Bluebasser86

Yeah I heard it was possibly caught in an area that was off limits to fishing. Knowing a fish like that was lurking around could test anyones morals I suppose . World record fish, especially one as highly sought after as the world record largemouth is always going to be crawling with rumors and doubters.

I read he was using 8lb Seaguar InvisX and a #1 Gammie octopus hook and fishing a 7 1/2" sucker for smallmouth.

I use a 6' 10" M/F LTB "shakyhead" rod. It's a very sensitive rod but it has enough backbone to stick a fish on a long cast. For smaller shakyheads or lighter lines I use a 6' 10" ML/F LTB "drop shot/finesse" rod.

I had some of the Leverage spinnerbaits a few years ago that the hook was attached with a piece of flexible cable. I didn't lose as many fish with it but I didn't catch as many fish with it either if that makes sense.

I have some of the original thin fins and have had very good success with them. Don't know if the newer versions of them work as well or not. They are a little difficult to cast but it's not terrible if you use spinning gear.

I mentioned this in a post yesterday but it was probably lost in the mix. Would anyone be interested in doing a winter get together at La Cygne? I know a few of the guys have been wanting to do one at La Cygne and it's a good way to beat a bit of the cabin fever. If we do it would almost have to be during the week or we'll have to take a number to fish the good spots.

Hi Salenity and Wachati had a total of 84.5 inches for an average of 16.9 inches per fish, a pretty impressive total. Kanasbassfisher08 and I had a total of 83 inches for an average of 16.6 inches per fish. We didn't really do an overall weigh in because it was pretty obvious who had won it. I don't think anyone was disappointed with the number or size of the fish they'd caught. We caught a ton of smallmouth in the 13-15 inch range and those are just a blast to catch. No problem, glad you were able to make it and have a good time. I'm pretty sure everyone there was jealous of that beautiful boat of yours If we have one on a smaller lake we have a few guys with smaller aluminum boats if you don't mind fishing as a non-boater, that way you don't have to pull yours down the dirt roads or anything.

Does it have a lot of tannic acid? Usually water that does will look kind of like tea, it appears muddy but sometimes you can actually see quite a ways into the water. Seems most bass I catch in water with high tannic acid are usually pretty dark though.

1. Jug of water/thermos of coffee depending on time of year, a couple sandwiches, tacklebag with 8-12 3700 boxes of baits, 2-5 worm binders full of plastics, all required boating safety gear. 2. If I'm not going to be driving down dirt roads I'll leave all my gear in the boat. If I'm going to be on dirt roads all my rods will be in the cab. 3. If I bring a cooler there's usually a couple sandwiches and some other snacks and a couple bottles of water or Gatorade. 4. 1. If I have enough gear it's going to take me 2 trips something is getting left behind. 5. Not usually but I'm not afraid to get off the beaten path and go places others won't if there's good fishing.

I'm glad it's fall so I can finally stop fishing so slow! Now is the time to get out the cranks, spinnerbaits, traps, and chatterbaits now that we have water temps around 60 instead of the high 80's like we had a couple months ago. Once the water gets down in the low 50's I'll start slowing it down. I'm with Deep on this one, I can do it but I have to have confidence in the area I'm in.

Some fancy cooking pots that were supposed to steam in flavor and cook without water or oil, spent over $1,000 on the set plus a set of knives. They work pretty well but it takes about half an hour of scrubbing to get the dang things clean again, just not worth the hassle.

Nope, hate the cold. I'll be fishing soft water at the power plants all winter. Walking on the ice, no matter how thick, is something I just can't ever get comfortable with.

I don't know if anyone will be interested in this but I thought I'd just throw it out there. Basshunter0731 (Jon) and I will be taking a trip to the White River/Bull Shoals in Arkansas the first week of April (1st-5th). We did this trip last year and had a blast. We fished the river in the morning and evening, throwing jerkbaits for big brown trout (someone caught a 36 pound brown about a month ago I believe) and then fishing Bull for all 3 species of bass, monster stripers and white bass, and some of the thickest walleye I've ever seen. The fishing on the White is very visual, you can see the fish chasing your jerkbait and we watched most of our fish hit the bait, just about as much fun watching them slash and miss it as it was when they connected. Last year at Bull they were killing the A-rig (you can fish the 5 arm in Arkansas) and we caught about everything on it along with some fish on jerkbaits, shakyheads, and jigs. We're camping right below the Bull Shoals dam on the White River, it's about 5 minutes to have the boat on the water at either body of water. It's about $16 a night to camp with electricity so you can put a space heater in your tent or run electric blankets so you don't get cold at night (average lows are in the mid 40's for the area that time of year with average highs in the high 60's) so it should be pretty nice weather. It looks like a very nice camp ground, or there's plenty of lodges around, we're just trying to do it for as cheap as possible. There's some other guys on the forum that fish the White every year and love it. Here's some pics in case you're interested. If anyone is interested in making the trip shoot me a PM or just post on here and I'll answer any questions or try to get any info I can, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you make the trip

Awesome picture! I tried to do the same but my crappy little camera just got a bunch of white and red lights and darkness. Those were 2 great fish. I'm really glad someone got some good ones this time. Had it been a weigh in tournament it wouldn't have been close, you guys would have had the only 2 keepers I knew we were going to be working all day after you guys sent the pictures of those two that early in the morning. Had I gotten a better hookset on the one good smallmouth I hooked about halfway up the lake on a laydown it would have been a different outcome, but she jumped and tossed my brush hog back at me and disappeared. She would have added at least the inch and a half that we needed and probably more. You guys did a great job and put the fish you needed to catch in the boat. I think we had 4 or 5 people set new PB's for smallmouth yesterday (Hi Salenity, Wachiti, Busy, KyleK, and maybe kanasbassfisher08) and then CCCDrew went back today and caught a pig smallmouth to beat his. Everyone caught fish and most caught some nice ones so it was a really successful day IMO. Maybe we'll have to ponder the idea of a winter classic at La Cygne? If we do it will have to be during the week, that lake isn't any fun to fish during the weekend unless you like having to throw elbows to get to a fishing spot I'm not a big basketball fan but I doubt many coaches will tell their players to kick the ball out to someone to try a 3 pointer when they have an open layup . Had the weather been different I'm sure more fish would have been caught at other places in the lake. Just because the fish are there doesn't mean they will bite either, some people caught fish doing what others weren't. I don't believe a single one of our 5 fish were caught on a Ned Rig. Our biggest 2 smallmouth, including our biggest caught off the dam the last hour after it had been pounded all day, were on a 5" watermelon/purple stick O on a home made 1/16oz shakyhead. Our only largemouth was on a KVD 1.0 crankbait. The other 2 were either on a tube or the same shakyhead. I lost what probably would have been our biggest of the day after she ate a baby brush hog in 2' of water halfway down the lake on a gravel bank. I also lost another good largemouth on a jig that probably would have helped us when I got cut off by the razor clams in a brushpile on a jig. There was fish to be caught in other places, Curt and Peter just put the right bait in front of the right fish at the right time and that's how tournaments are won. In the end the whole point was for everyone to have fun and catch some fish. I fish Melvern a lot and will even more now that I'm half an hour closer to it. I wanted to do it there because I know enough about the lake and how to catch the fish that I feel everyone that shows up can catch fish and have a shot at a big one, maybe a few of them. Sorry you had to leave early, sounds like you had the start of a great limit of fish. We will have others so keep your eyes open and maybe you can make the next one.

That's a beauty Drew! You were less than 100 yards from where I caught my 5 pounder at last year, it was exactly 20" too. I bet she pulled for a long time before giving up

I owned one for a couple years, it's a pretty decent rod. I didn't use it for spinnerbaits, stiffer than what I like to throw a spinnerbait on. It make a pretty good pitching rod though and that's what my buddy I sold it to uses it for.

A picture would probably go a long ways if you have one.

Sounds like a muddy water fish to me. One of the local lakes I fish ranges from extremely muddy to extremely muddy year round, 6 inches of visibility is about as clear as it gets, those fish always look very washed out. Also cold water doesn't make all fish look washed out, some of the best colored fish I've caught were in the dead of winter time.

The road will split to the right when you first enter the park. The self pay station is in the first little covered area on the right. If you go past the host building on the left you went past it. After you pay you'll take a left and just stay on that road until you see the boat ramp on your left. The fish will almost always eat grubs, it's just a matter of what it is that's eating them that can be the problem.

I'm sure we can find someone to help. Shouldn't be too hard to unload and load it.

Yeah the wife probably wouldn't be too happy either. She had her days mixed up so our closing day is actually tomorrow the 18th, she thought the 18th was this Wednesday so I had plenty of time to get stuff packed up. So much time in fact that Chris Schauer and I went back down there today to try it again Unfortunately there was a guy already camped on the spot I was catching them at yesterday with a stringer of white bass. Didn't catch as many as I did yesterday but we still did alright. I caught the biggest wiper of the day on one of my first cast with a swimbait. She slammed it! Scale said 4.68 but I sure thought she looked bigger. Chris probably had big fish honors of the day, he had a couple really nice drum on a spoon

Well after getting all those whites and wipers in my throw net on the river yesterday I decided to take a break from packing today and see if any of them would bite. They were still there and they were hungry! I caught somewhere around 12-15 of them that all look just like this one. I caught a few really nice whites to go along with those wipers plus a couple healthy channel cats that ate some cut shad while I was casting for wipers. The high point of the day happened right before I was going to leave. I switched to a 4" Storm swimbait and launched it as far as I could. My retrieve was perfect with the current and my bait swirled around the upcurrent side of a big boulder and into an eddy and bam! Wasn't sure what it was for a long time in the fight. I was fishing a 6' 8" Mojo spinning rod with 12lb Nanofil and a 14lb leader so I was getting a workout in that current! managed to steer her around my catfish lines and out of the current and finally got a hold of it. My pictures didn't really do it justice, hard to get good ones by yourself. She was about 25 inches and 18 inches around. I didn't have a scale but the fish calculator on here puts it at just over 11lbs. I was guessing between 10 and 11 so that's probably pretty close. A really pretty fish and just not something you expect to see out of that dirty river.

Little of both. The broncos should have a pretty easy time taking the division I'd think, I know my Chiefs won't be contesting them I'm just hoping to finish out our impending 1-15 season and maybe we'll draft a good QB who we can let rot on the bench until someone else steals him away and actually grooms him into a starter.

I'd love to have the problem you have, getting that variety of fish that you get in the saltwater. At least the baits you normally use in saltwater seem to run a little cheaper. I've never really gotten to do any real saltwater fishing, just going out on the charter boats and dropping pieces of squid straight down and cranking like mad when you feel a bite. I wouldn't be tossing any Megabass or Lucky Crafts into the salt though