Bluebasser86

Are you just painting a jighead? If I'm painting like an 1/8 oz shakeyhead I just wave it back and forth over a lighter for about 10 seconds and swish it through the powder. Make sure the power is fluffed up really well. I stir mine about every half dozen jigheads with a toothpick to keep it fluffed up so you get good coverage without clumping on the head. You can bake them after that to make it last longer but make sure you clear the eye out first . I usually don't bother with baking my shakeyheads because the rocks usually eat them before the paint has a chance to wear off >.

Curious as to what you mean by childs play? If 36 bass up to 5lbs in 5hours on 2 baits is childs play then yeah they are. I think in Cali where the water is gin clear there is a real need for expensive life like swimbaits. Where I fish the water is moderately stained to stained and there is really no need for the high dollar swimbaits. In all honesty I used to look at these baits and think the same...I bought some and would have moderate success with them. My problem was I was fishing them like a crankbait. I was fishing them to fast. It wasn't until I really slowed down with occasional pauses to make contact with the bottom that they really started producing. I'm sure to some my first example IS childs play but in ND most would agree that its a pretty decent day. Also forgot to mention I was fishing from shore. I've had pretty good luck with the Storm prerigged swimbaits but those new ones you have to put the head into suck! I know a few lakes with deep weeds that you can rip them out of and catch some fish. I mainly use them to catch hybrids and whitebass though. My favorite swimbait is the 4" Strike King king shad. Haven't had much luck with the 3" but the biggest 5 fish limit I ever had was on a 4" king shad.

Drove across the dam at La Cygne tonight on the way home from Joplin. It was dark but as far as I could see the lake was frozen. :'( I've never seen that much ice on La Cygne, it was frozen all across the south end as far as the lights from the plant would go. The stacks weren't going on the way down there or the way back either. Anybody go down there with these warm days? Didn't want to drive my wife's car down there through the park to look at the ramp. My luck I'd end up with one of their pet deer on the hood! ;D

I got into them the other day. Hoping to get into them again Monday! http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1296006276

Another thing that works sometimes is if you female is around the bed but not glued to it like Fish Chris said is to try to catch the male first. Sometimes if you pull him off the bed and toss him in the livewell she will take over his spot guarding the nest and be more catchable. Just make sure if you catch her to get the male back in the water quick to guard the nest again, otherwise it will be destroyed and all those good big fish genes will be gone! :'(

Try the new Gulp eggs. I've never had much luck with the powerbait dough but those eggs are killer! A little expensive but if they work I figure they're worth it. Just make a small carolina rig basically with a salmon egg hook on the end and 2 eggs should float the hook off the bottom. My best color combo has been one white and one pink egg. Color does seem to make a difference for me.

;D I can see it too. Congrats to them!

Great to hear you are putting it to good use! I havent even put any line on mine yet! The lakes up here in Pennsylvania haven't even considered thawing yet.. wind chill has been around -10 the last few days.. its supposed to get up to 40 next week so hopefully it'll start opening up the lakes!! If it wasn't for powerplant lakes around here, I'd be in the same boat! I've only got to use that reel once so far but I caught several largemouth, whitebass, and my first smallmouth of the year tossing a War Eagle finesse spinnerbait on it. It casts great and I can actually fish my bait right with the right handed retrieve!

X2! You can use them almost any way, just like the senko. You should add some tubes, 4" grubs, and some regular swimming tail worms to your arsenal for sure!

I was fishing Lake Comendero, about 3 hours into the Sierra Madre mountians from Matzatlan. It was an awesome trip and I would highly recommend Ron Speed's Adventures. My first trip when I caught those two fish the water was 45 feet high! I caught 4 fish the first day and was the only one out of the 6 people there that caught anything. I ended up catching less than 50 fish and was the only one to catch a bass over 5 pounds while I was there. Ron Speed's comped my entire trip so I got to go back a second time a couple years later for free. That time we really did catch the numbers of fish you hear about people catching in Mexico so it was just the high water that made it so difficult.

Really?? :-? I've never done any good with DD22's or the biggest Fat Free Shad, traded all mine to another member on here. I do like the Series 5 or 6xd though. With the way Rapala's break and now that they're getting up around $10, I probably won't be buying them anymore.

I like the Yum Craw Papi really well in the 2 smaller sizes. A 3" Berkley Power craw on a shakey head has killed the smallmouth for me a few times.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1295450221 Thought this might help.

I have that exact W&M cranking rod and I like it really well so far. I've had it for about 6 months so I can't talk much for durability but it can really wing a crankbait out there quite a ways and is really good at keeping them buttoned once they hit. I've fished a lot of crankbaits since I've had the rod and other than the color I don't have anything bad to say about it. I also have 2 Revo S reels. I have one I got when they first came out and the bearing that makes the levelwind track stopped working so I have to get that replaced. The other one I got from JimmyMo3287 and it has been working great for tossing spinnerbaits and cranking in fish! ;D

I've heard they are supposed to be more sensitive because of the line pulling down on the guide instead of on the tip of the rod like a normal baitcaster. The increased contact with the line on the guides is supposed to reduce line coil as it goes through the guides giving you more control. Or at least that's what the guy I fished a tournament with a few years ago told me .

Some places you can buy suckers at the baitshop. Big chubs work well also and you can catch them pretty easily out of creeks on small hooks and livebait. Big golden shiners are also an option and almost always sold in baitshops. I think if you get a big bait you might go with a quickstrick rig to prevent the fish swallowing the bait and fish it under a slip bobber.

When I worked at Cabela's I used to cast throught the aquarium all the time. I always took the hooks off or closed them up but it was still a lot of fun! It was nice to get to test new lures and see how they looked in that clear water. I'd bet if you grabbed one of those prespooled combos and grabbed a loose bait out of a bargin bin, you'd have no problem walking to the aquarium and making a few casts and probably catching a fish.

Wish some of the lakes around here put out lots of big fish other than catfish, carp, and drum . Nice fish!

I killed them down there a couple weeks ago but I'm thinking more like Lake of the Ozarks, Table Rock, or Bull Shoals, somewhere that is a little too far for a day trip since I've got a couple days to fish.

I'll give a third vote to the suckers if you really just want to catch one, might not be quite as excited as on artificials but a muskie is still a muskie .

Supposed to be a big warm up on the way next week. I hope they're right because I've got a couple days of fishing coming up just don't have a destination picked yet! ;D

9 pounder, no question! 3 pounders happen fairly often, 9 pounders are extremly rare around here!

Did a Google search and managed to find a couple pictures of some of the big bass I caught on my first trip to Mexico! It was before I had a digital camera so all my pictures were taken with a 35mm camera and the pictures are in storage somewhere :. Conditions were really tough but the second day I caught a huge (to me) 8 1/2 pounder on a Zoom magnum lizard. The last day I was fishing a Skitter pop and had a monster follow it to the boat. I grabbed my flipping stick with a Zoom magnum lizard and dropped it straight down. I don't know how deep the water was but it was deeper than the two feet my line sank before it stopped. I layed into my PB largemouth that probably would have gone 13 or 14 pounds if it wasn't so dang skinny! Still at 10lbs 2oz it's my PB and only DD bass.

When the guys caught it they admitted it was foul hooked and I believe there was people on the bank watching them also so there wouldn't have been much of a chance to fib about where it was hooked. Lake Dixon is stocked with trout regularly they say and I'm sure Dottie ate more than her fair share of them. She was also reported to be busting at the seams with eggs when she was caught.

I'm far from an expert on muskies but I have caught a few of them. My best baits have been large bass style spinnerbaits, bucktails, and big jerkbaits. Most of my muskies have come off rocky or gravel points with deep water nearby, scattered standing timber doesn't seem to hurt things either.