fishballer06

I use these all the time when scouting before a tournament. They can be very helpful.

*Raises hand*

From my experience here in PA, fish the shallower areas during the warmest, sunniest times of the day this time of year. That water starts warming up and the fish get active and push up there. But again, this is fishing and your results may vary.

This. Gary (the owner of the TT) is VERY knowledgeable on the Megabass rods. Call him or pm him on *** or TT. He will gladly point you in the direction of exactly what you want.

Top 35 for day 3, top 10 for day 4. I was pretty shocked when I checked my results from yesterday. My guys finished in: 1, 9, 25, 29, 54. This landed me in the 97th percentile somehow, so lots of guys must be having a rough event.

So does the Rapala DT, and it's balsa. It's not as common, but you can put a knocker/rattle in a balsa bait.

I hate tidal fisheries. They're always a crap shoot.

That's an odd one. I don't know what it is, but it does not look like a Wiggle O to me. It looks balsa, not plastic. Can you tell what material its made of?

Good to know. Thanks for letting us know. I really felt lost picking for this event. Here's who I've got. Canterbury Benton Williamson Mosley Hudnall

Words can't even describe this. God bless the family and friends of the Jacobs family. ?

The last my wife counted them, I had 42 rods and that was 2 years ago. To answer your question, I still don't have enough.

New: Fuego, Tatula, or SLX Used: Curado Honestly, with how well the Curado's hold up, a nice used Curado is going to give you the most bang for your buck in that price range. But if you're more comfortable with something new from a store, the Fuego, Tatula, and SLX all come highly recommended from guys who have used them.

Living in Michigan, there probably aren't many shad to be found anywhere as the northern winters are too cold for Shad to survive unless they've got some deep, warm water to live in. All that being said, a Keitech works anywhere. Period. Perhaps try downsizing to 3.3's and a 3.8 on your rig if you're having troubles getting bit.

We have a guy in our club who ALWAYS has dead fish at weigh ins. And if a fish barely has moving gills but is clearly going to die, he will argue until he's blue in the face that the fish is still breathing. The saddest part is he's a good fisherman and he's in the money more often than not, and there have been quite a few tournaments through the years where he's fallen out of the money due to his dead fish penalties.

I've had my eye on these and I finally ordered two from a shady looking eBay account. They both shipped two months ago and the first one just showed up. I absolutely love the quality of these things! Owner hooks, great trailer keeper, and no split rings because they're JDM. They also seem like they're a little bit smaller profile (compact) than most USDM chatterbaits.

We have the same issue in western PA as well. Pymatuning in particular gets pounded because it's half in PA and half in OH (which has a bass season that never goes out). All of the clubs and series have their tournaments there whenever the PA bass season is out because this lake is an exception. April, May, and the first half of June, there is no joke 4-7 tournaments on that lake every weekend at a minimum. I remember a tournament we had their last May, we learned from talking to guys throughout the day that there were 5 boat tournaments and 2 kayak tournaments on the lake that day. Despite the heavy pressure, the winning 5 bass limit is usually 18-22 pounds. Lake Arthur is another lake around here that gets pounded and it's significantly smaller than Pymy. It's the closest lake to the city of Pittsburgh, so it gets a ton of traffic. Each weekend there's 2-4 tournaments on it. Add in the Wednesday night tournaments every week that usually draw 30-60 boats each, and you'll quickly see why this lake is dubbed "The Dead Sea". Despite the pounding that this lake takes, every year you see guys pulling some 6 & 7 pounders out of it. All tournaments with more than 5 boats in them are required to be approved by the PAFBC, hence why you will never see any tournaments whenever bass is out of season.

Most of the ponds I fish are 1-5 acres in size and are fishing from 3/4 to the whole way around. I'll generally start with something and work my way around the entire area that I want to fish. Then I'll work my way back to where I started, giving the fish a look from a different direction. At that point, if I'm unsuccessful I will switch it up.

The hooks (and split rings) on the Rapala jerkbaits are notorious for straightening out on fish in no time. I've personally had it happen myself on the first fish I caught on a Shadow Rap (4lb'r). There's really no reason to upgrade to a larger treble hook, but rather just a slightly heavier gauge wire that holds up a little better.

I've never used that small 2.8" for weedless rigging. They're pretty thick and a hook that small isn't going to have much bite in the event that you got bit. A #1/0 on a jig head works great for for them if you fish them on an open hook.

I just Google satellite imaged the pond in question and from comparison to the houses around it, I'd say the pond is probably an acre in size. That being said, yes. I do believe a pond that size can maintain a 6lb bass.

I really like the Damiki Vault and the Lucky Craft ILV 50. If your hooks are fouling up, it's from hooks that are too big. Switch to shorter shank hooks and try using a smaller size treble if that doesn't solve the issue.

I bought one but haven't got to throw it yet. I'm betting that the cupped lip will make it put off some serious vibration and make the bait hunt well. However, I'll be curious to see how that plastic lips also holds up over time.

A slower action rod like a crankbait rod isn't going to be ideal for presentations that require a bait to sit and soak. However, if you're using a steady retrieve like a swim jig/chatterbaits/Biffle Bugging/etc, a slower action crankbait rod can work pretty well. Long story short, a crankbait rod can work in a pinch really for anything, but in the long run, you're going to want a faster action rod for your single hook presentations.

Congrats to Brandon Cobb for finally getting his first Elite W. I was really happy to see him go wire to wire (partly because I had him in Fantasy). Our group also was pretty impressive. We had 6 guys over the 1250 mark, 4 of which were over 1300! Just a heads up guys, we have a quick turnaround for this next one. Winyah Bay starts Thursday morning, so get your picks in for that event by Wednesday night.

You did some major research last night! It's about time I have a solid event. I think I was in the bottom 10 guys in our group prior to this event.