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Have children. Soon your disposable income will be a distant memory.

Yesterday morning I caught this 8.10 lber in the Ocklawaha River on a wild shiner at first light.

yeppers I am still around......... I have been super busy, as I started a new business last summer shortly after the roadtrip and been full throttle ever since. it sucks I been MIA for a while, but I do have notifications on so if you PM me I get the email and try to keep up like that. Have been fishing a few times! went the other day to Pickwick and finally figured something out late in the day..... all small but I will take it after not being on water for a while. I hope all my BR comrades are well and kicking!!! If you ever need to give me a shout PM me or you can always get on Facebook! Brian Needham

My idea of money saving tip for fishing is....Even if I only need a pack of hooks, I make certain that I have at least $50 worth of stuff in my TW cart so I never have to pay for shipping!!!

Never pay full retail for anything.

Don't buy a boat...

I don't like to admit it, but stupid people scare me. Hootie

Ignore ignorant ignorance. Hootie

We chatted.....I showed him my wallet......He left screaming....

marry a rich woman

Research before you buy. Check the discount bin often.

Wow

Wanted to share a couple photos of the largemouth I caught while targeting crappie a couple of weeks ago. 2# test line on a light jig rod. No scale with us, it was 21 1/2" on the tape. First bass of 2015. On a side note, I'll definitely be fishing some tournaments this year. I fished club tournaments in 2014 out of my Skeeter and hope to fish a few more tournaments this year. Looking at getting into the NH Bass Caster Draw and Midweek tournaments. The melt is definitely on and I'm psyched.

I want one bad! Someday i will have an adrena with a aldebaran 50....someday

Good to have you back Brian!

BRILLANT IDEA ANDY!!!!!!!

Different line won't fix your thumb.

Brian has also been on a life transformation, and since he didn't mention it, I will. First photo I took of him at last years road trip and the second was the last time we fished late October/early November! And then the official pic: Jeff

Things have definitely come a long way even in my lifetime. What's crazy is to think about where it'll be in another 30 years. I'm sure if he's around in another 30 years 0119 will be out in a field still kissing cows...

The weedlessness of this bait makes it a whole other level of awesome though IMO. It's small enough to not need a swimbait setup but you can bump 'er along the bottom like the deluxe weedless 68s even in the weeds and grass. I have no idea why you would ever want to sell it tbh, especially this close to the spawn. You can't land your PB on it if you sold it though lol

I'll respond with a quote from one of my past trip reports:

Quoted for truth! Also dont get into fly fishing!

Kid fight!!!

Hit Baker Park today at lunch, ended up being an impromptu BassResource meet up. I meet MARsPEED and Munkin while I was fishing. It's cool putting a face to a name now. Anyway, landed one fish, just happened to be my personal best 5.3lb Edit - just had a friend tell me the road closed sign at black hills boat ramp is gone.

Find what works for you and fish it. You really don't need hundreds of baits to catch fish.

So my thoughts on the quality of the new equipment I have been exposed to over the past few months vs what was out there 30 years ago is this: Even the least expensive baitcasting reels by Abu Garcia are much easier to use than the highest end equipment back in when I fished with my father. Basically all you had was a tension nob and thats it even the free spool buttons were on the side so if you had every thing backed off it was a two handed motion to start the cast. Learning to use a baitcaster back then took quite a bit of effort and time. That is just to not backlash anytime you made a cast, now you can almost tune my new Shimano Curado I to cast without any thumb control. Its not the most accurate way to do it and you have to be smooth but I played around with it and an an old Bantam. I think the Lews V Spool was one of the first reels that had any kind of breaking. I am astounded with the smothness of even my Abu Black Max which is just about as cheap of a reel as you can get these days. I have always prefered Abu and Shimano reels. Probably the reel I am most disapointed with is my Diawa Lexa and that is is just because of its initial MSRP. I think a real at above $100 should have dual braking these days, maybe that is why TW and Gander Mountain have the reel on sale now for $69.99 which is what I paid. The lines of today are shockingly sensative as are the rods, I have a $50.00 Shimano Clarus casting rod that is worth every penny of the original MSRP and I can feel so much sensation with it I am actually really confused about what I am feeling and spend more time working out whats what than actually fishing at this point. That is to me the allure of fishing for Bass learing and refining techniques. I think by the time in a few months when I can cast my reels with the right settings and hit a paper cup with a jig from the other side of the world 95 out 100 times its going to be a blast. Not sure if this post makes sense, I was just kind of thinking of all the differences from the last 30 years and they are as astounding in fishing as they are in comparing my old Apple desktop 30 years ago to my iPad today.

Mike, I have no doubt you will be better than new before you know it. Take care of yourself and good luck. When you do get right give one of the Coonasses on here a shout and we'll figure something out. Might even be able to talk Chris into driving you down.

I just finished the last of five rod projects I'd planned for the winter. Considering they were interrupted with my hand surgeries, I finished fairly close to schedule. This was done on a friend's favorite. Some cork fill, a couple of guides re wrapped, old finish stripped and these additions.

My trick for preventing backlashes on very old, sentimental baitcasters is to put them on display on a shelf in the house and leave them there. Seriously, you may learn a lot about how to use your your thumb effectively, but imo, not worth the trouble. The mechanics have improved so much that even if you have a very solid old piece, it is going to be much harder to work with than a late model.

I understand the concept of supply and demand. I understand making a couple bucks off a hard to source bait. I can even understand buying a hard to source bait, fishing it and deciding it's not for you. What I don't understand is your cavalier attitude while not having a job and buying a bait you had ZERO intentions to fish. That's beat man.

Do you use Kleenex or facial tissue? Lol.

Looking forward to testing the effectiveness & durability of the G87 20A south of the border this June. Hoping for Big Things . . . A-Jay

Welcome to BR.. http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/largemouth-seasonal-habits.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/spawn_bass.html There's a bit to get you started, good luck!

^^^ this X 100,000,000 Flippers should take a long walk off a short cliff! I've been amazed at how people in the swimbait world pull together to help someone in need. It's a brotherhood and sadly there are people who just want to make money off of a bait. I sold my extra gill for cost to someone who didn't get in on the pre order. I could of made profit on it by putting it on eBay but that's not my thing. I'm preaching to the choir though. People will continue to flip for money and not bat an eye.

Buy a Bass Baby. It has wheels and will fit inside a full size pickup truck . I load mine by myself. You can fish spots where bass have never seen a bait. Unpressured bass bite much better than the heavily pressured reservoir fish, Heres one caught in a Missouri irrigation ditch fishing from the Bass Baby.

different order from a different company. Get Bit is the supplier of the broken blank. I sent an email with a picture last night. They responded today with "Were sorry and we are shipping a new one out today." We will deal with the claim. I can't ask for more than that.

Good stuff! Keep the reports coming.

It's almost time to break the tape out.

Glue for plastics

Dad and I are going to Melvern tomorrow. I'm just hoping that we boat a fish. Going to see if I can scare dad in the new boat too

Never go to Mexico ~ A-Jay

One that has surprisingly worked for me... if you already have a good amount of lures, but you can't help but buy more, try a tackle subscription service such as MTB or LTB or whichever.... Every time I went to the store before I couldn't help but get my fix and I'd always spend at least $80 on lures and plastics. Now that I have a good foundation though, I've found that getting a box in the mail once a month satisfies my addiction and when I go to the store I only buy what I actually need and will seldom spend more than $15-20.

zoom baits. Also only buy what you use.

Well excuse me! I was only fishing for about an hour and a half, so when you think about it ratio-wise, I caught as many as you.

Simple. Yum and Berkley.

Never say no whenever an old timer offers to give you an old lure. With how things have been going for a lot of discontinued baits these days, that old lure could be worth something.

and i passed! watch out world here i come

I night fish a lot and bladed jigs are always something I have in use. These are some of my most successful colors. and I'm hoping that this one will contribute to my night fishing efforts this year as well.

A Fly Rod ~ It just reeks of Stealth . . . A-Jay

LOL, nah we're good here.