Nitrofreak

I finally got to a point in which I had planned out an adventure in the bigger ranks of the bass fishing world, I was going to finally see what all I could learn from the Toyota series when yet again life throws me another curve. Now I am not sure how anything is going to work out but life being what it is you just have to make the best of it, I recently had to make a major career change from the automotive industry to the trucking industry, I just finished my second week of driver training, with this holiday break I finally got to have a chance to sit down and write a couple of sentences about this new venture, boy I gotta say, I did not expect so much effort to be put forward with driving a truck, there is so much more to it than passing your tests and taking a class PHEW !!! My driving tests are scheduled for Dec. 7th but I have one last scheduled fishing day to be spent with my friend on my home lake (Lake Anna) the Saturday before the testing takes place, this is going to be a much needed trip to let everything else go for a day and calm the nerves, I will do my best to post up a report, I don’t know when my next one will be since with this new career will be very time consuming for the next couple of years it seems, maybe with any luck I can gather some seniority sooner than later but that’s not something I am holding my breath over. I hope everyone in my region had quality family time with their loved ones over the holiday and I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving !!! Much love and respect to all of you, keep teaching and keep learning about our beloved sport peeps, I’ll pop in when I can and do my best to keep up with things so that I am not too lost for when I am able to get back… again ??

I like the versatility of the platform, they pretty much changed the industry. EDC to Competition ready without the expense of having to buy multiple firearms and everything in between.

I hope you find happiness with it, it should bring you many years of service and dependability, it’s not a cheap firearm by any means but it’s not expensive either, god bless and glad to hear you have good practices my friend !!

New waters are a great way to hone and develop skills, awesome topic !! I originally thought that if I could just figure out my home lake I should be able to go anywhere and figure out how to have some success... negative ghost rider !!! Sure there are places that map out the same but they can be so very different, it really wasn’t until I started fishing tournaments more seriously that you find out real quick just how different they can be, some places you just would not believe a fish would be you would put 20 pounds in the box (exaggerating on my point but you get it) points and various other structural aspects I like to fish do not fish the same because of bottom content, maybe some cover or some sort of change in composition, I agree wholeheartedly that it forces you to do better with your decision making, it forces you to change speeds, colors, and work through various numbers of techniques. All great exercises for the gray matter to absorb !!!

My CC Is a P320 .45 full size, I’m not a big guy but I am defiantly not a small guy in the same token. As far as why, I am uncertain of the question but I will answer with two parts, I carry because I love the aspect of being able to protect myself and my loved ones, I celebrate my freedoms but also take them seriously, to many have sacrificed themselves for me and my family as American citizens to not take them seriously and exercise them vigorously, all of them, not just this one. As for why I carry a full size .45, one reason is that my hands comfortably conform to a larger size firearm, smaller or compact models just get lost in my grip and I usually end up with slide bites, why the Sig is because it was a more natural sight alignment, it felt like an extension of my arm when I brought to up to fire that first round, I have done a lot of research when I looked around and the one thing that stood out to me was not how big of a hole it makes but it was a matter more so of penetration, the .45 is slower out of the gate (unless your using +P rounds etc...) in training there is a scenario in which you are taught to look through your target because the chances of your round leaving the intended target and hitting a second or possibly even a third is quite plausible with the speed some of these rounds leave the barrel. With the .45 and with the Sig Elite Performance self defense round I feel more at ease knowing the chances of that round leaving my intended target are reduced greatly, not saying that they can’t or won’t, we all know how ballistic arguments go, it’s just a personal decision that I feel much more comfortable with.

I carry a Sig P320 full size .45 everyday, I have close to 19,000 rounds through it now and it’s just starting to show some wear and tear, for instance the slide lock just started not locking when the mag empties, my sight dots are no longer visible (been considering optics lately anyway) and really, out of the 3.5 years I have had it it has never mechanically failed, I can attest to mistakes on my behalf but I can also say that this one does not like mag-tech ammo, it would not go into battery 21 out of the 50 round box. With what this thing has been through I couldn’t be happier with my choice, not saying what you should and should not do here, that is no ones decision but your own, if your at a toss up though, figure out which one is more like an extension of your hand, does one over the other aid in a more natural point of aim, how close the controls are to reach, can you single handedly break one down easier than the other, can you empty, reload, rack and fire one over the other easier using just one hand, these things and others like them matter more than anything else at least to me. In a lot of cases of when it comes to pricing, if I am looking collect it, I’ll pay for the extras, the one thing I would say to ask yourself is, how dependable is it going to be, we all know that quality firearms are not cheap but the dependability of it doing it’s job when it matters most is worth paying good hard earned money for that little extra confidence and peace of mind. This is when she was new ?

There is a lake here on the East coast named Fredrick Lake or Lake Fredrick I cant remember which but, if one wishes to discuss “Fishing Pressure” then this would be an absolute prime candidate for such a discussion, this place is known for its double digit possibilities and if I didn’t know any better I think the whole darn state of Virginia comes here on any given day. I have had success on this body of water but nothing over 5 pounds... yet. I have gone to the extremes with large swim baits, glide baits, as well as the other side of the spectrum, the drop shot is something I am extremely comfortable fishing. I am in no way shape or form denying that fishing pressure does not exist but I am convinced that there is a way to overcome said pressure by doing what others like yourself have spoken on, by the way, that pictured bait is one of my favorites ? I think that if I can put it in a picture, I would lean more toward the “patience” side of fault, if I had to pick a word to describe what I see as fault by anglers when it comes to situations as such then that would be it, I think we have a tendency to fish too fast or not take the time to try and understand what is actually happening and adapt as we should. I am no expert on the matter hence the reason for the post, there is so much knowledge in what you guys put out there for us that it helps incredibly well when we are faced with situations on the water, maybe it is a bust sort of season, that could explain a ton of things that has happened this season, maybe it is something I need to change or maybe it is something I do not, I know with certainty that we have been around the right areas to do so much better than what my partner and I have shown, I believe we just missed out on some of the factors in those areas by just a touch but it wasn’t because of pressure in my honest opinion, it was something else we missed. Your input is valued my friend and I thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts into words, it is something I will defiantly take with me on my next outing.

Nope, no ritual, superstitions, lucky charms or otherwise, looks like your just strange ?? I know plenty of anglers who have those though some are even laughable even in their opinion ?

Makes sense and I hope that works out, we haven’t had anything remotely close to that in the last decade and a half maybe, the more I read yours and Toms post the more it may just be something to that nature, I wonder if the same could be said for a region of lakes and not just singular bodies of water? The tournaments here aren’t the 100+ boat tourneys, maybe 30 at best although our veterans tournaments and special event tournaments do reach that mark but they are once a year type events, I just don’t see it as harmful as some make it out to be, I have struggled there myself even though I know the lake well enough to have success but in the same breath I have not frequented the lake as I should and lost touch with what the fish are doing, I think the same could be said for a lot of those in which I spoke with although I did not pose the question to them.

That is a great way to put it Tom, Thanks for that. So it’s possibly a cycle ? If so then does that mean we could possibly see the next couple/ few years being somewhat the same?

Sorry for not replying sooner peeps, as mentioned to A-Jay I am in the process of remodeling my mother-in-laws kitchen, it was a late night and some of the posts in which I had posted and quoted are incomplete. I have read them all, thank you guys for your input, it’s really interesting as well as educational as usual from the BR peeps. The point is defiantly made that across the country we have seen a rise in numbers, which I too am glad to see more and more getting out and enjoying the outdoors away from their personal electronic devices, (you know, except in cases of which we want to reply to a certain topic ?) it would be interesting data to know the actual percentage of first time anglers during this rise and just how much of an affect, if any, it actually has had on fishing our favorite waters. In my case, what I have noticed since starting this thread is that on my home lake it is the shallow water anglers in which seem to be the ones whom are suggesting that the fishing is harsher than usual, I say this because I took the opportunity to call on roughly 50 of my fellow anglers that fish strictly shallow and 10 who I know with certainty have a tendency to fish both deep and shallow, maybe there is a point in there somewhere that can be made for that scenario in which they feel like they are always fishing behind someone else in that shallow water instance. Tidal waters like here in Virginia or relatively shallow waters as in Florida’s case in which they are expansive while seemingly having the increased pressure from numbers of anglers on the water have a key factor in which it seems to be experience, or, time on the water invested in order to have a greater chance at success, quite possibly we could take or incorporate a lesson from those types of fisheries and apply some of that knowledge and experience to our reservoir experiences to enhance our chances of success, through my conversations with my friends who do fish both it does make sense since they are the more successful group when it comes to cashing checks. On a side note: I do find it odd this season that my tournament partner and I have caught more dink’s this season than in past, we have one 5.95 to our credit and the rest of our limits have all been sub par numbers in which we have barely broken the double digit barrier, several others being in the single digit ranges, with the one exception being the Potomac River here in Virginia, which in turn is also odd because we were fishing our tournament at the same time MLF was fishing theirs, we were fishing close to and around the likes of Casey Ashley all weekend and still managed a pretty decent bag each day, I defiantly agree with a lot of you in that it’s been a weird fishing season as with some suggest, I can not quite put my finger on it either but something just seems a little off in my opinion. Again guys, thanks so much for your thoughts and replies.

Sort of the same here, the all knowing home owners introduced grass carp which in turn ruined the habitat, my home lake is a power plant lake as you know which was phenomenal at one point, I have adapted as well as many others to the changing environment, that’s not to say that I am finding absolution but I am finding key areas in which the bass now travel, some grass has made a comeback and it certainly plays a role in how these fish move, I caught the same fish twice in a years span, it’s tagged so it makes it easy, that same fish before the grass came back was roughly a half mile away the prior years to that point. The tournament weights tell the tale, they haven’t changed in the slightest, during the summer months if you want to place you better have a 20+ bag, in the winter it had best be knocking on that 30 range with consistency for both. Nothing has changed as far as the fish are concerned. I was going to mention that in my post about the shutdowns across the country which has led to a noticeable increase in the outdoor activity all over the nation, in particular our fishing sports, maybe even more in particular bass fishing. Excellent point and thanks for the reply !!

I am in the process of remodeling my mother in laws kitchen when the notification beeped in, I had no idea this thread would take off like it did and is, I am looking forward to reading it all tonight and soaking up some of this BR knowledge. Thanks @A-Jay

That’s a good point, that is one question I had posed to my friend which had to do with tournament weights, on average it’s roughly a steady total, about 20 pounds is what it’s taking to have a decent shot at placing in the top 5 even with the increases of traffic, I think it’s more of not getting in the habit of getting around those obstacles as we should be.