Turkey sandwich

Welcome!

The Scatter Raps really have a tendency to kick out wide and I've grown to like them for covering water on rocky flats. They mimic a scurrying crayfish well and you can lightly weight the front hook to create a slower rise. It's a pretty nifty crankbait.

Appendix carry can be a lot different based on what you're carrying. For me, a little subcompact is a lot different than my P229.

Thank you for the response, and I appreciate that it's well written. (Sometimes the combo of autocorrect and this forum, for whatever reason, turn the most eloquent posts into nonsense. I genuinely appreciate the response.) Still, I think bridging that gap and appealing to larger numbers of anglers is a huge part of expanding the sport and the financial opportunities it provides. If you're going to write off city folk, the reciprocal is city folk writing you off as well. We can both agree, I think, that that does nothing to better the sport, outdoors, conservation, politics, or culture in general. One of the things that held BASS back for decades was a narrow, short sighted perspective that appealing to urban populations, and especially the north was sacrilege. Going back to that will do nothing to help the sport and will only stagnate growth. Tradition has value, but member, a lot of us living in cities cut our teeth in creeks and farm ponds that don't even have names.

I mean, a big part of being successful in general, I think, is functioning under pressure, even when crazy things happen. Ike has a way of wearing his emotions on his sleeve sometimes. Sometimes it's a good thing, other times it's the kiss of death. With this kind of tournament on the line, especially if he wasn't planning on sight fishing beds, that's an awful way to lose. Finding offshore bass without them is awfully hard.

That's what it looks like. According to one report, his electronics **** out and he spent a chunk of the day on the phone trying to get it working and flipping out on Lowrance, I guess. Sometimes Ike gonna Ike.

I appreciate the original post, but I see some major flaws in it's logic. Infrastructure has already been addressed. Simply, major cities have the infrastructure required for large events and in most cases rural America absolutely does not. This is necessary now, and will be even more necessary as the sport grows. Second, the idea that security is present makes it like any other event, anywhere else in the country. It isn't a silly urban culture thing, nor is $15 parking. If $15 parking is the cost of your attending an event for a day, that's extremely cheap. I know of almost nothing you can do to stay entertained for less than $15 a day. As as for your assertion that anglers don't live in major cities... I grew up kinda in the sticks, but I've been in Philly for 12 years, and one of the most exciting northeast BASS tournaments in years was run here on the Delaware. Between fresh and saltwater, there's a massive angling community here in the city, and throughout the surrounding counties, and NYC/Long Island is the same way. DC/Baltimore/Annapolis? They're the unofficial striped bass capital. Miami? New Orleans? Chicago? Detroit? All the same. The most ridiculous (to me, at least) point had to do with city people and country people not being able to get along to the point where it's divisive. Have you ever been to see any kind of either professional, or D1 college sports? The thing about sports is that they offer an opportunity to bring people together. People out in the sticks tend to watch football the same way folks in any city do. At a game, no one cares what kind of car someone drives, what they do for work, their stance on abortion, or their thoughts on the president's budget proposal. They care about the same thing - enjoying the event/cheering their team and making the most out of the opportunity to escape work, stress, etc. If you have beliefs that interfere with your ability to do this, I'm sorry, but I feel like you're missing out on something important.

Jordan Lee is coming on!

I get that. Still, even with the spawn, I'm shocked that more guys don't have limits of males, especially with there being so many guys so close with so much room in their livewells.

This lake just seems like a nightmare to figure out.... But when they're getting bites, everyone is catching big fish. This is one weird classic.

I mean, I'd be kinda shocked if he retires, but he's basically put himself in a position to do whatever he wants if he does. In either case, this seems to be a pretty crazy/unpredictable lake this weekend, so there's a lot of fishing to do. Also, what's up with Basstrakk sandbagging that fish at 8lbs? No way is that fish only 8-0.

And Ike pulls a 9-10lber! This is going to be very, very interesting. And the rumor that Ike retires if he wins?! I've been too busy with work to watch until today, but this is shaping up to be an incredible finish. Ike and Ehrler seem to have pulled away.

The good news is that there are about a dozen threads in this forum detailing exactly that

Basically, anything that can be fished with little/slow action in cold water. You want to stick a bait where you can headstock is a lot of the time. The problem is that current makes doing this tricky. I like to fish for two groups of fish in those conditions. The first and most reliable are those sitting behind points/islands on the edge of wintering holes where I can fish the still edge of the eddy and keep a jerk bait, hair jig, etc in place without the current sweeping it 30 yards down stream between twitches. These aren't always the most aggressive fish, but they're almost always there, and there are usually lots of them. If you have the patience to deadstick for most of the day, this can be really rewarding. The second group are the ones searching for warm, shallow rocks to warm up on and feed. Look for flat rocks and higher water temps, especially on a sunny afternoon. These are the areas where water above 40 degrees will see crayfish coming into play and much, much more aggressive (though still winter/early prespawn) fish. In these stretches, basically everything comes into play and because of fish seeking the warmth/spring spawning cycle, it's not strange to catch bass, musky, or walleye along the same stretch. This can be very, very fun fishing. I like any craw imitation, jerkbaits, shallow-mid depth crankbaits, and flukes.

A mile or so in either direction is excellent depending upon water levels. I love that stretch of water. Similarly, if you drop in a bit further north around the Falls Bridge, there are some other great stretches. The area in between has put a LOT of summertime smallmouth over 3lbs in my boat/kayak.

Most of my rods are spooled with 832 or Powerpro. Both have fished extremely well. Remember, braid will last years, so spending an extra $5 on a spool that will hold up is a really, really good idea.

I grew up basically right there. The North Branch is still a big river, but definitely much smaller than the stretch closer to Harrisburg. I fish less than 30 min north of Wilkes Barre and it's some of my favorites water anywhere. The Wilkes-Barre stretch is still excellent. There are some slow, deep stretches that aren't my preference during the summer just below Wilkes-Barre, but if you do a little research, it's very difficult to beat. If you can fish the conditions, you'll have your next trip planned before you leave.

I have a breathable North Face rain jacket that is killer. It's roomy enough for down underneath if it gets cold, it's comfortable even if it isn't cold, it fits great over waders if wading is your thing, and it packs down tiny. I paid somewhere around $100 for it. I have a fleece lined water proof Cabela's jacket also, but the North Face jacket has completely replaced it.

There are too many FC and copolymer options that are much, much better. InvisX, AbrasX, Sniper, Shooter, Tatsu, etc are all much, much better FC, and Hybrid and CXX are d**n near indestructible in the nasty stuff and still retain a lot of FC properties. And Hybrid, somehow, is still the cheapest stuff (and maybe best leader material) out there.

They can make casting tricky, but learning how to roll cast well can make a big difference. Also, the Fly-Ape is a jerk.

.02 I like the format a lot. It's a dramatic change from the 5 fish limit structure and it forces anglers to fish differently in places where they may have little to no familiarity. As as for figuring out fish and finds patterns... Most tournaments encourage pre-fishing, scouting, etc.. With more information available, a skilled angler is going to have a much easier time putting together effective patterns and targeting larger fish. When dumped at a lake with a boat and topo map and virtually no notice, that's a much different story. It forces the angler to come up with a few game plans on the fly. Sometimes that means the most efficient plan is beating exposed cover and obvious structure. Now, if guys are still able to pull 40+lbs of fish from the obvious suff most guys hit - that's a pretty impressive achievement! Guys on here complain about water being beat fishing from the back of the boat or during recreational boating seasons. These guys are doing it under the gun. That, to me, is impressive. It also shows that sometimes the most effective strategy is the obvious and that paying attention to details like wind, birds, cloud cover, etc can make or break a day, especially when you can't rely on finding pelagic fish offshore. As for Ike... I am nothing like him on the water and the style isn't me, but... I'm a huge fan. He's one of the best on the water and he brings an energy to bass fishing that's huge. For those of us who are already deep in the sport, we may get drawn to quieter guys, but for someone looking from the outside in, this isn't the most exciting sport. Ike brings that. He brings outside attention and notoriety to fishing and the outdoors and that, to me, is huge. A kid watching a tournament isn't going to get pumped watching Denny Brauer stroke a jig. That same kid is going to be pumped watching Ike dance, scream, hug people, and do back flips after winning a tournament.

If you can, consider fly fishing those streams, too. It allows you to carry a ton of options without all the bulk and smallies on the fly are really fun.

There's a lot of great info on here already. Fishing rivers for smallmouth can be very, very addictive. To dispell a common misnomer about smallmouth - "smallmouth tend to prefer smaller baits that largemouth"... I think a better way of relating has more to do with the size of the body of water and the prey available, and I think adjusting this to match the river you're fishing is generally a good idea. After accepting this and scaling appropriately, most lures come into play. I fish mostly big rivers, but a lot of the techniques I use on the Susquehanna would be the same on a smaller river. Grubs, finesse jigs, football jigs, flukes, in-line spinners, and tubes are all very effective. Pop-R/Skitter Pops/X-rap Pop work well in small streams or mile wide rivers. If you're fishing slower current/seams/spawning areas I can also see shaky heads w/floating worms/craws being an excellent choice and for fishing specific, often visible cover a drop shot can be hard to beat for numbers.

The art on these is incredible and I'm really digging the perch patterns. I just ordered a ton of new cranks for the season, but I may be hitting you up to place an order regardless. How does the cedar perform compared to balsa? What's your turnaround time?

Smallmouth on the fly are a LOT of fun, too. Casting streamers accurately definitely takes practice, but size 2 - 1/O Clouser minnows, size 4 or larger wooly buggers, and articulated sculpin patterns will catch both numbers and large smallies. As a bonus, any trout you're likely hooking on any large streamer is probably a 16" or better rainbow and are definitely a fun change of pace from the smallies.