Bluebasser86

I'm in, A-jay hooked me up last year and got me hooked on Xcalibur squarebills in the process

I use mine mainly for jigs, plastics, and carolina rigs. I feel like I fish too fast with most everything else. They are really nice to be able to reel in quickly to make another cast or to quickly catch up to a fish that is coming right at the boat.

Always nice to start the morning like that!

They did that with a book a few years back. I didn't want it so I sent it back. About a month later I got a letter saying I needed to pay for the book since I was keeping it? I didn't pay for the book because I didn't keep it but they sent me letters for several months but finally stopped. They sent another book but I didn't even open it, just marked return to sender and sent it back.

That sounds a lot like a 'goo or drum. Their bite is very fast but very unmistakeable on a jig. If you're fast you'll hook on once in awhile but because of their small, rubbery lips they do come off pretty often. They pick up finesse jigs and swim sometimes but full size jigs seem to be too much for all but the biggest drum. If you're using a strong scent like megastrike there is also the possibility that you're getting hit by small catfish. They'll often nip and pull on a bait to try to tear off chunks since their mouth is very small when they are young.

Lucky Craft CBS zero in American shad color. It's a little crankbait but it has caught me some of my biggest crankbait fish. It's amazing how far it will cast on my normal cranking rod too.

5 degrees in a week is a pretty dramatic drop and may make them a little more tight lipped. However, they have to eat to live so stay with it. At that water temp I'd try something like a lipless crank, flat crank, single colorado bladed spinnerbait, hard jerkbait, jig, or a shakeyhead.

I have one thought to offer, something that happens a lot around here. Does your lake have drum or sheepshead in it? They will crush a jig but only hit it quickly one time and rarely carry the jig off like a bass will. Some of our local lakes are loaded with drum and you have to deal with them doing that all day. They also love rocky points, another reason why they came to mind. I'm assuming your equipment is the right stuff because you've caught fish fishing like you are before. Watching your line and getting a faster hookset might help a little, but it sounds like you set pretty quickly after getting bit so you should have at least been feeling something on the hookset. Maybe try some kind of scent to get that extra second or two to set the hook.

The best will depend a lot on the body of water you fish, water temp, clariy, and other factors. I like Lucky Craft pointer 78 in fairly clear water between about 50-60, which is most of my jerkbait fishing. In colder water I like the Xcalibur Erratic shad or the old standby Smithwick Rogue. The Megabass Vision is another very popular bait but at $25 a pop they're out of most peoples budget. Rapala X-raps are also a pretty decent bait but in my book I'd rather spend the few dollars extra on a pointer. Normally 45-60 degree water is when I break out the jerkbaits but they can be good all year long in the right conditions.

Man I'd love to catch one of those things! Congrats!

Sounds like you should have payed attention to what she was doing and fished a slower moving bait

If I only had one rod it would be a 7' MH/F. The lightning rod is a good option, the new Clarus looks good for that price range, haven't tried the Sellus but it looks good for $50. Get some of them in your hands if you can and decide what you think feels best.

Don't know if something like that would be legal? At the very least I'd say it would be like a trotline that should have to be marked with the owners name, number, and address and taken down when not in use. I would have done the same thing you did, at least with the one set in the path.

Anyone been to Hillsdale recently? I'm trying to get a last trip in to try to get my dad on some walleye since we aren't going to make it to Milford like we'd like. KDWP says jigs on points in coves, so I'm assuming secondary points. Anyone have any other suggestions?

I couldn't even imagine catching a 20lb wiper. I decided I wanted to catch one over 10lbs about 6 years ago. My first trip to La Cygne I caught one that was 9lb 4ozs, thats still my PB even though I caught hundreds of 4-8 pound wipers each winter at La Cygne. It's possible to launch a boat but I think most that have been there recently would agree that you should save your money, the fishing has been horrible down there for almost everything for the last couple months. Wait until it starts to get cold and then it should start to get good out there. I've been to Brown once and was not impressed. Like you said it is very shallow and silted in. We saw one bass about 5lbs beach itself chasing bluegill but we only caught one over 18" and it was very skinny. I won't be going back anytime soon.

Thanks everyone! She is getting more into fishing as we go it seems like. She doesn't go with me if the weather is bad or the fishing is going to be tough but when she goes she almost always catches something. This spring I bought her a really nice rod and reel to make her fishing more trouble free. It costs me more than most of my combos but to help keep her happy when we're fishing is priceless

I like moving baits in the fall while the water is warmer so I can cover water and contact more fish but they stop working when the water gets cold. I can catch fish on a jig all year round.

Yep, that's a channel cat, and I seriously doubt you hurt him. They are a very slimy fish and will leave a lot of slime on your hands after grabbing one. Channels, blues, and bullheads will bite very hard and it does hurt but it won't crush your hand. The biggest mistake you can make when they bite down is to jerk your hand back, because it will be missing a lot of skin!

I was wondering where the pictures of all those monster fish had gone also?

What kind of "fry" are you seeing? Some species of fish like bluegill will spawn multiple times a year and there will be some very small ones this time of year. Young of the year shad and bass won't be very big yet either. I doubt that any fry sized bass are being stocked this time of year.

Thanks guys, it was a proud moment for both of us for sure! I'm hoping she'll get a keeper 18" smallmouth out of there before long! I've only ever caught 2 of them though so it's not easy.

I always catch them pretty well on a suspending jerkbait in the fall. Usually find them close to the same areas I caught them in the spring in shallower areas close to deep water where they'll spend the winter. Only one way to find out for sure though!

With the nice weather Monday my wife and I decided to go try to get some fall fishing in. We went to a local lake that has pretty heavy fishing pressure that she has never caught a keeper out of. We usually catch a decent number of fish but lots of them are 13-14 inches, getting one over that magic 15" line is tough for anyone. I started off doing pretty well switching back and forth between a chatterbait, XR50, and KVD 1. My wife couldn't get them to eat a Booyah Boogie bait so I switched her to a small Academy H2O sqarebill. She caught a sunfish pretty quickly to at least get on the board. We made a quick move into a cove out of the wind and she quickly caught a small bass, but at least it wasn't a sunfish. A couple casts later she caught one that was about 13", another step in the right direction. As I took her picture with that one I said something like "keep fishing they keep getting bigger everytime you catch one." Next cast she got hit again and the fish was pulling drag on her little spinning reel and I thought it was going to be a smallmouth. Turned out to be a healthy largemouth that went 15.5 inches, her first keeper! She was proud of it and you can see where it's been caught before, proof of the heavy pressure on this lake. As it turned out this was the only keeper bass put in the boat that night. I caught a smallmouth that was 16 1/4 inches but they have to be 18" to keep and as she put it "In a tournament I would have won cause you couldn't keep your smallmouth!" Can't argue with that logic

Well Melvern was pretty disappointing on Sunday. The weather was really nice but I think the calm weather and bright sun probably hurt us more than anything. We caught plenty of smallmouth and white bass but the smallmouth were really lacking any size. Chris had one of the biggest ones on a RC 1.5 off the dam. I also caught the smallest smallmouth I've ever caught on a 78 pointer. Fished all over the lake and just never got any kind of pattern. We caught them shallow and deep, off points and the backs of coves. We caught fish on squarebills, traps, shakeyheads, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes, and shad raps. The white bass were really nice ones but we never found any concentration of them, just scattered everywhere. We caught a couple largemouth and a spot also and that was it for the day. Water temp was 63 degrees so I'm guessing in a week or two it will really fire up.

Those things are a blast on topwater. I've only caught a couple out of Olathe but not nearly that big. I do know of a 13.5 pound one that was caught out of there on chicken liver though. There's plenty of shad and deep water for them to grow big though.