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Boo I was really hoping we would see a 14" squirrel top water bait being chased by a spider this year.

Received my 3 Champion XP rods today.

Decided to try a lake I haven't fished in almost 5 years Thursday. Use to be one of my favorites, but flooding and heavy pressure caused it to nose dive hard several years ago and a lake that regularly kicked out 20lb bags became tough to get bit on at all. Last years floods were timed right, and all our big lakes have reaped the benefits in the form of plentiful forage and lots of healthy, although smaller, bass that survived after hatching. I've been tracking my numbers of bass caught this year with a small clicker/counter. I started the day with 304 bass on the year, I'll let you guys do the math. Only fish I caught other than a bass all day was a sauger on a swinging football head and a Rage Bug. Wish it hadn't been so cold, my wife and boys would have had a blast but I doubt I'd have been the only guy out there after them then. Big fish of the day was a 4.08 smallie, 2 weeks in a row with a smallmouth over 4, not a common thing to accomplish in Kansas. It was 40 degrees with 15mph east winds and raining by noon. My hands were so cold when I stopped at 3 I couldn't even re-rig my rage bug, so when a fish bit my legs off I just had to fish something else.

That and the baby deer 67 ounce swimbait!

I finally got one of my bucket list reels, curado 200E7 and I found 2 of them for a steal, one is a little beat up and the other is almost mint. I also got the brand new zodias 172H and Expride 172MH. Man they are nice!! The new Zodias is much more balanced then the last gen and paired with the scorpion mgl... Man it's a looker!!!

I've been pond hopping with 2 of my sons, a grandson, & his best friend but today one of my granddaughters wanted to tag along. Lissie Rose's first bass, she saw it, & made a perfect pitch with a Snoopy rod. Pawpaw will be up grading her rod-n-reel!

In these interesting times, the are daily questions on what constitutes an "essential business". I won't wade into that debate here, but I will say that my trip with Jimbo on Lanier yesterday was "essential" for this fisherman's mental health. With overnight temps dropping into the 30s, we made the wise decision to get a later start, so at 8:30 we were idling to our first stop. After Jimbo picked up an early taker on a fluke, it took a little while to get into a rhythm. A few spots later, we saw some surface activity and I picked up two solid spots on a McStick. After that, it was run and gun to points, sandbars, blow-throughs, marina walls, docks and some sandy areas. We didn't knock their lights out but we picked up about 15 primarily power fishing jerkbaits, flukes, keitechs and spinnnerbaits including my PB spot we guesstimated around 4 lbs. We ended the day by picking up a few on docks with a worm. All in all, another good day with Jimbo!

It would appear as though I may have been quarantined with the bait monkey. I picked up 3 rods in the Dobyns sale. I got the SA734C, SA735C, and SA702SF. Along with those I of course “had” to pick up two new reels so I grabbed a Tatula SV, and Tatula LT. Still thinking about grabbing another SV or Tatula 100 to go on the 735C which currently has a Curado 200i on it. I also picked up my first two vision 110’s to compare to my usual go to Provoke 106. Though we aren’t off to a good start after one of the $25 Jerkbaits came out of the package missing the split ring on the line tie. Lastly(for now) I grabbed a Black Dog Shellcracker to try out after hearing a lot of good things about them.

I knew this was coming all along...that's why I am so well stocked.

My Dobyns Fury (733C) from the big sale finally arrived today no thanks to some really slow work by FedEx, so I finally got to mount the Lew's Tournament MP that arrived a week ago for it. The MP has been blowing me away already on a cheapy Walmart Lew's rod, so I can't wait to get out and try out the full setup, hopefully tomorrow. This is by quite a bit the best reel and rod that I have owned in many years of fishing, bass and otherwise.

I found a leaked picture of the rod... some assembly required.

It's not traditional. Bass fishing is fun because bass will strike a wide variety of different lures. Tinkering is a big part of bass fishing and your PB liked it, Nothing wrong with that! Nice Bass! Tom

I wear a mask and surgical gloves. Come on man!

40% off War Eagles? Okay, I'm in. And a Chrome KVD 300 because of, reasons...

Seagar Smackdown 50 lb in grey stealth. Cast's like a dream.

Is this Matt Allen? LOL

I think I have enough stuff to fish for at least one life time, maybe two.

Stock up for my quarantine day, lol. I think I’m getting bad, enjoy catching and filleting crappie lol. Caught about 25 last night a bunch of 10” biggest went 14” (released). I decided to keep some 11-12” for my wife.

Caught a couple today. The 2nd one is the biggest for the year so far.

I have seen people set the hook in what they thought was stump, and then the 14 lb 'stump' tail walks and takes them for a ride. The funniest thing I think I have ever seen while fishing was two guys fishing in a rental boat, sitting back to back, fishing out opposite side of the boat. One of them feels a 'hit' and sets the hook. Strangely enough, that's when the other guy gets slammed and he sets the hook too. They were whooping and hollering for what seemed like forever fighting their 'fish'. It was especially funny to us when one would pull up hard, and the other guy thought that his 'fish' was suddenly going on a run. They were back to back, so they couldn't see what everyone else was seeing. Finally, one of them turned around to look at the other one and they realized they had been battling each other and things got real quiet, real fast.

Been stroking em across East Tennessee. Fishing is great right now

Pants! Wearable towel wherever you go

This product has been discussed before on BR forums with negative results. Tom

You're complaining about fishy hands? Come on, man!

I get some cheap hand towels, put a brass grommet on it, and hang it from my belt while fishing. I might dunk part of it in the lake to keep it damp. Towels keep me from wiping my hands on my pants and keep the handles on my rods clean too. I keep it attached to me so I always know where it is without having to look for it. Leaving it on the deck means it will blow out of the boat when I forget to secure it before taking off.

It's not that I find it gross, it's just that it's harder to tie lures on, make casts, and do retrieves when your hands are slimy. So ya, I rinse/dry my hands off if I have to handle a fish...just because.

Or you could go with the guy on YouTube whose theory is that the original Ned TRD attracts fish because it looks like a goose turd ?

(raises his hand) Power Pro Original on all three rigs I'm using braid on this year. Hasn't given me issues the past years, and is relatively inexpensive...why change?

Original Power Pro Mike

Since icast isn't open to the public, I'm not sure what the big deal is. The majority of the info that we received in the past was from you tube videos. Companies can send their own videos to prospective buyers and release them to the general public when they see fit.

Seaguar Smackdown

I mean, maybe that's what Glenn meant by online-only.

True. But if I couldn't get anything I would be good for awhile. To prove your point, I have a G. Loomis 903C CBR on the way. It's a different rod from anything I have or have ever fished. We will see how it goes.

I think I've got enough tackle to last me a few years if I had to make it last...as do several others lol. I'm always trying to buy enough of what I think I need to last a while so I guess if that is true then it's good that I have stocked up! Personally dont see it being an issue...but never saw this whole pandemic thing coming either!

That's unfortunate, but I get it. Personally, I would like to see them find a way to do an online ICast so we can watch while safely quarantined in at home

Or the Mike Iaconelli baby kitten swimbait from River to Sea.

Hopefully the new Tranx 700 and Dobyns 1409 swimbait rod comes out in time so we have something to fish it on!

Charlie Brewer makes a 4" lizard in pearl: https://www.sliderfishing.com/category.sc?categoryId=118

Love reading your stories about getting to do the things you love. Keep on fighting and keep on enjoying doing the things that put a smile on your face. It puts a smile on my face thinking about you getting out there and having a good time.

Improper spooling is one way, as you already mentioned. Another way is when you crank the reel handle while the drag is slipping. For some reason, some bass anglers don't understand how to properly tighten their drags...but I digress.

Keep smiling, God bless you.

You never know how many anglers are doing it, and keeping it a secret. Just because it's not "standard practice" doesn't mean it won't work. I think you proved that. Congrats on the PB. I bet a few readers on here will be testing that out this weekend ??

Whew....wow ... yesterdays over. Three teeth went south plus I get a root canal next week. There's nothing quit like tooth aches though....last weeks been tough to eat and Praise God ...eating is one of life's pleasures....ya think.....Thought was going to a one hour tour....three hours...had to re shoot painkillers as process went a little long!! Mama says you still going fishing......YES....another pill and off we went for three hours....so beautiful out. Three good bites....two nice fish and a miss. Chatterbait......whooohoooo......They just pounded it and knocked about three feet of slack in line.....ohhhhhhh. So couldn't get in golf but that's today I think. Mama says don't push it but Doc says ......on a timeline....so what's a person to do! If things feel ok....and the doors open I'm gone....So many things to be thankful for......so many. Tight lines all....may your day be blessed

20lb. braid, no leader.

Not bad for four hours of fishing!

I was really looking forward to it. So Sad.

Yeah, I remember one of my bonehead moves several years ago. Friend invited me to go trout fishing so grabbed my tiny little Pflueger president but was out of 4# test so found some 10# vanish in the gun cabinet. Spooled the reel and off I went, on very first cast...EXPLOSION. Looked like an alternator blew up. Lol

Line twist definitely still happens with spinning reels for a variety of reasons, incorrect spooling is only one of them. Low memory line helps as does application of a line conditioner when using Mono/FC/Hybrid lines (I prefer KVD). Couple videos on how to prevent/fix line twist https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/line-twist-fix.html https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/line-twist-spinning-reel.html https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/line-twist-fix-how-to.html

I'm not as specialized as others. Same rig is used for flip, pitch, punch, frogs, larger topwater and bubba-shot. 7' Aird-X H/F, Fuego CT-XS (8.1:1) and 50# Power Pro.