Bluebasser86

Catfish were my first love in fishing, grew up catching them in my grandpa's pond. I like how simple you can keep things and still catch lots of them. If you're fishing for for channels under 10lbs I'd suggest going to spinning gear. My channel cat rods are both 7' M ugly stick lites with Okuma 30 size baitfeeder reels. This is a great setup as the soft tips really show every little tap but have plenty of backbone to fight any channel cat you're going to hook in most bodies of water. My river rods vary by river/type of catfish I'm after. For flatheads I've got a St.Croix Classic Cat with a Calcutta 400B and a 7' XH/F custom built rod with a Penn 209 to handle big baits and big fish in nasty places. You won't be able to notice many small fish pecking your bait though. My rods for blues are a 7' Tica, 8' Whoppin stick, and 12' Whoppin stick. All of them are spinning rods with Okuma baitfeeders in 50, 65, and 90 sizes and are good for lobbing cutbait long distances and fighting big fish in current. Give a medium or medium heavy Ugly Stick Lite and a spinning reel a try for channels and I think you'll be much happier than you are with what you have now. Keep that one for bigger cats and bigger baits though, that's a good setup for sure.

I recently bought a pack of what is basically BPS EWG superline style hooks because of the price and I get another 40% off so I figured I'd give them a shot. So far they are sticky sharp and hold fish very well. I've fished them with a baby brush hog, a senko, and a fluke and had very good hookup ratios even on long casts. Provided I don't start losing a bunch of fish on them they might become my go to hooks, must better than $20.99 I was going to pay for my normal 4/0 gama EWG superline hooks.

I have some of the black Bandits and they are a good bait in dark water, dark days it seems. Basically anytime the fish can't really see you're bait very well and just need a good profile for them to hone in on.

It's $8 a day according to their website. Last time I was there we bought them from Big Bird's Bait and Tackle. They're open at 6am on weekends, 7am on weekdays. Last time I went they give you a sticker and I don't believe there was a way to self pay at the ramp. I've always used the main ramp about mid way up the lake as it's a very nice ramp and you never touch gravel. It's a fun lake with lots of standing timber, brushpiles, and grass. However it gets lots of pressure so it can be tough. Get there early because it usually has a much better bite before 10am than the rest of the day and can have a really good topwater bite early.

Don't think I'd want to try to ride on a nurse shark's tail. They can bite their own tail and I'm pretty sure you holding onto their tail might make them feel threatened enough to bite you. It would be cool to swim with them though.

My parents had a female red fox with kits that lived right down the street that we're always out playing along the treeline. It was pretty cool to watch them grow up from fat little balls of fur to the sleak hunters they grow up to be.

I have a 6' 10" ML/F Rage spinning rod and like it really well for wacky rigs/dropshotting. It's a sensitive rod with good backbone but a soft tip to help load and toss lighter baits a long ways. I really don't think you could go wrong with any of the rods you're considering, it's going to be a matter of what you can spend and personal preference for you. If you can, go to a tackle store and hold a couple of them yourself, you may find you like one you didn't think you'd like or that you don't like one that you were going to get before.

Several lakes have Monday or Wednesday night tournaments. Wyandotte co, Hillsdale, Smithville, Longview, and I believe Jacomo and Blue Springs all have evening tournaments if you're looking to stay close. Lots of bass clubs in the area as long as you're just looking for the competition and not winning any money. I fished the BASS weekend series one year and had a lot of fun doing that and made a little money too. I could be there the 10th if ti was Perry or Melvern, Milford is a little far for a day trip.

Creek Chub or a Fall fish.

Looks like a very drab colored warmouth or green sunfish.

I also prefer the S over the SX or STX. Maybe I just don't have a refined enough feel but the S seems to cast better and is more trouble free to fish with.

I have both of the rods you listed. I had the Mojo orginally and then picked up the LTB after a couple consecutive tournaments wins. There really is no comparison. I caught plenty of fish with my Mojo but the LTB is lighter, more sensitive, and better built.

Grub or an inline spinner are a couple of my favorites for kids. Small crankbaits are also good.as are small safety pin spinners.

Usually 3-5 times. Only one of those days will be a full day (over 8 hours) I make at least a couple 1-3 hour trips to the lakes or ponds down there a week. My wife and I usually go for a few hours every Sunday if the weather is nice too.

Like wookiee said, several splashes in a small area, and especially if you see baitfish flying, could be several things. Around here that means bass, white bass, or hybrids, stripers in a few lakes. If it's just one big splash it's probably a buffalo or carp. Gar will surface to gulp air also but it tends to be quieter than carp jumping and leaves more of an oblong ring on the surface if you see where it happened right after it jumps.

Dark colored jig, worm, spinnerbait, or chatterbait. I'm really starting to like a chatterbait at night alot. The good strong vibration helps them hone in on it and it gives a good profile for them to see.

I rarely fish the stalls except the last few towards the bank and instead focus mainly on the walkways and rip rap. I'll probably be on Perry Monday, all you guys talking about it has given me the itch to go out there.

Dad and I got back from fishing Milford the last 3 days around 5 today. Wind sucked all 3 days like it usually does out there. Dad did pretty good with the trolling motor but it's a little tougher to drive one of the elecric control motors like his boat has so I did my best to be patient while each time we were spinning circles on the lake This is more of a walleye trip than bass but I can't go to that lake and not fish for them a little bit, plus the walleye were TOUGH! My biggest smallie of the trip, 17" and almost 3lbs. Dad getting in on the action. A solid spinnerbait smallie that just crushed it. Unfortunately I had just lost one that was well over 4 a few cast before catching this one so I wasn't quite as happy as I would have been We got a tip from a guy at the dock by the dam that was training his retriever that guys have been catching lots of walleye in Farnum Creek. We had a few hours left in the day and it's only a 5 minute drive by road instead of 30 minutes by boat so we loaded up and made the move. Took a minute to find the fish but when we did we found everything. The wipers started blowing up behind us and I stuck a solid one on light spinning tackle that took me for a ride! The bait was way down there! 22" and 5lbs We weren't catching the numbers of walleyes the guy told us about but we did catch some fish. Up to this point we had caught a grand total of 1 short walleye in almost 2 days fishing. We ended the night with 4 18" keepers out of 9 fish. Biggest was 20.5". We went back to the same area the next day and the catfish had taken over! I was having fun catching blues and channels on a light spinning rod casting a gulp minnow but dad wanted walleye. I suggested an area so we made the move. Again it took us awhile to relocate them but once we got to the specific spot I thought they would be we found a few more. Today we had 3 keepers out of 7 fish with a 19.5" fish being the biggest. It was a good time minus that wind and me almost having a rod jerked out of the boat and then throwing the same one out of the boat on the hookset Thankfully I got it back and caught the fish that caused the whole mess in the first place It was a multispecies weekend for sure we caught largemouth, smallmouth, whites, wipers, crappies, bluegills, green sunfish, pumpkinseed, channel cats, blue cats, drum, and carp.

Dad and I got back from fishing Milford the last 3 days around 5 today. Wind sucked all 3 days like it usually does out there. Dad did pretty good with the trolling motor but it's a little tougher to drive one of the elecric control motors like his boat has so I did my best to be patient while each time we were spinning circles on the lake This is more of a walleye trip than bass but I can't go to that lake and not fish for them a little bit, plus the walleye were TOUGH! My biggest smallie of the trip, 17" and almost 3lbs. Dad getting in on the action. A solid spinnerbait smallie that just crushed it. Unfortunately I had just lost one that was well over 4 a few cast before catching this one so I wasn't quite as happy as I would have been We got a tip from a guy at the dock by the dam that was training his retriever that guys have been catching lots of walleye in Farnum Creek. We had a few hours left in the day and it's only a 5 minute drive by road instead of 30 minutes by boat so we loaded up and made the move. Took a minute to find the fish but when we did we found everything. The wipers started blowing up behind us and I stuck a solid one on light spinning tackle that took me for a ride! The bait was way down there! 22" and 5lbs We weren't catching the numbers of walleyes the guy told us about but we did catch some fish. Up to this point we had caught a grand total of 1 short walleye in almost 2 days fishing. We ended the night with 4 18" keepers out of 9 fish. Biggest was 20.5". We went back to the same area the next day and the catfish had taken over! I was having fun catching blues and channels on a light spinning rod casting a gulp minnow but dad wanted walleye. I suggested an area so we made the move. Again it took us awhile to relocate them but once we got to the specific spot I thought they would be we found a few more. Today we had 3 keepers out of 7 fish with a 19.5" fish being the biggest. It was a good time minus that wind and me almost having a rod jerked out of the boat and then throwing the same one out of the boat on the hookset Thankfully I got it back and caught the fish that caused the whole mess in the first place It was a multispecies weekend for sure we caught largemouth, smallmouth, whites, wipers, crappies, bluegills, green sunfish, pumpkinseed, channel cats, blue cats, drum, and carp.

My dad has a couple rods older than I am that still catch fish just like they used to. As long as they're in good condition they should serve you fine.

The piers, across the dam, and then the few piers on the east side were our best areas. The water at the north end was extremly clear for that lake, we could see bottom all across there and there was no sign of any life, not a bite on anything we fished. The east bank with all the laydowns and smaller standing trees was very tough also. We did pretty well on the laydowns in the middle. Don't be fooled by the fact that those trees are in the middle, it's only about 4-6 feet deep out there and fish hold out there all the time. We usually flip the trees and then fan cast cranks or spinnerbaits on the flats while we motor to the next tree and pick up a lot of roaming fish doing that. I forgot to mention, we caught 2 white bass last time we were on Miami? Anybody else ever caught one? I'm sure they swam in there when the river was flooded but I've just never caught one and was wondering if I'm the only one. I'll be chasing smallies, walleyes, and wipers for the next 3 days at Milford with the old man. Hopefully when we get back I'll have some good stories/pictures to share

Swimbaits don't nessasarily equal big baits either. If you don't want to jump straight into bigger baits get something like a 4" weedless Hudd. Everything from 10 inchers to 10 pounders can eat them. I fish a 5" Decoy Hydratail quite a bit and after you see enough 12 inchers inhale it so deeply you can't see the bait sticking out of their mouths anymore you realize they really aren't that big of a bait. I'm convinced that some of the fish I catch on swimbaits will not respond to any other bait. Part of my reasoning in this is that I fish some lakes that get tons of pressure. Every fish I catch on a jig, crankbait, plastic has a mouth that is all torn up from hooks. If I fish the same lake with a swimbait though I catch lots of fish that seem to have not a single hook mark anywhere. There is something about the subtle action of a swimbait that just drives fish crazy at times. As far as being like a jointed crankbait, not even close. Crankbaits have a very mechanical swimming motion where the whole body of the bait moves. Most soft swimbaits only the tail moves very subtly side to side, just like a real fishes tail. You should at least give it a try. It doesn't require specialized tackle or a ton of baits. A couple plastic baits in natural colors and just toss them on a heavier rod like a flipping stick. If you decide it's something you like you can buy more specialized gear later.

Cheap pair of rubber boots works for me. If it's warm enough I prefer to just were sandals instead.

In the lakes we have with largemouth and smallmouth the smallmouth are much more abundant in the deeper, rockier areas with clearer water. Smallmouths seem to feed pretty heavily on craws all year here so anything that imitates one will almost always catch some fish.

Hotdogs are probably the cheapest and easiest household bait you can find. Chicken livers work pretty well at time but are a lot messier, smell bad, and difficult to fish with.