Bluebasser86

Hard to go wrong with a Curado E5 for that price range. Casts great and doesn't wear you out to fish with all day.

I build my own with a 5/0 hook, best and cheapest way I've found.

I have one of the telescopic lure retrievers. Most of the lakes around here don't get too deep so I can reach almost any bait with it. Plus I get tons of other people's lures out of the trees with it that they couldn't get ;D. If you fish Lucky Crafts or other expensive baits it pays for itself in 2 uses, after that it's just a bonus.

I just go with what I like and stick with that. If it works for me I don't really care about what I "should be using".

That boat is a lot like the Lowe Roughneck 16' boat I fish out of everywhere. I've had it on tons of lakes and rivers in Kansas and Lake of the Ozarks, Pomme de Terre, and Table Rock in Missouri and never had a problem. I've got a 60hp Merc 4 stroke on the back of it and it gets into the low 30's on plane. Very nice set up that you can use to do lots of kinds of fishing (and hunting, bowfishing, whatever) out of without worrying about keeping it looking real nice.

Very true, if you have money you can buy your way out of anything it seems like. Some of the guys I deal with that have done basically the same thing get 10-20 years and have to register and follow all the rules or they get picked up and brought back. Just doesn't make any sense.

I had a flathead catfish in my big aquarium for about 5 years. I was pulling old tires out of a lake one day and he was inside the tire when I pulled it out. It was only 4 inches long then. I had that and a softshell turtle that was about the size of a silver dollar when I found him. They were two of the coolest aquarium pets I've ever had. The flathead would dig the gravel out from under his log and that turtle would try to get under there too and the flathead would bite onto him and swim to the other side and spit him out. The bad part was when the flathead got bigger he was eating 2 dozen minnows a day . Wasn't a big deal during summer when I could seine a couple dozen 2 inch bluegill and small creekchubs but it was expensive during the summer time. I finally turned him loose into my friends pond last summer when he was almost 3 pounds. I'm sure he's terrorizing the stunted green sunfish in there now ;D.

I have 2 identical ugly stick lites from Wal-Mart. 7' medium spinning rods I use for channel cats in the summer and freeling live shad for wipers in the winter time. I've used them for bass in emergencys a couple times but I wouldn't want one for an everyday use bass rod. They are strong for sure, I've caught some big fish on mine and they take a beating but have yet to break one.

Flour tortillas will fit in a padded envelope and still allow him to roll/fold his lunch meat to his heart's content. You can also spread a big thick glob of peanut butter on them and wrap them around a banana. I'll take it a step further, I like to put honey and raisens in the tortilla with the banana then roll it up, makes a great fast breakfast before heading to the lake. ;D

In lakes without shad, bass will still do something that bass in lakes with shad do, follow the food! If they're eating bluegills and sunfish in your lake, find an area with bluegill and sunfish in it. Learn at what tempature they spawn at and keep that in mind while you're on the lake because bass will most certainly take advantage of bluegills grouped up on spawning beds. Craws are almost always on rocks. They are popular food in spring for big females because they are high in protein and help the eggs develop. They start to emerge from their winter holes shortly after ice out on most lakes and bass will start eating them shortly after that. Lots of the lakes I fish have no shad and I feel that most of the time they are easier to catch than in lakes with shad. In lakes with shad the bass move around a lot more and if you happen to be on the lake when the shad ball up thick enough to walk on it can be almost impossible to get a bite. Reading and learning about shad isn't a bad idea though, unless you plan to never fish a lake with shad in it .

Trick worms, BPS stik-O, Yum Wooley bugs, Zoom brush hogs, Strike King Flip-N-tubes, Yum craw Papi.

I can't say for sure it's still the case but while I worked at Cabelas Diawa made the reels that Cabelas claimed as their's. The Prodigy used to even say something about being by Diawa on them. They were not as good as the original thing and that green Fuego looks terrible but that's the only reason I could think they would do that.

I went there last monday with a friend of mine and we did pretty well, mostly on rattle baits and spinnerbaits. I posted pictures and the story under the fishing trip and tournament forum.

Comfort is another big thing to take into consideration. A rod can be super sensitive but if it's not comfortable in your hands you won't want to fish with it. Personally I have several St.Croix Mojo rods and I love them. It all depends on who is using them and what they like in a rod.

The only change we have coming is now instead of just being cold it's supposed to start snowing and then drop some freezing rain on top of that and then get even colder. I'm sure glad there's warmwater discharge lakes, otherwise I'd have to tie a tennis ball on and start pitching to the dogs in the back yard. They're not very picky and they do pull alot of drag .

There is a spot at a local lake where the creek channel swings in very close to a long shallow point that drops off quickly from 6-7 feet to 10-12 feet. I dropped 4 large cedars off that point in various locations, on top of the flat, close to the end of the point, and off the end in the deep water. All I can say is it's amazing how many fish a single tree can hold when it's dropped in a spot like that! 8-)

I agree with you there. If you fish at all in standing timber like I do sometimes that big rod would just be too long to try to fish in and around the trees. Even in open water it just seems way longer than anything I would need it for.

Wow, good eye, I had to go back and look just to see where you saw it at . It's a 7ft crankbait rod, I really like it so far. I've had it about a year and it feels really good, casts all sizes of baits and fights fish really well.

Went to a different powerplant lake today, Wolf Creek in Coffey County, Kansas. High temp was supposed to be in the low 40's, truck said 22 when we got to the lake with a light wind. It was awfully cold first thing but we motored across to the outlet and started fishing. It was my friends birthday and he made his first cast of 2011 with a spinnerbait on his new baitcasting combo and caught a fat whitebass. I told him that was the kiss of death but he managed to be one of the only people I've ever seen catch more fish after catching one on his first cast ;D. Caught a few more whites real quick then I got my first largemouth of 2011, like I said, it was cold. A few cast later I got a nice fat little bass. At the end of the bank right at the cables that keep you from getting to close to the outlet I caught this little porker on a spinnerbait. We fan casted some flats catching several nice whites when my buddy got his first bass of the year on a rattletrap. We moved back to the bank that we were catching our bass on and my friend was slow rolling a spinnerbait and I heard him grunt and turned around and saw his rod bowed. I thought he had a nice bass or a big wiper as he fought it for a couple minutes before this finally came up. Finally tally was 17 whites, 14 largemouth, and 1 slimer. Pretty good start to the year 8-).

Anyone been to Wolf Creek lately? My buddy wants to go Monday if the wind isn't blowing but I haven't been since last winter. Even if you haven't gone but you know someone who has let me know how they did! Thanks!

They are a blast to catch. My friend had never caught one but he has been with me when I've caught several so he was pretty excited. On a medium crankbait rod and 10lb test they are a real challenge!

X2. I like the 95 size myself.

The 5 and 6 are very similar in diameter but the 7 incher is a pretty thick bait, probably almost twice as thick.

Holding a large fish striaght up and down for any extended period of time can also damage their internal organs. Their skeletal system is not built to support their body weight like ours because they live in the water where they are nearly weightless. So by holding them anyway other than horizontally with 2 hands, they're basically crushing themselves to death.

I got mine a Samsung Camcorder and some goodies to go along with that and a pair of pink bib overalls to match the pick carhart I got her last year.