bluebasser86

Bladed jigs have a ton of vibration for bass to hone in on at night and don't get fished as much as the spinnerbaits. They've become my favorite bait to fish at night.

I'm not ashamed to say that I occasionally target drum (or at least I claim to so it looks better when that's all I'm catching ) Areas with flat rocks and good crawdad populations will get loaded up with drum. During the summer in some of our clearer lakes I'll catch some crawdads when the bass are biting slow and start sight fishing for drum with light spinning gear. Just like in the salt, they're very spooky and take a good cast and careful approach to get them to bite but they love those live craws (or small craw imitations or small tubes). I sight fished a 16 pound drum several years ago with a light action rod and 4lb test, fought as good as any fish I've ever caught. Another good option is to slowly crank a craw colored wiggle wart (the new ones work just fine for drum), over the same areas. We've had 20-30 fish days doing that and you'll catch lots of other kinds of fish doing it. I'm sure the drum populations are much higher in the lakes in NE KS but if there's drum to be caught, one of those techniques will catch them.

They are extremely easy to make. Any jig with a flat eye works, just add a split ring to the jig eye, a blade, and a snap and you're good to go. Plus you get to pick your hook size/brand going the homemade route too

Another vote for Schooner. Stayed there many times with the LBC for tournaments and a couple times for just for fun fishing trips. Nice to have a ramp right there at your disposal and good fishing without even having to crank the big motor.

The hard part with a straight shank is the keepers on the shank usually get in the way and don't let the mold close. I poured some with just the heads then added a split ring and an Owner Twistlock Zo-wire hook. It's been working great for pitching into cover, works like a pegged weight but gives the bait a little more movement. The YUM Mightee worms work really well on them. I'm not sure if they float or not, but they sure do catch fish, and bigger than average ones because they're such a big worm. We killed them at Grand at the beginning of the month on swinging football heads and Zoom Ol' Monsters. Haven't really found a plastic they don't work with very well other than tubes and they still work okay with them.

A little late I know but better late than never right? Had a small get together/tournament with some guys off another forum. We had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish. Chris and I got down early Thursday and put in at Wolf Creek. Chris caught a stocky 16" fish on a buzzbait his 3rd cast and that was the last bass either of us caught until about 10. We fished all kinds of baits and different areas looking for fish with a couple misses and lost fish to show for it. We ran down towards Honey Creek and decided to stop in a smaller cove on the way there. I had been fishing a 1/2oz brush jig in Texas craw but decided to switch to a 7/16oz finesse jig in PB&J. We opted for a bank with chunk rock mixed with small gravel in hopes of finding fish that were just finishing spawning. They must have been as we finally started to catch some fish! I found a brushpile with my jig and after 3 repeated cast finally caught my first bass of the trip. After that I went on a hot streak with several more fish, most of them keepers, that were thumping my jig. One of my biggest from Thursday. You can see from my line that it had swallowed my jig too. Most of the banks we fished looked like the one in the background with a little more chunk rock mixed and and quite a few docks. We ran to Honey Creek and decided to crank the riprap of the bridge, that was a good move, lots of fish like this one on a DT6. Also caught a couple nice ones off the Honey Creek Resort dock pilings. After that it got really tough tough. I think we went without a keeper, and not many shorts either, for the next few hours. After hitting several spots in Honey Creek we ran to Courthouse Hollow where the cabin is. The first cut we tried produced 3 keepers on a wacky rig. When we came out that cut it had started to lightning and thunder so we ran back and loaded up. Friday we made the drive to the dam to fish new water. We decided to start in Duck Creek, best move we made. We had 12-15 pounds in the boat in the first 15 minutes, catching at least one keeper and up to 3 off almost every dock we fished in the first little cut. Wacky rigs and poppers were doing serious work in the morning. Chris got our biggest spot of the trip out from under a walkway on a wacky rig. The walkways and banks that looked like the one behind him in 8-14 feet of water were key for us. Our plastics had to have some purple in them to, from purple color to purple flake. Friday was a crazy day with between 75-100 fish coming to the boat on a variety of baits. It actually got to the point we were seeing what they wouldn't eat on our shakyheads or Rocker heads, we didn't find much they wouldn't eat. Over half the fish we caught were keepers as well. We tried Drowning Creek for awhile and only caught a couple dinks and one keeper before we went to Lawhead Hollow. Keepers started coming to the boat quickly again including our biggest of the day at 3.96 pounds on a magnum trick worm and Rocker head. Saturday we decided to go back to Duck after the great day on Friday. We had to work a lot harder for them Saturday but the quality was a little better. We had a limit by about 8:30 and culled one shortly after that before hitting a long dry spell of either shorts or no fish. We ran around to some different areas we hadn't fished before and found nothing. With about 2 hours left we ran back to the same stretch of docks in Duck, doing the same thing, and culled 2 more times including our second biggest of the day. Chris and I ended up with 15.78 pounds for day 1. Scroggs and Zander had a successful day with both of them catching keepers. Sunday we decided to have everyone launch from the same ramp in Courthouse Hollow near the Cabins. Chris and I had very little to go off since we hadn't fished there much but we decided to look for stuff that looked the same and it paid off. We ran into Dinosaur and fished into a little cut. Biggest problem we were having was short fish. I was catching short spots about every cast with a Zell pop and wacky rig. Lost a keeper largemouth at the boat on a wacky rig before boating a keeper on the Zell pop. We fished all the way to the back of the cut before Chris caught a solid fish on a 10" worm. We picked up another keeper on a wacky rig before running over to the east side of Shangri-La Marina. We caught 3 more keepers, including our biggest of the day, and culled twice, all on a 10" candy bug Zoom Ol' Monster on a Rocker head. Ran to one more cove where we culled again before heading back to Courthouse where we culled one last time about 5 minutes before weigh in. Chris and I had almost 30 pounds in 2 days for first place. Jon and Christopher were in second with around 25 pounds and Christopher had big bass for the weekend with a 4lb 15oz fish on a wacky rig. The motley crew that was left by final weigh in.

Making the rest of us look bad, congrats to both of you!

It also works cast at schooling fish, I caught several casting at busting fish with a PB&J Ned a couple weeks ago.

That's a nice looking bait, whats it weigh in at? I'm sure you get some bewildered looks flinging that thing around, I know I do anytime I'm tossing big baits at any of the local lakes. Of course that's from the same guys who think a Super Spook is too big to catch a fish I've only been down to Table Rock once this year and only got out for 2 days of fishing, one around Shell Knob and one day around Baxter. We boated gobs of fish and a majority of them were keepers or very near keeper spots.

The BPS Stick O is one of my favorite shakyhead baits. They also make a great bladed jig trailer, as stupid as it sounds. The smallies in the local lakes love their tubes too. I've caught some fish on the crack craws too but they got weeded out of my bag as I already carry way too many creature baits.

Very versatile rig and for some reason it does seem to get snagged far less often than other bottom dragging rigs. I like to drag mine just like a football jig but they do work well with a slow, steady retrieve. I've been playing with small boottails like a swimming fluke or swing impact and painting the heads in baitfish colors and really liking that setup. You can swim it through those tree tops without having to worry about hanging up like you do with an open hook and I get a better hookup ratio than with a fiberguard jighead.

So I've been trying to come up with solutions to fishing a Ned in snaggier areas. I like the worm nose heads with the single wire guard but not being sure enough of my shaky hands with a Dremel to modify my mold has left me searching for other options. I think I may have found one though. This is an 1/8oz swinging football head with a 2/0 Owner short shank rigging hook. I've been using this setup with a 3" Havoc Pit Boss Jr and just killing the largemouth and smallmouth in our local lakes. Haven't gotten it wet yet as it just popped into my head last night right before I left for work. What do you guys think? I'm a little concerned about hooking ability with my normal Ned rod but that's yet to be seen.

I catch tons of channels and flatheads on cranks, jigs, and bladed jigs every year. Some days I catch more catfish than bass it seems like. I've caught several on buzzbaits and even one on a frog also. I got thumped by this pretty little flathead just 2 days ago. Flatheads are suckers for a bass jig, and not just the little guys

If you consider what a small craw looks like when it's either crawling and not threatened (or unaware of a threat) or when it's making a hasty retreat (when bass often swoop in for the attack), they're very streamlined with their legs in close and pincers extended in front of their body. A 1/2 Zinker looks pretty similar to a smaller craw (easier to handle than a big craw). It kind of darts and glides around the same way when you move it as well. If there is any truth to that I have no idea, but that's one of the best rationalizations I can come up with for why a fish would eat a bait that does next to nothing in the water

My wife loves the Ned too. She's got a 6' 6" ML/F St. Croix Avid Pearl with a Quantum Energy 10 loaded with 10lb bright pink Fireline (she's a big fan of the color pink and if it helps get her fishing, I'll buy it ) It's great because it'll catch numbers and she gets ahold of a good one every once in awhile. There's times it seems like I spend more time landing and unhooking her fish than I do fishing but that's okay with me. From last fall, she caught the bigger one and while I was holding it and digging for the camera to take a picture she cast back to the same spot and popped the smaller one.

Was thinking the same thing. I got a headache just imagining trying to untangle those hooks from that net

Check out the MS Slammer if you want a bigger wake bait. I'd suggest the 7" or 9" for Table Rock but they will certainly hit the 12" version also, just a lot more work casting it. Never fished the Kong but they are a good looking bait.

They're great in stained water. We caught a lot around Shell Knob while the pros were there on a sexy shad colored home made one, just cranking it really slowly in pockets with stained water.

I wouldn't do a thing to either of those colors. Top one is my absolute favorite wart color, V38.

Are you looking for that round head with the flat top and Trokar hook like the one in your picture? I've got a regular round mold and football head mold but normally use Mustads. I lose way too many to fish with Trokars.

We actually caught a bunch of smallies, along with a bunch of crappie, whites, drum, cats, and a few walleyes on a Ned in the dark last year in a KS lake. Craws and baitfish don't put out anymore vibration at night and bass still manage to find them.

I love the smallest size Zell Pop (pretty similar to the Pop R). I've got one in Ghost color that's caught me hundreds of fish of all sizes. I thought I'd lost it last year and it about killed me. Found the little guy buried in with my deep cranks for some reason. I took some pictures of baits I call my "Warriors" a couple years back and it was one of the first ones I took a picture of along with a well worn XR50.

I hook very few fish deep with a Ned, no more than any other anyways. As for the OP's questions, I don't fish much other than a jig, big worm, or bladed jig at night.

Zman baits are my favorite on a Crig because they float off the bottom. The turbo crawz and flappin crawz are great jig trailers. Diesel minnowz and grass swimmerz are good on the rig. The Zinkerz are good on a shakyhead or split shot rig. I've really become a fan of the Palmetto Bug because the back end floats off the bottom like a craw in it's defensive stance when I'm flipping weeds and brush. It really seems to get bit well if I pitch it in and let it soak for several seconds before moving it. Usually the strike is immediately after I move it like the fish was watching the bait and waiting for it to move. The finesse worm is good on a drop shot. I like to use braid with a leader because it floats and the worm floats so you can drop it down and the worm almost suspends off the bottom and just sways with the current. Some days it's basically just drop it down and let it sit for a few seconds then close your bail and reel in your fish