KC Bass Fanatic

Spro popper in natural green, leopard, or black.

We fish Longview on Wed nights (6-9:30). The bite is tough but not terrible. This is a great group of guys, I highly recommend it.

Shallow - Norman Fat Boy Mid - Norman Deep Little N, Bandit 200 Deep - DD22

Buy a few different brands and try them out. You will find one you're comfortable with. As for hookup ratios, body softness, etc - man that is just fishermen's excuses. I've used every frog on the market ad nauseum and they all work pretty much the same. Some of my Spro's take on water after 2 fish, some last for 50 fish. Same with the other manufacturers. I don't see a decreased hookup ratio from one brand to another either. If you wait on them and put the hammer down with the right equipment, you will hook them most of the time. Good luck!

I stick with natural colors 95% of the time. Not sure on the braid color - all I use is green and it works great.

I've been all over the Havoc Pit Boss since day 1 and they are great. I like the RI Double Wide Beaver in thick stuff or at night.

I think some have spawned and some are yet to spawn. I would imagine the major push is over but there will be another surge this next full moon. There are fry up shallow so that indicates many have spawned already.

Was down this past weekend to put my boat on the water primarily. Threw some jerkbaits around on points with marginal success. Caught 2 small keepers on a secondary point. I was throwing the Luck E Strike RC STX. Other than the completely junk split rings and hooks, I'm impressed with these. So you're basically paying $8 for a darn good blank jerkbait and you'll need to put $1 worth of good hardware on it. Still $9 not bad and they catch. Water on the main lake 42-44 degrees and really clear (4+ ft visibility).

I have had good success with green, green/brown, green/black up through the spawn. The jerkbait bite is always really strong all Spring as well. Good luck.

Because of the number of pitches/flips you make in a day of fishing when the fish are tight to cover, the most important thing IMHO is one that is comfortable in your hands. My flipping setup might suck for you and vice versa. Go to the tackle shop and put the reels on the rods and handle them. It won't be the same but you'll know pretty fast if the balance is off, it's way too big/heavy, etc. I'm a shorter guy so I use a 6'10" MH action stick. I rarely use a heavy action stick because where I live it's unlikely you'll hook up w/ a fish over 6lb. MH does all I need it to do. I use high speed reels for wood cover and low speed for heavy grass in case I have 5lb of bass and 10lb of milfoil, I need the power to horse them out.

Zoom trick worm and baby brush hog for me here in the Ozarks.

So you know how each is put together? At this point, no one knows the difference in manufacturing. I have to assume that Rick 'borrowed' the 3D models and brought them w/ him to LS. If so then the construction is exactly the same and the cost savings would be from component selection or LESS MARK UP. Hooligan I'm not taking shots at MegaBass fishermen, I own some myself. My point is that every time I bought one I would cringe at how much profit they HAD to be making. And based one what? Superior construction? Or components? I'd venture to say the Rattlin Rogue catches just as good for $5 in the right setting. To me they all have their place; RC, McStick, Rogue. I just hope for the average fisherman that the LS baits turn out to be just as good so that the market price gets driven down. By dismissing LS wholesale as junk or unreliable we enable MegaBass et al to continue to take us behind the wood shed every time we buy a jerk bait. I'm not for Luck E Strike, I'm for keeping quality baits affordable for the ones who buy 95% of them - the average Joe weekend angler.

I fished the RC STX this past weekend and I see no difference. Both of mine suspend perfectly and I caught multiple fish with no issues w/ the rings or the finish coming off. Anyone who tells you they are not as good as the Megabass is just mad that they have a box full of $25 jerk baits that are now severely over priced. Most guys I know that fish the megabass (including me) order them blank and put the rings and hooks on them so replace the stock rings/hooks on the RC and it's the same bait. Haters will hate but I won't buy another $25 jerk bait.

I believe some part of the answer will be provided by each lake you fish i.e. time on the water. I fish Table Rock frequently and black/blue definitely does not work as well as natural colors during daylight hours. That said, on a cloudy/rainy day black/blue does well.

Like others here I carry 2. A BPS telescoping and the "hound dog" style. Between the 2, I get 99% of my lures back.

I have a Rapala and it doesn't hold it's edge very well. My go-to fillet knife is the Rapala electric. It can be powered from a wall outlet or your boat battery and it is absolutely awesome. You won't beat it for speed and it never needs sharpening.

I know this is an older post but I recently made some A-Rigs using piano wire, some wire crimp butt connectors and some solder. I used Walmart swivels. My version has no weight at the axis but it still casts a mile w/ (4) 3" swim baits (1/4oz each) and tracks pretty true in the water. I've caught fish on it w/ no issues of loosening/slipping/etc. I had to play with the wire length because the swimbaits kept getting fouled up w/ each other. The best length I found is 7-8" - no longer! I will post some pics this weekend. I know it sounds cheesy but it's pretty sweet and it catches so that's all I care about! Cost of parts ~$5-6 Time to make <10 minutes each

Broke the tip (just below the top guide) off of my 7'M Vendetta. I want to replace the tip but don't know what tip to get. My local BPS has some really cheesy Fuji repair kit w/ tips. I went to Fuji's website and they have some nice replacement tips but you need to know the ID of the ring and the OD of the rod. Anyone have this info? And anyone have experience w/ aftermarket Fuji tip tops?

x2. I use P-Line 100% and XPS fluoro and both get weak spots if backlashed.

Fished this past weekend on the Pomme. Bite was slow in the mornings with fish coming early on topwater (buzzbait, popper) and crankbaits (squarebills, med divers). Evening was much better. Saturday afternoon my 5 best keepers were ~15lb w/ a 5lb 14oz kicker. All came on a squarebill in <3' in the 30 minutes before dark. This time of year on the Pomme just find shallow stumps w/ deep water nearby and chuck squarebills until you find them. If you catch one in an area, saturate every stump from all angles. As with any lake, a lot of it is trial and error until you get a few "proven" spots. My experience on Pomme - the best spots for each season produce year in and year out. Lake is 1.5-2' low. Water stained up the rivers ~2' visibility 55-57 degrees lake wide.

OMG you're right. I totally forgot about that. I should give the money back. I was unintentionally breaking the law on the Lindley Arm btw

Just got back from a week down at Pomme and fishing was fair. Most of my fishing was low light or at night due to the heat. Fish are on stumps in 10' of water but that bite is hit and miss. Bluffs, main lake points, and brush piles in 10+ ft of water are your best options. I was averaging 5-10 keepers every time out but I had to scratch and claw for those. My best bite is still a shaky head jig w/ a creature bait or finesse worm in 15' of water on points. DD22 bite is decent on points and ledges in 15' of water and these fish are usually 15+ inches. Fished a tournament Sat night 6pm-midnight. Took 1st w/ only 9lbs. I caught 10 keepers and culled 5 times for 9 measly pounds. Tough bite.

Sorry boys - it's been a while since I posted. I've been down nearly every weekend for the past 2 months. Lake level is at normal and has been for a few weeks. Once the level dropped below the brush line the fish pulled back to traditional summer Pomme patterns; points, ledges, bluffs, brush piles, etc. There was a decent crankbait bite a couple weeks ago but that has dropped off for me. Could be that I need to crank new locations but I'm on fish and they don't want a crankbait. For numbers, I'm catching most of my fish on a shakey head w/ a plastic creature bait in 8-15' of water on the main lake ledges. Some secondary points are producing in 3-5' of water but only in low light. For quality I'm getting 3-4lb class fish early and late on bluffs right on the bank with jigs or creatures. One of my go-to summer patterns of flipping stumps in 3-10' of water is not producing yet. If you're in a tourny or just looking to fill the livewell your best bet is find a main lake ledge w/ a brush pile or some chunk rock and toss a small plastic creature bait or trick worm parallel along the ledge. I've put 10+ keepers in the boat every time out for the past 3 weeks doing this.

I have a weekend place down there so I'm down quite a bit. They're not on the timber yet - strangely. Brush piles, ledges, and points early and late are producing limits w/ jigs and plastics. There was a good crankbait bite a couple weeks ago but that has fallen off for me. Good luck!

Every reel I own is spooled with various lb test of one of these: Suffix Performance Braid P-Line 100% Pure Fluorocarbon