5bites

Do be careful if you run under the bridge in the river! One thing that might help is that the fish attractor markets, get this, actually mark fish attractors! Not what planet they're on, or what lake they're in, but the actual location. It's quite a concept. This kinda makes me want to revisit that place again. Like Bird Watcher said, there have been some good bags weighed in there.

Ooooooor is it to tweak the bill?

What's the heating trick? Is this like the boiling trick?

Tackle trap has the Lews for $60. Call them rather than order online.

I've only fished it a few times and it was at night during the summer mostly.

Well, now I've got to buy some pad crashers.

Swivel and for sure flouro are the death sentence to topwaters of any kind.

I know I know. This is outdated information as much as things change this time of year. Here it is anyway. Last Saturday I fished the Grand Lake Anglers for Christ (http://www.glafc.net) tournament with my oldest (10yo) son. We fished the mid lakeish area between sailboat and honey creek. It had been a month since I'd been there so I figured there would be slimmer pickings for spawners and more post spawn fish. That said I started out throwing a black buzzbait to keep the boat moving while I tried to get a vibe on what was going on. First fish (14 incher) came on a fallen tree in the back of a cove. Working back out (here's where the day changed) I saw a fish spawning on a boat lift. I fooled with it a little while and finally got a hook in it. It turned out to be a 16.5" spot. So out at the mouth I threw a Carolina rig on both points assuming some post spawn fish would be around by now. Nothing. And I still hate Carolina rigs. Back to the buzzbait I pick up a few short spots and start seeing bass cruising quite a bit. So now I'm on the move casting and looking for beds. I come to a dock with a forked tree in front of it that have a spawning pair in full spawning ritual. One was 15-16" and the female was around 4lbs. Neither one of them could care less about me, my paca craw, my brush hog, or my senko. So after spending to much time on them I move further in the creek and continue to see cruisers and spawners that are not near committed enough to stay put to try and catch them. This creek has a very defined channel with ledge rock on top of it. Toward the back I see a solid fish that is guarding its bed good enough to catch. First attempt was with the paca craw. It didn't like it but wouldn't just get mad and jump on it. So I switch to the brush hog. Pretty much the same reaction despite its larger profile. Next up was the wacky rigged senko. First pitch the senko had made it a foot down and the fish turned a 180 and looked at it. Then it bolted straight to it and crushed it. You would have thought the senko called this fishes mom a bad name. Anyway it was mad and put up an awesome fight all the way to the net my son was handling. That solid fish ended up being 3.5lbs. So obviously by this point I'm committed to sight fishing. As the day went on I picked up several fish here and there either on the bed or I'd see them cruising and back off and catch them or pitch into deeper water that they may have disappeared to. One fish we sat on for about a half hour so my son could try and catch it. It wouldn't have helped us but I wanted him to get the experience. He had opportunities to catch it but he being 10 couldn't read the fish very well and didn't react fast enough when the fish would have it. Nevertheless it was good for him to see and try it. He will learn and no doubt be good at it. After this I went back to the spawning couple to see if their mood had changed and maybe be ready to play. No. Once again I wasted to much time. We moved to a cove south of us and found another 4lb class fish that just wouldn't get mad. I'd pitch to her and she'd swim off, come back, I'd move the bait and shed just swim off again. The water was slightly dirtier here and the breeze had picked up so it made it hard to find exactly where her bed was or even to see her a lot of the time. So we moved around and yet again I see multiple cruisers but nothing I can get to play. I saw one 3-4lb fish that was apparently guarding fry yet doing a bad job at it. This fish would appear from under a dock, straight up out of 6' of water, in front of the dock by the cable etc etc etc. I fan casted the area with the senko trying to get her to get mad enough. One time I saw her rise up to the senko and swim off. That was my fat for being to close. Back to the 4lb bedding fish that I couldn't see well. I pitch to her, she disappears, then I see a fish (thinking it could be her maybe) swim over the log to my right. I back out and pitch in that direction and get bit but it comes unbuttoned. So as I'm reeling the fish bolts out and disappears so I stop reeling, the fish swims right up to the senko, then jumps on it. Everything happened pretty quick and close to the boat so I had to swing it. Another nice keeper Kentucky. Not the fish I hoped it was gonna be but it helped anyway. We fished out the cove seeing yet again several fish that would have helped but very very skittish. This is obviously frustrating. We make a run back to wolf creek where the weigh-in is and in the interest of fishing every minute we could we made a stop. We fished around the pocket quickly and cam to a fallen tree. I need there to be a 5lber there. At the skinny end with the branches I get a bite, reel two or three times and swing in our last cull. A 15" largie lol. Not the cull I wanted but it was a couple ounces of help. Maybe. We ended up with 11.41 I believe which was disappointing and honestly about a pound and a half less than I guessed. Usually I under guess. My wife and 7yo son (who fished the previous GLAFC with me) was at the weigh in when we got there. I let my boy that fished with me check us in and get a bag so he could get the full experience. I stayed in the boat and put up rods. FLW pro Darryl Robertson was speaking at the weigh-in. He's running for congressman and I do believe he'd be great for it. Very Christian and very conservative. He provided burgers, hotdogs, drinks etc for those there. At every GLAFC there is free food at the weigh-ins. These are by far my favorite tournaments to fish. The atmosphere is great, 100% payback, and the guys running it do the best they can to run a good tournament. It may not always run as smooth as some but they try as hard as they can. It's always enjoyable. This tournament has grown a lot the last few years. Now drawing over 100 boats at times. So, as of last Saturday I'd say keep the trolling motor going until you run across a committed fish big enough to be worth messing with. This was my mistake. To much time on iffy fish and not covering near enough water. Had I prefished I would have made better decisions. One thing that did help was I took both boys to table rock the previous weekend so they could see bed fish and experience trying to catch them. So at least I was kind of in that mode. I enjoy bed fishing quite a bit. Reading the fish and the anticipation is a lot of fun to me. I wish I had more time to do it to gain experience, especially on those not as locked down fish. That would change my game a lot and would have had a huge impact on my weight this weekend. Some don't like bed fishing and that's fine too. To each their own. Anyway I'm going to be bouncing between the rock and grand this year so maybe I can contribute to this section some.

Welcome! Rod builder here too.

Don't want to turn this into a frog discussion but Koppers are my favorite. Best action and don't fill up bad. Now what about buzzbaits? At Grand they're mandatory. Especially next month. I never hear much about them on the rock.

I didn't know sportsmans existed. I'll have to check that out.

Also recommend Johns. Good guy.

Whites have given me a heart attack hitting at the boat. It's like a big flat rock hitting the water right in front of you.

Being from Carthage we have zero options around here. I mostly rely on tackletrap.com (great guys!) tacklewarehouse.com or I load up when we make a run to Springfield. Fin 'n' Feather is great if you are into building. I like to drop in there anyway. I'd rather give money to them than bps just for the fact that they're a small business. Still yet bps gets quite a bit.

That would be crazy if they do.

I didn't know that. Thank you!

I badly wish you could buy these episodes somehow.

Thanks for the reply. I actually went to Rogers Cabelas Thursday evening and bought a 7-3 mh and a 6-10 m. That 6-10 is the best spinnerbait rid I've used to date! I'm very impressed with these rods at this price point. I'm a little concerned about the guides I'll admit. I've since ordered 5 more. One 7-1mh, two 7-1m, one more 6-10m and a 7-1h envy. I also have a 7-3h that should be here today that I got in a trade.

Is there a 13 Fishing dealer in Springfield?

If I knew of one were I could fish with my wife and kids I'd do it. I'd want it to be private though. I'm not much on crowds. Dies anybody rent these things?

Very cool

A whole bunch of his stuff is on YouTube. I enjoy it quite a bit.

They are actually. It takes several micros to equal the weight of even just one the very best conventional sized guides. And I'm talking cheap micros too. Besides you don't need 14 guides if any kind. As a matter if fact I don't use any more guides than I would using larger guides. This includes the conventional configuration of applying them not spiral wrapping them. Though I have made a handful of spiral wrapped rods. I personally don't see the need on a bass rid but that's my opinion. Anyway the micros weight savings allow the blank to act more like it would without any guides on it both in action and sensitivity. The more you put on a rod the more you hinder it. The only disadvantage to micros is debris or ice clogging them.

No worries bud. I always heard they'd get grooves over time. I never put much stock in that. Then I heard from Matt Davis of Otterods that he had the same problems. Despite that my favorite pitching rod at the time had recoil guides. Well sure enough it did the same thing. I use fluorocarbon exclusively when pitching. I hope your experience is better than mine and others. I will not be building any casting rods with them. There's no point really when even the cheapest of micro guides are so light and more durable. Now I wouldn't mind building a crappie rod or drop shot rod with the single wire version though.

I'd probably use these: http://www.mudhole.com/Rod-Building/Artus-Micro-Guides/NIRLMG-TITAN-RingLock-Micro-Guides I don't recommend the recoil guides especially on a casting rod. Maybe on a light spinning rod. I'd only use them if a customer was bent on using them.