fishballer06

Steve Kennedy is a no frills kinda guy. He's been fishing the elites for a long time and has never repped a bunch of logo's. I remember whenever he won in 2017 on Dardanelle, he literally only had Bass Cat and the Auburn U logo on his plain, baby blue jersey. He won that event swimming a white swim jig in a flooded cove full of bushes using an old Bantam Curado from probably around the turn of the century. So seeing him with a Lowrance, Power Poles, and Lithium Pros logo is a big upgrade On another note, congrats to Hank Cherry for winning it back to back! What an accomplishment to do, especially after watching Kennedy whack them on day one.

Glad to see Steve Kennedy to doing well so far. I wouldn't be mad at all if he won it all.

Did you put backing on, and then tie on your main line? Sometimes that knot can cause a lump like that. Other than that, a dirty levelwind worm gear could do that as well.

Little over 24 hours left to get your picks in gentlemen. Best of luck.

Fluorocarbon is definitely a "get what you pay for" type of thing. In my personal experiences, if Red Label was the only fluorocarbon available to me, I would be buying braid.

I bought some Fluoro from another manufacturer (I forget who now), but they colored the line blue for 3 feet at every 100 yards. But yes, the sticker is a very nice touch.

Recently, Daiwa released their newest high end fluorocarbon, the J-Fluoro Samurai. I throw mostly all fluorocarbon so I naturally had to buy a spool to try it out. For reference, my normal go to fluorocarbons are P-Line Tactical and Sunline Sniper & Shooter. I also use Seaguar Tatsu as well when I can get a deal on it. First Impressions The line I purchased was the 16lb version. One thing that immediately stood out to me was how smooth and supple the line felt. I also noticed that the diameter of the line is thinner than my usual lines that I use (pound for pound). Good impressions to have right out of the gate. Other things to note about the packaging that were a nice touch. 220 yard spool rather than the standard 200. There is a firm, but flexible, plastic sleeve that wraps around the spool inside the packaging to keep the line from unraveling after you've used it. There is a sticker on the line at the halfway point of the spool. This lets you know how much line you've used and have left. All that being said, I spooled up two of my reels before hitting the water. These reels being a Shimano Bantam and a Shimano Metanium. I had about 10-15 yards of line left after filling these two reels up. Which is nice to have a little left over in case I need some leader line for some of my reels spooled with braided line. On The Water I had my Bantam mounted on a Dobyns Chamption 734c and was throwing a 3.3" Keitech on a 1/4oz jighead. My Metanium was mounted on a Dobyns Extreme 704c and was throwing a Zoom Super Hog on a 3/16oz Texas rig. I tied these baits on using a San Diego Jam knot and they cinched down tight with no issues on the first pull through. The very first thing I noticed with this line was the casting distance. WOW. I felt like I was getting 25-40 feet extra over my normal lines. This could be attributed to the smoothness and the smaller line diameter I assume. I quickly realized that I had to tighten my spool tension knob a hair and turn my external braking dial up one number. Once I got that dialed in, this line was super manageable to cast and the distance I was getting was phenomenal. I threw the swimbait around thick weed lines and caught 3 fish on the outside edges of it. All of these fish never came off as I fought them back to shore through the thick weeds. I had great hook penetration through the top of the mouth on all of those fish, which impressed me considering I was hooking up at the end of long casts. Once I worked my way to some deeper, rockier water, I started dragging the Texas rig around. I ended up catching 4 fishing doing this and I experienced the same hookup results. Great hook penetration through very boney parts of the mouth. The line was very sensitive and I had no issues feeling whether I was in grass, rocks, mud, sand, or whenever I had a bite. Despite dragging the bait through a very rock bottom, I never got any knicks in my line or felt the need to retie. My knot held tight and I was very impressed. Final Thoughts My first outing with this line was very impressive. I'm curious to spend more time with this line and learn more of its nuances. The casting distance, handling, knot strength, and suppleness were all very top notch. So far, I would have no problem recommending this line to anyone. Even though it may be sacreligious to put Daiwa line on a Shimano reel, they worked like a match made in heaven.

One week from now the classic will be underway!

I would go forward in time. I can't wait to take my son out on the boat when he's big enough and I want to see him catch his first substantial size bass on his own. Seeing that excitement on his face is the day I dream of.

I think I'm going with Seth as well. He's so hot this year. He could very well win the Classic and AOY this year.

Friendly reminder - 8 days to pick your Classic picks.

I've always said the same thing!

Team skirt here. I do like taking a piece of an old Senko (about as long as the hook shank) and threading it onto the shank of the hook. I feel like this gives me a little bit more casting distance and I feel like having something a little soft on the bait gives the fish incentive to hold onto the bait a little better before I can get the hook set.

Busy or not, my personal best smallmouth came on Memorial Day Monday a few years back (see profile pic).

Absolutely. Get on the water at 530 and be off by 9. Too many jackalopes out on weekends like this.

Surprised we didn't have more chatter in here over the weekend. Congrats to Caleb Kuphall for getting his first Elite win. I love seeing the northern boys get the W on these southern waters. Our current top 3 are: nebass78 curtstout scaleface We've got 17 days until the Classic. So do your research. There will be some Open winners and Nation qualifiers fishing in this event, so there will be some unfamiliar names in there.

Our lord and savior - Green Pumpkin And the holy spirit - Black w/ blue fleck

We are underway at Guntersville. Caleb Kuphall has 19 pounds already before 730AM!! Edit. I spoke too soon. He's up to 21 pounds at 7:33.

It's been a while since I've bought a Heddon Personally, I've been throwing the Sammy and the Showerblow's whenever I want a spook style bait. Although I still have some old Heddon spooks that ride in my box and get their time still that I have modified.

A little over a day left to make your picks for Guntersville. Get those picks in boys!

As effective as the old Heddon lures are, you'd think they would modernize their baits to be a little more friendly to upgrading hooks/hardware. There's so many other high quality Spook style baits out there now with much better hardware designs.

As a co-angler, I can relate to this one. I've been partnered with boaters before who all day long kept asking me "Where should we go next?". Thinking back on it, every time that has happened, my boater seemed fairly inexperienced.

Neely Henry is officially in the books. nebass78 crushed this event with 1289 points and moved himself up to 2nd place in the group. We've got 8 days until Guntersville, so don't forget to make those picks. Top 3 currently: Dirtclod nebass78 reerok

I'm sure Zman is going around to every lake in the country, jumping into every boat they come across, and making sure that every home made vibrating jig has a split ring on it...

I've finally done it. I picked the guy who finished dead last... Kelley Jaye, way to go bud. You've got multiple top 10 finishes in the state of Alabama and a few more top 30's.