The Fishing Thread

[Easy 6]

Searched around & only found the video fishing & BassMasters threads, i know their are plenty of outdoorsman here, so i figured it'd be cool to draw upon the Planets vast experience in all things fishing.

I only use spincast reels & fish mostly large/smallmouth bass & cats. My choice of reels is quite the source of derision from many people i know 'duffer gear', but i haul in my share of 6 pound bass & 10-20 pound cats on that gear no problem. With a little know-how you can use just about any technique you want to on 'duffer gear'.

Berkley Powerbaits are a big part of my trick bag, the difference between those & regular stuff is night & day. My best action last summer came on Mister Twister scented white curly tail grubs, on one day fishing from shore to a bridge pier, i caught smallies, bigmouths, perch & even 1 carp believe it or not... great day. But my bread & butter is a texas rigged Berkley worm, it'll wiggle through any kind of cover without getting hung up.

With cats i strictly bottom fish, no bobber & bait is just as basic... but its always in 2's to give'em a real treat... a shrimp/with a nightcrawler, liver/chunk of cheese etc. Cats are mostly for night sport to me, time to kick back a lil...

So thats me style, how do the rest of you guys get your fish on? What do you fish for, what do you use? IIRC Missouri's trout season just kicked off, anyone getting anything?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

Just about any live bait, perch, shad, goldfish, hellgramites, I've even caught them on a big wad of worms and know guys that have caught them on frogs, snakes and field mice. Yes field mice, just don't ask me how they rigged that one up.
What I'll do is take a perch about the size of your hand and hook him in the back behind the dorsal fin. It doesn't harm them badly so they live on the hook longer and stay more active than if they're hooked through the mouth, because activity is what will draw a flathead in.
Blues will hit on all the above also but I've heard that cut bait works particularly well for them. Take a shad, live or dead, then take a fillet knife and and cut it several times down both sides because the fresh blood is what will attract blues.
Channels will bite on all this bait also so your not really missing out on anything by going live bait.
As far as how I'm rigging this up I'm using 0-0000 circle hooks, 24" or so of steel leader on a barrel swivel and a 2 to 8 ounce "egg" slip sinker. My line is only 30# mono so I'm really not rigged all that big.

Tons of great advice in all of your posts, you obviously know your stuff. Do you usually fish rivers or lakes?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by seclark

that sounds very cool...
sec

Definitely, you never know what might show up on a trot line, exciting way to fish because of the variety, might be a big billy gar trying to take your finger off...

[ZootedGranny]

Fished a lot as a kid, and picked it back up four or five years ago. Every year the cabin fever gets worse, and this year it's terrible, especially since I got a taste of Truman Lake. I mainly hit up Longview & Blue Springs with my old man, and beat the banks at James A Reed every once in a while.

Every year I try to fully learn a new technique or lure, and this year I plan to get into jerkbaits & drop shotting.

[Easy 6]

I love all of fishings contradictions that are ALL yet very true... 'dark colors in dark water', no! some will say, its bright colors in dark water ... 'nah see, ya work a grub slowly'

Yet i've proven tons of hard & fast fishing rules wrong, many times over.

You guys in the tropics are so lucky... all year round & saltwater to boot.

[Saccopoo]

Depends. I loathe fly fishing, but I do it because of the situations. It's just so much of a pain in the ass in terms of digging under rocks for hatchlings and watching the surface for the rise, etc. It's a shit ton of work. I like the beer after fly fishing more than anything. It just seems to taste better.

Trolling gets the big ones, but it's almost as frustrating as fly fishing. You see the bigguns on the radar, but they never move no mater what you drag past them.

As of last year, I was enjoying spin casting for big pike more than anything. Hit hard as hell, and it's an adventure just to get them off the lure and back into the water.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Depends. I loathe fly fishing, but I do it because of the situations. It's just so much of a pain in the ass in terms of digging under rocks for hatchlings and watching the surface for the rise, etc. It's a shit ton of work. I like the beer after fly fishing more than anything. It just seems to taste better.

You -loathe- it?

I'm not sure I'd do any hobby I loathe, but anyway. Your post reminds me of one of my friends who won't pick up fly fishing. His objection: it's too hard to drink beer and fly fish at the same time.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by scott free

Tons of great advice in all of your posts, you obviously know your stuff.

Thanks. I've been reading up on flat heads because I caught a big one, well big by my standards not necessarily big by flat head standards, totally by accident a few years ago so I'm now hooked on going after big cats.

Originally Posted by scott free

Do you usually fish rivers or lakes?

Both and it's seasonal.
I like getting out to the river in early spring when the rains and ice melt have it swollen and rolling. This is what triggers their pre-spawn feed, particularly that first big wash of water coming down stream. It brings a whole bunch of catfish food down with it and the big cats will be out patrolling looking to fill the empty spot after the winter slow down and to load up on carbs before the spawn.
When that slows down I like to head for the mud flats of a lake because that's where they'll start staging for the spawn.
After the spawn there's a slow down as the females become disinterested in feeding and males are guarding the nests. This is usually around July to August and during this time you'll have to drop your bait on top of a male to get him to bite.
This is about the time I'll switch to fishing for bass, crappie or channel cat. I really dig top water fishing for bass and July to August is a great time of year for that.
After about mid August, after the eggs have hatched and the males have come off their nests, they and the females will go into post spawn feed mode loading up for the winter slow down. At this time I'll hit the river if there has been a storm, or Redman is dumping, and the water is coming up but otherwise stick mostly to the lakes.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

I loathe fly fishing,

Blasphemer!
I love fly fishing but there just isn't much of a call for that in SE Kansas.
I'll occasionally take mine out to catch perch or jig for crappies and small bass just for fun but usually get worn out on getting snagged in every tree in sight trying to cast it. I know, there's techniques and I can work them but it still gets annoying when I could just go out with my light spin cast rod and do just as good with less hassle.

[Dartgod]

Bwana started this one about 5 years ago.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=112902

Looks like it got lost though. No one has posted in it since 2008.

I'm headed down to Bennett Springs in a couple of weeks for some trout fishing. Me and three of my buds do this annually and is always a good time.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

I'm headed down to Bennett Springs in a couple of weeks for some trout fishing. Me and three of my buds do this annually and is always a good time.

To catch opening day?
Seems like we've talked about that before.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

To catch opening day?
Seems like we've talked about that before.

No, the following weekend. It will be bad enough then, I will probably never do opening day. To ****ing many people for me.

And yes, I've discussed Bennett Springs before in Bwana's fishing thread.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

No, the following weekend. It will be bad enough then, I will probably never do opening day. To ****ing many people for me.

And yes, I've discussed Bennett Springs before in Bwana's fishing thread.

I did opening day once... once!

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Stewie

I did opening day once... once!

I've seen pictures of it.
Not something I'm in a hurry to get in the middle of.

[Radar Chief]

BTW, here's a site that tracks John Redman Lake.
It's level, inflow, output. Comes in handy.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/JOHN.lakepage.html

You can even check in on monitoring stations up and down the Neosho River.

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/web...1.current.html

These have been very handy sites for me so I thought I would pass them along.

[Demonpenz]

Zebco power baby!