Bluebasser86

If the fish looked healthy and was just swimming on it's back I don't see any reason why you couldn't eat it. Sounds to me like you did the right thing in trying to save it but it was probably just to the point of no return by the time you found it. I wouldn't personally have a problem with keeping it if I ate bass. I found a walleye with a large bullhead stuck in it's throat swimming the surface once and kept it when it didn't swim away after I removed the bullhead and it tasted fine.

I use a 6' 2" M/XF for poppers and small walkers. I can really influence what my bait does because of the fast recovery of the rodtip. I use a 6' 6" M/F for bigger walking baits for the extra casting distance and a little more power when I'm fighting fish.

I prefer mine to run at an angle so I can fade it into objects and follow along weedlines. Doesn't hurt their effectiveness at all for me.

I always have to buy my JJ's offline. I usually just buy a jar everytime my one I have gets to halfway, it's so much easier to dip in a new bottle versus a half used bottle.

A T-rig, C-rig, shakeyhead, flick shake, wacky rig, all great ways to fish a senko. One of my biggest fish this year was on a T-rigged 7 incher pitched into a brushpile. I like a wacky rig in areas where there aren't many snags, docks and over weeds are a couple of my favorite places. If you really want to fish a wacky rig around heavier cover then get a hook with a fiber or wire guard but be warned they will mess with your hook up ratio, at least they do with mine.

Practice, practice, practice! Once you get it down you don't even have to think about it when you casts, your body just does what it needs to do to keep you from backlashing, but even the best will get one once in awhile so don't get discouraged when you do get a bad one.

I have a few tungsten in large weights for punching thick weeds but that is the only application I feel you truly need a tungsten weight for the smaller profile.

For the most part water color is how I choose my color also. This summer it's been green pumpkin, watermelon, and summer craw for the most part though.

I've had very good luck with the gulp maggots for bluegills and sunfish also. I usually fish one on a 1/80 oz jighead under a small bobber.

I've had several and never had a problem.

Some companies have ways of telling the year the rod was build by the model or serial number printed on the rod, I know St. croix does it with their rods.

The mag trick worm is a pretty good bait that would work for what you're wanting to do with it. I've never fished either of the other two but I have some hand poured 11" straight tails that work very nicely.

50lb braid helps haul big fish out of heavy weeds. Really heavy weeds may call for 65 or even 80 if there's really large fish. If one buries up in the weeds that I can't get to I want to be able to pull the fish plus 10-20lbs of weeds to the boat, not going to do that with 10lb braid. Plus like snook said 10lb braid will dig into itself really badly when pressure is put on it.

Exactly, I have no problem doing it, I just have to think more about the possible repercussions of me doing it. It's the holding my thoughts in that I have a problem with.

I think I'm naturally gifted with my fishing, hunting, and shooting abilities, just have always been comfortable doing all of them. Had to work hard at my people skills. It still takes all I've got to not tell some of them what I think about them

Had about an hour after training before I had to go in for my overtime shift tonight so I stopped by Olathe and fished off the dam. Tossing a buzzbait and the same black and purple jig I had last night I caught 3 (2 on a jig, 1 on the buzzbait) in about 30 minutes and got busted off on my jig by what I'm guessing was another kittyfish. I don't know what their attraction to me has been lately? I spent the night on the river Sunday night and they ignore me but I go bass fishing and they won't leave me alone? Must be like when you're dating when you don't have a girl none of them want you but when you have a girl they all want you? Something like that?

I set mine fairly high, basically to the point that my line is almost at it's breaking point to give drag, but I rarely use my drag. With baitcasters I prefer to disengage the spool when I need to give a fish line and thumb the spool. Spinning reels I prefer to backreel over using the drag. Just my personal preference, I feel I have more control over the fish because I can add more pressure or take away pressure as I feel it's needed. I set my drag so it will slip just before the lines breaking point in case I hook a fast fish that hits the end of the line before I can disengage or start backreeling.

Just got a St.Croix Mojo "Big Crankster" and love it so far. Soft tip to really fell the bait so I can crawl it through the rocks and wood but plenty of backbone to move a big fish with a long handle to help launch a bait and then give you plenty of leverage so you don't get worn out cranking the big baits. I don't know how good of a rod it would be for topwaters but what I look for in a topwater rod and what I look for in a cranking rod are very different things.

Good news! For anyone paying a lot of attention I just recently bought a deep cranking combo and have been trying to figure out the tricks to fishing those deep running baits. Well I was digging through my deep diving crankbait box and what do I uncover? My Zell pop!! No idea why I put it in there but man was I happy to see it! I just got my second backup bait in the mail today so now I have 2 extras and my allstar probowler popper back! Now I just need to get my 50E topwater reel back from getting supertuned and the water to cool down a little bit so they'll start eating a little better and maybe I can get it back in some action!

If you like the Pop-R try the Excaliber Zell Pop. It's a very similar bait with some small tweaks that make it the best popper I've ever fished. I like the smaller size, I have one with almost no paint left on it it's been hit so many times.

For me with buzzbaits I do best with either the bigger (3/8oz+) or smallest (1/8oz). The "standard" 1/4 or 3/16 ounce sizes just don't seem to get bit very often for me. I would guess a smoking rooster, brush hog, or 3/4oz football jig with a big trailer probably looks as big if not bigger to a fish in the water but fish don't mind. The bass is just thinking about survival and it has to eat to survive. The bigger the meal it can get with the least amount of effort the bigger the reward and the more energy it can save and gain the better for it's chances to survive another season.

Strike King KVD 2.5 or series 4S. If you can still find the old Lucky Craft Rick Clunn baits the size 4 is a monster that catches big fish.

Holy fat fish! Did you measure her? Looks like she'd just barely measure on an 18" lake! She's built like a really thick hybrid!

I've fished a couple ponds with stunted bass and caught literally a few hundred or more in an 8 hour period just to try to thin some of the fish out of the pond. A couple of my friends and I caught over 250 of a mixed bag of smallmouth, spots, largemouth, whites, crappie, drum, and walleye in about 8 hours one day this spring.

Well I'm doing some training right now that let me get off a little earlier than usual and I was a little closer to home than usual (Olathe) so I called my buddy whose parents live at Lake Quivira and asked if he wanted to do a little moonlight bassin' and he said he was up for it for a couple hours. Still 90 degrees out and stupid humid but we managed to put a few in the boat, nothing huge but fun. Average sized one on one of my black and purple jigs I got brave and fished the hot pink chatterbait I made for my wife and caught 5 on it! Actually seemed to catch better sized fish. And big fish of the night. I seem to be getting into a habit of this? Black and purple jig next to a dock got thumped right off a little rock ledge. Had my hopes up for a minute, 13 1/4lb flathead.