Bluebasser86

What are you hoping/planning on catching fish on down there? I will be down there the 3rd week of May myself and it's one of my favorite times of year to be down there. Topwater like spooks and sammys can be really good early. Spinnerbaits can be really good. Pretty much any finesse tactic can catch fish, I prefer dropshotting and shakeyheads. Splitshotting is pretty popular too it seems. The A-rig has caught some amazing bags of fish recently. I really like a jig that time of year also. For the most part you'll want to stick to natural colors in your baits.

I'm thinking it's either a sauger or saugeye because of the dark blotches on it's side. They're a popular with fishermen because they're good to eat and the state uses them a lot to try to control shad and crappie populations. I went back out yesterday and caught 7 more of them, including one that would have been a keeper, probably 15-16 inches long and very fat. I may have stumbled onto something out there.

I'd go with a spinning reel, probably a 2500 or 3000 size reel on a 6' 6" or 7' medium/fast action rod. You could fish for most freshwater fish with that setup.

The guy is a machine, there is no doubt about that! I'm sure he's forgotten more about fishing than I'll ever know.

Push the point of the hook out of the other side of the worm just until the barb is almost out of the worm. I'm using a 6' 8" M/F with 8lb fluoro, and homemade ballheads with the corkscrew keeper and don't miss many fish with them. I set the hook as soon as I feel a fish. If you wait to long the worm will ball up in the fishes mouth and you'll set the hook back into the worm a lot of the time. Most shakeyhead worms are only 4-7 inches long, so it doesn't take a fish long at all to get the worm in it's mouth far enough to get the hook. Make sure you reel fast and keep tension on the fish after the hookset in case the hook isn't buried in to the barb. It shouldn't be your rod or line that is making you lose fish, it has to be happening because of something else.

We've had great weather for the last couple weeks, then it snowed yesterday and is in the low 40's today with high winds. Supposed to be 70 by Monday, have to love the weather in the Midwest!

That's awesome! You can't be mad at the little guy because it sounds like he will share your interest in fishing when he gets older. You can both laugh at it when he gets older too.

finesse jigs and suspending jerkbaits are my best baits right now. If I'm fishing deeper water a shakyhead with a finesse worm has been good too. It depends a lot on the the body of water you're fishing thought.

I have some 17" "bullwhip" worms. It's a giant handpoured C tail worm that I fish on an 11/0 owner hook. I've fished mine mainly at night in lakes in NE Kansas. I've had lots of fish bite at the tail but only ever hooked one fish. It was probably 6-7 pounds but came off at the boat. If you're just fishing for big fish they're a good option, otherwise a 12" worm is probably a better option.

A couple of my recent fishing trips! 3lb 14oz bass from the pond behind my work on a PINK! X-rap. Had to fish one just to see if I could get a fish to eat it. kanasbassfisher08 (Chris) and I were on the Kansas River trying for some catfish yesterday. Lots of bites but Chris was the only one to hookup. Turned out to be a really nice channel cat. A couple days ago a group of guys were on the river that had about a 3lb walleye they had caught. I'd never seen one from the river before but yesterday I caught one in my thrownet too. Got me thinking I should be tossing some artificials down there too!

Exactly! The rod is for moving the fish, the reel is just for collecting that line so you can move the fish again! 7.1 for all my jig fishing.

Yeah, need a little more info. I don't like the same rod and reel for traps that I use for cranks.

Lots of places online to get the stuff if you don't have a tackle store close by that carries the supplies. I buy some of my stuff from BPS and some from online stores. The melting pot and molds is the most expensive part. Once you get that stuff it isn't too expensive, especially if you get lead for free like I do

I catch more crappie every year fishing for bass with jerkbaits than I do on crappie baits. It's hard to get it to the bass if the conditions are right it seems like!

My dad is constantly checking the drag on his spinning reels. So every half hour or so I'll hear a spinning reel give drag in the back of the boat and turn around to see if he needs help with the fish I think he's just hooked just to find out he's checking his drag again, drives me crazy.

6' 8" would get my vote too. A couple extra inches to pick up more line on the hookset and a little more reach to help steer fish away from cover.

I like Yums pretty well, they just don't come in very many different colors if you're looking for a specific one.

I love the way they try to break my wrist when I'm fishing a jerkbait. I really enjoy finesse fishing too though and the tap-tap when one picks up a shakeyhead really gets me going too!

I've noticed that also on their newer baits that I've bought. I was changing out all the split rings but haven't had to recently.

Not really. I caught that meanmouth and had another big fish hooked for a second and that was it. I had lots of follows from small spotted bass. Other than that it gets snagged if it gets close to anything and about every 3rd or 4th cast it gets tangled and won't swim right.

Nope, that picture is from Table Rock last weekend. I saw that picture of the mutiple rigs but I'm undecided if it's real or not.

All we have is stained water with limited visibility and I catch lots of fish on jerkbaits. It isn't the best conditions for one but it can be done. The pond by my office has about a foot of visibily and they crush a jerkbait in the spring but they hardly touch anything else. Baits with chartruese, gold, or bright white seem to best most of the time.

Fingerless gloves. I've got a few pairs of cheap White River gloves from BPS. They're like $5 a pair and I keep them with me so if one pair starts to get saturated with water I can change to a dry pair. Chemical warmer packets like Hothands go a long ways too. Keep a couple in the pockets of your jacket and put your hands in your pockets for a couple minutes once in awhile to warm them back up. I fish year round thanks to powerplant lakes and fish in air temps in the teens at times. It gets almost painful at times but it's worth it for the shot to hook a good fish.

I make mine with a football head. I really like how they balance with the football head. I get the blades from Janns netcraft and mold them on a 4/0 Mustad hook.

Spotted bass/smallmouth hybrid. On the A-rig.