pbrussell

Went to garnett cedar valley saturday to do battle with the wind. My buddy and I caught fish on rattle traps, shakey heads, jigs, and our best fish came on squarebills. Wind blown rocky areas with drops near shallow water were best. If timber was near by, that was better still. My best 5 fish would've gone somewhere between 13-14. With my buddies catches, probably somewhere closer between 15-16. That's not a bad day for only having fished for 5 hours. If the wind wouldn't have came up at noon, I would like to think our sack would've ended up closer to 19-20. That last fish there went 4 1/2

That, looks like a very very fun day.

Paint me green with dark horizontal striping, for I have largemouth ***.

Location, Location, Location. At least, that's what they say in real estate. This, of course, is always the first and most important piece of the puzzle. It does seem though that presentation is almost as important. Sure, you might come across some big blips on your graph that make you think that's a 9 pound bass down there. However, you won't know until you do the catching part. Perhaps my biggest fear with this type of fishing isn't so much "Am I in the right place?" but, "Could I be in the right place but be throwing the wrong thing?" How terrible would it be if you "discovered" where that lake record lives, only to not catch anything there and you write that spot off. That's my fear.

Sadly, your fishing these deeper structures sounds quite a bit like my experience fishing them. I have been generally able to pick up a fish or two from similar spots you've been fishing. However, I don't run into numbers or these giants murphy talks about. Clearly, there's something I DON'T understand when it comes to fishing deeper structures. I would most likely say my problems are these in this order. 1. The wrong spots 2. The wrong presentations 3. Confidence Obviously, when those three things line up properly, in that order, you had better hang on because you're in for an amazing day. In any event, my experience goes like this. 1. "I must be in the wrong spot, so I'll try another deep structure." 2. "Hmm, maybe this football jig is the wrong approach. How about a carolina rig? What about a 6xd?" and finally 3. "I can't do this. I guess I'll go beat the shallow water." I applaud your persistence. I'm watching this thread closely, not only because I've read through this legendary book, but also because I'm such a terrible structure fisherman. This murphy fellow was apparently a master, right? And so, here is to the both of us (and all of us) becoming masters in due time. You're certainly putting in your dues more so than I am.

Tough day at mound yesterday. It took me a minute to figure things out. That and my trolling shaft is coming loose. I've got it tore apart now in an attempt to figure out what's wrong and fix it but I will probably end up getting a new one. Also, a hawk dropped a squirrel from about 100 feet up three foot from my boat. It made an awful ruckus and scared me to death.

I quiver with anticipation for the next report.

Oh well. Drew, I'm with you on hitting some less populated water this weekend. I'm thinking nebo, garnett cedar valley, or mound city. In fact, with critzer attracting so many fishermen in that area, mound city could actually be the ticket.

I've learned most people here are a lot better at fishing than I am and ya'll make me look like a noob

Yup. You're right. I got all kinds of excited for no reason...

What's the dark side Dwight? Golf?

Oh PLEASE tell me you managed to snap some kind of photograph of that spot

I knew it would only be a matter of time before you got into a big one. Congrats on your catch and your persistence.

I will never look at jambalaya the same way again.

I've tried coming up with a clever response to that picture, but all I've done for the past 5 minutes is stare at it and shake my head.

Awesome.

I love this thread so much.

I would say I'm green with ***, but that's the wrong color of fish, so count me brown. Amazing.

Hardly disappointed. It was more like disbelief.

Here is another photo. Notice the girth on this Kansas toad. My only regret is that I had no one to take a picture of me holding my prize. Oh well. I made it a goal to catch a 4 pound class brown fish. Today, I did that. Now it's time to catch a 5.

I was not expecting a smallie this size today. In fact, I was not expecting any. Lake perry in Kansas has smallmouth but they are not the prominent species. In fact, though I've fished there several times, I've never caught a brown fish there until today. She was sitting in about 4 fow and came on a squarebill. When I landed her, I knew she was a smallmouth but convinced myself she was just an ugly discolored largie. Big smallmouth are supposed to come out of Milford or melvern, not perry. On top of that, the fight was less than impressive. I had no reason to believe in her pedigree, but that didn't change the fact that she was what she was. Here she is, weighing in at 4 and a quarter.

Caught her on a square bill. Four and a quarter pounds. She was very fat. I was not expecting a brown fish this size in perry. Watch out melvern?

So, there are 4+ pound smallmouth in perry. Say hello to my new pb.

Didn't end up making it out today because of the wind. I'm gonna try and hit perry early tomorrow morning since it's close enough to my gma's house. Oh perry, please treat me well (her and I have an unpleasant history).

Well look there. I knew I was over complicating things.