Zach Dunham

I don't agree, man. Obviously all of those other sports' penalties aren't working too well since people are getting caught on a weekly basis. We need the harshest possible penalties in this sport. Glad this guy went down.

Not to hijack this thread, but I figure this is a good place to ask. Has anyone owned or tried a pair of Amphibia's? I have always been an Oakley guy but I do want to see all my options. After reading this thread I definitely want to try Costa's. I do love the way Amphibia's look though and I like the idea of floating sunglasses. Any info would be awesome!

I believe it is allowed. There was a recent article on Bassmaster website that was written by a marshal about the experience. He said at one point that Boyd Duckett and Kelly Jordon pulled up to each other and smoked a cigarette together during the tournament.

You know, I have to agree with those who have said Aaron Martens. If there is one thing I struggle with, it is finesse fishing when the fish are totally turned off. In really difficult tournaments Aaron Martens ALWAYS does well.

Lake Wallenpaupack is definitely the big one. It has been tough this year. In no way should that lake be in the top 100 on bassmasters list. They are just trying to be fair to all regions. Shohola Marsh Reservoir isn't far awake. Lackawanna State Park, Promised Land State Park, Prompton, White Oaks Pond, Belmont, Fairview Lake ... those are all within an hour drive. Fairview and Wallenpaupack are the only ones in that list that allow outboard motor, though.

Sounds like a lot of PA lakes. There aren't enough big lakes so the ones that can be hit for tournaments are hit hard. Beltzville State Park and Lake Wallenpaupack come to mind. Wallenpaupack has been exceptionally tough this year.

There is definitely an upper level of guys within the FLW tour and the Bassmaster Elites. That said, they are all at another level when compared with an average Joe. There are definitely a few guys who are able to maintain their position because they are amazing at selling product for their sponsors. There are guys who have been on the Elite series since its *** who have not won an elite event or who have never done exceptionally well. They do enough to maintain their Elite position and they sell their sponsors' product like maniacs. They are still light years better than your average Joe-fisherman though.

I'll have to pick a few up and try it out. Thanks!

I agree that some kind of stimulant could help depending on the person's situation. I just don't by anabolic steroids making much of a difference. The drinking part is just silly to me. Especially on short sleep. They'd be much better off just lighting up a bowl. lol. Alcohol is NOT fun to deal with on short sleep. And then go outside in the sun all day on a boat? No thanks.

I wouldn't care if they did. Marijuana is far from a performance enhancer and it should never have been illegal in the first place. Smoke all the pot you want it isn't going to help you win. And if someone can still win while getting their high on, congratulations to them.

Don't let this turn into a battle of how hard tournament fishing is versus fun fishing. All fishing is fun. I love to fish tournaments. I've been out on the water from dawn til dusk at the peak of daylight more times than I can count, with only water and barely any food because I didn't want to stop fishing to eat. That is all without any PEDs or stimulants. Not even a Red Bull. If people can do that without any PEDs, then PEDs aren't going to give any advantage. As long as you keep yourself in decent shape (and by that I mean not overweight and maybe run sometimes) fishing is more mentally challenging than physical. Comparing to baseball is absurd. Baseball players aren't taking PEDs to increase their stamina. It is a baseball game. It isn't that taxing. They are taking PEDs to throw harder (pitchers) and jack more home runs (batters). Golfers may take PEDs to be able to hit the ball further and shorten to the course, or to be able to have more drive through thick rough. There is no direct comparison to fishing. Casting distance? Much more about proper motion and rod/line matched for the bait. I'm not that strong and I can cast a mile. And even the heaviest bass you may have to fight aren't going to put much physical strain on a person considering the equipment available. It isn't like you're fighting a d**n tuna. PEDs would not have a big effect if any effect at all in fishing. The ONLY thing I could see the argument for here as far as helping goes is a stimulant after a bunch of long days in a row. As far as steroids? That's a joke.

I use 10lb test carbon for my deeper crankbaits. I haven't had a problem getting the 6XD down to 15-18 feet on a normal cast. I was more worried about the size of it.

3-5 feet of water No Rattles Natural color no idea on the moon phase, it was 4/4/11.

I use a spook in the early hours, that has been on and off this year. The smallmouth just seem to come smack it and not eat it.

Usually in these tournaments, at least this year, its a limit of 2lb-range smallies and a big fish (largemouth or smallmouth). The last tournament though, there was only one largemouth in the whole tournament weighed in. Two years ago people would be able to catch a whole bag of largemouth.

So, for instance, you don't think a 6 XD is too big of a bait for a 2-3 lb smallmouth? I mean to catch them regularly on?

This past weekend I was in a tournament where there was literally zero shallow bite. The few teams that did well fishing in "deeper" water and offshore. The lake is probably 80%-90% smallmouth. I'm not sure what they mean by deeper, but I'm going to assume 10-25ft. Admittedly, I am terrible at fishing in deeper than 10 ft. Just terrible. I overheard some saying they caught all of their fish on crankbaits in deeper water. I know from past experience in this lake that crawdad colored baits, or similar, are usually the best. The only way I've been able to catch fish "deeper" in this lake is on a tube jig. My issue is, I feel like crankbaits that will dive deep enough to hit some fish in 15-20 feet of water are too big of a profile for smallmouth. This lake isn't known for monster smallmouth either. A 2-3 lb smallmouth is common but rarely do you see anything over 4 lbs. I have some 6 XDs in the crawfish pattern laying around (bought them when that color was on clearance), do you think those are too big? Any and all advice on smallmouth crankbait fishing is wanted! (what lure, what color, ways to fish it, etc.) Thanks for any info in advance! I'm just really annoyed with Lake Wallenpaupack this year, there has just been a terrible shallow bite. In past years you could always find largemouth shallow, but it seems they have gone elsewhere.

I still ask the question, if the GPS systems cannot figure out where the state border is, how is an angler supposed to know? Someone mentioned having this happen to them in the first page of this thread.

He only lost his day 2 weight, his day 1 weight allowed him to finish somewhere in the 70s or 80s I think.

None of those things you mentioned are comparable. The reason it is ridiculous to go to rivers where borders matter is that the border moves. The border is not static. It jumps all over the place, from the main river to canals and back. The GPS systems don't even know where the border is sometimes. If your own GPS unit can't figure out what state you are in, how are you supposed to know? An umbrella rig rule is easy to figure out, and once you know the rule you know the rule. You can know you can't cull in MN, but if you can't even figure out what state you are in because the borders change and are confusing, it doesn't matter.

That pretty much sums it up. They shouldn't go to places with archaic rules.

He complained after the first tournament that Alton Jones stole his spot on the last day and caused him to lose, even though Alton Jones was there every one of the days prior, just at a different time during the day. He has had several whining incidents in the past also.

Well, in his explanation, he was in an area where the border jumped 100 yds to the right to a diff canal and then jumped back over after some bridge, but apparently it was 100 yds further past said bridge that the border jumped back across. And also let me say, props to Brandon for not complaining about the ruling and for saying it was fair after it was explained to him. Most people would not be so professional after possibly having their elite career derailed.

As I said, I realize there is no way that they could avoid DQing his weight after it was shown that he culled in Minnesota. They had no other option. I just don't understand why you would go to places that have ridiculous rules that are not tournament friendly.

Anyone pay attention to the Mississsippi River Rumble this past weekend? The big news obviously being that Brandon Palaniuk's day 2 weight was disqualified for unintentionally culling a fish in Minnesota waters. A bunch of the pros ended up sticking up for him saying that BASS shouldn't fish in waters with silly rules like that, especially in a place where the state borders jump all over the place. He missed the Wisconsin border by 100 yards. Considering his AOY standings, this is HUGE. Not only did he probably lose $100k, he is very low in AOY standings this year and this would have put him high enough to make the elites again next year. This pretty much puts his entire Elite career in jeopardy, all because of a ridiculous rule. Now, obviously they can't change tournament rules midway through so they had to DQ his weight once this whole thing was found out. I have two issues here though. Firstly, I agree with the pros who said BASS shouldn't have tournaments in states with assinine laws. Boycott them until they change their silly ways. Second, what in the hell is wrong with Minnesota? This isn't the 1950s, livewell technology is just fine. And before any Minnesotan even comes on here and tries to defend this by saying "look how great our fishing is", you have no point whatsoever. Look how great the fishing is in all of the places that allow culling. This has ZERO affect on anything.