Bluebasser86

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/111923-cork-cleaningits-been-discussed-but-i-also-have-adhd/

Half a senko or trick worm works well also. Small swimbaits add a different kind of vibration also.

I'm the opposite, I hate braid with swimbaits. 25lb P-line CXXtra strong crystal clear gets the job done for me. If you've ever tried to make a long cast with a heavy bait with braid and had it blow up in your face and watched a 20-50 dollar bait hit the end of that no stretch line hard and sale into the lake you'll understand why. Plus the extra stretch is nice to keep from ripping the hooks loose when you're fighting a big, hard pulling fish. Only time I'd use braid is around heavy weeds. Those Express baits aren't too heavy though. I normally fish them on a 7' MH rod with 14-20lb copoly and have never lost one.

You didn't happen to toss in a bait made of elastec plastic did you? Those will melt in a hurry and ruin a whole pack of baits. Other than that I've never seen today's plastic do that. The older plastics used to do it bad if left in direct sunlight but I fish all summer long when it's north of 100 degrees by 9am and never had that happen.

It will catch fish as long as you have bass feeding on schooling baitfish. I've fish the A-rig a lot in Missouri and Arkansas on Lake of the Ozarks, Table Rock, and Bull Shoals and have yet to catch more than one fish at a time on it. Don't know if that means the fish were just singles or if they were just the most aggressive fish in the school. Early in the season has been by far the best time of year for the rig for me though.

If you ever find catfish eating mayflies falling out of bushes or carp eating mulberries dropping out of trees that is a serious rush on a flyrod.

I was born in Manhattan and grew up near there (St.George). Spent a lot of time fishing Pott. 2, Tuttle Creek, Milford, Alma, Rocky Ford, River Pond, and the ponds in the area. Milford is by far my favorite for the variety and quality of the fish available there. I get back there a couple times a year normally, usually to fish Milford. I'll have an empty back of the boat about every other week this year and fish some lakes that are about half way between here and Manhattan if you're interested in meeting halfway. You can PM me for more info about the lakes in your area.

Welcome to the club!

That's 16 year old me on the right. and 26 year old me a few weeks ago. My wife Nicole and our golden puppy Cassidee

That was my first thought.

Doesn't seem like I can ever fish a chatterbait at night without catching a channel cat. They like that strong vibration. Wipers and white bass love them too.

3/8oz black and blue chatterbait is one of my favorite night fishing baits. I usually put a 4" grub on the back. The bulky profile and strong vibration really calls them in at night.

I had 2 rage rods, broke the 7' 1" MH/F casting rod swinging a 2.5lb fish into the boat. Also had a 6' 10" ML/F spinning rod but the reel seat broke loose from the rod and started to spin around the rod when I was using the rod. Personally, I'd spend 30 dollars more and get an Avid unless you can get a really good deal on a Rage. I've gone to pretty much all LTB except for a couple Mojos and an Avid and love all of them.

You may try a finesse jig or play with the colors more. Jigs will catch bass anywhere they swim, crawdads or not. I've seen times where you had to drag a football jig really slowly and basically it couldn't lose contact with the bottom or they wouldn't touch it. One lake I fish they love jigs, but you have to have a mismatched jig and trailer, usually a craw color jig with a black and blue trailer. No idea why, just the way they are. Another lake it has to be a finesse jig and it has to be hopped fairly quickly along the bottom. Jigs will catch fish in your lake, just going to have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and figure them out. I'm willing to bet it will be very worth it when you do!

I guess if bass count it would be a small largemouth on a bluegill fly. First trout was a little rainbow fast stripping a streamer on Taneycomo. Found some trout chasing minnows and they were crushing a little white streamer.

I've never broken a SK crank but from everyone I've talked to that has they'll usually replace it and then some.

Lipless-Excaliber XRK50 in Ghost, or Rayburn Red Shallow-LC 1.5 in copper green shad or Bull Bream or Luck E Strike 300 in Copper Perch Deep-SK series 5 in Green Gizzard Shad

Went and walked the dam at Gardner with the dog looking for baits and making a few casts. Found 6 crankbaits and managed to catch one dink on a jerkbait. He may have gone 8" but my first fish of the year not from Coffey of La Cygne!

I bank fish at night a lot in small ponds and lakes. A lot of the nearby lakes and ponds get tons of pressure during the day so night fishing is usually way more productive. I normally only carry 2 rods, one will have a 3/8oz black on black Cavitron, the other will have a 10" worm or 3/8oz jig.

I had a very large owl pick up my musky jitterbug night fishing and get hooked in the foot. After a confusing fight for both of us I'm sure he crash landed in some sticker bushes and the hook pulled out when he took off again. Seagulls are a huge annoyance during the winter when I'm wiper fishing with live shad. Often times a free lined shad will make for the surface when it's being chased by a wiper and sometimes the gulls get them first. Never hooked one but never have gotten a shad back from one either.

American shad Chartreuse shad Crack Pro Blue Secret Night Skeet's Magic In the Rogue I like clown and avocado shad

If I'm fishing a slow bait while my buddy is fishing fast and his casts keep crossing my line I'll let my line sit when he's crossed me and doesn't know it. I wait until my line starts moving and give it a good jerk. Of course he'll set the hook thinking he just hooked his new PB only to find my bait on his line. Probably my favorite one I pulled was a few years ago on a trout fishing trip at Lake Taneycomo. It was a big group of friends, many who aren't fishermen and women, so I volunteered to go out on the pontoon and help everyone catch some fish. It was mainly little kids and their grandparents, one who had been like a grandfather to me since I was 13, my dad and his annoying, loudmouth friend. My dad's friend had been running his mouth the whole way down to the lake and the entire time we'd been there about how he was going to catch the biggest fish of the trip and he could outfish anyone, anytime, any place and it was getting on my nerves. I had everyone fishing bottom rigs with powerbait and they were catching trout about as fast as they could get a line in the water. Anyone that knows anything about inexperienced anglers using powerbait for trout knows that it results in a lot of swallowed hooks. Not a issue, we were keeping them to eat anyways so I'd just cut the line and get the hooks back later. I spent most of the time helping old Bill who was wheelchair bound and hadn't even had a chance to get my line in the water because I was so busy baiting hooks, tying hooks, unhooking fish, taking pictures, so loudmouth is in the back of the boat chipping away about how bad he's outfishing me . I'd just got done retying Bill's line when loudmouth catches a dink and swings it over to me like everyone else had been doing and insist I unhook his fish for him because "somebody around here has to catch dinner." The fish had the hook swallowed so I cut his line and tossed the fish in the livewell and got a new hook to tie on. I decide to have a little fun with him and instead of tying a good knot I tie a single overhand knot and pop a couple eggs on the hook. He casts out and I watched with much anticipation. Not long before I saw the telltale "tap, tap" of the rod tip and he set the hook into what was by far the largest trout anyone had hooked. He was hooting and hollering about how he was going to win the big fish pot until it got to the boat and he tried to swing it in and the knot slipped and the fish fell back in the water. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath and it took a minute for me to be able to explain what I'd done. Everyone else thought it was hilarious except loudmouth who insisted it wasn't fair and his fish should still be the biggest fish of the weekend because he would have caught it otherwise, everyone laughed even harder when old Bill said "what fish?"

I'll be there with Jon and Chris (basshunter0731 and kanasbassfisher08). Going to the Expo and weigh in the first day, be on the water day 2, and back for the expo and final weigh in day 3. There's a thread in the General Forum, trying to get some kind of BR meet and greet going for guys that are going to be there.

Great way to pass the time during the winter months. I think I have a disease, I've tied 4 3700 boxes packed full of jigs the last 2 winters, probably somewhere between 400 or 500 jigs and chatterbaits.

I've caught a lot of fish on the 4" minnow shaped one and quite a few on the 3" bluegill version. I changed the hooks out though, the stock ones seemed pretty flimsy. They're a really nice little bait for the price.