NorcalBassin

Congratulations!!!

Glad to hear they hooked you up with a specialist PT. It's amazing what a vestibular trained therapist can do for people in just a few minutes when their world is literally spinning. Glad you're doing better and hopefully that was the last time you have to deal with it.

Might be worth a shot to downsize quite a bit (small underspin with a 2.8 keitech, Ned, drop shot, etc) or even throw a wacky rigged senko if they're in the top 15 feet or a neko if they're deeper.

Slow day with low numbers and nothing over 2lbs, but on the bright side the only thing they seemed interested in hitting was topwater.

Been eyeing this new swimbait (Davinci) for a while and after seeing some videos of its action I finally broke down figuring it's something most of the big girls haven't seen yet.

Great to hear you're back home and they're putting the pieces together to get you taken care of. Best of luck on Tuesday being quick and painless followed by some good news.

Congrats on getting close to finishing up med school and best of luck with the boards (not that you need it!). If you've ever considered settling down in Northern CA to live and practice near some of the best bass waters in the country let me know... could hook you up with a sweet deal as a new doc.

I have the HG paired up with an 894 for my jig rod and absolutely love it. Super smooth and as others have said it just feels solid. If I didn't already have more reels than I know what to do with I'd definitely pick up another for the 893.

If you want to wear it and it's as comfortable as you say go for it. Like Blue said it can look a little silly, but being a young college fisherman wearing the team jersey will likely be better received and lead to some positive conversations on the water or at the ramp as opposed to if someone was 40+ wearing a jersey and fishing out of their Ranger Z521 Comanche.

Starting to make us a little nervous that you haven't been back on here since you posted this. Thoughts and prayers everything is okay and you've just been busy the past couple days.

Back when I worked 4x10's I had years with Mondays off and others with Fridays, and IME Fridays were definitely better. I assumed it was because they had more time to recover from the weekend fishing pressure and pleasure boaters, but it could have also just been in my head.

Wow, that had to be a terrible and stressful surprise. Hopefully it's "just" something like Bell's Palsy that will run its course and you'll be back to normal before you know it.

The Dobyns Champion 765 I've had for years has been very nice but more recently I find myself leaning towards using the '19 Levante EMTF or Curado 7'8" MH crankbait rod. I've been eyeing that 906 for a while but just can't talk myself into needing another crankbait rod, and Matt Allen seems to love that 7'6" Zodias… you're not going to lose with any of these or the other recommendations already mentioned.

After hearing Tom (WRB) vouch for Iovino baits the past few years I finally broke down and bought some jumbo packs. Also looking forward to trying the small Bull Shads and Uoze underpsin swim jigs.

Catch a DD on a swimbait.

Murphy, the Golden in my avatar, passed away this summer after a great 12 years. We felt bad for our Saint Bernard only having a couple faux dogs (Yorkies) to "play" with, so we ended up adopting an even bigger Saint. They've hit it off even better than we could have imagined, and here's the happy new couple playing the laziest game of tug of war while I was cleaning the shop earlier.

Best of luck with the surgeries and you'll be feeling good as new before you know it. As has been said, as long as you push yourself with your stretching to get your range of motion back and strengthening to get your quads back you'll be ready for as much fishing as you'd like to do this spring.

Made it out 2 days in a row and on a different lake this time. Numbers were up but it was a pretty entertaining dinkfest for pops. A couple of the better ones

No doubt about that. Since CDFW stopped planting trout in the lake a few years ago the kokes have definitely helped keep the bass healthy and on the bigger side. They're allegedly going to start trout plants back up again in 2 years... could be the best of both worlds for big spots and LM.

After a couple months of work and life getting in the way of fishing I was able to take a wellness day off from work to take my dad out. Was by no means hot but still caught a few with pops picking up a nice spot. Really looking forward to the fall transition and getting out a lot more.

Looks really good! Thanks for laying out your process and adding in pics for each phase. I just noticed a couple of my nicer rods are losing some of their cork/filler, so I'll probably be copying you when I clean things up this winter.

I picked up some Eye Surrenders last year based on TB's recommendations, and I've been really happy with them. I wear Costas most of the time, but I picked up the ESE's in amber since my Costas don't do well in early/late light. Can't beat Costas but the ESE's are a nice option at a fraction of the cost.

I have a few Loomis rods across their lineup and you made a fine choice. The IMX Pro is a nice step up from the prior generation IMX, and it's more important to have a quality rod you're comfortable fishing with (IMX) than a little higher quality rod you're uncomfortable fishing with (GLX).

When I got back into fishing about 15 years ago I asked my dad what a good reel was at the time. He said pretty much any Shimano, and as I transitioned from getting whatever Wal-Mart had to a carried away enthusiast the past 10+ years I've never had a reason not to stick with Shimano.

It's crazy how many of our experiences are different. I use fluoro with a palomar knot for all of my fishing except for frogs, swimbaits, and topwaters and cannot recall losing any fish due to a line or knot failure. I probably keep my drag a little looser than most since I tend to fish light lines, so maybe that's why I've been seemingly lucky in my experience.