bluebasser86

Yellow bass remind me a lot of white perch. We have a few lakes in Kansas with white perch and they can really be a hassle. They're both terrific bait for catfish and stripers. Big bass like to eat them also. The big largemouth in Wilson Lake, KS eat a lot of white perch and the guys in Texas fish a lot of yellow bass swimbaits.

It's likely the amount that they won that classifies it as a felony. In a lot of instances, once a theft gets above $1,000, it becomes a felony. As for "Bubba", people are so protected in jail and prisons now, unless it's an indirect supervision setting, they're probably safer in jail than they are outside within reach of the people they cheated.

I've done well fishing it with fast chops and slower gliding retrieves. I seem to miss more on the slower retrieves than the fast retrieves though. They're a nice bait, not the original but for a normal weekend angler that probably won't throw them a ton, they'll do a lot of things the original will do.

$60 is pretty cheap in the big swimbait business. I picked up a phantom rainbow a couple weeks ago and have been doing well with it in my local lakes. No big fish yet, but it's just a matter of time.

My best bait last time I was on Table Rock was a KGB Chad Shad and it wasn't even close. I spent 2 days fishing the standard fair with very mediocre results. Of course, I waited until the final day to pick up the big stuff and they were eating it like they were starving to death. These are a few of them, I missed many more, lost a few in route to the boat, and had countless followers.

This was my biggest on Monday. Bait was sitting motionless on the bottom and she really thumped it in 6' of water right next to my kayak. Shot a big puff of mud from her gills from inhaling the bait off the bottom when she hit the surface. Just a hair under 20". I'm still learning them but it really amazes me how many of the fish I catch on them are when it's completely motionless on the bottom.

Caught a couple nice ones out of some 39* water here in NE KS yesterday. The biggest one had mud on her belly when she hit the surface and ate the bait hard while it sitting motionless on the bottom. I was doing very short lifts and drops. It's a bait I'm still learning but it is a fun bait to fish when they'll eat it.

A friend of mine lives on a private lake in South Carolina that stocked all Tiger Bass when they built the lake. Really can't tell a difference other than they grow faster and they seemed to attack more aggressively when they decided to eat. They weren't easier to catch at all and didn't seem to have any ill effects on the other fish species in the lake. They all pulled harder it seemed also. Not sure what effect they would have on an existing population of fish though.

Not sure if it will be of any interest to anyone but I usually video my trips. The big bait video especially turned out pretty good with some fish eating the bait at boatside and lots of fish missing the boat. https://youtu.be/3p09KRC0OKU

Made a trip down with the family, stayed in the Cleavenger Cove area. Bite was tough for me at first, most fish coming off the 86 highway bridge on a dropshot. My oldest son came out one afternoon and used up a whole tub of crawlers real quick catching big bluegills. Last morning I was really struggling and decided if I wasn't going to catch anything it was going to be for a reason. Switched to a Chad Shad and it was like magic. Fish chasing the bait all over and caught several really nice fish the last few hours I had to fish.

I fish a good number of kayak tournaments. I always try to time my crossings when nobody is coming. I also have a bright orange kayak, so that helps. The guys in the blue/green/white camo colors though, they're almost invisible.

If it's like any kayak tournament I've fished, the light is required during low light conditions and a lot of them require the flags as well. It still can be difficult to see them, especially in waves if they're crossing the main channel.

Those water turkeys are a plague. They showed up on one of my favorite small reservoirs in central Kansas a few years ago that had a low population of bass but the average size was incredible. A few years of those things hunting the low population of smaller bass that already existed, now it seems as if bass are almost extinct from the lake. The birds remain to hunt the abundant shad and stunted crappie but bass are basically gone and shocking samples by the state reflect that. Not sure if they'd do the same on a huge reservoir, but they're not a good thing.

Quill I had good success with the Stunna in the KC area about a month ago while my buddy was struggling with a 110+1 (I was throwing the 112+1 Stunna). I use slow sinking baits a lot in my home lakes in NE KS when they're not in a biting mood because they sink down onto their noses as they slowly rise to the bait, kind of meet them in the middle and make them react. Don't know if that's why they eat it, but that's the reason I've worked out in my mind why it works.

It was way colder and windier than what they had forecast it to be. As per usual though, those nasty days sure seem to get the fish biting and we saw very few boats. I don't remember seeing another boat while we were on the water Saturday afternoon at the dam.