J Francho

I have plenty to keep me busy.

The rabbit goes around the hole three times, jumps in, does a right turn, then about face.....wait what?

Fast taper rods. I much prefer an X-fast taper. There's only a few things I like a fast rod for, like traps and squarebills. Anything else, I prefer a much slower taper, or a very fast taper. Fast just doesn't feel good to me anymore.

I'm waiting for the day when you don't even need to fish a tournament to be a pro. Look at action sports like skateboarding. It's more about their social media presence than results. I've watched that shift over the past 10 years or so. If you're reasonably good at photography, a little bit clever, and build a large following, companies will pay. Mark my words.

Same rod I like for traps - 7' M/F. Currently using a SC LTB Teaser for many years. This rod can do MANY other things. You might already have something already. It's something I'd pick out a dedicated rig for.

I follow Rad Rat. I especially like Ask Rad Rat and the Retro Rippers episodes. This has nothing to do with fishing, but it's what I've been watching lately.

Well, that was the VIP surcharge. I would pay extra for my tires, and make sure the tires are mounted with the white letters showing.

I sold both my red and yellow mod'ed Pixies for a pretty sweet profit. They were very nice reels.

I don't get any sun in the back seat of my limo. But seriously, I have two spots that are being watched by my docs - one on my nose, and one on my back. So far so good.

Correct, in fact, it takes quite a bit of fuss to bring a Pixy up to bass "snuff." There are many Pixzillas out there, with upgrades to drags, spool, line guide, etc. to make it suitable for bass fishing.

I've seen it happen a lot, especially at the club level. Absolute n00bz become very skilled in just a season or two. It's cool to watch it click with them, and see their personal style develop. Never mind you're out there fishing

Make sure your rods and reels are the same brand as your jersey. Also, make sure you bring extra jerseys for IG pics so you can keep current on your coupon codes, lol.

It evolved from MagForce, to Mag V and Mag Z (predate the term "BFS" by over a decade), now SV and retrofitted to what is called BFS. I was asking about examples that worked in the opposite direction, where some tech appeared in BFS gear, and then mainstream gear.

The steelhead catch is interesting. I've always found that if they get a close look at whatever you're fishing, they won't bite it. Once in a while they slurp it up.

My answer was for bladed vibration baits. For Silver Buddy, I use a whatever cranking stick is right for the weight.

I do the same with a Mini Slammer.

Better?

I diverted revenue from my reel cleaning business into tournament expenses. I didn't go nearly as far as you, but they were quickly approaching five figures. Never mind I had two boats, lol. I didn't really care about winning, and I had fun. Towards the end, I did get picky about where I'd fish, and only picked places I either wanted to fish or stood a decent chance of winning. The practice and pre-fishing were the big time burglars, and I feel like I missed a few opportunities to fish with friends simply because I was already booked up. I did meet a ton of great people through it, though. I don't really regret it at all. Given more time, I'd do more, though they'd all be team format these days.

Do have any examples?

This stinks.

I used to fish them a lot, but it got too expensive/time consuming/didn't do well so I don't anymore.

I've always gone a little higher end on crankers because I want SMOOTH and QUIET. In the past, that has been Daiwa Alphas style reels, right now they are a couple Chronarch E and a hand tuned Pimmus. For square bills, I buck the trend and use a bit higher gear ratio than other lipped baits.

I bet my plastics inventory is similar to yours. I use three 30 gal. totes to store the "miscellaneous debris" that isn't in regular rotation. They fit on the floor under the shelves. There's baits that are pushing a decade old now. I go into them every few trips for something different.

I try to lower the odds. I'm not wasting my precious time on the water frothing up a creek for a dinky trout, nor am I bringing knife to a gun fight. None of what's been discussed is what I'd consider UL fishing. I've done quite a bit of for crappie and panfish before they opened bass fishing year round. 1/8 oz. would be considered a cinder block in that realm. I'm bent on lowering my frustration, disappointment, and doing things that ensure success. If I had nothing but small creeks loaded with hundreds of smallies, heck yeah I think a BFS rig makes perfect sense, and would probably increase the catches for sure. It's an interesting topic for sure, but I think it gets employed in the wrong place sometimes.