JT Bagwell

I just bought some military style backpacks off Amazon and put some plano boxes in them. They are fairly inexpensive and I have different colored backpacks with different tackle in them hanging in my garage. So if I am taking my kids smallmouth fishing at the little river by our house, I grab the OD Green bag. If we are going to a little private lake to fish out of a jon boat, I grab the black one, etc. I added them to my Amazon page so you can see them faster. BagwellFishing Amazon page

haha I just asked you this in another post. The only 2 rumors that I have heard were Birmingham and Lake Mead but Mead seemed to be more wishful thinking than anything. B'ham is probably where my money would be as of today.

hahahahaha That is one of the best responses that I have EVER seen on here. That one had me laughing. That is my oldest kid. He is taking a little break from electronics (aka he's grounded) so that is why he can't reply this week.

Hahaha Yep that's him. I knew he created a profile but the last thing he told me was that he couldn't figure it out on his Kindle so apparently he used his laptop. But yes, that is my oldest kid, he is 12 and my youngest (Lance) is 8 and he is also a fish head. For sure! I remember some of the kids that were on here way back in the day when I first came onboard and now they are like 30 years old. It was great to finally meet you and your wife in person after all of these years. I am already thinking about going next year. Have you heard any rumors to where it might be? So far I have heard Birmingham and Lake Mead.

Yesterday after my kids got out of school, I took them fishing, FINALLY. We just recently got rid of the ice on the lakes. So anyway, my 12 year old caught the first fish of the trip on a spinnerbait. After he released the fish, he started telling me about the technique he was using as the bait moved along the tree in the water. I said oh, that's pretty cool. He replied and said yeah I learned that from BassResource.com by reading some old article. So for those of you that stay positive on here and provide valuable content, I thank you. You are helping the sport grow and helping kids catch more fish whether you realize it or not. JT

I am following what you are saying based on the information that you have. They just haven't released the rest of the tournament dates/locations. For some reason they are just releasing them one at a time, which I find a little odd.

I don't know that I have a max wind speed that I will fish in. For me it boils down to safety and whether or not I have areas that I can actually fish in the wind. For example, if it's blowing 50 mph but I can get my boat in and out safely and I have some coves, bays or other areas that are not directly in the wind, I will fish. But if there is a case where it is only blowing 20 or 30 mph but the ramp is exposed to the wind making it dangerous to get in or out and I don't have any protected areas, then I likely won't fish. The most important thing is to just be safe. There is no sense destroying your boat or losing your life just to catch a few more fish. I won a tournament years ago fishing in wind that was so strong and constant for so long that it started to make my ears hurt. I had to put a hoodie on and pull the hood up, even though it was 75 or 80 degrees out, just to protect my ears.

My kid (he's 12) was really excited to meet the pros and get them all to sign his new Bassmaster hat (he just bought his own membership). Nearly all of the guys were really friendly to him. Several of them even gave him free hats, baits, shirts, etc. Even though he made sure to stand back if they were talking to someone and say please, a few gave him this look that kind of rubbed me the wrong way, like why are you bothering me kid. There was one old school tv angler that gave him a big excuse about how he had to get to a booth and was late so he couldn't sign his hat. In the time he spent giving the excuse, he could have signed hats for 5 kids but mine was the only one there. So Luke awkwardly walked away without the autograph. My bud Hank Parker was great to Luke. He was getting moved from the Berkley booth to the Toyota booth and he saw Luke standing there. So he took him by the arm and said come on buddy we are going this way and took Luke with him. The coolest thing about that, is Hank turned Pro the year I was born and was my fishing hero as a kid. Since then I have spent several hours with him and to see him treat my kid like that is really special to me.

Glenn, I was thinking that exact same thing about the "record attendance" today. Since our hotel was right across the street, Luke and I went to our room a few times per day to drop off all of his loot. Hell we were probably counted 28 times trying to locate you by the Dick's Sporting Goods booth in the other building. LOL (little inside joke courtesy of Glenn forgetting where he was) My biggest regret was that I didn't keep Luke out of school and just come home Monday instead of 6am Sunday. We rushed around a lot and I missed seeing several people that I really wanted to get together with.

I do stuff like this pretty regularly but I never give it much thought because I have an overabundance of fishing tackle. One time that did make me laugh though, I was fishing in a cove and another boat wasn't far away. They weren't catching anything and I was smashing them on a crankbait, fishing water that they had just covered. One of the guys started asking me some questions about the bait, etc. So I tell the guy to watch out because I was going to cast my bait into his boat so he could look at it. I do a nice little roll cast and lay it up on the deck. He exams it for a few seconds and says that he doesn't have any that looked like mine. So I told him to just cut mine off and keep it because I had more. He was really hesitant at first but then I showed him that I had plenty and it was no big deal. I have no clue if he ended up catching anything on the crankbait or not but he was really surprised that I did that for him.

I live in Northern, Illinois and our roads are destroyed. The Public Works directors are saying it is likely the worst it has ever been because of this winter's weather.

I can tell you that when I was a teenager, who used a bait was really important to me. I bought so many baits because Rick Clunn and Hank Parker used them, so they had to be awesome. Once I was older and understood the marketing game, all of that went out the window. What I will say now that I have been doing things in the Bass Fishing industry, in one way or another for 20 years, is I look more at the type of bait, the color of bait and the technique being used and go from there. I don't care who is using what. If I hear Ike say I am using XYZ jerkbait in this weight, in this color, in this water temp and here is why. Then I will go to my tackle and see if I have something similar to replicate that or get some from my sponsor that fit the same specifications. I am not going to just go buy the exact model that he mentioned.

Are you sponsored by Yamamoto? I have personally been sponsored by them for almost 20 years but I still have some sporadic other soft plastics in my boat. Just stuff that GYCB doesn't make like 16" worms and stuff like that.

I am sure we will just hang out for a little while and have a good time catching up with everyone and maybe talking fishing with some customers. We are both really looking forward to it.

I found out Yamamoto will in fact have a booth and I will be there at some point but I am not sure when or for how long.

They were good baits. I have no clue why they stopped making them.

I don't think they will have a booth but I am not going to work at all. I might stop and chat at certain booths but I am taking my 12 year old for some Luke and Daddy time before he is all grown up. Because time flies.

Are you talking about the G Splash baits? If so, those were great baits.

I remember how silent the theater was at then end of the movie. Then after I had already went and watched it with my wife, my step-daughter asked if I would take her. I thought it was a little rough for a girl her age but she stated that she had already read the book. I said you "read" the book or you took a picture with the book and put it on Instagram? After I quizzed her and she got all of the answers right, I dropped another $50 and took her to the theater to watch.

I surprised my 12 year old with a trip to the classic in Knoxville. He is so pumped up that it's all he has been talking about for 2 days. We are flying in at noon on Friday and flying home early Sunday morning. Our hotel will be the Tennessean which appears to be right across the street from the expo. It would be cool to meet some of the people from BassResource since I have been a member here since the ice age.

Wow you broke out an old school thread. I was just a young buck when I made that post. Maybe since we are breaking out old stuff, Glenn can break out a screen shot of what the original boards looked like when me, Fluke, Triton Mike, Ed Bassmaster and some of the other old dogs first joined.

I am really curious how this plays out. I had been sponsored by Pflueger (reels) and All Star (rods) for many years prior to them getting bought out by Pure Fishing. Once the buyout occurred a guy from PF told me that his budget was almost nothing and to please give him 1 year and he would take care of me. I had been with them long enough that I could afford to give them a year. Well the next year that guy didn't even work there anymore and I was out the door. Hopefully it works out for the company, the employees, the anglers and the industry as a whole.

As many others have said, keeping the core warm is key. Don't wear cotton t-shirts because they hold moisture and wear wool socks. I live in Northern, Illinois and what I do to keep my hands warm, is I dry them with a towel frequently and I take breaks a lot to put my hands in my coat pockets where I have hand warmers.

This year I am just a little more thankful. Besides all of the normal stuff to be thankful for, Wife, kids, family, job, health and giant Bass, this year I am Thankful that this spring my wife bought me an Ancestry DNA kit for my birthday. We kept seeing the commercials and I was always kind of half jokingly telling her that I wanted one. Little did I know, that this thing would change my life in a great way. Besides telling me that I was 2/3 English and 1/3 Irish, it also matches you with other people that have taken the test that share DNA with you (I didn't even know it did this when I sent it in). It linked me with some people that I had never met but were closely related to me. Because of this, I was able to get in contact with a few people that helped me track down my little sister that I had given up on trying to find 20+ years ago, when I didn't have the internet and people were not very cooperative. Our dad passed away when we were little kids. I found a guy that I knew was linked to my dad's side of the family but had never spoken to before. After a brief quiz to make sure that I was legit, he gave me his phone number. He is married to my aunt and I believe it was that night, I called and was able to speak to him and my aunt (dad's sister) for the first time in my life. It was a pretty cool experience and I will forever be grateful to them both for the information they gave me on that call. Armed with what I had learned on the phone call, I went to Facebook and then to Instagram and within an hour or so I was able to find the girl that I was sure was my sister. I sent her a DM to confirm who she was, but it was so late at night that normal people were in bed sleeping. Sure enough, the next morning she replied and I shocked her with the fact that she had a big brother that she never knew existed. So out of those semi-annoying little commercials for I Ancestry DNA kits, I was able to find my sister that I am now extremely close with, I got a new little niece that I never knew I had and a pretty good brother in-law. I also have been able to stay in touch with my aunts (dad's sisters) and they sent me some pretty cool stuff from my dad. Since this is a fishing forum and this isn't really a fishing post, let me add that they first place we ever met in person was the Bass Pro Shops Anglers Inn in Springfield, Missouri. Now it has some fishing in it. (that part is true though) So that's what I am thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I would target areas that get the most direct sunlight. Not specific spots but areas. Right after ice out I look for the warmest areas I can find. A couple of degrees can make a HUGE difference this time of year.