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Finally got one worth taking a photo of! Not huge but a good start. 3 lb 3oz, my first chatterbait fish, and on the big blade orange chatterbait I've been waiting for the right opportunity to throw. She bit at the end of a long point in about 4' of water. Forgot to take the donkey leash off for the photo. I caught 2 more today but both got off, I'm struggling with hooksets sitting down on my kayak. I think I'm going to reconfigure a bit so I have more space to really put it on them.

Caught first one in the new kayak today. Spinnerbait in about 2’ of water right on a stump. Lost another on a crank trying to fumble for my net, should have just flipped him in. Live and learn! Bonus white bass on the crank as well!

Had an hour or two free, decided to try the mouth of crackhead creek again while listening to the classic weigh-in. The blanket of shad was thick so I would just snag one and pitch it out on a different rod under a bobber. Nothing was chasing it for a while out in the current break so I tossed it right up into the garbage flow in shallow clear water and caught two LM. One was them was a decent one! Pretty fish considering where they live amongst all the trash

Had a good morning on the lake. Much better average size today. All caught on the fluke and speed worms…

All on Zoom Fat Albert Grubs, Texas Rigged. I also had 2 solid strikes during the day but didn't hook up.

Fished the Rainbow River for the first time in a couple years. Motored up and floated back down fishing. Caught over 2 dozen with the largest 15" all on worms. The wild life was spectacular, as usual, with a herd of wood duck ducklings following moma the highlight. I took a picture but they blended in with the vegetation and didn't show. Stopped for lunch near the bank and fed the bream remains of my kipper snacks. For anyone that hasn't been there the Rainbow is a 6 mile spring fed river that's super clear the whole way. Boats are limited to idle speed to save the banks and kayakers/tubers.

Got a tacklewarehouse order in today. Not pictured is the spro crawler and the Daiwa airdx rod I paired with the tournament pro. That combo weighs less than 12 ounces, it's so light. Perfect for throwing a choppo 75 all day. Love the spro crawler, casts a mile and looks great in the water

Never imagined I'd fall in love so much with pixie wands, but after this winter and early spring that's the only way I want to catch big fish now. I've found a magical 75-100yd stretch that has produced a 8.5, 7, 6.12, 6.1, 5.9 within the last week. 7 on the dot Partly spawned out with some fresh tail damage 6lb 12oz 5.9 Choked Lastly, why orange and red work so good in the Spring

I met Cherry at the 2019 classic, he was working the floor. He’s as big as a pro linebacker. I said why aren’t you fishing, didn’t realize he had missed the classic that year. Then I told him good luck in the next one and he won two in a row 😂. You’re welcome Hank

Took a friend and a kid fishing yesterday and we did alright! Caught em all up shallow around newly growing vegetation. Jake caught another one that was close to 3 we forgot to photograph and we caught a few little guys. All in all a very fun day on the underspin and swim jig!

If they are going to ban anything, they should ban live wells. Catch a bass, take a photo and immediately put it back in the lake where it was caught.

Decent bite yesterday, but nothing of note size-wise. Did hook into something on the lipless right at dark that instantly had me hunkered over and was peeling drag, but I never got a look at it before the hook pulled. Most likely a big tilapia. Managed 15 bass, dinkfest with the biggest two being just over 2lb each. Lipless and jerkbait did the work as they're corralling schools of small shad up shallow. This one t-boned the lipless perfectly. Managed to cull two tilapia as well, both on the jerkbait. One was decked out in spawning colors.

What are three pluses and three minuses for your boat? You could focus on the hull design (canoe, kayak, jon boat, bass boat, etc.) or the maker. Start by describing your boat, please. Description: I fish from a Bell canoe. It is not a fishing canoe. At 15' 6" long and 32 pounds, it's built for wilderness tripping. It tracks well (paddles in a straight line), carries a lot of gear, and is light on a portage. The pluses: An old woman can carry it. It carries a lot of fishing gear. It's fast. The minuses: Being light and high, the wind bullies me. Being light and high, bass bully me too, pulling me into weeds. Being Kevlar, I have to baby it.

Thanks Mike, the spinnerbait is beautiful!

Would love to see Hamner win, great dude and has been trending upwards big time for a cpl. years. Listen to Steve Kennedy's Clear Lake win back in the early 2000s......because of that CA law he had to release the biggest Bass he's ever caught, a DD because one of the extra hooks he rigged on a big soft swimbait was hooked on the outside of the fish. So silly. I'd say 75% of my jerking stick fish are hooked on the outside. eta: Holy smokes, Fujita just busted the top 10 after being near last place after the 1st day. Dude is incredible.

They're so beautiful when they're healthy and up shallow like that @TnRiver46, great job! Is crackhead creek near methbilly point? 🤣

Yup ~ Rock'in the Crocs ! Sweet A-Jay

Starting to transition off the crappie bite as it continues to fade. Caught 3 greenies today, but one of them was one of the right ones. Edit: 7-1/4 pounds

I have kind of developed a liking for the various old Team Daiwa reels over the last year or so.. Started with the left hand TDZ and TDX 103HL versions with the clutch up on top, and then expanded to TDZ 103H, 100ML and 103ML, TD Fuego and noticed I liked the looks of the TD Sol but hadn't seen a lefty Sol for the right price.... Until last weekend that is when I saw one for a reasonable price on the big auction site. Got it in the mail this morning and it was in better shape than expected. Felt a little tight so I tore it down, flushed all the bearings and cleaned things up. Didn't know what I wanted to do with it and happened to look at the rod rack and saw the Kistler Jerkbait rod. Kind of looks like they were made for each other!!.... and throws a casting plug around the yard great. Can't wait to get it out and try it!!

I'm off work for 10 days. Myself and Mrs B are at a campground now. It doesn't have wifi and my mobile hot spot data is limited. Reports will be limited but I'll do a big one at the end of the week when we're back home. I brought the boat this morning and fished for an hour, then went home and got the camper. I was able to fish another hour this afternoon. It's still daylight but I'm tired. I caught 6 cookie cutter Spots and one really small Wiper/Striper, White Bass hybrid. The campground is near the Dam so that's where I fished today. I'll go back upstream tomorrow. Picture is the last one, but all were similar.

Water is heating up here in S. FLA now and the Peacocks are warming up!

About half the jerkbait fish caught are like that - I am more surprised when my jerobait is actually in their mouth

I feel so smart today, I put on my boat cover today just before it started to rain. Now my boat will be nice and dry. I just keep surprising myself sometimes. Now if I can just start catching bass I would feel even better 😂😂😂

John cox doesn’t have spot lock either

Took advantage of a good price on cupla Dobyns rods, spring boarding the savings toward a decent reel for my wife...who doesn't fish, yet! Shorties: Fury FR 664C and Sierra SA 693SF

I would like to see bass tournaments where everyone uses 50 year old reels with linen line mounted on fiberglass rods fishing out of canoes with 9.9 hp motors. Then, we would find out who the real bass fishermen are. Just joking! 😂

I doubt it. Once the genie is let out of the bottle, it's hard to put it back in. Today's big money TV bass tournaments are all about selling products. Fishing product manufacturers make money when they convince weekend anglers they absolutely "NEED" their stuff in order to be like the guys they see on TV. Boat ramp "CRED" is enhanced if you have a $100,000 wrapped boat towed by a $70,000 truck with $10,000 worth of electronics. You may not be able to catch bass in a barrel, but you look the part. This started back in the 60s when we painted our names on the sides of our boats or motors. Do anglers using FFS catch more bass? Yes, if they have the fishing skill and knowledge to go with it. Would it make a difference to the average weekend Joe angler? It's doubtful.

Those already exist at a local level. You won't see any at anything beyond a local level because: 1. It's the creators of the technology (all fishing technology, not just FFS) that are the financial basis for "expert"-level bass tournaments and 2. The vast majority of amateur tournaments are predicated on the idea that participants can be a pro fisherman someday. Even if it's just a small, local tournament the participants want to feel like they are fishing "just like the pros" or there's that little glimmer of hope that they can be a pro someday. It's just basic capitalism and human nature. If a fishing technology gets to the point that it's an unfair advantage you just have to pray that the governing bodies will realize it and remove it from competition...but...that's where the money comes from so.... Just to use your own analogy, how many people pay attention to the natty competitions? Look at the nattys and then look at the Arnold. It's NBA vs WNBA. People want to see pros catch fish.

Amen, brother. It is hard to set when sitting and being low makes it even harder.

Preparation I don't care if I were fishing the Bassmaster Classic or the bayou across the street. I only know only one way to fish, the energy level is the same!

Take a kid fishing

Little spring haul. Missing my Shimano Poison Ultima that I'm going to pair with the new reel.

Took the day off to get some fishing in before the next series of storms come in and the NCAA tourney starts (#priorities 😆). Incredible March weather today with temps around 70* and water temps around 58*, but I could not find consistent fish deep or shallow. Strange day and the biggest fish of the day was a 3lb rainbow on a spark shad deep into a creek channel. Caught a few smallish spots on finesse tackle and couldn't even get a follow after throwing a 10" swimbait for a couple hours. Hopefully we'll get into a spring pattern after this next series of storms passes through (snow expected tmw night).

A few new things 1 dobyns Kaden 745 1 phenix m1 vortex 7’4 ml casting rod 5 jackhammers 8 chatter bait evo 2 one knockers 1 red eye shad owner jungle flipping hd 3/0-5/0 4 packs micro goat 4 packs shad fryz 6 packs micro shad heads 3 packs max scent 1 pop x spawn cherry 1 pack juvy craw tubes 1 pack snack craws 9 packs of chatter spikes 2 gobius 2 packs tackle hd hellgrammite 1 pack mag 2 black with red glitter I have been waiting for the chatter spikes to show up locally, and I had to round out my evo collection also. I wanted to try the rods that I got also. I should be good till tomorrow lol. I am going to sleep, 11pm is going to come fast and the weather sucks so I am not testing any of this out for a minute. Although my rod testing backlog is around 9 deep at this point maybe a little more. Just gotta tell myself no more rods lol, at least reel monkey hasn’t been knocking lately.

Picked one up this morning. 6'8" MH/XF. It's not the lightest rod I own, but it's the lightest one under $200 for sure. I paid $139 before tax with a trade in coupon. Imo, it's a super good rod for $140. I have no idea what bps' RT ratings mean, but it says it's made of "RT5 Graphite" as opposed to the new carbonlite rods' RT4. It was plenty sensitive. I paired it with a new gen Revo SX I just threw it in a small pond that doesn't have any bass in it just to see how it handles. It threw a pit boss with a 3/16 weight really well, and I could easily feel the pebbles on the bottom. Pretty good so far, I'll update when I actually catch a fish on it next week. Anyone have any idea what modulus that BPS uses for their RT ratings?

Nice job Clayton, planning any more Bassmaster events this season?

They only seem able to accomplish it below dams here and it definitely looks exhausting, they have to take turns casting and ripping because they get so tired.

I receive my share of bag-o-parts orders. You wouldn’t be alone! Lol

Easy answer is that it’s born into our DNA we are a species of hunters. Even though we don’t always eat our catch, it satisfies the primal instinct we have to hunt. Doesn’t matter the species.

Could be a combination of things. If I am losing fish after the hookset a couple of things come to mind. First, I’ll sharpen the hook just to eliminate that issue. If I keep losing them I will change hooks. May not be the cause but I do it anyway. I tried a new Ned head and so did my fishing partner. We were both losing fish at the boat. I have a buddy who pours his own Ned’s and uses a stout trout hook and they never come unpinned. I’m going back to his Ned’s.

When making longer cast trying to hook set using only your rod the result is poor hook sets. Try the reel set and firm rod sweep technique similar to hook setting a crank bait. The lures you are using have excellent hooks so dull hook isn’t the issue nor is line stretching imo. However some of those fish could be crappie this time of year and hooks tend to tear out if over pressured. Tom

Long casts and fish grabbing it lightly. The hook point catches a hard spot in the mouth just right and they don’t get stuck because of the stretch in the line. If you watched the BPT there were a lot of guys on Toledo where the hook was falling out at the boat as soon as they let slack into it. Just make sure your hooks are sharp.

I've had a few days like that while fishing lighter gear. I believe sometimes when you're setting the hook that the jighead is pulling against the clamped lips. You fight the fish a bit, sometimes all the way to the boat and they finally release it. Next trip you'll likely not lose one.

Noon time on day 1 of the Classic and Jay Przekurat is leading with 5 for 14 - 8. It's almost like a regular bass tournament. Who knew ? A-Jay

Long casts with mono sometimes can't get past the barb. I had a few come off yesterday and I pinch the barb partways down. The worm doesn't come off but it penetrates better.

It happens to everyone, you ever notice how some days the fish choke the baits, and other days you only get them in with a single treble point in the lip? Non committal bites are a real thing. Bass are curious creatures, and equally aggressive ones.....two traits that lead Bass to hit a bait, but not completely eat it. I had over 20 fish come off on Sunday. More than I actually caught, first time that's ever happened to me. Unless it becomes a pattern don't sweat it.

Cody Huff has three over 4#. That’s what it takes to win. Jujita is eating sushi during the tournament. That has to be against the rules. No live bait in a tournament also means you can’t eat it.😆

Fashion violation in a sanctioned event!

The first time I caught a bass on a C rig was two years ago. Now I fish one every time I go bass fishing. I really don't understand why people don't like it. I can cast it a mile, I don't have to wait all day for my bait to get to the bottom, I can easily feel every rock, or log on the bottom, I can fish it in strong wind while maintaining good bottom contact, quickly fish over places that don't feel right, but slow down when I feel the weight hit something interesting, I can easily detect bites, and almost never miss a hookset. I have never been a big fan of fishing soft plastics, but the way I fish a C rig it is more like fishing a crankbait than a typical soft plastic technique. I rig it old school, 3/4 to 1 oz barrel sinker a couple beads, 2 to 4 foot leader, Zoom Ole monster worm. Any point shelf, or hump I catch a bass on a crankbait, I well follow up with the C rig. I almost always catch a few more bass off of the spot, once the crankbait bite stops. I hate to admit it, but if I'm going to be completely honest, I Have on occasion, fished a point with the C rig first, and never even tried a crankbait. I probably shouldn't have admitted to those brief moments of temporary insanity on the internet, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.