Quillback

Instead of sink testing them, I see what they do on the lake when I bring them back to the boat. I'll let them suspend and watch what they do. They'll act differently when attached to line than they will in a sink test. Water temp also plays a factor (hard to duplicate in a sink). Based on my experience, the Megabass do not suspend at a 45 when fished. And if they start floating I'll weigh em down with suspend dots or strips. I don't have that float issue with the STX nor do they do the 45 degree thing, which makes them superior or equal to a 110 at a third of the price IMO. I'd rather have a $7 bait that suspends correctly out of the box than a $25 bait that needs to be tweaked.

I like a flat suspending bait myself, and I have not noticed any of my Mega's suspending at a 45 degree down angle. Are you using heavy floro? That might be the reason your Megas are doing that 45 degree thing. Good point on the STX, change out those hooks for sure. And that Eeratic shad is another inexpensive bait that seems to fish well, I haven't fished one enough to gain confidence in them, but it looks like they work well out of the box. I've found the Megas to be cheaply built for a $25 bait, some of them have a tendency to slowly float (I'm using 8 lb. floro most of the time), the eyes fall off, and the bills break easily. I just don't see the value for $25.

I saw Jeb catch an 8 lb. LM on a RC STX, so you can fish one with confidence. McSticks are good, IMA FLit is a good lure, but a little spendy, (wait for a sale on the Flits). I like having a few deeper diving baits in the box also like a Pointer 78XD or Spro McRips.

Thanks for the report, I was beginning to wonder if anyone fished the Rock this weekend What were the water temps?

It's a 3 day event right? Based on that I'd say it will take 65 lbs. total to win. I'm thinking a daily bag in the low 20's is very possible on that lake. This is assuming decent weather.

I like that Invisx myself for the drop shot and shakey head stuff. I use Trilene XL for small cranks and small topwaters that I throw on spinning gear. I get the Trilene in low viz green, so that I know what reels have mono on them.

Noodling a 90 lb. cat would be a challenge, a cat that size would probably take the grand prize on Mudcats. Usually it's a cat in the mid fifties that wins the week.

Stump, they may have changed the law since then. Here's a link to the state laws and a link to Swepco rules. There's no minimum length statewide for black bass and Swepco follows state regs except for the one bass over 18" exception. http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Pages/FishingDailyLimits.aspx http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Pages/fishingLakesDetail.aspx?show=SWEPCO

I like 1/4 oz myself.

Yep we noticed some on beds also and saw some hatched out fry so they seem to be wrapping up the spawn. It was tough for us, we got a dozen or so, nothing over 2 lbs. Weightless worms, and small worms on shakey heads/t-rigs were our best producers. It got really windy which made it tough to fish those finesse presentations.

Thanks for the info, I'm always interested in new tackle, but from what I see, I'll stay with the Mustad KVD's as a replacement on cranks. Mustads are less expensive, come in a wider range of sizes and are just as good a hook IMO. I can get a treb off and on a crank pretty quickly with my split ring pliers so the magic eye feature to me is not a big deal.

It's on Saturday evening on NGC, 5 two person teams competing to catch (via handgrabbing) the biggest catfish. Weekly winner gets $2,000 for the biggest cat. At the end of the year, biggest cat gets $10,000. Weigh in is in Oklahoma, so mostly OK lakes and rivers, but one team does travel down to North Texas.

My grandfather always used to say about my grandmother, that she'd "argue with a signpost". Yeah it is surprising that there is no length limit on bass in the general rules or at Swepco, but Swepco used to be strictly catch and release for bass, then it got overpopulated with bass, they were skinny and stunted, so they encouraged people to keep bass and thin them out.

Yep 10, any size, which are the statewide rules (there are exceptions for lakes such as Beaver) http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Pages/FishingDailyLimits.aspx Thanks for the tip on the ramp, we were over there Thursday and did not fall off the edge, but it's certainly a good idea to check before launching. Not to sound like a wiseguy, but there's a giant sign on the edge of the parking lot, facing the lot, that tells you what the limit is on Swepco.

You're not talking about keeping bass are you? If you are, I'm not teliing you.. But if you insist, it's 10 bass a day, but only one over 18". http://www.agfc.com/fishing/Pages/fishingLakesDetail.aspx?show=SWEPCO

I'd guess they haul them back to the lake in a tanker truck, where to? I'd like to know that also. There's probably going to be some mortality, but even if it's 10%, you're talking 50-75 fish total, and I doubt it will be that high. I'd say on a typical early summer weekend with fun fishing and local tourneys (not to mention the folks that bring some home some to fry) going on you'll end up with more dead fish than this event will cause.

I agree with these guys, I'd definitely get something around 80 lb., and run it off a 24 volt system.

Looks like it's topped out. Approximately 1.2 feet. I was hoping for 2-3 feet.

Yes, is good.

Great fish Donna! I've only fished Grand a few times, but I need to start getting over there more often. That lake does seem to have a lot of drum. I've caught a few decent ones that I thought were big bass until I saw what they were.

You can find some good deals sometimes in the Bargain Cave (online that is, I don't know if the Rogers store has one). But other than that I go elsewhere for my bass stuff.

I don't know, but I hope you're right. So far it's up about 10", I think we'll be lucky to see a 2 foot rise.

I'm doing a lot of head scratching lately trying to figure these slimey green critters out. Even the top pros have tough days, it's interesting when the FLW comes to Beaver that some of the guys who fish that tourney are local and you'd think they'd do well in the tourney, but some of them struggle. But you fish enough and you'll have your day when every thing you do is right. I love those days!

Come on mudline!

Wow, that is a piggy! Congrats!