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We had another great day on the water putting at least 40 spots in the boat once again. We didn't have as much weight today but our 11lb 15oz limit was enough for us to hold on to our 4th place position, keeping us well inside the top 21 cut for the final day! Hoping we can get a couple big bites tomorrow and make a run at this thing, we will see how it goes!

Here's a 3.77 lb. smallmouth that ate a Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. Ned (mushroom) jig head worked slowly at a depth of approximately 20'.

... the pattern is real. Jerkbait and square bill crankbait again. 5lb4oz and 4lb1oz. The 5lber had the best fight out of any bass I've caught. Every 4th time I tie on a new horny toad, a gar immediately rips its legs off.

I worked my last last night and signed off for the very last time after 25 years. My God-son Talked me into going fishing this morning on zero sleep and when he pulled up at the park and ride I got the surprise of my life. His Dad, my best friend of 30 years had flown all the way from Ohio to spend a couple of days with us. To top it off, I caught a good one. This is how I wanted to start my retirement. I'm the one holding the bass.

Less than a week from Japan to my door, awesome.

Largest was 4lbs15oz, caught using a floating jerkbait I found. Last year I caught a 4lber almost every trip just beating the banks at this pond. This year I've only caught one shallow. I've been finding better quality bass in the mid depth sections (6-8ft) with weeds coming up about half way.

Mrs Bull landed 2, 4 ponders on her first time out..... Think that means I need to buy more gear ?

Why does it even matter? Mike

I would suggest that using an older but still effective measuring system is not what makes a country "primitive". Soccer, socialism & the metric system do not equate to utopia.

Blame it on the United States. I well remember when we voted on adopting the metric system, but we voted down. Today, we're one of the only primitive countries left who still toy with the outmoded fractional system. Roger

Photo of Quilt of Valor my wife created. Will be big enough for a king sized bed.

2-11 fatty yesterday during my lunch break

So I haven't posted my latest haul of soft plastics, will do so later as I had to get ready for yesterday's tournament. But the first 4 fish were 4 of the 5 fish that netted me 1st place out of 52 anglers. I'm a co-angler and beat all the boaters and co's. The way we do it is catch and release so fish are measured and that measurement is a certain weight. This was 24lbs and change but I know it weighed more.

Megabass vision 110 did the trick for me this morning.made it out early after some bass then once the sun came up over the trees changed to gills and started look in for dinner

Or a snap. Also, try some baits that walk easier like a Strike King Sexy Dawg. They walk without much effort.

He'll of a first quarter.

Nope. A-Jay

If you can swing it I'd look for a boat in the fall instead of spring. I see better deals in the fall with people who want to get rid of their boat and don't want to store it or winterize it just to sell in the spring.

Finally, Finally got the boat back after breaking the axle in the beginning of May. Took the boat to our favorite lake, Shasta. Were not on the water too long since someone (me) forgot the key to the boat at home. We got about 3 hours on the lake. A lot of dinks starting to get active but we did find some quality fish throughout the day. Once again Jamie out caught me 12 - 7, but i did have the better size, so thats something. Biggest was 16 1/2 inch spot that fought really well. One of Jamie's better fish, right about 15 inches

Benefiting from windy conditions is not so much about what you use, but is mostly about 'where' you place your boat. In a stiff wind, it's more pleasant to fish in a sheltered cove, but the war is being fought in the teeth of the wind. It's mandatory to place your boat where plankton and baitfish are piling up, which provide stakeout points for predators. Focus on windblown points, windblown ridges, windblown weed-lines and windblown shorelines where predators can trap forage against a barrier. Roger

Caught him during that "Walking back to the car with nothing to show for, and Ooh this looks like a bassy spot, let me cast this Zoom Horney Toad I already have tied on a couple of times, and swim it right beneath the surface thru all that duck weed" moment. Sucker came out of the water like a Great White breaching after a seal. Wasn't really heavy at 2 3/4lbs I usually don't fish this area of the nature preserve (which is actually behind me) cause it's not open to the public like the main lake. It's a marshy swampy area which does feed the main lake but its also home owners' property. I'm on a public bridge so no harm no foul. There, fixed it.

Well today around 2pm I finally made the right moves and the right decisions on Lay Lake. I found a spotted bass bite that is pretty astonishing, my partner and I are really hoping it holds for the tournament that starts Thursday! We caught about 25 keepers, but this was with running new water duplicating the things we found the fish on, marking a waypoint after a fish or two, and shaking off LOTS of fish. We probably would have had close to 15lbs of fish today, the biggest was a hair under 20", we also had two 18", and several 15-17" fish. These fish might fight harder than smallmouth! I will fill in with many more details after we hopefully continue with this bite through the tournament. This guy was mean enough to eat a catfish at some point!

Thanks for the tips guys! I went for about 6 hours today and caught 14 bass. Nothing of size but had fun nonetheless. I used spinnerbaits and small senkos to catch them.

What a crappie day

STOP! I want to take bass anglers (or is it fishermen) seriously, but ya'll make it hard. Expressing the weight in lbs and fractions of a lb has nothing to do with the metric system, nor is it in any way more accurate than using lbs and ozs. It enables one to express the weight using one unit of measure instead of two and forgoes having to use fractions of an oz if the same degree of precision is desired.

Thought this was funny,45 inch 32 pound tiger. Whopper plopper 110 in blue blood. I was recording audio samples for a comparison video. Strong enough for a musky ph balanced for bass,lol

I'm going to have to agree with Punch. Only had a few hours this morning and from about 5:30-7am they were hitting the frog. Caught 13 total on a frog. Is there anything better?

Yum Dingers for shallow ponds. When fished weightless they sink real slow.

My partner and I had a great day today, we caught around 40 fish (maybe more!) and culled our way up to 13lbs, 13oz. Good enough for 4th place out of 130 boats. Hoping we can put together another solid bag tomorrow. We saved some areas and our spots should reload with fish anyways! I will do a full report after the event, we are on a VERY neat bite right now.

Hit up the dot tonight, some solid numbers and a few nicer fish. Cannot complain for a local lake. The wind tomorrow should make it interesting...

This is just one guy's opinion...but no way I'd let that boat go this fast. It's a great rig and you haven't spent much time looking for a solution to the problem. Take a deep breath, step back from the edge and evaluate some of the solutions you've been presented with.

Is this happening right off the get go? If so, simply thumbing your spool before the bait hits the water will solve the problem. I fish Spooks all the time with 30lb. braid and never run across this. If it happens somewhere during the retrieve, you're jerking and not twitching the rod tip. You can get a lure to walk three times it's length to one side or the other with just a twitch. Jerking the tip raises the nose of the bait and when it turns, the nose will cross over the line often times catching it on the front treble.

Let's go 16-0!! Go DUBS!!

welcome to the other side brother. now go catch those fish!

hey guys just joined up been reading for a while . a lot of great ideas on here i will get some pics up my pelican Rhino its like the raider but has live well and battery box from the factory i have put a few mods on it as well bought this boat new in 2000 and has to be the beast money i have ever spent love this thing . i use a single jet ski trailer to haul mine with no mods to the trailer works great easy to load and unload . i have a lowrance hook3x FF 44lb thrust TM 2 homade rod holders from pvc pipe and 2 other rod holders that i bought had an old trolling motor took it apart and made my rudder with that bracket big foot switch for the TM going to be installing led lights for some night bass fishing ok i guess i found a few pics to put up here

Topwater bite is ON.. got a 4+lber on a x-rap prop yesterday. Biggest fish of the season thus far. I got a cool video that I'll put up. I was just doing some pond fishing over lunch break.

Liked the end result so much that decided to apply the same treatment to the big brother...

When you can fit you're hole hand in it's mouth to get a tiny wacky jig out

I want to thank Bass Resource and Yum for the package I won. It contained way more gear than I expected. I invited my bass fishing buddies over and let them pick a few bags each. Bass Resource is the best site for information that I have found, and now I got some free stuff. I still can't believe I won!

I like sunnies!

I'd opt for a St. Croix 6'8" M/XF in the Mojo or higher series for your wacky rigs. I personally use the LTB version and it's one heck of a stick.

22 bass today 19" 18" several 16" 15" threw 3 different paddletails some ikas and hydras.

2 & a-half-er on top at a new lake:

Well after hearing about them forever and getting a stupid good deal from dicks (20 bucks each)...I caved

Out of curiosity, I googled the last item from OP....the only 'accident' happened when someone allowed Mr. Martin to actually own a boat....sorry, but I'm still laughing: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article154205254.html "A boat exploded at a dock on the North Carolina coast, injuring three, after the boaters accidentally pumped 28 gallons of gasoline into a fishing rod holder instead of the fuel tank. The three people hospitalized are the boat's owner, David Martin Jr., 40, of Charlotte; passenger Jonathan Bickett, 35, of Charlotte; and Kendrick Schwarz, 24, of Brunswick County..." For some reason, I can't find the part where it says "authorities suspect alcohol was a factor"....sorry...I can't stop laughing

got sick of tackle being unorganized in the boat so i grabbed a couple planos and a couple boxes to store everything. then i spent part of my night re organizing everything

I carry five in my Native Slayer 12' top water jerk bait rod med pwr 6'8" casting spinner bait large top water mh 6'9" casting small jigs and soft jerk baits mxf 7'3" spinning crank bait rod med pwr 7' casting large soft plastics buzzbaits 7'1" mxf casting my spring & fall smallmouth setups summer low water I go l to ml setups 1 spinning 4 casting.

I don't really know what is going on with all the KastKing threads or why there are so many of them but I DO know that seeing this name all over the place makes me want to NEVER buy one irregardless of how "great" they are. Give it a friggin rest already. It's a 50 dollar reel. If you buy it and get 1.5 to 2 years of decent service out of it, you got your money's worth. End of story. rant over.....get off my lawn and btw.....I seriously doubt if someone that fishes 20+ tournaments a year is wondering about a 50 dollar reel

I figured now was a good time for me to become a member... thanks for the very kind words Francho. i noticed you only have the part 2 episode posted, the first part can be seen here... for some reason they deleted the video and then uploaded it again just recently.