Bluebasser86

It's been a rough summer in KS for sure. One of my local lakes has limited cover, most of it is shoreline weeds in the form of water willows. The water dropped so fast this spring that most of those weeds were high and dry by late May. The end result was a loss of almost all shoreline cover and a lot of deep, suspended, tough to catch bass. Smaller ponds get very low oxygen levels when the water drops and there isn't any rain for months and stresses the fish a lot. Other than maybe losing some fish from the low oxygen levels it shouldn't have an effect once the water comes up other than maybe having some new cover in the form of all the vegetation that has been able to grow along the shoreline with the water being down.

I fish a lot of small lakes around 100 acres and I usually give it about a week for things to settle back down once turnover starts.

I don't sweat real bad bad so t-shirts don't cling to me very much but the tournament jerseys just feel heavy and uncomfortable. Since I'm not fishing tournys anymore I don't really have to worry about it though

I haven't had too much trouble with it. To me it's kind of like casting a shad rap, some casts it flys great then other times it catches the wind and spins out. I find if I do more of a lob casts instead of trying to fire it like a normal crankbait it doesn't do it as bad, I'm using the 6" version. I'm guessing most guys are trying to really fire it out there and the extra force is causing it to spin out.

Should be an over the counter lifetime warranty on that Cumara. I broke a Crucial drop shot rod and they replaced it no questions asked.

That sounds like it will work for most of the guys that are interested in going. Everyone wanting to fish just send me a PM and let me know and also if you're going to be bringing a boat or not. I'm sure everyone wants to do the cook out afterwards so after I get a headcount we'll figure out who's bringing what.

Bone Creek would be alright but not sure how many guys are willing to pull their boats down all those rutted out dirt roads and then bounce them off the trees all day. Another problem with Bone Creek is that if the bass aren't biting there really is no fall back, everyone is just going to be working their butts off fishing trees all day for a few bites since there aren't any whites or wipers and very few walleye. It can be a fun lake to fish for sure, but if it gets tough like it can be there will be some guys that go home without catching a fish.

I'm always careful when I'm spraying bug spray not to get it on my gear. I try to rinse sunblock off my hands as best as possible also. I doubt any build up occurs unless maybe you find a jig under your gas tank or oil reservoir that has been marinating for awhile, it may have some build up on it. Otherwise put a little scent on your bait to cover up any negative scents and go to work.

You can get them online and they aren't nearly as comfortable as a T-shirt. They're much heavier and hotter.

Yeah let the backups get some game time. I don't know why a team would want to risk getting their starters hurt just to run up the score either.

Nope. If the heat don't get it I don't figure a little water will do anything.

If the height that the weeds come off the bottom is fairly uniform then floating a bait under a bobber just above the weeds is about the best way to do it. A lake I used to catfish a lot has a bunch of weeds and this works very well. Another way that works well is to use a piece of unweighted cutbait. I fish it on braided line so I can watch for my line to twitch or speed up and just cast to likely looking areas. Wait for it to get down to the weeds then lift it gently and let it settle back down. It's very much like fishing a worm for bass and is deadly for channel cats once you get the hang of it. I've actually caught some really nice bass and walleye doing this too.

I don't have lost of colors of baits but I have lots of different brands. Even baits that look the same are going to move or sound differently. It may take awhile to figure out what the differences are but they are there. You get three baits like a LC RC 1.5, H20 squarebill, and Xcaliber 100. They look almost identical but they all have their own quirks. The H20 is the loudest and has a wider wobble, the Xcaliber floats fastest, and the RC has a tighter wiggle and a quieter rattle. I worry more about these variables than I do color, especially in the stained water I'm normally fishing.

The super shad rap is a beefy bait. I'm sure bass will hit it but I think you might be better off just buying a regular 6" swimbait. If you're in toothy critter territory you might try a ABT Banshee swimbait instead. It has a great swimming action, doesn't take specialized gear to fish, and isn't too expensive. They come in some great, lifelike colors also and come in a 4.5", 6", or 8" sizes.

I also tie my own so other than adding a trailer there is usually no modifications needed by the time I hit the water.

X2, works in all kinds of cover, can be flipped, cast, or used as a swim jig.

As long as we have enough boats or if you have a buddy with a boat that wants to fish that day. You can get a license in advance and just have them write it for that day, you don't have to buy it the same day. Not sure what time everyone wants to start. I won't be able to make it anywhere early since I won't get off work until 8am but a later start might not be bad by that time of year.

Chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and jigs are my go to low light baits. Not a fan of treble hooked baits in the dark, once you have a full sized spook you can't see smoking back at your head at mach speed you'll understand why.

Try a swim jig in open water. Works about the same as a spinnerbait but is more subtle so it will catch bass that have seen tons of spinnerbaits and have learned to ignore them.

Both my parents fish so I rarely had to try real hard. We were really poor so my grandparents watched my sister and I while my parents worked all day and they had a very good pond in their backyard so I could fish almost whenever I wanted. Bought my first boat when I was 13 with money from mowing yards and doing odd jobs so by the time I turned 16 and got my first old beater truck I was fishing 5-7 days a week almost year round.

Yeah I know, I was just kidding. I've even caught them myself the couple times I've fished for them, none of them would have been keepers even on a 15" lake though. 20" long and 5 even. It had a hand sized crappie swallowed with a lot of tail still sticking out of it's throat. I have no idea how it managed to get it in it's mouth or why it tried to eat my crankbait but I'm sure glad it did

As for where we should fish for the fall get together, it's hard to beat Melvern in the fall, here's why. And if those aren't biting there's sure to be tons of big white bass on the bank eating everything that moves and some of these cruising the shallows.

I can only see a couple of things happening with a double hookset. Either you'll put slack in the line and the hook will fall out when you drop the rod tip or you'll tear a big hole in the fishes mouth and it will shake out. Even if I feel like I got a bad hookset I'd rather just crank and lean on them to try to get the hook to dig.

Bow season starts Monday here in Kansas!

I was in my first class of the morning in 9th grade, American History. My teacher got a phone call and told us what was happening and he turned the TV on for us to watch. I remember how dead quiet it was in the class room, even the back corner where all my friends and I sat and were usually clowning around. I had a huge knot in my stomach and I was so angry when they started talking about terrorist. If I'd been old enough I probably would have signed up that day.