flyphisher #

Nice. checks at that level aint easy to come buy. And getting backseated is worst part about fishing with someone who needs the money to pay bills. Pat lives near me.I have fished againest him alot. He is a great guy and a great fisherman. Just had a couple of rough years here recently. Glad to hear he's moving back up the ladder. Alot of the tournaments i fish, most the guys from GA that fish the strens are at. Mike cleveland,kip carter,tony couch, Pat, jim murray jr, tom hamlin and a few others. Feels real good to beat them, too.

I quit when i got out of college. Had some interesting days on the 26 acre lake i lived on, to say the least.

Late spring- early summer here, you can catch them with a popping cork with a 2 or 3 foot leader with a pencil popper at the end. Works well. I caught a 9-10lber last year on a bone colored lipless crankbait.

They will kill a spinnerbait during the spring. If you are supposed to kill them, do it... The other fish will thank you.

thanks. cant beat that. I knew it rated over but that it unreal for the diameter, handling and lack of stretch. :

People would cheat and even if they didnt other anglers would be to worried about other anglers cheating to go along with that type competition. Too compilcated, cost intensive. These are only bass. they are not endangered or even threatened. The tournament die-off is miniscule compared to how many fish are in the lake. Loss of habitat and habitat quality would be biggest concern. Look at all the conservation activites Bass and the bass clubs and all do.Anti-tournament crowd always leaves that out. Just want others to think tournaments kill fish/ do harm...Laughable, like anti-gun/peta crowd propaganda.... If people would stop whining about tournaments and put that effort into conservation of habitat etc. we would all be better off.

I didnt call them mid-tier. Unless something catastrophic happens I will have my chance to be "mid-tier" in the future. I know how many people are also trying to do it. I am not ignorant about this nor am I a 14-16yr old daydreaming about winning the classic. Thanks for trying to get me banned.

When its cloudy and the water is muddy, especially springtime(pre-spawn). Have had fish almost yank the rod out of my hand fishing sb's with a small orange colorado in front of a white willow leaf, and a small orange in front of a large gold or copper colorado blade. Been on this pattern the last 2 yrs. Will catch pigs.

Pfluger trion rods are great for the money too. Nicest $30 rod I have ever seen new, when you can find them. I use 7' med./fast for shallow cranks and topwater(except buzzbaits).

Anyone know how strong 15lb P-line CX really is? Or know how i can figure it out myself? Any idea how far over the rating the other lb test Cx are? Just curious. To me it seem the 15 is way more managable than the 17 and 20lb. I know i should use cajun redline or Yo-zuri hybrid ultra soft if i want to catch fish : but honestly i dont like either...

I knew someone would say was i was making this up. : Dont argue with me, argue with Bassmaster magazine.Those figures are for total sponsorship dollars...that is where those numbers come from. They do make cash for doing alot of seminars and other public appearance that pay as much as $5000 a day. Entry fees for elites series - $5500 per event, $55,000 for season. Ike was recieving $400,000 a yr. just from Ranger before he was dropped. John Crews only got $63,600 total sponsor money in 06 w/ very little sponsorship. Skeet Reese has won $800,000 in 9 years pro, even more with his finishs this year since publication of this article...more numbers to play with. So yeah I want to be a mediocre/mid-tier bass pro, sounds like it would beat the hell out of what i am doing now.

I know there will be some saying this is going say this is bovine excrement, but these numbers are coming straight from bassmaster magazine article. Actually according to Bassmasters 07 pro guide. Quinn actually gets $400,000 a year. They could not list what came from who, for the obvious reasons, those figures are confidental. The top guys in 2006 are Skeet Reese $600,000, Gearld Swindle $515,000, VanDam $500,000, Quinn $400,000,Iaconelli $370,000, and Marty Stone $320,000. yearly. These are just the figures for B.A.S.S. Speaking of a wife w/ a good job, Greg Hackney readily gives alot of the credit for his success to his wife who is a veternarinan, says that allows him to fish alot more relaxed. I fish againest alot of guys that stay in GA and fish the best paying smaller events and make a living w/ a little guiding thrown in. If you are consistent w/o many bills and there are enough tournaments in your area, you can win pretty good money.

LC gunfish Buzzbait Soft plastic frog Although no other topwater catches bass like a #6 chartruese sneaky pete on a flyrod. Problem is none of the tournament trails here allow use of flyrods.

Those mid-tier guys are doing alot better than we will ever know. THey dont want anyone to know what they make because we would be suprised. Jason Quinn makes $300,000 a year on sponsorship, and he hasnt won a tour level even yet. If you qualify for the elite series, there are sponsors waiting to help you..think about how many people see those wrapped boats to and from tournaments....

Pop-R from distance.

In a minute. Being a pro would beat guideing which aint bad. With a little luck, My goal is to fish bassmaster opens in the next 5 years and see if i can manage to qualify for the elites. If only to do it one year.Then invest money in someone that obtains sponsors for people, like alot of pros do now. No kids, no serious gf, no problems.

What Avid and Justfishin said. Plus....It helps to use a 6'8" to 7' heavy or extra heavy rod. Lighter the better, most light rods like this will also be really sensitive. Also using 30-50 lb braid helps out a lot when your learning. Use heavier jigs too until you get the hang of it, 3/8th is about as light to go while learning. Another thing that helped me is casting the jig out past targets and retrieve it on a tight line. Use them everywhere you would fish soft plastic. just like a T-rig. The rest will come to you by time on the water.

I have caught the most fish with Zoom craws. I like the Ultravibe speed craw and the lil critter craw on a C-rig alot. Good flipping baits too.The Lil critter is awesome on small jigs too. Check out the new Super speed craw, its got bigger claws thant the ultra-vibe. . Preston CLarke won the Elite series even at Santee Cooper last year w/ a t-rigged big critter claw sight fished.

Only way I could find them,Google XPS swimbaits.The links you need to see will pop-up. Basspro did make them.I heard they stopped. But i did find some on clearance. The 4.5" are supposed to be good. Fred Roumbanis supposedly used them alot last year in his 2nd place at Lake Amistad in the BASS elite series. I just ordered some but they havent came in yet. they look like an osprey i think. I would try these before I tried the Storms. Some of the first storms(3 or 4 years ago at least) were ok except for the thin tails. Tails got bite off alot of them by small fish.

I dont know about the Garlic but the baitfish Yum spray does work. It actually permeates the plastic bait just like smelly jelly tends to do, Its just not as strong. I have seen many times days that the fish wont bite the worm without some sort of scent. The WBT champion isnt sponsored by Preperation-H, yet she uses it as an attractant religiously. Its got fish oils in it. Those of you that disagree with scent use so passionately will say I am wrong :. Yet fishing an average of 200 days a year or more the last 5 or 6 years, I think I have learned alot about fish biting and why. Doesnt matter what you post on here, someone will say it doesnt work, etc.....

Google Survival Optics Sunglasses(SOS), I think they make shades for law enforcement and shooters. I bought a pair of the Thrashers and have been really pleased. High quality materials at a low price. PLus they have alot of specials and they are located in Florida.

T-rigged Zoom Ol Monster worm w/ a 1/4oz. weight. Either junebug/red or green pumpkin

Other than looking like a terrorists if you ever get pulled over and searched, I would think making little tubes out of pvc pipe with caps on the ends would work great, label them and put them in a gym bag or something to keep them from rolling around. Saw Mike Long on Hank Parker a couple weeks ago. Long was showing him alot of his swimbaits. He had them in clear pipes with plugs on the end. Which gave me the idea.

I would think unless the lizard gave off some sort of odor or some other trigger, that a bass wouldnt have anyway of knowing he ate the poison one before it was too late. Think you are right about the #'s of them, making bass lose interest. I have seen this not only with bass but also trout on A.O.,C&R streams. I have seen many big hatches that will make even the wisest trout feed with abandon yet he will not eat your fly that is presented perfect and is a prefect imitation of the insects hatching. Then tie on something a little bigger, flashier, or looks a little different, he kills it. Same with the 10000 1inch shad and bass. Lots of time the biggest fish is going to eat the biggest or the shad/bait that stands out. Try a red lizard....they might not hit it either, or you might get your arm broke.

Only ones i have seen are orange-brown color, understandable with all the red clay banks. GA