Logan S

FWIW, I love the XX Ronin for wacky senkos...Lots of other things too. Even though it's an F4 I consider it to be less powerful than the F3.5 Shakeyhead (XX and Levante). I'm usually skipping wacky senkos around docks and stuff so I don't like to go too light on power, Ronin fits the bill perfectly. No freeloading: MB Black Jungle - Deep Crank / Slow Roll (F5-71XBJ)....Which I've found to be an awesome chatterbait rod. Haven't used the Robin Blade yet, but it should get a thorough testing here shortly. Core MG7 is getting old these days but I've yet to find a reel I like better.

Would be hard to know these things if you weren't "in the know"....I stand corrected. Another reason to think that there's a lot more to the MLF/BPT deal than what has been published so far. It's hard for me to believe that so many anglers would leave BASS as a no-entry fee platform with a $50k signing bonus purely for spite.

This is false. I have yet to see a study say "no negative impact"...They all say something to the effect of, "Not as bad as originally thought, but long-term impact is unknown." Keep in mind, "Not as bad as originally thought," is the inevitable conclusion because back then people were losing their minds and talking about them walking across land to eat cats and small dogs. People need to quit illegally moving them around and sentiments like this only make people more likely to continue....Even IF they coexist fine, they are still carriers for LMBV so it's like a ticking time bomb should there be an outbreak. The Potomac is huge and loaded with them...Fish for them there and leave them there.

Won't find me without one tied on with all the tidal water around here....Will catch em just about year round.

Edit: My picture links keep breaking...Sorry! Enjoyed this one last year from A-Jay ...Since I'm not out fishing on this beautiful early-fall day here in MD I'll live vicariously through posting tackle and fish pics ? Winter (December thru mid-March): Balsa flatside, Vision 110, football jig, and finesse worm. Finesse worm caught the most, flatside caught bigger fish. Honorable mention to a swinghead with a Rage Bug Coldwater bass on the flatside Spring (Late March thru May): 110, football, and finesse worm remain, added a spinnerbait and chatterbait. Honorable mentions to swinghead and various sight-fishing baits. Prespawn chatterbait fish Summer (June thru late-September): Spinnerbait and chatter stays, added additional chatter, punch/flip rig and frog. All baits did well, summer is a great time on the tidal water around here. Honorable mentions to a popper, Sprinker frog, and finesse worm. Tough to pick a single picture, lots of quality fish this summer on all these...But the chatterbaits really put some tanks in the boat this year on the River and Bay... Fall (October thru November or early-December): Has just started, so nothing really defined so far this season...But past history points to 110, spinnerbait, chatter, popper, walker, and football jigs.

I split those out into different rods...BUT, you could do all of that with the Zillion 7'4" H Frog rod mentioned once already above (or even the Tatula version). It's a great rod - I use it for frogs, but it could be used for punching, flipping, pitching, swimbaits, a-rigs, etc....It's a little on the short side for my tastes with some of those, but it will still do the job well.

With all the MLF talk, this pic is topical...Our club has actually been doing catch-weigh-release tournaments for certain bodies of water for 2 seasons now, but we retain 5-bass limits. This is me weighing (with my co-angler verifying off camera) what would be the lunker (3-1) of a tournament last weeknd...It was a tough day and I ended up winning with 5 fish for 10-6 . Another bass pic....I've caught a lot of 'important' bass in my life - Some have been personal records, some have won me money, some were important for other reasons. I still remember the first bass I caught on my own. Watching my daughter catch her first bass ever, was up at the top of that list of important fish ...And it was a smallmouth to boot!

It was $20k bonus toward entry fees, not $50k cash. I think the reason so many didn't bite is becasue their sponsors were covering some/all of their entries either way...And those sponsors wanted the anglers in MLF. There's got to be more to the financial story on MLF/BPT, because if you look at the numbers about entries/payouts/etc objectively, the new BASS deal is better than BPT for current Elite anglers. No way that many guys bail on the better plan just out of spite or resentment toward BASS....There's more to those numbers that MLF/BPT isn't releasing yet (if ever).

They won't be inviting anyone...BASS has well defined qualification routes to the Elite series, primarily through the Opens. They will simply work down the list until they fill the field. Many of the anglers fishing the Opens are doing so with the intention/goal/dream of fishing the Elite Series so they probably won't have to go very far down the list. The Classic qualifications are defined as well. There is no 'inviting' for the BASS Elites or Classic, anglers need to qualify for both.

I understand and can appreciate that...However as someone that's been officer/leader of a bass club for a long time I can say that full member votes can often go sideways from the original direction or intention of the group...Not that it's necessarily bad, but sometimes full member votes turn out to be bad things. Not trying to compare a local club to a pro organization or anything like that, but in a general/functional sense there would be some similarities. Are all 80 considered owners/investors? All of them are going to get a piece of the pie? Or is it the original MLF investors and then the rest are entrants/participants, but all have a vote? I'll be watching everything...BASS, FLW, BPT, whatever...I'd watch a BFL or club tournament if I could stream it live, I'm just a bass fishing junkie . I'm not a BPT 'hater', but BASS Live is going to be hard to compete with regardless of the anglers on camera (BASS is likely to retain some hammers too). I'm not a fan of the delay for the Cups and Championship events...My interest level goes way down if the event is not fresh. When you can follow the lead up to the tournament and then the post-tournament analysis and techniques it's a lot more interesting. I don't like watching any sport on tape-delay, especially a ~6 month tape-delay.

It's not 75k in entry fees for any of the tours, don't think it's ever been that high. 75k is often a number thrown around for the total cost of a season - Entries plus travel, gas, lodging, food, etc, etc...Not sure how accurate it is and it's probably highly variable depending how each angler does it. Regardless, it's a ton of money. MLF/BPT entry fees are actually higher than the Elites for 2019 and with the new BASS changes MLF is significantly higher. Travel, gas, lodging, food, etc, etc, costs are still going to be similar regardless of what trail they fish.

Froggin' and Flippin'

20' bass boat is plenty big...His rods will be on the deck and in his locker. 4 or 5 rods and a backpack for tackle should be fine, you could slim it down if you wanted. Probably not his 1st time with 2 others in the boat, he'd have told you if there was a space issue. Don't be late. Don't be messy. Don't be disorganized. Don't step on the seats. Ask about smoking/dipping if you do either (not allowed in my boat, but everyone's different). Kick in some cash for gas or offer to pay the ramp fee, he may or may not accept. Have a good time, he wouldn't have invited you if he didn't think it would be fun...I'm sure you'll all have a fine time, don't be too paranoid about things. If in doubt about anything just ask him.

Bad blood or not, it's a little hard to think of it as a performance-based selection with some of the rumors going around about who has and hasn't been invited. Crazy to think that the #1 ranked angler in the world (Thrift, per BF rankings - which is owned by same umbrella that's behind BPT) reportedly isn't getting an invite. Also, not to disparage these guys, but some of the original MLF guys that you know will be involved are ranked 80 or lower in current AOY standings (which also means they'd be at risk for not even qualifying next year). When we see the the full invite list my guess is that it'll be pretty easy to see what kind of qualifications were considered. Nothing wrong with however they want to fill the field, but it's a fair to be critical of the process if we're looking through the lens of 'top-level professional tour'.

Key here is Potomac. The Potomac is a massive watershed what has had influxes of new predator and prey species from the bay/ocean for it's entire existence. The point is, the Potomac is sort of used to this type of thing so if there is any bass fishery that could handle it, the Potomac is probably it. Even so...It's still probably too early to tell whether they will have a long term effect. In a closed off river or lake, especially a small one they could have a very different effect....And since our local DMV snakehead transporters seem hellbent on stuffing them in every lake/pond/river they can find, I'm sure we'll find out before long. I personally have no interest in snakeheads but I can see why many like them...Big and aggressive. They need to just leave em in the Potomac though and quit moving em around. The quality of bass fishing on the Potomac goes up and down with the grass. More grass for longer time periods equates to great fishing...Declining grass leads to declining fishing. For several years the grass was a fraction of it's normal levels and fishing got much tougher. The last two years we saw excellent grass until the flooding this spring and summer ripped it all out. I think blue cats around here are worse than snakeheads...But either way, invasive species suck...

Nah...I already own a few of those Duo's . Plus MB X-80Jrs, LC Bevy 60s, Pointer63's (yes that's a thing), and 06 X-Raps. I take my tiny jerkbait game seriously! ? I find the Pointer65 to do OK in the wind with an appropriate spinning rod and 6lb FC...But wind in KS is probably more of a concern than wind in MD.

BASS Plan Highlights for those that don't want to listen, it's a strong counter offer... Reduced field size to 80 Classic spots to top 40, so top half qualifies BASS contributing more money to pot overall (67% more supposedly) Changed payout structure, guaranteed checks for all anglers - last place still pays $2500 Returning Elite pros get a bonus, which added to guaranteed payouts means they will pay no entry fees for the whole season (they'd actually come out ahead $500) New Elites don't get bonus, but with the guaranteed payouts their effective entries fees are cut in half Live streaming cameras in ALL boats for all tournaments on final 2 days (BASS says every single angler will be live at least once during season) Some other stuff I might have missed. Still nothing about cancelling western swing from BASS themselves. BASS supposedly fired some shots in the presentation too, saying something to the effect of "The Elite Series will continue to be the only major tournament series that you actually need to qualify for." Sounds like a win either way for the anglers, I'd recommend listening to the podcast from yesterday (don't think I can link, but it's a popular one that everyone has been getting info from already) if you're interested in all the drama like I am .

I don't doubt it, but BASS themselves haven't said anything about it...At least that I've seen. Nothing on their site about it. Also, lots of the big names are still featured prominently on the BASS site. I'm not saying anything one way or the other, nothing official regarding who's going and who's staying has come out besides anglers interviews...I've seen all those. All I'm saying is it wouldn't surprise me if much of what's been said/speculated so far was part of some negotiating tactics. Lets also be real here...This stuff is still mostly rumor-mill at this point (the stuff that hasn't been released yet obviously)...Some of what was said early on as 'fact' turned out not to be entirely accurate (like the top 75 from BASS -AND- FLW leaving).

Maybe...But unless you're one of the secret insiders we really don't know anything yet. I just wouldn't be shocked if it turned out to be not quite as earth-shattering as it appears right now. BASS is apparently already cancelling the western swing (though they haven't confirmed it), which is one example of them trying to compromise already. We'll just have to wait and see...But don't think for a second that this slow-roll info release isn't intentional.

I know there were many BASS anglers unhappy about the way BASS handled many things this year...It wouldn't surprise me if some of the talk about anglers leaving forever and it being impossible to fish both tours turns out to be almost a kind of scare tactic to get BASS to compromise with the anglers in one way or another. It wouldn't be the first time BASS and the anglers had it out with each other...

This is not true... Its been a popular technique for a long time, longer than I've been fishing. It was one of my first primary patterns when I started tournament fishing over 15 years ago. As long as I've been fishing it's been a universally known technique. I remember it being shown/highlighted on old Bassmaster shows back in the 90's.

I forgot about the subscription thing...Regardless, you can still get it directly from the BASS and FLW sites live. Check it out, might like it...HDMI to the TV or just go right from the computer or phone . BASS AOY tournament will be live next week, 20th thru 23rd.

Don't take this wrong way or anything...Buttt...Did you know the Elite Series BASS Live is broadcast for free right from their website? 6 hours of live coverage for 3 days of each tournament. FLW has their own version as well, right on their site. What you say you want has existed for a few years now. I'm a cord cutter too BTW, I watch BASS Live via the ESPN Roku app on my TV - Or from my desk at work or sometimes even from my boat while I'm fishing . One other interesting anecdote I've noticed that's not directly related to the new trail...It seems that most people that are tournament anglers themselves prefer the 5-bass limit and most people that aren't tournament anglers like the 'every-fish-counts' format better. This isn't a scientific observation, just a trend I've noticed with people I know personally and what I see online. I haven't watched a production BASS show in years because I already know what happened and saw it on Live.

Eh, I wouldn't want to watch the NFL as much if the teams couldn't practice...These are the best in the world, I want to see them be prepared. Preparing for a tournament is just as much of a skill as executing in the tournament, at least in my opinion as a tournament angler myself. I know I'm in the minority here...But I don't find the whole 'no-practice, just fish' thing to be a definitive 'true-test' of how good the anglers are. Further, I don't really think they are breaking down the lake beyond basic levels - They don't have time to! It's a scramble find something as fast as possible, which is why you see them flying down banks, dock lines, and grass lines so often. It's certainly a good measure of pure fish catching and instincts, but I'd much prefer to watch the pros have an allotted time to prepare and practice and then hit the lake. I've noticed the level of detail I often see the anglers go into on BASS Live far exceeds what I usually see on MLF, for obvious reasons...They have time to dial things in on BASS Live. I'd also prefer 5-bass limits even with the immediate release format...Although the total-weight format in a multi-day tournament where the anglers get practice time could be something very new and cool to see. On the right lake at the right time, could see astronomical weights and true heavyweight shootouts.