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Other F&F links that might be useful: http://floatandfly.com/ Good info on the specifics of floats from Triton Mike A link to some rod options. They make a good crappie stick. http://www.bnmpoles.com/c-12-float-fly-rods.aspx A good all around page for info on brown fish. http://thesmallmouthguru.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=26 These last few make me wonder about other applications...spawn flats, post spawn on gravel places. Not as a go-to, but as an option for a tough day. http://www.fishin.com/articles/jimdicken/springfloatandfly.htm Some of the ones I have had bookmarked for a while.

Looks like the ideal rig for 1st time guide clients Great video. Has to be a way to make a slip bobber work with that thing. Time to dig into the In-fisherman and walleye mags. Know those guys have some innovative float rigs.

He definitely has some good looking items for the brown fish. His silver buddies are pretty close to the original. Weird how brown fish make you like little chunks of ugly metal, blacks make you need $30 ultra realistic swimbaits and such. The possum hair just struck me as sort of humorous this afternoon. Nice natural bait color.

Just when you think you are too hillbilly, you run across something like these: http://cgi.ebay.com/6-FLOAT-FLY-REAL-OPOSSUM-FUR-JIGS-1-32-MATZUO-HOOKS-/190497645217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5a8b62a1 Good looking f&f jig though.

Sent you a PM.

When you are fishing for fun, it is pretty hard to have a bad time by catching too many fish.

Ditto in the beautiful 66043 (Lansing KS), plus kids home from school again due to weather. Looks like 5+ with ice. If I pour any more grub heads I'll run out of lead and hooks, wake baits are curing, don't like to pour plastic when they are home, going stir crazy is coming on strong. Go rain. Maybe if it starts with the wetness we might actually see 907 or dare we hope 910 before April. Concerned for the spawn and the fish.

Another benefit of the recent high water years no doubt. Go rain.

Now he will need more truck to get to baxter. Might have to fish with him now, his old blue boat was too short for old fat guys like me. Anyone swimming the old white hair jig or gray road runner deep?

Like Billy needed to learn how to whack them some other way. He's gong to need a longer boat just to tote that f & f rod. Bill...if the stick fish are as deep as 20' would that explain the fizz factor mentioned above? I usually don't see that until I cathc them in 30+ but maybe they are coming up from farther below the bait.

Have to say I am with T on this one. At least you aren't stuck in the other KC and looking at muddy snow melt yards. Did get an email from Ned Kehde (InFisherman, other mags), they have started finesse fishing in the open KS lakes and are disappointed...with numbers in the teens. He is preaching (think that is about right in description) a finesse system similar to old school slider fishing using 1/32 and 1/16oz crappie/walleye heads and 1/2 of a Zman ZinkerZ (super plastic senko type). Slow, slow, slow, even for a T-Rock grub guy. Hard to argue with their pics though. Wonder if those deep guys might be dropping the jigging rapala sort of baits?

Will get pics up when I can. First of the bigger jointed baits is sealed, ready for paint, its partner is on the bait turner now. Slight variations between the two, lip angle, hardware, ties position. By big, they are basically as long as a fin, but much wider. Taking a break from the saw now on the minnow style. Kind of feeling around for the right thickness of balsa on these...normally use 1/2" on flat sides, but that looks narrow on this design. Caliper on the wood measures a little narrower than a fin. As for fixing a fin...my guess is your well loved ones are that way because they work. I wouldn't touch them unless they are actually in danger of not floating. The ones I have that run better get marked on the lip and show their miles. For that period of a few weeks in April and May there is not much better than a good fin bite.

So as not to hijack... Looking at ways to make a fin work better/more consistently, and also working on some balsa wake baits. Bought about 6-8 balsa wake baits last spring, from Buckeyes on up in oddity and price. Found out it was pretty hard on the budget, but the baits are really fairly simple in design. Some of the higher $$$ ones run great, and, especially coming from where they did, surprisingly looked like they were sort of thrown together. This made me reconsider some of the ideas I had about fins and balsa baits: 1) Don't think it is the minor fin to fin variation that is the negative, more likely due to the unresponsive nature of the plactic itself. 2) Because balsa is so responsive, you can get away with a few "irregularities" of hanger position, line tie position, etc. At least a "few". This is certainly the case on the best running baits I purchased, custom built, at $25 and way up from there. Some of these were not even completely sealed and were not symmetrically sanded. As someone who is handy with a bait and an airbrush, I found some to be appallingly poorly finished given the reputation of their maker. 3) The tail section of a redfin may be more at fault than I previously believed with respect to proper V waking. 4) Wider is better. This includes the diameter of the face of any tail section on a jointed bait. 5) Folks who tell you to buy a bunch and keep the good ones are not wrong, but are probably also fishing a custom somewhere along the line. Now, although I am an idiot in most other ways, I can make and finish a balsa bait. Have built a bunch of square bills, flat sides, etc. So here basically are the things in play: 1) Balsa wake baits, various sizes, designs, from flatter sided wide body minnows (jointed and non), to big jointed shad swimmers. First two are sealer curing now, should be ready to paint soon. Not copies of the others, but definitely built to address their flaws. 2) Redfin head section tweaks...possibles include shooting the hollow head full of boat float foam (easy to do if you have the foam-guys are making baits out of this type foam and others), change out of the factory lip to address lip angle and weight of lip. 3) Tail section tweaks...complete removal and replacement with a balsa section for better buoyancy and response. Slight lengthening and thickening of this section also. 4) Balsa version of the redfin, live or memorex basically, except for lip angle. It would almost have to run better, should eliminate that huge "sink" at the end of a cast you get from a fin, which can kill some retrieves. Once you run one, the difference between a jointed balsa bait and a fin is shocking. Less need to be particular with rod angle, line drag, wind and wave action. Will put up some pics after the baits have some clothes on, if they run right maybe some video of those and the baits I picked up last spring. Basically trying to get a bait that allows a higher number of productive retrieves, as in 50% with a fin to an increased 70%. Does not seem like much, but could amount to a big jump in productive water time. Anyway, it is something to do now, although this morning it is good stickbait weather up here.

I share your concern, also due to solo situation. Takes a second extra, but I bet it is a bunch faster than turning to straps. Guess I have more frequently frozen the boat to the trailer, have needed to let it set backed in to thaw enough to float off the bunks. Golf claps all around to anyone who went out. Still have a big drift in front of the boat door here in KS. Working on some balsa wake baits and redfin tweaks for warmer times. Pouring grub heads while I wait for my sealers, epoxies, etc to cure on the homemades.

Have been snowed on in March more than once (or twice). Has always = wiggle wart bite for me.

Jeez, not again. I was just sort of hoping it was concrete at a ramp.

Nice fish. Had to break out myself today with a Cabelas run. Stupid yankee perch jerkin store that it is...at least they had the Reins 4 way whacky worms. makes me at least think about April and May.

Anyone remember how low the pool dropped to when they were working on the dam/spillway? Any idea what this might do to the rock snot?

Last 2 weeks in April thru first 2 weeks of May. If you like grubs and little plastics, redfins, those should be available then at (least from Baxter to the dam), assuming any normal weather. Second week in May might be late for some, but post spawn rig and topwater bite should be starting up. Will be there myself during all the big tmts it looks like. Just have to remember what I learned at Smithville and LOZ when we lined up to fish, just because a boat went thru your area doesn't mean they stuck all the fish. Actually considering getting on one of my good brown bass flats during the BASS and just tossing an anchor over. Might be entertaining, have been known to fish one point for several hours before.

http://www.landbigfish.com/ I understand Mark on 13HWY usually gets some, but they are normally gone before I find out they have arrived. Have also used V&M's french fry in the same color, very close to a doctor.

He brings me cool things, like 10 bags of the special run fish doctors in W'melon Candy

Oh dude...this so reminds me of why I can't even look at a Yellow Magic anymore after last June. Ain't it amazing how the clustertruck pulls right up and parks by you when something like that happens. In my case, I had an index finger pinned inside a keeper brownies mouth plus the popper, the fish constantly clamping its mouth shut (and rotating the hook), while I tried to explain to my 9 year old daughter (crying, partly b/c dad is bleeding all over, but more worried the fish would die) precisely what a pair of diagonal cutters looks like, and why she should never say that last word around mom. Idiot that I am, I was worried the fish would stop chasing before I could get everything fixed.

Get your favorite brown bass recipes ready.

Don't have anything for a gift except gratitude. Hope it was a super day for you.

Have seen those but passed b/c I wasn't sure how they would address the overinflated bladder. Most of the fish I have caught from around 30' and deeper have not so much struggled to right themselves, but basically rolled over and floated with barely moving fins until fizzed. Somehow you have to get the air out of them.