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Well today was a special day for me…. My Christmas present to myself from myself arrived. Now I know this is now considered an “older” reel it’s going on 6 years old now, but I managed to buy myself a new unused Scorpion mgl 150. I know it’s not the fanciest reel or this or that…… But it is a reel I’ve wanted for quite some time and now I have it so I’m very happy about this and now I’m sharing this will everyone here…… What I want to know from everyone else here is….. Did you get anything exciting or that you wanted for Christmas fishing wise big or small…… Please share if you did. Thanks

Highs hit the mid 60s here today, but the price to pay for that was the SW winds gusting 25-35 mph. Still had to go though - might be a while before we see any temps close to that again. Changed to a murky water lake with 46-47 deg water and caught 4 small keeper bass and a handful of crappie. That’s a wrap for 2024 fishing.

I got out the last hr and a half of the day, so stayed close to home. Temps in the mid 70s . Enough breeze for a nice ripple on the water. Caught 6. Most were relating to eel grass edges. Caught fish on speed worms, dingers, and flukes. Biggest fish was a little tank. He crushed the june bug dinger a few feet from the grass bed. The bed runs probably 400 feet continuously- the pic shows part of it at the end. It was a good way to end the year. Got a warm feeling approaching my house. Any of y’all are welcome to come fish if you’re in the area! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!’

Took my last trip of the 2024 season last Saturday. Weather was nice, fishing was pretty decent, but I've been drug down by crud that my kids brought home from school right at the start of winter break. Done a good job avoiding it, but it finally got me and I've been feeling it for about a week now and after 4 hours on the water, I was wiped out and cold despite the unseasonably warm weather. Still managed to boat over 30 of them, including one fairly nice one to wrap up the season. Ned rig caught all but 3 or 4 of them.

Merry New Year ya filthy animals

Happy New Year friends! Special thanks to Glenn to providing this space for us. As always, thank you everyone for your support of our business and for all the advice, opinions and friendship present on the forum.

Pair of smalls on the last day of 2024. Caught on the shade line of a bluff. Bite died once the sun got too high in the sky.

Yes. I actually got my Christmas, early in November. A Shimano Calcutta Conquest MD 300 XGLH and a MB Orochi XX Leviathan. That Scorpion looks pretty fancy to me.

NYE. Last day of 2024. Yesterday was gorgeous with a high of 80°. But it was our 36th wedding anniversary. And truth be told, I was not tempted to go fishing lol. Today is bluebird skies but much cooler and breezier. About 54° when I launched the boat. Not getting a bite on anything. Swim jig, topwater, chatterbait, Texas rigged Zoom Trick. Not even a Senko TR. Then I put a green pumpkin Rage Bug on a 3/0 EWG as a weightless TR and finally, two bass decided they would eat it. Not big, but 7 other anglers were fishing and these were the only two fish caught, so I’ll take that with a smile. Not a bad 2024 and a good way to close it out!

fitting, a white bass. Member of the “true” bass moronidae family

Happy new year!

Happy New Years! Be safe, be healthy and be happy. Keep those drags singing and bait monkey grinning.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow ~ Happy New Year A-Jay

Happy New Year looking forward to 2025🥂. Talk to the living while you can and take someone fishing! Tom

Gamakatsu is 40 mins from my house. I've been there. We've fished together. We've been to Japan together. They sent me a bunch of Japanese baits for Christmas. We've met. I've been using and sharpening their hooks since 1992, when they were first introduced in America. That "guide" is smoking crack. All hooks, regardless of how they arrive in the package, can be sharpened at any time. My friends at Gamakatsu get that deer-in-the-headlights look when somebody infers you cannot sharpen a hook for whatever reason. Here's how to get them razor sharp once they start to dull (note the Gamakatsu jighead in the video):

Thank you @Catt. Hoping 2025 has both my parents up on the beach this summer like they have since 1989 ... ... father time and dementia has hit them hard these past couple of years but whatever they need I'll be there. And @Glenn, hoping your dad will be healthy his year Happy New Year all ...

As promised, here’s what the baboon did to me this year… 1st pic - Mrs Smirak ordered the gift cards from TW. Got the physical card so I’d have something to actually open. As discussed previously, the gift card equipment went down on like the 22nd. So, in order for me to have something to open, she painted these “gift cards” for me. She said the pelvic fins act like rudders (notice all but one is facing the wrong way 😂😂). Honestly, as much as I love the tackle, this was my favorite gift. 2nd pic - total haul. All either 1/2 oz or above. For some odd reason, I just don’t like throwing under 1/2 oz moving baits…I have them, I use them, but find that most of my new purchases are all 1/2oz+ and are usually the ones that get tied on first. 6th Sense Congo Craw (can’t get them locally anywhere) (5) Damiki Vault (3) Dr Slick split ring pliers. Initial impressions are they will be good. A few Crush 75x flat side squarebill A few Quake 70 lipless Spro crawler MB SV-3 spinner bait (2) Keitech tungsten jig (1) J Braid Grande x 8, 50lb MB Orochi XX Diablo Spec-R Tatula 103H Some A rig wranglers Free TShirt!

Post em up! Better get busy! Except for you Northern folks, I guess.. dang. Uh, well, at least there’s Tackle Warehouse

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

🎉 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉 Only 1 resolution. Fish more, work less! 😉

Happy New Year to my BR bros, and here’s to a new PB for everyone in 2025!

Happy New Year

I have two. You’ll love it. Now my cataract surgeries are done I bought myself regular polarized sunglasses. One pair for driving and a pair for fishing. 👍👍

Happy New Year to everyone. Health and Happiness is my hope for you.

Santa ended up getting me three new bait casting combo's. The BR crew overwhelmingly recommended the Daiwa Aird so Santa paid attention. I love them and now I'm explaining to the bill payer, why the credit card blew up! Also got tons of new swim baits.....Zman, Crush City mayor, and Damiki.

Outdoor Life tv started the new season today. KVD,Lindners' Angling edge, Facts of fishing, Hunt for monster bass, Zona's, In-fisherman, Lake commandos.....

Called a buddy who's boat is inop and asked if he wanted to go fishing this afternoon. I got 2 bream bites and he missed 2 bass. Oh well.

I will second this. This past few year I have been using YGK lines and love them so far. You have to get use to ordering by line diameter and not pound rating. For what you described, I like YGK Zone Cover. I use PE #3 for small jigs. It's equivalent to 10lb mono or 12lb FC in diameter. For neds I would step down to PE #2.5 or even #2. I would also use a leader, especially around timber and rocks.

Wishing all our family on BR. A happy, prosperous and safe New year..

I’ll have something here shortly. Not sure bout bass but there will be fish today

For 30 years my custom 7’ Fenwick custom popping rod was my deep crank bait DD22 and Poe’s 300 lures. Do you need a 7’6” crank bait rod…. Not really but you do need to cast 40-50 yards. Tom

Its a mirrolure 1000%, gen 3 52MR sinking twitchbait It could be a 51MR, which is a slower sinking version, but many more 52s around. Nah, theyre sock. They started putting red trebles on certain catch 2ks and other baits with that finish. You have to use a flathead to swap the hook out, kinds a pain in the neck and gives the fish leverage. That lure is responsible for more blind sea trout than anything else i can think of. ML started selling single hook kits for them.

I'm getting prepared to go to central FL for the rest of the winter hopefully to catch a DD. I've been trying for several years and haven't succeeded. Yes the wind was howling here also.

Beautiful reel. Congratulations. I only got baits for Christmas this year. Splurged and bought a few Megabass Vision 110s and 110 +1 Jrs, a few plastics, and X9 braid in 3 different sizes. I did purchase 2 new reels earlier this year. The Salamandura is close to that color as is my old Scorpion 1001 4x4 SVS. I prefer red over silver any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Mostly I upgraded my DSLR camera body and kit lenses.

@Blue Raider Bob: Just a sort-of-related story here. My Christmas Angel (AKA wife) and I stopped buying each other presents a couple of years ago; seemed like all we did was swap gift cards. Decided instead to pool our funds and contribute to a few local charities instead. Anyway, my good deed was rewarded. Wandered into the local Dick’s yesterday and stepped into a slightly belated Christmas miracle! There on the rack were an AIRX701MFB and AIRX701MHFB. Here in Pittsfield one normally doesn’t find a lot of options - mostly I order online, pay and pray. In fact, this is the first time in all the years I’ve shopped there that I’ve seen the brand in the store. What makes this interesting is that for the past two summers I’ve had two reels with no homes. The first is my old Lew’s Tournament MB that had been relegated to the shelf when it’s companion rod fell victim to a low ceiling and the other is an Okuma Helios SX which cost a bundle but which I could never dial in on the supposed M from a not-to-be-named company. Played around in the yard yesterday: with a little tweaking the Okuma worked like a dream on the medium rod and, as expected, the MB performed well on the medium heavy rod. As in your case, the BR crew had piqued my interest in AIRD and when I had to grab two rods for $110.00 it gave me the opportunity to experiment with the Okuma without going through the hassle of guessing what rod(s) to order blind. You can tell from the length of this that it’s winter in MA and my fishing withdrawal has really kicked in, but the whole thing is pretty cool to me.

@Crow Horse I do not have a kayak so I can not add anything in the way of under water mounting advice. However I have and still do record with the GoPro subsurface. Usually fish release shots. Clear water is pretty much a must. Point of interest is, although most all GoPros are rugged and waterproof right out of the box, I have drown a couple of different units the past few years. Used them at arms length underwater boat side. One minute they worked, the next - toast. So while nothing is fool proof, all my future underwater deals now include a GoPRO branded waterproof protective housing made for the model cameras I'm using. Adds an extra layer of protection for H2O intrusion. https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/mounts-accessories/protective-housing-plus-waterproof-case/ADDIV-001.html If something like this is available for your unit, I'd recommend considering it. also You might want to designate a water only camera. Good Luck A-Jay

If orange gunk is coming from a pipe and flowing into a body of water, you should contact the EPA and send them the photo and the location. My fishing club has had the EPA out to investigate several companies who were illegally dumping into our local rivers.

Spinnerbaits are my confidence lure. This is an older video, but everything in it still holds true today:

You are so right @Catt . Hope everyone and their family and friends has a great 2025.

I have a couple Lew’s that are over 10 years old and are still running great. Doyo makes good stuff in my experience. I’m sure that reel will serve you well. Post some pics!

100% agree. I am not brand loyal by any means, I have Shimano and Daiwa reels that I love. Just surprised me that this particular reel seems to be very well made. Time will tell.

Shimano and Daiwa are the standard imo but Doyo is a good manufacturer.

I have two Carbonlite 2.0 reels, really like both. Haven’t had any problems with them. One is paired with the Carbonlite Rod, they are two of my favorite reels

Thought 2024 was a wrap but I guess 2 last dinks needed catching

FYI ~ In all future correspondence here and until further notice I will be referring to the bait pictured below as The Wiggle Wagon. That is all . . . . A-Jay

Blew my power head in November so new Mercury Fourstroke time

Because here at BR, we are always celebrating. Looking forward to seeing what you get, assuming you get anything. The reports I've been hearing 'bout you mountain boys ain't been good! 😁