Bluebasser86

Pfluegar President or Shimano Sahara get my vote. The Sahara is on sale right now a lot of places too.

Depends on the water color but I fish my Texas Craw color and Copper Craw color a lot. I like black and purple and Okechobee craw alot also.

Get you some cheaper shallow running cranks like Bandit 100's so if you lose one it doesn't hurt as much. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are great tools from the bank because you can cover a lot of water and keep the bait in the strike zone for a long time.

They aren't transferrable. If you get checked they'll write you a ticket and you'll have to buy one or leave. I think they're about 50 dollars for a out of county year permit plus another 30 for a out of county year fishing license. As far as I know the top dogs of that tournament fished it all year. My best advice is be ready to be confused and disappointed on a weekly basis. Some nights you figure them out and it feels like you could catch them all day long and then they just stop on you for some reason. This time of year most of the fish are caught on shakeyheads, finesse jigs or football jigs, or 10" worms. Normally flipping the water willow along the bank is effective but it's been so dry that most of it is on the bank. Waters really clear and it's pretty deep and almost all rock with a few laydowns that never hold fish for some reason. Pretty good mix of largemouth and smallmouth on most nights but largemouth have to be 15" while smallmouth have to be 18". I've caught 2 keepers out of there, neither during a tournament but they had that 5.62lb smallmouth weighed in this spring that set the new lake record. I haven't fished it much this year so I can't honestly say I know what they're biting now. They're almost always schooling on the surface somewhere and eating super spook Jrs but rarely will you get one over 15 doing that. Shakyhead with a some variation of green pumpkin or watermelon is usually best. I think I have quite a bit of info on the Wyandotte County Lake thread also.

I got a cheap titanium one. It's very light and durable. At first I noticed it but now I have to feel or look for it to know it's there. For some reason I have to take it off to sleep, that's the only time I notice it for some reason.

The problem with the 1/16oz head is the wind almost never stops blowing during the day in Kansas. If we get a day with winds under 15mph I'm happy. Most of the time is closer to 20mph. It makes fishing even the 1/8oz size head nearly impossible. I like the 1/16oz head and I have a couple hundred of them poured and I know how effective it can be, it's just very rare that I get a chance to actually use it. I do like it with a 5" senko type bait because it starts to sink flat but the little weight at the head makes it glide forward and sometimes it spirals like tube does, it can really be a killer technique.

Do you have the Wyco permit for your boat? It's kind of expensive to be buying it this late in the year.

Hmmm, I would think if this was such an effective technique you would see more pros doing it?? I believe I've seen Zona on his show swinging on them pretty hard too. I think I'll stick with what I've been doing for now.

I use a small plano box with magnets superglued into the bottom of the compartments. You can get magnets from craft stores and just cut them to fit the compartment. Only downside is you may have to use pliers to get the hook out of box but it's better then them being all mixed up to me.

I've used mine all day fishing for muskie in downpours and I just do what DVT said, take it apart and let it dry out real good and it should be good to go.

Buddy of mine gets crazy deals at Wal Mart all the time. Awhile back he got about a dozen super spook jr's for .50 apiece and some war eagle finesse spinnerbaits for $1 apiece. He's always finding great deals on soft plastics. I can't ever find any good deals on anything I really need there.

Thanks for the info guys! I mainly use the 1/8-1/4 ounce sizes but I might mess with trying to get a heavier gauge hook to fit into the molds with my bigger heads that I'd be using with bigger baits anyways. I don't use the 1/16 ounce very often except it does make a good insert tube head with small tubes and stream smallmouth.

I fish bigger swimbaits like a 6" weedless Hudd in lakes that don't have many big fish, like a 17" fish is a kicker fish. It's amazing how many more solid keeper sized fish I catch on swimbaits than I do all the guys that are finesse fishing. Whenever I'm on a good bite before a tournament I'll share the info of the fish I caught in practice and when someone asks what I caught them on I always reply the same "a bubblegum colored carolina rigged buzzbait by the dam."

Once the shad start schooling and move to the back of the coves again it's going to be popular again. It's just like any other bait, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

No pike or pickeral around here so that isn't a problem. I got it in the mail today, wow it's way bigger than I thought it was going to be! Hopefully get to give it a test run Sunday or Monday.

Never caught one on a frog and I'd have to agree that rarely are there many smallmouth in the places I'd fish a frog.

It will probably shake enough and wallow out a hold where the hook is at thanks to the weight of the jighead until it finally falls out. As long as it's hooked in the lip it shouldn't interfere with it's feeding very much at all.

I've tried to find a mold that will fit a wide gap hook and I'm not having any luck. I have this mold: http://do-itmolds.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=1_7_264 That takes the Mustad 60 degree bend flat eye hook. I've had pretty good luck with these hooks but I'd like to have the wide gap hook because I've been playing with some bigger baits on a shakyhead and because I like to skin hook my baits. I found these hooks that are close except they have a 45 degree bend. http://www.lurecraft.com/catalog.cfm/hooks/38109bln-mustad:2807 Would it be possible to bend those slightly and make them fit or does anyone know of a flat eye jig hook with a 60 degree bend or a shakyhead mold that takes a wide gap hook?

The wiper are supposed to be going good down there trolling cranks or 4" swimbaits. If you can find it there's a sunken bridge down by the dam where the water goes from about 32-22 feet of water really quickly. Trolling cranks and drifting live shad or jigging bucktails over that is how I've caught some of the biggest wiper I've caught from there. Just a thought in case the bass don't cooperate for you guys. If you have any interest in catching catfish you should take Jake to one of the Pleasanton City Lakes. You can literally put 50-100 catfish from 1-20 pounds in the boat in a day of fishing if you know what you're doing. Good bass fishing in both and some big wipers and walleyes in the bigger East lake. If I ever had a day off I'd be more than willing to guide you guys down there for a day. I've taken several guys down there with their kids and had a ball each time. Last time I went down there my friends son had 3 catfish over 10lbs with the biggest being 14lbs 11ozs.

Wow that's a monster. I have a slightly excessive fear of bears. Not that it isn't a little justified since they can obviously be dangerous, just not sure I could get myself to go hunting anymore if I lived where there was lots of bears.

I collected a lot of football cards when I was a kid. I still have all of them in the binders in boxes. I've got a couple that are probably worth some money but never have bothered to really check into their value. Had a lot of fun doing it. Now I collect fishing lures

My buddy has a couple G series and E series, I have several E series myself. The G just doesn't seem to be in the same category with the E series. Not saying they're bad reels, I just feel they're overpriced for the reel you're getting. Thankfully you can still find the E series all over online.

For me the stuff has been extremely easy to fish with but very strong. I've used several sizes on both spinning and baitcasting combos from 6lb up to 25lb and have had very good results with all of it. It handles nicely and has great abrasion resistance and is very inexpensive. One of the bigger fish I've caught this year I caught in a brushpile with 25lb C21. After tug o warring back and forth in the tree for several seconds I managed to pull the entire brushpile up where I could reach it and pulled the tree up by hand and managed to grab the fish out of the tree. 5 1/2 pounder and I could barely feel anything in the line. I've pulled logs in with the 6lb while swimming grubs. I've just been very impressed with the line overall. Normally it seems like you have to give up something with your line, if it's strong it's stiff, it it's limp it's weak, not with that stuff.

Many that's tough. We fish for hybrids pretty much the same way in the winter with big live shad and my buddy had a monster hybrid eat a 7 or 8 inch shad and just burn drag on him. He fought her for probably 10 or 15 minutes and then she just came off. The hook was through the shads nostrils and back through the top of it's head with just enough hook sticking out to catch a piece of wiper but those big, powerful headshakes combined with the weight of the shad pulling on the hook finally pulled the hook out. Haven't ever had one nearly that big hooked since.

If they aren't bad just pack some table salt to put on them if a couple stick to you, they'll drop right of when that salt hits them. If they are bad, a pair of old tennis shoes and some jeans with the bottom zip tied on the top of the shoes will keep them out and still allow you to get wet and keep cool