fishballer06

I wish I had a dollar for every bass caught on one of those old Greenies.

I really like their Table Rock Shad for dirty water conditions as well

Did you look at AOY standings this year? Happened to him 10 times on tour this year.

I'm turning the boat and not giving them clean water. I'm keeping all of the juice for myself. -"Majority of boaters I've had in tournaments"

This topic has mid winter Cabin Blues written all over it, and we're only in August.

While I am ambidextrous, I would still call my right hand my strongest hand. That being said, I use left handed baitcasters and spinning reels. I have bought multiple right handed reels over the years and tried to force myself to learn them. I just can't do it. Casting and reeling feels perfectly fine to me, but in terms of working a lure (walking a spook, jerkbaits, etc) just feels so awkward for me and I just can't do it.

Did MLF ban the floggers? I don't follow MLF at all, but I remember a few years ago they had a northern event during the smallmouth spawn and they murdered them using the floggers. Then every Joe Shmoe at the local lakes had one in their boat.

I think you're asking for something that doesn't exist here. Unless you were to create a tournament format where no sort of sonar at all is allowed to exist (down scan, side scan, forward facing scan), then what you are wanting simply doesn't exist. If someone goes by the rules and finishes in the top 5 in points over a 10 event season, that doesn't make them an elite angler? By your argument, you can only be an elite angler if you go out and catch your fish using a different pattern/lure every single day, without the use of electronics to find those fish. I hate to break it to you, but anyone with that mentality in 2024 is finishing in the the bottom 25% of the standings. Last I checked, you can still win the Super Bowl even if your team has a bad defense and a horrible running game. But if your QB can sling the ball down the field every possession and score points, you're an elite team. Doesn't matter how you do it, at the end of the day what's on the scoreboard matters. To stick with the football analogy and your elite skillset mentality - I would love to see how any NFL team does if they were to not use in ear communication for play calling during a game and zero use of film to study the other teams plays/strategy before and during a game. They could just send 11 guys out on the field and hope for the best. It sounds rather silly doesn't it? Top level athletes/teams are going to use any sort of equipment available to them within the rules to generate the best results. Until FFS is banned, calling someone not an Elite angler simply because they caught their fish in a way you don't approve of is pretty farcical.

Regardless of anyones opinion on FFS or the influx of really good young guys, it still takes finding these fish and getting 5 of the right ones to bite each day. While I personally am not a fan of FFS and how boring it is to watch as a consumer of live tournament fishing coverage, I will say that everyone should keep one thing in mind. 30+ years ago if you wanted to learn how to get better at fishing, you either had to get out on the water with someone much more experienced than you, or you could buy a magazine and read some articles that may or may not be relevant to your home waters. Today, if you want to get good at fishing, you can hop on the internet and read articles for hours, or get on YouTube and watch videos on any topic of fishing you want. We're all on here using this website as an example of my point. We're in a new generation of consuming knowledge and having it all readily available for us any time we want. This isn't just happening in fishing, but all competitive sports. Young kids have more opportunities now to fish at a high level at a young age than ever before. High school and college tournament formats are everywhere and that certainly aids in grooming talent from a young age. These guys who were the best in the game 20 years ago are no longer the best in the sport. That's just a fact of life at this point.

86th

Derek Hudnall retired midseason this year as well (worth mentioning). He finished 98th of 103 guys after only fishing 5 events this year. Also worth noting these guys and where they finished in AOY this year after fishing all 10 events. Iaconelli - 94th Martin - 92nd Swindle - 88th Crews Jr - 87th Kennedy - 83rd Menendez - 75th

Looks similar to the Geecrack Bellows Shad/Gill baits.

Clunn is hanging it up as well. Time for the next generation to step in.

I personally don't see an advantage for DC reels (for crankbait applications) unless you're still learning to use a baitcaster. With that being said, I recommend the Curado and Bantam. But whichever fits your budget.

2024 Season Recap Champion - lmoore Runner Up - BassnJake And just like that, our 2024 season is a wrap. I'd like to thank all the people who played along this season and made this season super fun for all of us. I always look forward to talking with everyone before and after the events and seeing how everyone did. Having a large group of people playing along is what makes this group so fun. Huge shout out to @lmoore and @BassNJake for taking the top spots in the group. Lmoore is now our Back2Back winner (23 &24) and he managed to do it by taking 121st overall in all of the 35k+ Fantasy players. Very impressive! We had 7 guys this year break the 10k point marker (8 if you count nebass78 scoring 9999). We had a total of 49 people play along this year. Of that, we had 41 people who played every event, and 43 played 9/10 events. I'm so happy that we have such a dedicated group of players and I appreciate all of you putting in the time to making picks for each event and playing along. They usually open up the new season around January, so keep your eyes peeled for my thread for the 2025 season around then. Hopefully everyone returns and then some. Top Ten Lmoore BassnJake Frenchy1757 Ratman46 Lymanx JjgSpecialist kglass2772 nebass78 anfrobodine Provoke106 @gimruis Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy keeping this little community together and duking it out along the way. I hope to see all of you back again next year.

Rick Clunn has announced he is retiring from the BASS Elites. He said he has plans to fish a few of the Opens next season as he sees fit to his schedule.

I've been on vacation so I haven't been around to remind everyone to get their picks in for SLR. I hope everyone is ready for a slugfest!

Brandon posted that both his livewell pumps died on his boat. All his fish died and so he couldn't cull anything because of it.

Looks like you'll be the group leader for 2 days in a row. Day 2 has been postponed.

Feider just caught another 5.5 pounder and jumped into first.

Almost half the field doesn't have marshals today. These positions are going to be off a bit. There's some sticks who are showing 0's.

Jump in over on the fantasy thread. We discuss a lot of the tournaments as they go down.

Probably going to need a day or two with a limit full of ones that size in order to win this thing.

The Rage Tail Menace Grub in "Glacier" is a go to swim jig trailer for me. Goes great with a white or sexy shad colored skirt. Works well on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits as well.

We are underway at Lake Champlain. The boys blasted off an hour ago and Jacob Foutz has 19-8 already. We might be in for a wild weekend.