Royal Blue

Terrin, I use a minimum of 50lb braid on all of my A-rigs. Sometimes 65lb if I have it. No way am I gonna risk breaking one off in a tree if I can help it.

What speed are you trolling those cranks at?

They make a great rod for the money. I have a few Abu rods, veritas and veracity, and for the money I may grab another one of the Berkelys. They're solid. At some point I'll invest in a lighter weight rod like a Falcon, but these kids that I have are expensive!

I've been using a Berkely Lightning Shock rod in 6ft9' medium action for awhile now. It was cheap, and it's been pretty durable. I upgraded to the next one up from berkely for another all around rod recently and I love that thing. It has a big ol butt and hybrid guides. For $80 it seems like a heck of a rod and I can't resist a big ol butt, I've been married for 20 years...

I'm starting to think that I'm throwing my warts and crankbaits on a reel that is way too fast. I currently use a Lew's LFS 6:4:1 and nowI'm wondering if I'm missing fish by cranking too fast. I caught plenty this spring on rock crawlers and warts, but I'm guessing that I need to slow it down.

I've been noticing that the Zebras are getting bad down there. Especially when the bushes are out of the water. They're everywhere. That lake has been pretty good for a few weeks now. I might try to hit it this weekend if all goes well.

I've had great luck this fall super early in the morning throwing a whopper plopper and blue herring colored war eagle spinnerbaits around the grass on the main lake. Never throw the spinnerbait without a trailer hook out there though. They short strike it a lot and you'll hook up much more. We've caught several 16-22 inch largemouths. I've never caught a smallmouth out there either which is kind of weird, but I've spent a lot of time out there this year. It takes a lot of patience and multiple casts to cover. If you're on the main lake and there's a stickup all by itself, throw casts from different angles to it. If you're about to move on, throw in there again. You'll be surprised at what might happen doing that. There are still some big bass in there, but they get hammered.

That's probably true. I have all kinds of confidence down there right now too. That probably makes a huge difference too.

There are so many bushes on that lake that I'm convinced that there are always fish on them.

I've been catching keeps on that lake for a month. Always super shallow near bushes but you have to have wind. Not many on a crankbait yet. Most on War Eagle spinnerbait. Water clarity determined color. In super clear water, I'd throw a mouse or green pumpkin color. White and purple in stained. We also figured out that almost all of them have been caught when we have a Keitech and a trailer hook. If you bounce it off of a branch of a bush, hang on.

Not a Bluegrass fan, but Rhonda Vincent is as big of a name as there is in that genre.

I can't like this post for multiple reasons. 1.) I hate that the bite was tough. 2.) The main reason is that Husker crap.

I just bought one last week and absolutely love it. Thought I'd see if it was decent for the money and was shocked at how well the set up performed.

We hit Long Creek for several hours Sunday. Caught a nice 3lb LM on my 5th cast on a red craw rkcrawler. Two more 15 inch keeps later in the morning. Three shorts and a few misses. The bites were few and far between. After that first keeper, I thought we were really gonna have a great day.

I have a couple of the Lew's baitcasters that I picked up at Wal Mart for around $60. They're really pretty smooth and have performed great for over a year now. I thought why not try a cheaper model and so far so good. I like the pro qualifier too and hve 2 of them as well fwiw.

I'm no help on Bull Shoals as I'm learning to fish it myself, but I'll go after those reds in a heartbeat! We've chased them for years in the Destin area, and I've been looking forward to hitting Venice for them for a long time. Hit me up next time you head down there. I'm in Ozark, MO.