Bluebasser86

It sure can be, but I've been out a lot of moonless nights when there isn't a sound except the movement of the water. One of my favorite sounds when I'm out at night catfishing, next to the sound of my clicker going off when a big ugly has eaten the bait.

The boys I boat captain for have their first tournament of the season coming up next weekend. It's an online tournament that they can fish 16 hours however they want to split it up over Saturday and Sunday to get the longest 5 fish limit they can, any public water in Kansas. I told them where I'd go a couple weeks ago so they tried to go fish there last weekend and caught 4 little ones. I can't go with them for this one because my championship is the same weekend, so instead of going and prefishing for my tournament, I took them and showed them how to catch the fish at the lake I told them to go fish. Big storms the night before had the water dirty and the bite a little weird, but we still caught plenty of fish to get a high 80" limit and showed them what they needed to know to have a good chance.

Braid singing when I'm wrestling a big one out. Bass blowing up on baitfish. Silence

When it's hot out, I'll bring a gallon of water in the kayak with me and sometimes have to refill one of the 2 1/2 gallon jugs I bring with me during the day. When I'm drinking water like that, and there's no bathroom breaks, I know it's hot out. Like others have mentioned, I always try to get really hydrated a couple days in advance when I know I'm going to be out all day in the heat.

That just looks like a healing wound from being caught before. Every bass in our lakes has at least a few of those from being caught multiple times.

I haven't weighed many fish this year, but going off the assumption that our bass tend to average around 4 pounds at 19", I was probably broke 20 once this year. The day I caught my biggest of the year, I was close, if not over as well.

Cooler weather has let me get out before work again. Got some Zman Tiny Goatz the other day and have been having a good time fishing them on the UL. Catching a little bit of everything including a pretty warmouth and a monster bass.

I haven't but a guy I worked with at Cabela's lived on the lake. Sounded like pretty good numbers with a few bigger fish.

I catch more catfish while bass fishing than I care to admit. Despite all the hours I've spent actually targeting them, my PB flathead was caught while fishing for bass with a finesse jig next to a dock, less than 2lbs from 70lbs.

Juvenile bluegill are often very pale or drab colored and become more washed out when they die. Crappie tend to have more rounded tails while bluegills have pointed tails, like the fish in the picture. The other option I thought because of the stripe on the eye would be a Flier, but I believe they have much larger fins, even as juveniles. I've never seen one in person, let alone caught one, so I have no experience with them other than pictures and reading about them. My vote would be for a plain ol' bluegill.

Welp, Roger's hype train might have derailed before it left the station.

Alright, this is gonna be windy. Had a tournament this weekend on Mined Wildlife Area in Southeast Kansas. If you do a Google search, it sounds amazing, a fishing haven that every person should want to fish where 10 pounders live in each one of the around 1,000 strip pits. Anyone who has actually fished them knows they're a giant headache, filled with weeds, dinks, and frustration. They don't fish or pattern like a lake for the most part, you just go fishing and hope to catch bigger than average sized fish. I've fished them a few times and have a couple pits I like, but if they're not on, I'm lost. I started prefishing early Thursday morning at my favorite pit. Right away, I caught a nice one on one of my blue bladed jigs. Maybe 10 minutes later, another nice one on a 10" worm in a laydown. Awesome, things are going to work out great! I spent over 12 hours on the water, fished multiple pits, ended up catching maybe 20 bass all day and most looked like this. Friday, I started on a huge pit that starts deep and clear, and ends shallow and muddy. I'd hoped I could find big ones in the weeds in the back. I found lots of fish, but they were all small and all very skinny. I did find some huge bluegills and redear sunfish, which were more fun than the bass I was catching. Also found a spicy pinata. And I hope old boy wasn't in his stand when the tree decided to blow up. It was another 12 hour day. My biggest bass of the day by 5PM was 15.75". I was exhausted, had just fished a pit with 1 bite and wanted to just quit, but I decided to fish 1 more. Smaller pit, stained water, lots of laydowns. I swapped out my flipping bait to my trusty black and blue Big Bite Baits craw tube, and one of the first laydowns I flipped to, produced a nice fish. A big beaver dam gave up a big bite that pulled me back into the brush and broke me off. At the back of the pit, I stuck another good one. That was it, I was coming back here tomorrow. Saturday, I got to the pit really early, hoping to play defense. I could hear cars driving all around, one pulled up and looked, then turned around. I ended up being all alone. One of my first cast of the morning, scored a big crappie on the bladed jig. Maybe 10 minutes later, I skipped a wacky rig up to a laydown. The fish barely moved until I set the hook, then she was on the top immediately, wallowing around. She shot towards me, flared her mouth open, and my bait came out. Easy 18+ inch fish, not how I wanted to start the day. 30 minutes later, I was flipping a big tree with the craw tube and got a super light bite. Fish was really heavy on the hookset, burned out deeper, ripped drag, just a super strong fish. After a brief but intense fight, I had slid the net under a 19.50" right as the hook fell out. I fished over halfway around the pit before I got my second bite, a 15" fish on the tube. Then I went on a dink streak, catching a 12, 12.25, and 12.5 to fill out my limit in the next 30 minutes. Then I got a decent cull with a 14.25, everything the rest of the day, was on the craw tube. A few minutes later, culled out the 12.25" with a 15.75" fish. Right before I finished my lap around the pit, I culled the 12.50" with a 15.25" fish. So it was around 9AM and I had 79.75". My goal started out for the day was 75" because prefishing had been so bad, but in the back of my mind, I really wanted to reach 80". With the way things were going, that seemed like a sure thing. We were fishing until 3PM, and when 1:30 rolled around, I'd made 3 more laps around the pit and only managed to jump off 1 fish that would have probably helped, the rest were really small. I was going to just stick it out, but then, just like the year before, and otter showed up. This one was circling me and making all kinds of noise, swimming through my brushpiles. I knew what little chances I had at this pit, were gone. So with a little less than 1.5 hours to go, I loaded everything up and drove. I didn't know for sure where I was going, but I had 1 little pit in mind. I'd never fished it, but when I got there, it looked similar to the one I had been fishing, right down to the big beaver dam. I threw minimal gear in my kayak, and shoved it down the mud bank. No depthfinder, no camera, a few rods, and 50 minutes left. I went straight to the beaver dam, and caught 5 dinks in a row. They didn't help, but it felt good to be catching again. I thought maybe there was only dinks here, but there had to be 1 big pond boss. I was flying down the bank, fishing any cover I could. I hooked one with my blue bladed jig as soon as it touched down that pulled really hard, and just came off. There was a big swirl and heartbreak left, but I kept going. I found another, smaller beaver dam to flip. I caught a small one, and then next flip, a 14.50"! I finally hit 80" with just about 20 minutes left. I was so happy, I pitched back into the beaver dam, thought it was stuck, but realized it was moving so slightly. It was so heavy when I slammed the rod back, I thought it was buried in the brush, then it jumped, instant heart in my throat moment, I had found the pond boss. She dug deep, turning my kayak, I was begging and pleading with the fish, reaching with the net, and I know everyone around heard my war cry when that fish hit the net. Less than 20 minutes, I put a 21.25" fish on the board. I fished the last few minutes with a pounding heart and shaky hands, but caught no more fish. I couldn't see the scoreboard all day, so I had no idea how I'd done, but I was happy no matter what. I heard one guy smashed them, so I didn't think I had probably won, but with my track record on the pits, I didn't expect to even place. So I was really surprised to hear my name called for the 3rd place plaque with my 86.75" total. I was not so surprised to find out I had won big bass. First place was an amazing 94". He said he didn't have a keeper until 10, then for an hour, he caught a fish every 10 minutes, and they were all big, then it stopped and he didn't catch anything else. It was an exhausting weekend, physically and mentally. I was very satisfied to have it come to the conclusion that it did. Last tournament of the season is the last weekend of this month.

Thanks for the suggestion, he just booked Brian ?

Good to see you Big O. I've seen you've been busy on your ranch and doing all the stuff but still getting out and chasing fish around once in a while. I'm about to have to stock back up on my Rage Bugs, they've been a big producer for me all year it seems like. Funny for me to just see this because 6 years ago today was the second time my oldest son was featured on the Rage Facebook page. Rage Tail is with Clayton Westgate. '"Wednesdays KIDS" Lake's wearing his "Lucky Hat" And he caught a "Good one" too. Check out that smile WTG Lake you're a Dyn-o-mite fishing Dude #RageTailKids

Friend of mine is looking for a guide on Champlain in October. He had one lined up but the guy blew his outboard and it won't be repaired in time for his trip. If anyone has any suggestions, he would really appreciate it. They're going to be in Vermont if that makes a difference. Thanks

Oh you can backlash it, I promise, but it was easy to set and fish with minimal adjustments.

I probably caught 100 bass on mine in 3 days flinging a whopper plopper the whole time. It performed great with easy casting and no issues.

The Chiefs always have a hard time with the Lions it seems and with the drama of Jones, Super Bowl Hangover, potentially no Sneed, Toney, and now Kelce? Lions should be able to run the ball with ease with no Jones in the middle, keeping Mahomes off the field. Control the ball, control the clock, keep it ugly, and I wouldn't be surprised if they pull off an upset.

I use the same 1/16oz head that I use for regular TRDs with a #1 size hook.

I'd put it towards a Legal Dope Tiny Tum and pay the rest out of pocket. Wanted one for a while but haven't had the money to drop on it.

I have owned 3 Pop Max, which is almost as many fish as I've caught with them. The Berkley Bullet Pop and R2S Bubble Walker 80 are both bass catching machines though. I really like a Chug Bug also, but don't really consider it so much a popper. It's more of a spitting, walking bait.

The first fish I ever caught on a spinnerbait was on a white/blue head Strike King I found. Same thing happened with a chatterbait. I never believed they'd work until I found one in a tree, tied it on and started wearing them out with it.

A black brush hog is a consistent big fish bait for me in the summer. I always carry solid black jigs and a few solid black spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, and not just for night fishing.

Had a fun day with the family on the water on Sunday. My oldest son was the only other one that wanted to fish. I took both kayaks and shoved his off while I was rigging mine up still. I don't think I'd even got mine off the trailer yet and he was already yelling. It was quite a struggle for him to get the fish in the kayak, but he finally got it landed. I was about ready to shove off when he hooked up again. And as soon as I shoved off, he was coming back with another one. The boat was in the water then and he chased them to go swim. I caught a couple little fish before hooking one that was not little, but also for sure not a bass. Monday, I went back out to the river with better bait and more time than last time. I wasn't there 30 minutes before my first rod took off. I had just released that fish when I heard a thump, one of my other rods was folded over. 100lbs of fish in 10 minutes is a workout. I got the rods baited back up and 20 minutes later, one started going off again. I only had 1 more bite I think was a catfish the next few hours, despite moving spots and constantly refreshing my baits. Heading back in, I had my UL with a 2" grub I'd brought to try and catch bait with, so I was making cast with that. In the creek, there was several trees dropping some kinds of berries and the grass carp were thick. I've never sight fished one with a grub before, but I ended up hooking 4 and landing 2 on 4lb test with a 5' UL ugly stick. Right before the ramp, there's some small rapids that I wanted to cast the grub at, hoping for a white bass or wiper. Right as I went to lift it out of the water, I caught a tiny sauger. Not a big deal a lot of places, but a river sauger in Kansas is extremely rare. I had some crawlers so I swapped my grub for half of one, and a few cast later, caught a baby walleye. Fish like these give me hope that some day there will actually be a population of them in the river.

I have a few that text for info. I don't usually ask any of them for info, but the one time I did ask one that has asked me several times for pretty exact details, I got radio silence. All I asked was "Did you fish creek x or creek y?". A couple miles worth of water still, so I wasn't asking for a lot. He doesn't get near the details he use to.