Bluebasser86

Do yourself the favor and get the Elite. The orginal has horrible memory. The Elite has quite a bit also if you get it in heavier weights but most flouros do it seems like. Both are extremely strong though. I've fished both lines quite a bit and liked the elite much better.

Looks like a good trout or crappie jig to me, what size head are they?

I have a few of the E7's and they work great for bottom contact baits for me. It's really personal preference though, either of them will work just fine so go with the one that you like best!

Probably your location or maybe the time of year. Catfish aren't as aggressive when the water is cold so they don't have to eat as often and don't roam around as much. You might try casting out a couple rods at the same time and letting them soak in different locations. This time of year I'd look for a flat close to the deeper portions of the pond and maybe one in the deepest part of the pond itself.

Well like KB08 said we did alright at La Cygne but not great. We hadn't caught anything except some big buffalo at the outlet and even those were tough to find. The outlet had just started to blow a small puff of smoke when we started catching the whites. They were tiny and we fished most of the big flat to the north of the outlet trying to find some bigger whites or wipers. Most of the bass we caught came off of the point that is the most southern part of the rock wall on the north end by the river. Caught several off that point, mostly one jerkbaits but did get a fish on a pitboss also. My biggest on a jerkbait was probably around 2.5. We fished all the way down that wall, the river mouth because there were birds diving, and the island. Only part we caught fish off of was the deeper stretch of bank closest to the outlet. Caught the biggest of the day on our second pass down that stretch on a red craw H2O sqarebill. Caught a couple off of the rock bank in between the cabins and the main ramp. Also caught one off of the dam on a jerkbait. I hooked something at the outlet on the dam on a shakeyhead but it pulled me down into some brush and came off, not sure if it was a bass or not. Pretty slow day but it was nice weather once it warmed up and way better than being at home doing nothing!

Fish are cold blooded so those couple extra degrees you get when it warms up later in the day will help make them more active a lot of the time. During the winter time for me the mornings are tough and then I'll catch most of my fish from about 9 or 10 until dark.

Very nice buck! You're lucky, after the 31st of December we can't shoot bucks anymore.

I have only used it once so far. I was fishing the 12lb on a medium spinning rod to fire 4" swimbaits for hybrids and largemouth at the local powerplant lake. I broke off about the first 3 fish on the hookset and was getting frustrated. I took my time and made really sure the next knot was tied well. After that it worked great. Hooksets were solid and castability was great. I didn't have a problem with it digging in but with an open hooked bait I wasn't setting the hook very hard either.

Probably the most common option for trout in rivers I'd guess. A lot of guys flyfish but there's probably even more that use spinning tackle. The speed and size of the river and the size of the trout you might encounter should dictate your equipment selection.

Put heavy line on your cranking rod, 15-20 pound test, and then slowly and carefully pull a squarebill through the cover. Dragging a jig or T-rig should work well also but it seems if you try to keep your casts shorter from the bank it will help to prevent snags because you can lift up and out of snags more than you can on a long cast. I wouldn't suggest casting a C-rig into heavy cover, that's just asking for trouble. Slow rolling a single or double colorado bladed spinnerbait through the cover would be another option you might try. A jerkbait might not be a bad idea but they hang up easy if they contact wood cover so I don't think I'd be pulling any megabass or pointers through that mess unless you're willing to lose them.

MIL's, can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em I'm not even going to start on mine because there isn't enough time in the day. I try to get along with the woman, I really do, but that is one person that gets under my skin like nobody I've ever met can.

YES!! That flashy blade that comes on a lot of baits is probably spooking your fish or they may be conditioned to seeing it. One of the lakes I fish a lot if you fish an aluminum blade they won't hardly touch it but if it's a black painted blade they're all over it. Sometimes it makes a big difference in clear water or on cloudy days also. It's along the same lines as fishing a bone colored crank vs a chrome colored one. Sometimes all that flash is just overkill but sometimes it's the key. You just have to try both sometimes and see what they're wanting.

Loved it! I was fishing a small Xrap on the 6' 10" ML/XF Rage spinning rod with a Pfluegar MGX and 8lb mono. I was fishing a small pond with lots of healthy 12-15 inchers. Caught 4 bass like these ones. You can kind of see that the other end of the pond was still frozen over with skim ice. Also caught myself a heck of a nice slab crappie that was just a touch over 13 inches and another that was 12inches. Went again today and caught 9 more bass at a different pond but they were all dinks, less than 12 inches and most around 8 inches, no pictures of those monsters. Puts my total at 45 bass on the year so far.

I love big smallies! I don't understand how someone can think they're ugly. This is the biggest gut I've ever seen on any of the smallmouth I've ever caught. She had the tail of probably a 7-9 inch crappie sticking out of her throat, just couldn't pass up that little Lucky Craft crankbait!

Shakeyhead, rattlebait, preferrably an Excalibur one knocker, and a spinnerbait with double colorado blades. I like your first two choices and if you can't catch fish with any of those a last ditch effort might be to try to graph some bait and jig a spoon.

Bird numbers have been terrible this year everywhere in the state it seems like. Funds have been low for me so I haven't even bothered going but all my friends that have gone have reported the same thing back. Looks like you guys did alright for yourselves and got some good eating!

You can just thread them on the hook or run the hook through them a couple times and let the ends hang off. Worms and chicken livers tend to attract smaller fish for me and bluegill steal the bait off the hook before a catfish ever has a chance but they will really catch them sometimes. Nightcrawlers work really well after a heavy rain it seems like. During the summer grasshoppers and frogs work really well at times also.

Haven't been or heard anything since last time I went but I bet it will be crazy at either lake this weekend. If the wind allowed I'd probably opt for Wolf Creek just because it would be easier to get away from the crowd more since it is a much bigger lake, but the chance at a big bass goes way down also. I'll be at La Cygne Monday so if you go out there I'd appreciate a report if you get a chance I'll report in after kanasbassfisher08 and I get back.

Bigger than any fish that I've caught so far this year, nice one!

Nice fish! I'm another one of the lucky guys enjoying soft water when I would normally be starting to check to see if the ice is thick enough to walk on yet!

The best way I have found is, while the fish is laying on it's side, run the point of the fillet knife to about even with the top of the eye and back about half and inch. Push the blade quickly straight through and then rock it down and out the top of the back. If done right you should hit the brain/spine/spinal cord. I don't clean fish often but this is the technique I've used and minus some "dying shivers" that last a second or two at the most, I rarely even have a fish twitch, even if I don't immediately fillet it. Seems to work very well on most types of freshwater fish other than catfish or carp or other fish with heavy skulls. If you're filleting one of those go for the whack on the top of the head right above the eyes.

Catfish in ponds are very sensitive to their surrounds. When you set out juglines at night I'm guessing you leave them overnight and check them again the next morning. Those fish sense nothing out of the ordinary so they go about feeding as normal. A lot of people make way too much noise while they are fishing ponds for catfish or any fish for that matter. Try to keep noise and movements down and cut down as much as you can on anything that is going to transmit vibrations (walking, dropping tackle boxes on the ground, hammering a rod holder into the ground) I like your bait choice. If you're after the flatheads go with live bluegills, sunfish, or bullheads with the lightest sinker you can get away with. I like saltwater livebait hooks because they are strong but not huge like most hooks marketed for livebait catfishing. Put the bait next to some kind of cover and leave it alone! If a fish is there it will find it eventually but it may take some time. In a pond environment a flathead doesn't have to move much to eat because the food usually comes to them. As for the blues and channels I like to use cut bluegill or shad. Cut it into appropriate sized pieces for the fish you're likely to catch. I like Kahle hooks for cutbait, get the right size for the bait and fish but try to keep it fairly small, you'd be surprised how big of a catfish you can land on a 1/0 or 2/0 kahle hook. Cast that out onto flats, at the mouth of any cuts, cover, or incoming creeks and wait. A friend of mine has a pond with lots of catfish in it but it is a very small pond. We often have to wait 20-30 minutes before we get our first bites and it seems to take about that long in between fish because when you hook a fish it will usually swim most of the pond during the fight. Hope that helps!

You can keep the snow! We haven't had hardly a dusting this year and I'm loving it!

I've got a 6' light Triumph that I bought for a loaner rod and one to keep in the truck. So far it has withstood several outings being used by young kids and some of my friends that are less than gentle. Minus being about an inch shorter from a truck tailgate incident it has withstood everything it's had thrown at it including landing a 12lb flathead catfish from a tiny creek on 4lb test.

I'd agree with about 5, very skinny it looks like but still a nice fish.