Mattlures

Hunting. Thats why I would move there

Pretty cool that you shared this and can laugh at yourself. Gotta give you props!

My 3 biggest bags were a combined effort by myself and a friend. I am not even sure what my own personal 5 fish would be. Probably only 35lbs.

No disrespect meant at all. I was guessing she might be your daughter but I didnt say anything just incase she was your wife. Man having beautiful daughters must be verry stressful!! I have a 3 year old little girl and I am not looking forward to when she starts liking the boys. As for your mounts, I have seen bass with those colors. Bass come in many different shades from almost all silver to blck to bright green and everything inbetween. I see nothing wrong with the coloration of your mounts. If anybody is looking for world class work check out Lyon's and Ohaver's or Robert's fish mounts. They are about as good as they get but they cost a little more. Of course IMO they are worth it.

El Grande I looked at your picture but I dont see the fish? Oh wait I had to come back and edit my post. After staring at the pic for a couple more minutes I started to see some fish shapes in the back ground. I had to focuss realy hard and your right. There are fish in the pictures!!

Their work looks good. Not world class or competition winning good but respectable. When you consider the price I like thier product. I feel your getting a good value. You can definatly find better taxidermists but I highly doubt you will find much better at those prices. Also I have seen ALOT worse at higher cost. The one downside I have heard about them is thier mounts are generic. Meaning thepaint jobs all look the same and they dont realy match your fishes exact markings. Now in reality most taxidermists dont do a very good job of matching individual fish either. This does not mean that the mounts look bad at all. If I was on a budget I wouldnt have a problem with the Bass pro mounts.

This year a friend and I had 3 giant sacks just fun fishin. Each time I caught only two of the fish and each time they were the 2 biggest. The biggest sack was roughly around 60lbs. To be honest I dont remember the exact weights of ALL the fish we got in those 3 trips here is a pic of the 4 biggest fish in our "middle" sack. These four went a little over 40lbs and the fith fish would have put it around 46lbs but I couldnt hold 5 fish at a time. I was doing a "mad" face for fun. Aslo we had planned on taking a big group photo in advance. We had one of those giant coolers rigged with an areator and a pump that was pumping in fresh lake water the whole time. the cooler/livewell has an overflow hose and the fish were all very strong and healthy when released. I am standing on the cooler for the pic trying to hide the background. However there is still just enough background in the pick to recognize the lake so I had to white it out. Sorry if this bothers some of you. Fourbiz I sent you a PM

Not even close the Okuma wins hands down. The higher end Okuma spinning reels are better then Shimanos or Diawas around the same price. Actuly you have to go well over the Okuma price range to get a better reel from Shimano or Diawa. Now this is only for the higher end Okuma spinning reels starting with the Epixor. I havent used any lesser models then the epixors. I have about 5 of them and I use them in saltwater and have caught hundreds of salty bass and abussed the reels and they are still smooth and strong.

Paul I get a high just from seeing your pics especialy knowing you actualy litsen to tips and advise. You dont know how many times I get asked questions and then they dont litsen to the answer. That is one of the disantvantages to being a bait maker. Guys think your trying to sell them something instead of trying to help them. It seems people just want the big"magic secret". It just isnt that simple. I have gone to seminars from guys like Mike Long and John Kerr and You can just tell that most of the info isnt being retained. It is very hard for sombody to relearn how do things. You are a quick study

Cory I am playing with a lot of cool stuff right now I cant argue with Fourbizz. He is correct. Now I am judging the baits based at what I saw at Icast. If you throw reputation into the mix, well........... Of course I would think Castiac wouldnt make the same mistake twice. Again I just felt it LOOKED a little better but there is no way of knowing how any of the baits will handle abuse untill they have been tested and fished hard. We will just have to see. the cosmetics were actualy verry close between the Castaic and the TT.

You guys should also look at the Castaic rock hard 4in shad. I saw all the baits in person and I thought the Castaic looked the best. They were all fairly close. The action seems to be about the same and as far as the actual fish carving goes the Castaic and the TT look much more realistic. When I saw them in person I thought the castic had a slightly better paint job then the TT. Of course I have no way of knowing if all the baits are built equaly as durable but on the surface I think the Castaic edges out the TT

Marc well put. I agree. Like I siad before, the money will have to be earned by the angler after the catch.

I have read articles that have tracked released tourny bass and some travled over a mile to go back"home". Either way the LMB is pretty adaptive so it aint just going to die. I am prety sure they will be fine.

I agree that we have some stupid laws but you are exagerating. First nobody tells us how we can set our thermostats,lol. They may encourage us to use less energy but thats about it. And the reason for not being able to transport live fish is so people cant move them from lake to lake.Moving species can realy screw things up. I have never been checked by a ranger looking to see if I killed my fish before leaving a lake. But If I caught the WRB and took it home alive you could bet the F&G would ticket me and that could possiblt jepardize the the acceptance of the record. As for the fish being released, thats a personal descion. Some guys would release it after it was verrified and wittnessed by enough credible people and photod a thousand times. I personaly feel I would keep the fish. Not because of ego but becuase it would validate the record to be able to have the dead fish on hand. If possible I would want to put it in a bass pro aquarium. Not even for the money. I just think it would be cool. As for Avid not getting it, Well it seems he is the one who is hung up on the record not me. I dont make it a CA vs GA of FL thing. I dont realy care. I have said it already the IGFA says its the record and I accept it. What part dont you guys understand? There are certain FACTS about the record that have always bothered me. not opinions and not feelings but facts. #1 there is no picture of George and the fish. #2 Nobody has ever found Jack Page to interview him or validate him as a wittnesIt basicaly comes down to Perry himself and the guy at the post office. Thats it. Thats all. These are HUGE these are not just minor things that didnt matter back in 1932. Am I not intitled to my doubts? Give me a break! I can list many other things that dont add up and make a verry strong case against the record but at the end of the day I cant prove he didnt catch the fish. Like I siad before I dont know what I believe but I do accept Perry's 22.4 bass as the record. Soo AVID YOU GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!! PS. This is just a debate so dont take it personal. I am not excited or upset over this at all. just a discusion.

The IGFA would want more specific info but you might be able to keep it confidential, maybe. In CA. you can not legaly transport a live gamefish with out a permit so its just not that easy even if you are preparred. I would call the DFG first. Basspro 2nd and my lawyer 3rd. I think the RIGHT person could make a good chunk of change. I think an average person would make very little. and certainly not a million bucks. What most people fail to realize is you would have to EARN the money after you catch the fish becuase nobody is just going to give it to you.

Yes Avid its marketing. Of course it is, and stren would sell some line if the WRB was caught with it. But there sales wouldnt jump by a mil and I gaurantee you they wouldnt come running with tons of money to throw at the guy who caught the fish. First all you have to list the equipment you use on your record aplication. The angler doesnt even need to endorse the product. Stren(or any other brand) could run the adds with out the angler and not need him. This would also be leverage for the product companies to give only a little compensation to get the guy to do the adds. Look Avid I am not disagreeing with you about Perry's record. The record is Perry's. I cant prove that he didnt catch it. I also accept it as the record weather I believe it or not. I can honestly say, I dont know if I believe it or not. I am 50/50. The point is when the IGFA started keeping records, they accepted some of the prvious records that were already in place and those records needed very little proof to be accepted. The fish would not have been accepted had it been caught after the IGFA was in place. Now again I am not disagreeing with you. Perry did what he was suppossed to do to verify his fish back then. He did nothing wrong by eating the fish. Thats what people did back then. There are a bunch of things that just dont seem legit that gives me doubts but I dont realy care about it anymore as I DO accept it as the mark to beat. We all know we gotta beat 22.4. I aint whining about I am just calling it EXACTY how it is. as for for Cali growing the record Ha ha now thats Cali *** and whinning if I have every heard it!!!!!!!!! Ha Ha ha. Also to answer the questions could sombody grow the fish and then catch it and submit it? They could submit the paperwork but it would get rejected. The IGFA has strict rulls about legitamately catching a record fish. They would lose all credibility if they accepted a tank raised fish and they know it. It aint gonna happen!

Yes John is a monster fisherman. He fishes western tours and always wins aoy. Funny thing is, Mike Long is his high school buddy and they fish one of tours as partners. They win every single year.

Avid I am on the fence about Perry's fish being legit but your comparison holds NO WATER! its not even close. You can see film of Lewis. His fisghts are documented. The Perry fish has almost no real proof. That doesnt mean he didnt catch it, it just means there is no way to prove he caught it. If that picture that showed up would have been Perry himself then that would have been enough to reasonably prove it. All there is, is his story and and a signed aplication for the field and stream contest by I believe 1(possibly Jack Page also) person the, post office guy. That is verrrrry little proof. Did he catch the WRB. he just very well might have but I doubt anybody thats still living will ever know for sure

The fish is worth nothing. What you do about it will make you a little. Unless your a big named pro I highly doubt you make anyware near a million. Why would sombody pay you? Are you going to use stren line because the guy who caught the fish did? Yeah youl most likely get some money for advertising and some sponsores but I think Most people are just fantasizing about a fish being worth that much. The only way I see a big payday is if you were able to get the fish into a bass pro aquarium. Now they would make tons of money from people coming to see the fish and you would get some of it, if you were smart. As for the history of the million dollar fish WRB is close but a little mixed up. The World Record bass club had a bounty of 1 mil for any member who caught the WRB. Each year they would pay out 25 grand to who ever caught the biggest bass of that year . I believ Mike Long won that prize 3 or 4 times out of the 5 years. When Dottie was caught the 2nd time by Dickerson, the fish was eledgedly over the record when first weighed but by the time the Fish and game arived the fish had dumped some eggs and lost some weight. The fish was then released. Well Loyds of london who insured the grand prize for teh WRB found out about this fish that had already been caught twice and they would not reniew the policy. Mike Long reported the fish dead in hopes that the the world record bass club would continue but it didnt work. At the time the bounty was up to 7 mil. Also Crupie did weigh his fish on a certified scale with wittnesses. The only reason he does not have the officail state record is becuase he didnt wait for a fish and game biologist to officialy identify the fish as a large mouth bass. Crupi's bass is recognized by the IGFA. I bleive that right now there are NO BASS alive that are over 23lbs. Now come winter there are a few that will put on weight and get close. then by the time they are all fatted out with eggs acouple will be bigger then perry's fish. There is a verry small window of a couple years for a fish to reach potential size and even a smaller window of a month or two for a fish to be at its heaviest. I know of 1 lake that has a couple of these fish and a few more lakes that are getting closer. also I highly doubt anybody will fraud there way into the world record. the IGFA can make them take a lie detector test.

I gotta couple of friends in that doing very well. John Kerr is in 2nd after day 2 and Byron isint that far back. I am realy pulling for John!!

I woulg geuss 300-500 per gallon

Mrs. Matstone you are absolutley right. I should have thrown the shad. I was soo set on using the anaconda that I never changed my bait. Plus I was having fun playing with the coon I kinda forgot about the fishing.

Good to have you back and awsome fish!

Ok so I just had to try these things. They look too good in the water to not get bit so I headed out to a little pond. It was around 11 at night and the pond was coverd with weeds wich sucked. I was fishing for about 1/2 hour when I heard somethin messing with my back pack. It was a coon. This guy was reaching in and trying to get my Rage condas. So I walked over(about 10 steps) and zipped up my pack and went back to fishing. He came right back and started pulling at my pack agian. I reeled in and poked him with my rod and he grabbed my worm and took off. Thankfully he didnt get hooked but he ate my Anaconda. He kept hanging around me and I did get a small fish so I threw the little bass to him and he devoured it. I know I could have caught a ton of fish but the pond was soo full of weeds I couldnt get throught them. I was lucky to even get the bait close enough to fish. I wish I would have taken picks of the coon, he was cool. Next time I go out I will take some pics. That coon sure liked the smell of the Rage a condas.

Thanks for posting Paul. Yes braid will cut a soft bait like butter. Swimbaits are bigger and heavier and create leverage . If a fish is thrashing about and the bait hits the braid its goint to cut it. Notice the clean cut on the tail. Same thing if your fishing a large Senko. I hate braid. Some preferr it but I cant stand the way it fishes. To each thier own. But with big softbaits, its a no no. Paul if you retreived the tail you could fix just about anything with Mend it. not superglue.