Bluebasser86

I believe that's what the guy in my picture was mainly after but the bass don't know those minnows aren't meant for them. I fished out of 2 man, plastic boat for years, I know what you mean, almost like they pretend they can't even see you.

The little stores are nice because it's often easier for them to get the more popular local baits in. When I worked at Cabela's in KC it took us 2 years before we finally convinced management that they needed to carry Wiggle Warts. I guess they either aren't very popular in areas around the other stores or they just didn't believe us. Once they finally got a few in we couldn't keep them on the shelves because of all the guys buying them to fish the Ozark lakes. Meanwhile the smaller tackle stores carry dozens of colors of warts because the guys that work in those stores only have to worry about ordering enough to stock their store.

I'm guessing more like low to mid 50's, it was still 56 at Wyandotte last week. Good thing is that if that doesn't pan out you can always hit La Cygne too.

and here it is! http://www.bassresou...e-casting-rods/ I love my St.Croix rods, but they're going to have to do some serious revamping and quality control before I'd consider trying another Rage rod.

Something like a 1/16 shakyhead or an 1/8oz with a small bait like a 4" worm or small craw. If you go much bigger it kills deadens the feel of the bait. If an 1/8oz is a light as you go I'd go with the 6' 8" M/F or 6' 10" M/F.

Unless they're a nuisance animal doing damage to personal property. I see a few options other than killing them though (I do understand the desire to kill the thing though, I know I'd want to if it did that to my boat!) You may be able to use chicken wire or rubberized mesh fencing around the dock or boat area. I would think a boat lift would keep your boat high enough to keep them out. Might be able to build something that would work similar to the wire guards on bird feeder posts to keep squirrels out along the edge of your boat. Taking your boat out of the water each time would also fix the problem. I did a little research and one of the more interesting ones I found was to use bubble gum. Apparently they love to eat gum but can't digest it and it blocks their digestive system and kills them? Might be worth a try anyways. If you decide to take the extermination route the air gun would probably be the safest way, a .22 bullet will skip a long ways off the water. I've taken out my fair share of them that were destroying a pond dam with my bow too.

One of my biggest pet peeves on the water is getting crowded or cut off, especially when there's plenty of room to avoid doing so and even more so when I've found the fish and someone else sees it and crowds in. I was on one of the local lakes last week that's about 400 acres. It was me and one other boat on the entire lake, the other boat was fishing a point a couple hundred yards away when I pulled onto one of my favorite late season spots on the lake and immediately started catching them on a shakyhead and jig. After I'd put about 15 in the boat it must have been more than he could take as the guy pulled his trolling motor, motored over, and stopped about 20 yards off the front of my boat and dropped his trolling motor again and started fishing. At a couple different points his big motor was barely more than a rods length from the front of my boat. Thankfully I saw him coming and was able to box him out from the better portions of this very small area. I managed to milk several more fish off the spot before I got tired of fishing so close to someone else, had other spots I wanted to try anyways. I figured since he didn't mind sharing my spot he wouldn't mind me taking a picture of him doing it For a point of reference the point directly to the 12 o'clock of my trolling motor is about 50 yards away. I know it's happened to everyone, anyone else want to vent about their run in with less than courteous people on the water?

You don't have to have a high speed reel but I'd suggest at least a 5.2, I use either a 6.2 or 6.4 for mine.

Not worth it. No "pay off" is worth sitting through that crap. Thankfully my wife isn't in to that stuff.

They're a blast on a light fly rod. I catch most of mine on a 1/32oz jighead with a 2" grub. If they're being finicky I'll tear the tail off the grub and fish it on a 1/64oz jig. I use a 6' Avid with a 750 Sedona and 3.5lb DAM Techtan line and they're a blast to fight on that little combo.

I haven't ever been to the Great Lakes but after watching Ike and Zona both do shows catching some pigs fishing in harbors on jigs and jerkbaits I'd say that looked to be about as close to a sure thing as you could get with a fish like that if you are there at the right time and with someone who knows what they're doing.

I have that rod with an E7 on it and it is a great rod. It's very light and easy to fish with and extremely sensitive. I fish everything from 1/4oz T-rigged plastics to 3/4oz football jigs with no problem on it. I've never fished a C-rig with it because I have th 7' 3" C-rig model too but I'm positive it would have no problem doing that or fishing a frog or big spinnerbait.

I wire tie mine, even though they rarely last long enough for the band to wear out. I hate when the skirt slides down on the hookset enough that it's worth it to me.

It doesn't work unless you're fishing for drum . It's very simple to fish but you can fish it a ton of different ways. It's really surprising how many quality fish you can catch with it at times. The only bad thing is that it's so effective I probably don't give other baits enough time to work before I pick it up. I fish mine on a 6' 10" ML/F Legend Tournament Bass rod with a 25 size Pfluegar Supreme with 8lb Nanofil with a 10lb fluoro leader and a 3/32oz worm head jig or a 1/16oz ballhead. I like to super glue my bait to the head but Ned and his croanies swear sometimes it's more effective when the bait is slid down the hook. I just can't get myself to fish it like that.

Spro BBZ shad. Looks great in the water but other than wipers I can't hardly buy a fish on them.

Agreed. My #1 jerkbait rod is a 6' 2" M/XF Avid with a Curado 50E and 10lb C21. I can make my bait do what I want a lot easier with the extra fast tip than a "normal" jerkbait rod. Fish in colder water when I usually fish jerkbaits tend to be swimming a little slower so a high speed reel isn't needed and a little slower reel helps me slow down. The 50E on that super light rod is easy to fish all day long.

Rattle traps, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and senkos are some of my favorite pond baits. The first three you can just use a straight retrieve. I like bluegill or shad color traps, white and chartruese spinnerbaits, and black buzzbaits. The senkos you can fish wacky, t-rigged weightless or with a weight. Black and blue or green pumpkin should be all the colors you need for pond fish.

X2, it takes me about 30 minutes to get a real serious sunburn during the middle of the day in the summer.

Usually 6-10 but I do a lot of junk fishing so there can be a few more if I'm having a hard time figuring them out.

The wife and I did really well out there last week. Good numbers and good average size. We only fished the dam with a Ned rig, didn't even try to go anywhere else. I'd guess as long as the water stays about 50 you should be able to catch them pretty good still.

I've had terrible luck with the weather this deer season. It seems every time I have a chance to go the wind is blowing 20mph+ and that just isn't much fun to sit in a tree stand in! Well I saw this week I was finally going to catch a break and decided to make getting a deer, any deer, my number on priority. Today is day one of my three days I'd have a chance to hunt. Got in the stand around 2:30 but didn't see my first deer until 4, at doe at about 200 yards. Shortly after another doe about 100 yards, then another around 60. Just as I was running out of light I heard a noise behind me I knew was a deer. There was a doe acting nervous, she'd obviously winded me or heard something she didn't like. She stomped and took a couple steps before she stopped to look back again, that was all the opening I needed. Triple bladed Rage with a perfect pass through double lung shot, she went about 50 yards before she piled up. Felt good to take advantage once I was finally given the opportunity!

Took the new puppy out this morning to Gardner to see how she acted and if she was interested in fishing at all. She was having a good time playing in the grass and she seemed to be pretty interested in the fish too.

Has to be where the food is, that's the only reason to be that deep this time of year. They suspend really deep in the winter at Table Rock under the schools of shad. All you had to do is find the schools of shad and that's where the fish are.

After our trip to the White River last year, I'm hooked and we're going back for 5 days the first week of April, can't wait

It has as solid smallie population already, probably 40% smallies to 60% largemouth, and the average size is getting to be pretty good anymore. It is the only lake within 20 minutes you have any shot at a smallmouth over 5, no doubt about that . We had one between 15 and 17 inches every night we fished the Wednesday nighters out there this year.