Bluebasser86

Very nice smallmouth! Last year was my best year ever for big smallmouth. I have yet to break the 3lb mark this year, my wife actually has me beat for biggest smallmouth of the year and she doesn't let me forget about it

Bass are curious, investigative creatures that must eat other things to survive. They don't have hands to grab onto something to hold it still and examine it to determine if it's edible or not. So if the initial fall or movement has gotten their attention and then you move it again about their only chance it to suck the bait in to further determine if it's food or not. Bass probably very rarely encounter a worm in the water except maybe during times when it's raining hard. Plastic worms can imitate a variety of potential food items a bass may encounter, minnows, small snakes, salamanders, leeches, and others. Lots of baits look like nothing in particular and still catch fish.

I make my own, that way I can use whatever brand hook I want and make the size I need in whatever color I want

3/8oz homemade jig, Texas craw color with any craw colored Rage craw trailer 5/16oz War Eagle finesse spinnerbait, mouse 3/16oz homemade shakyhead with a GP trick worm

I like red trebles on my hard baits. Gives me more confidence in them and that helps put more fish in the boat. I think the red line disappearing v red hooks being more appealing is because the line is more translucent allowing light to pass through and causing the color to disappear quickly under water unlike the hooks that light can't pass through. Still, if red does disappear quickly under water then red hooks would be almost invisible and I don't see that being a bad thing either.

Had a great big owl pick up a jitterbug while I was night fishing one summer. Thought I'd hooked a new state record with the monster splash and the way he was pulling drag. Thankfully he crash landed in some blackberry bushes and the hook pulled out when he flew off again. I've had several seagulls pick up freelined shad fishing for hybrids during the winter. The unfortunate part is the shad are usually on the surface because a big wiper chased them there and was probably about to eat them, until the stupid bird picked it up Oh yeah, and don't pull a swimbait past a blue heron, they're fooled by the bait just as bad as a bass and they strike with incredible speed and accuracy

For the most part that list is terrible. Once you get towards the upper end of it then it starts to make sense but Perry shouldn't even be on that list. It's a good lake for this area but when it's put up against lakes like Clinton, Hillsdale, Pomona, Tuttle Creek, and most other bigger bodies of water in Kansas it doesn't take much to look good. I do enjoy fishing Perry because it fishes to my strengths, shallow water power fishing. The marina at the south end and the area around Rock Creek Marina in the west arm are good areas to look. Right around the farthest north state park ramp is usually good. The one row of docks to the north of Rock Creek Marina is a must fish spot. The rip rap in Slough creek is also very good. I usually stick to dark colored plastics, a Zoom Baby Brush Hog being my favorite, usually in blackberry or blueberry color. A pit boss is another good bait and those fish really seem to have a taste for a pumpkin colored hula grub, t-rigged or on a jighead. I've also done well on spinnerbaits, traps, squarebills, and buzzbaits at different times but the soft plastics are the most consistent producer. I'll have to pass that info on. Chris was going to go fishing out there this weekend, might not be the best idea doesn't sound like.

Friend of mine just gave me a recent report from Perry: We had a pretty good trip to Perry 10 days ago. 43 lm and 4 sm. We had 2 4.5 lb lm and 1 sm @ 17.5 inches. Also had 30 white bass. We fsihed for 3.5 hours on a hot windy day. Sounds like Perry could be a pretty good time right now

Are you mixing them or using them individually? That brown and black with a few strands of chartruese would be an interesting combo.

Jig, I can catch fish out of 100% of the bodies of water I fish for bass with a jig.

Depends what I'm doing. C-rig if I'm looking for fish or if they're scattered out, dropshot if I have them pinned down or fishing vertical cover/structure.

You have to be careful with cutting hooks off baits and such. I know a couple guys in Missouri that have gotten tickets for using too many baits on a rig even though they had the hooks cut off of 2 of them, I guess they are still technically baits? I usually opt for the 2 spinner blades when I'm fishing in Mo. We're only allowed 2 baits in Kansas. I've tried the Double up rig that has 2 arms but it just has not been as effective for me but I haven't really used it during the right time of the year yet either.

I prefer darker colors for topwaters since they stand out better on the surface. The exception would be in very clear water when I like very natural to translucent colors for my topwaters. In my experience topwater baits are probably one of the baits where color matters the least.

8lb is what I usually use for wacky rigging. It's possible the fish are hitting your bait and spitting it back out before you get the hook set. A good scent like JJ's might help solve that problem. Personally, I think taking up slack quickly is probably one of the worst things you could do wacky rigging. Let it sink on a slack line so that bait can work and watch your line for any twitches. Sometimes letting it hit bottom and just sit there for a few seconds is what gets them. They follow it to the bottom and after it settles and just sits there they can't take it anymore and they suck it up. Either that or they engulf it the first time you go to move it after they've been staring at it on the bottom.

Always nice to get a good one on a spinnerbait I like the ones that knock slack in the line.

That's terrible, and funny. Poor kid is probably scarred for life.

Pfluegar makes some premade ultralight combos, like the Trion, that are great little set ups for kids.

Berkley and Stren are owned by the same company and seem to handle very similar to me. I've never fished with Ande but it's very popular with the saltwater guys it seems and I'm sure there's a reason for that. I've had very good luck with Mustad Ultra Line Thor or UL Max and a local camping store sells the stuff for $10 for a 1lb spool, can't beat it for that price Hooked a 42lb flathead fishing for hybrids a few years ago with 14lb Thor. Fish swam into some debris from a demolished bridge (concrete, metal, rebar and such). I took pressure off the fish and she swam back out and the line still had enough left that I was able to fight her away from that mess and get her in the boat. I've been a believer in that stuff since then.

Don't lick your fingers after handling lead Actually I know a lot of guys that bite their splitshot closed and don't seem to be any stranger than they already were Just be careful handling it, make sure to wash your hands before you eat something, and you'll be fine.

Big fish eat little fish and there isn't anything that imitates a little fish much better than a swimbait. It certainly doesn't take a big fish to eat a 5" swimbait either. I've caught little 12 inchers on 5" baits that had it so deep you couldn't see the bait if they closed their mouths.

A small, quality swivel can really help prevent line twists also. Just attach a leader to the swivel and tie it to the mainline. You can even add a small amount of weight above the swivel to make a wacky/c-rig of sorts if you're fishing deeper water.

That question made my brain hurt So you're fishing from a house boat that's parked in a dock slip that has a bunch of other house boats moored on it? Or are you fishing from the dock? Along with clearing that part up some of the standards, water depth, temp, body of water, stuff like that would help too.

If I remember right he was poking fun of how some people way overestimate the weight of the fish they catch.

Rip rap grows algae that attracts baitfish and crawdads both and also offers lots of ambush places for bass to hide. Early in the morning I like to fish a popper right up against the rocks or parallel the rocks with a buzzbait. If they won't break surface I'll switch to a jig or shakyhead. Banging cranks off the rocks can be really effective too.

Both. I like to give my craw imitation baits little hops now and then. That's one of their main defense techniques, it's also when they're the easiest for a bass to catch without having to deal with the claws. So I think it triggers a reaction or feeding strike when a bass sees it crawling along the bottom and then quickly scoots away.