windy I'd run something like this: although Ive never tried it before...

Is there a list of what people are bringing? I can bring something but I can wait and see what would be needed. Of course I'll bring some beverages for myself and a bottle opener I don' t have the tackle you all do but I do have a few things I'm going to try based off of what this thread says and my personal confidence lures. At the moment I'm thinking: white w/ pink tail grubs on bettle spins, crappie spins, or crappie jig heads white 4-5" senkos silver bellied cranks up to 9' of course I have my regular tackle besides this to try and get to work as well With all the talk on starting early for a topwater bite I don't know what I should pick up but am planning on running to cabelas before the trip what I have for topwater I would mainly consider to be "dusk" baits... any recomendations? I dont know much about smallmouth but I'm planning to fish for them like crappie depending on where retro puts the boat cant wait to meet everyone and try to learn a thing or two!!!

Yup the north ramp has been blocked off by a cone all year. It would be un-wise to ignore it!

Agree! All I do is test the drag by hand. If its not enough you can use your hand for drag like Snook said. I don't think there's any harm in tightening the drag star while a fish is on but I have lost a good fish before by doing this because I wasn't being conscious of my line size Pretty frustrating to lose a fish from "over-dragging" your line. This is why I would not lock my drag. I jig fish a lot and swing on lots of stumps and bumps when trolling; I tend to think my gear appreciates a looser drag. I mainly fish 20# suffix elite braid and would guess my drag is ~4-5lbs, enough for fish but not too much for snags. I can respect your game in having fun traveler but to me if I wanted to bass to have a chance at getting away I wouldnt put hooks in front of him in the first place xD

I think the lake has maintained its level ok. Your trailer tires will probably not be on the ramp but it should be ok on the ramp that is open. The open ramp goes from concrete to rocks but the "drop-off" should be further out. Just go slowly and be sure to double-check! I have seen a few glass boats with big motors wreck props leaving the ramp this year, but haven't seent people with aluminum boats that require less water have trouble. I did hit a rock myself but it didn't damage anything. Forgot to go straight back! There isn't room to maneuver there that's for sure.

How was it?

I live about 5 minutes from there. We fish the second cove in the NW arm by where the feeder is. I would agree with cranks, although its not my strong area AT ALL. Have mainly caught a bunch of dinks in that lake with shallow running cranks (2-5'). Be careful going east from the feeder, there is a tree just under water ~30-40' from shore that you could hit the limbs on (wouldn't be an issue if the lake wasn't so slow) and the water is muddy. Most of the good fish I catch from there come from spot fishing deeper water in either of the arms (10-15') with jigs or senkos. Chartreuse senkos or dirty craw jigs are my personal choice. In the NE arm, on the North end of it there are some brush piles that can be productive. All the brush they put down this year I think is still above the water!

That the same lake as Eskridge? I've heard it's good for catfish and have wanted to fish it for awhile now. Thanks for the report.

I was fishing for catfish bait one time using a cane pole to catch some bluegill out of a pond. Caught a bluegill and when I was lifting him out of the water a bass inhaled the bluegill and I pulled them both out.

I have an iPhone and have been looking at Fishing Log Applications. Something that automatically records weather and moon phase with entries would be great. Has anyone tried these apps and what do you prefer? I've looked mainly at the Strike King, Jimmy Houston, and MyFishingPattern apps. I really like the idea that Real Fishin has but it would be great if you could do it on the spot!

I think retro basser and I are going to pair up in his boat.