Bluebasser86

Female bluegill, no doubt about it.

Love that little lake. It's rough getting to but I think that keeps the pressure off the bass a little. Lots of healthy fish in that lake.

Wyco is a tough lake for sure but about as good as they get around here. I won 3 of the tournaments in a row last year and then didn't win another. I got second and third a few times also. It's a good group of guys and I had a lot of fun. Unfortunately my work schedule isn't going to allow me to fish them this year or I would be out there!

Which state lake is that? Sounds like a good time!

Nice, I didn't know you could make a jig mold with silicone. If you don't mind telling how you made that I'm sure several guys on here would like to hear it, myself included. If you don't want to tell how you do it I'm sure several guys on here would understand, myself included

The XRK50 is one of my favorite rattlebaits of all time. The gold/blackback and red craw colors are great in stained and dirty water and the ghost color is great for clear to slightly stained water. I've never been a fan of Rapala rattlebaits so I've never fished the clackin rap but you won't be disappointed with the Xcalibur. Upgrade the hooks though, the ones that come on them are kind of flimsy.

Haven't used either. You can also go on BPS website and find customer reviews on there. More than likely not many guys on here have every used them and don't want to comment on a bait they have never used or ever heard of in some cases.

Welcome to the forum PB! Middle creek sucks, that's the only way to put it. Even the state guys I've talked to said the same thing. They just can't seem to get much other than crappie and catfish to do any good in that lake. There's much better lakes to fish. Even as hard as La Cygne is most days it's only 10 minutes further for me so I'd much rather drive there and at least I have a shot at a monster out there.

I believe they start in April sometime. They're wednesday nights and start at 6pm and run until 9pm or later. There used to be some info on them posted on a information board right by the boat ramp.

All of their baits are great. They make my favorite popper (zell pop) trap, (Xr50 and Xkr50) a couple great jerkbaits, a good walking bait, and good squarebills.

The fishing hole was a good place to take a reel but the owner died a couple years ago, believe that's why they went out of buisness. I don't know of anywhere around here that does it. There is a couple sponsers on here that do a great job and don't charge too much.

That's true. We could do a day trip and grill some food afterwards but a weekend would probably be a little less hectic. I already have the last weekend of April off if that would work for anyone else. I just took it off because it's my birthday and was planning on going fishing somewhere but haven't decided where yet.

I have 2 of the Rage rods and really like them. I bought both of mine in store so I could look at the guides to make sure they were lined up well. They cast really well and I love the feeling of the handle. It's very comfortable in my hands no matter how long I use them. If you need any further convincing you may want to check out a couple of pictures of fish a memeber by the name of Big-O catches. He uses a 7' 11" Rage rod and and catches more fish over 10lbs in a month than I'll catch in my life

I have both and really like both of the baits you bought. I've caught lots of fish on both but seem to catch much more large fish on the Erratic shad for some reason. In all fairness, they've been around longer and I've fished them more. Keep your eyes open for sales on LC pointers. I've found them down to $5 apiece when certian colors get discontinued by tackle stores. We only have a few pike in the area, no muskie or pikeral, but I know that sickening feeling of getting the "tick" setting the hook and never even feeling any resistance. Mine was a slender pointer in American Shad color, $18 gone, so I understand your concern.

I'm up for it. I like the idea of everyone playing hooky from work one day and doing a day get together at a lake within reasonable driving distance. I don't have much vacation left this year since most of it is already scheduled but I could make a Sunday or if everyone wanted to get a case of jiggingitis and do it on a Monday I could do that too. I still like the sounds of Melvern, probably in late April/early May.

1/4oz and up will be easier on a baitcaster, lighter it's easier with a spinning reel is a pretty easy rule of thumb. Different weights can very greatly on how much they weigh depending on the material they're made from or if you add weight to them. You could fish most kinds of baits on either of them but spinning reels are easier to learn with and more forgiving than baitcasters are. Plus if you decide to fish for other kinds of fish like panfish/catfish/walleye/trout a spinning reel will work better for them in most cases.

Sounds like you've thought it through fairly well to me and chosen a field where there should be plenty of work and jobs. If it's what you want to do is the most important thing I think. I can understand what you're dealing with. When I turned 21 I started working as a sheriff deputy in the jail in Kansas City, KS (not the safest place to work). So my parents were both not excited about it but I can say pretty confidently that I'll always have a job as long as I do what I'm supposed to do and shouldn't ever get outsourced. Plus there is good benefits and retirement if retirement still exist by the time I'm old enough to retire.

I can't ever tell the difference, but then again I don't catch or fish for them often. Most of the lakes have the same length limits across the board for them to avoid getting anglers who are trying to do right from getting in trouble for taking short fish. Most importantly they all taste good and that's all I really need to know about them when I catch a keeper.

I would have guessed the other way around with all the dark blotches on the second fish. In other news, I got from a good source this morning that a new state record rainbow trout was caught from Lake Shawnee in Topeka this morning, supposedly in the 14-15 pound range. Now that is a pig of a trout!

Depends on your definition of "stained" Most every lake I fish is stained in my book and I do really well with GP. I usually save watermelon colors for clear water. In stained to dirty water I like bright colors, white, chartruese, orange, or dark colors, GP, black, purple, blue. I keep my color selection pretty simple, especially with plastics and jigs.

Wake King shad, H2O 4" swimbait-good bait and very cheap so it's easier to talk yourself into fishing and buying it. Spro BBZ-1 has caught me some nice fish and isn't too expensive. 6" Hudds, Decoy Hydratail-another inexpensive bait that isn't too big so it isn't intimidating to fish when you're new to it. Optima makes some smaller baits that I really like also along with Castaic.

Nice work! That is a heck of a day for those conditions! I think most guys would have probably just stayed home instead.

The big one my friend caught was 3lbs 3ozs but we've caught them up to 5lbs. There's another lake about 40 minutes away that stocks monsters. The state record was broken twice there last year, first with an 11+lb fish then one over 12lbs. The edge of the water over my friends left shoulder is where they stock them. It seems early on a lot of them stay close but after a couple weeks they get spread out over the lake pretty well. It's a deep 400 acre lake so it takes awhile for them to get everywhere in the lake.

Trout season just opened up around here and the warm weather has also got the catfish starting to move around. One of the local lakes stocks tons of rainbows that are a blast to catch since they're usually the most aggressive thing out there in the cold water. Sunday I took my wife out so she could enjoy catching them. She caught several like this one on my secret trout bait I've been tying some trout jigs to take on a trip to the White River in Arkansas next week and thought this would be a perfect chance to test them out, I was right. The next day I took my friend and my dad out to the same lake, same spot. We caught trout about as fast as we could fight the last one in and get it unhooked. My friend caught a heck of a nice stocker trout, a big male on my secret trout lure Finally kanasbassfisher08 and I went to try the Kansas River to see if we could get a catfish to bite. We had lots of little bites but Chris caught the only fish. It turned out to be a really healthy channel cat in the 10-12 pound range.

Very cool looking fish. Bet that thing was a heck of fight!