Bluebasser86

I'm not. Too many people either too manly to fish a Ned, not fishing it right, or using the wrong equipment. I'm not upset about people giving up on some of my favorite techniques though, just leaves more fish for me ? I haven't given up on anything, but I rarely fish Carolina rigs or deep cranks for fun, because they're not.

Hope it's just rain for you guys, we had a few inches of heavy, wet snow come down really fast last night. No school for my kids today. It was only supposed to be rain for us also.

Welcome!

Ned rig, not even a question I have to consider. Not that my season is off to a blazing start but I've probably caught 40 bass so far this season and a Ned has accounted for at least 30 of those.

Actual fishing trips, probably 60-70. Had a lot of 15-30 minute stops at the lake before or after work that I don't really count as fishing trips. Not nearly as much as I use to go.

Sorry for your loss man. Seems like just yesterday my golden was a wild little puppy Now she's 10 years old, white faced, and gets around pretty slow except when she gets a big burst of energy. It goes so fast, it's so hard to lose them, but I don't know what I'd do without them. Still loves them boat rides.

I use a weedless Neko hook made by Eagle Claw, but as far as I know it can only be bought in store at Wal-Mart. It's exactly like this Trokar, but without the awful cutting point. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Trokar_Neko_Weedless_Hook_6pk/descpage-TNWH.html

Welcome!

1/0 or 2/0 Kahle, usually Eagle Claw.

I burn very easily so I always cover up, because I also don't really feel like the stuff in sunblock is really great for me. I understand what the OP is saying though because I've seen it too where someone is in shorts, t shirt, flip flops, but has a face shield? That never has made much sense but I guess the bug protection would make sense.

Hopefully I didn't already catch my biggest of the year last weekend. It does typically happen in January-March for me though and the big fish juat haven't been happening this year so far. I haven't caught a big one on a swimbait in a few years, so lets go a bone Clutch glide bait. It was hot last fall, just never got a big one. Has to happen eventually if it keeps getting bit right?

Once an appendage is gone, so is my confidence in that bait and I change it out.

Table Rock has a great winter bite and isn't a bad drive from Iowa. Don't believe anything you read about the powerplant lake in Kansas, you'll leave disappointed.

Got out on a really nice day today, too nice for my liking. Took the boat so I wouldn't get run over because I was sure it would be a zoo and I wasn't wrong unfortunately. First bass of the morning was also my biggest of the year so far at just over 19" and 5 3/4 pounds on a 6th Sense 75x in Brown Eye color, only bite I got on a crankbait all day. Fishing until 2 pm and only caught 6 more, 5 on a Ned rig and 1 on a shakyhead.

Yeah the chrome/black pop r is everywhere here too.

I'd say heat but they've been out so many times before in the heat with no issues. I never take them out other of the original pack except to use them so cross contamination shouldn't have been an issue, especially for that many packs.

Honestly, I have used the Hobie very little compared to the Sportsman so it's probably not a completely fair comparison, but the bicycle peddling of the Sportsman drive feels much more natural.

The Frabill is decent, I've had a few of them but they tend to pull apart at the end section if you get a stubborn bait, usually one attached to heavy braid. The T-H Marine Money Pole is twice as expensive but seems to be about unbreakable so far. I'd much rather have either of them than none. They're a lifesaver if you get snagged underwater with a treble hooked bait and retrieve so many lost baits out of trees for me. I've had them pay for themselves in a single day, sometimes a couple times over.

Lots of 14-16 inch white crappie in the lakes here. One of the lakes I fish has a 12" minimum length limit to keep crappies, it use to be 14" and it wasn't hard to catch keepers. They're so dumb, even I can catch them too.

I side-arm cast swimbaits from my kayak for the most part. They're heavy baits, lob cast is about all you can do, but you can still perfect a gentle lob cast so it doesn't sound like you're throwing rocks every cast. All the baits you listed, I fish on a Dobyn's 795 that's listed 1-5oz, with the sweet spot being those baits in the 2-3.5oz range. The Bull Shad especially is going to be pushing a rod rated to 2oz. I have not fishing any Kistler rods, I know they're very well made rods, but buying a rod to push to max capacity every cast seems like it's asking for heartache. I wouldn't be surprised if the other rod you were looking at is too stiff though if it's not a specific swimbait rod, it's possibly more of a flipping/punching rod which don't make great swimbait rods in most cases because they don't flex much and tear hooks out.

That's when a telescoping lure retriever pays for itself real quick.

The lake I grew up fishing was semi private, membership only type deal. We had a camper on the lake and from the time I was about 11 until I was around 18, I spent all my free time there. Bought my first boat from a guy on the lake, caught my first 5lb largemouth, my first flathead catfish, so many good memories. The guy that owned it decided to end the lease with the guy that ran the lake and built houses around it. I still don't understand that because the guy that owned the lake was an avid hunter and made good money leasing the lake property to all the members and it was well taken care of. So he lost a constant source of income and a great piece of hunting property that I know he'd taken many big deer off of, for one big check when the property was sold.

They do it here also. One guy claimed he cleared nearly 80k one year. He parks his older Cadillac around the corner and walked down the street to his bucket and does his thing every day. He says why get a job when people will give me money for free? I unfortunately deal with a lot of vets that can't readjust when they return to civilization. I feel so bad for most of them, it really makes me sad to see after all they've done.

I assume these are probably similar to the KVD Cranking rods that Quantum use to make, and if so, they were great rods. Still have a 7' MH/M that gets a lot of use.

The instant switching from forward to reverse instead of having to switch back and forth each time makes the choice to go with the Oldtown easy for me. I have a Passport and the 120PDL.