SudburyBasser

In fairness to MLF, they did have a tournament on Chautauqua Lake last year, though that was predominately dock-based large mouth bass fishing. Here's a novel idea: Instead of another MLF in the south -- where we will all once again be entranced by flipping vegetation for several hours -- how about a tournament in the western United States? I'd like to see them try fishing deltas and lakes in California.

Considering virtually every TV show on bass fishing seems to be filmed on four lakes in the southern United States, I'm sure you'll endure fine.

Bass Pro Shops The Strike on my Xbox 360. Field and Stream Fishing on my Surface RT tablet.

I did pick up the top water and the jerk bait a while back -- won't be able to use them for a few months more. I regret buying the top water but I think the jerk bait could be interesting. As for the scatter rap...I bought a few of those and caught one fish over several fishing excursions. I don't know if I gave it a fair shake but I wasn't particularly impressed by it.

Ditto. Pete Gluszek saved the first episode. The last hour or so with the two of them was quite solid. I'll given it another chance.

Watching fishing videos on the web. A lot of videos.

R2S is Japanese? I could have sworn they were California based. At any rate, if you like top waters why not the ye olde Rebel Pop-Rs? Cheap and they work just as well as any popper out there. I'd avoid the Live Target Bait Ball...outside of the jerkbait it seems a little gimmicky (I bought the popper and jerkbait in December and have regretted it since).

I did once. I and my brother-in-law were fishing a submerged boat that had sunk decades before when he tapped me on the shoulder and whispered that there was a huge smallmouth in front of us. I dropped a Senko in front of it and the fish looked at it. The whole time I waited I whispered, "Eat it...eat it"...and then it just hammered the hell out of it. Well, I shouted (roared really) like it was the first fish I ever caught. I don't know why but I guess I just got caught up in the moment. Outside of that, I tend to be pretty Zen the moment I catch a fish.

Today I went through all my tackle, integrating the new stuff over the past few months in both my tournament and every day carry bags (that statement right there says a lot). I was astounded by the amount of tackle. It was like watching a 650 lb. man eating an entire cake... it puts you off food for a while. I think it will be a time before I buy something new. And that was just hard lures...

Preach it brother. I know that story well.

I rarely use a FC leader because I haven't found any real difference between that and tying braid directly. Personal preference in my case I suppose.

I have a President on a Shimano Crucial that serves as my everyday in the Jeep setup. Pflueger does not get enough love. Although I tend towards Shimano reels, I would not be overly upset if someone made me fish with Pflueger reels.

Assuming I don't have to write a cheque to the government, zero. Any refund will go bills.

That's the reason why I ended my subscription to BAM... at times I found it unreadable. And before someone jumps in to lecture me about how hard it is, I was a professional journalist published in virtually every major newspaper in the world and an editor for one of them. What's amazing is that so many are basic errors that even Microsoft Word's dodgy grammar checker would catch them. I won't pay for that.

I think I'd gouge my eyes out before I watched anything with Mariko Izumi. If she's a talented angler she does nothing to prove it on her show. If I need hot women to look at I have the world wide web. You want talented female anglers who don't come across as brainless sorority girls? Rebekka Redd on The New Fly Fisher or April Vokey on Fly Nation TV.

I've raised a Spock-ian eyebrow at some of the pictures in that section of Bassmaster on occasion and that was one of them.

Eat them on occasion -- mostly smallmouth bass -- though I prefer stuff like sea bass or grouper when I eat fish. I am on record believing that the C&R ethos has turned into a bit of a cult.

Got mine yesterday... too many temptations in there.

Golfers, race car drivers, and now bass fishermen apparently, have always struck me as a little insecure in this whole "Is it a sport/Are we athletes" debate. Why is it so important that bass fishing -- at least at the pro level -- be considered a sport? It doesn't make what KvD, Monroe, Iaconelli, Evers and the like do any less impressive whether it's defined as a sport or not, or they're considered as athletes. Is it easy? No, but neither is professional poker or beer pong and I'm not calling them athletes.

"Man, it was a tough bite out there today..." I think I say this when I placed not so well and also won tournaments.

I vote in favor of a bank fishing forum. At a minimum this thread should be stickied.

About two weeks ago I bought a jerkbait and crankbait Baitball. I won't able to use them until the hard water goes away but they look interesting...you never know...

A BPS Pro Qualifier 370 bag with about 8 3701 thin tackle boxes. The side pocket on the left is loaded with plastics and all my other equipment goes in the other two pockets. For rods I bring 4 BC setups and 1 spinning setup. I do tend to bring along everything because I know the one time I don't will be the one time that I needed a particular class of lure. It's a heavy as heck bag but I only need to carry it from my Jeep to the boat.

Congratulations! She looks like a fine boat!

If I had a criticism it would be that the bag can get quite cumbersome. I compounded matters by using the thin profile boxes so that I could put even more lures in the main compartment and now it weighs a ton (I think I have 7 or 8 3700 thin Planos in there). Frankly I'm surprised the shoulder strap hasn't broken. Speaks to its quality I suppose.