soflabasser

I agree with you that it is more gratifying to catch a big bass on inexpensive gear with great value.Might look into combo you mentioned since that's a very good deal.

I agree with you and these ugly sticks can easily take the beating a bank fisherman gives to his gear.I see my combos as a tool to catch bass(or any fish) and I don't want to baby my gear.I have stepped on my rods, high sticked them with big fish,yet they haven't broken,even with +2 decades of abuse.Not easy to do that with high modulus graphite rods.

With my profession I can easily replace every single one of my rods for the "latest and greatest" bass rods if I wanted to,but I have no need for it and don't think I will.I rather spend the money saved on proven lures,but that's just me.Besides,my better half won't be happy if I spend more money on fishing than I already do.

For bass fishing rods I mostly use Ugly Stiks and for reels I mostly use Shimano and Penn. I have a custom bass rod(was given to me as a gift over a decade ago)and use that rod for mostly topwater/jerkbait fishing, but honestly haven't seem it outperform my other rods enough to justify its price. Have caught several bass that weighed over 10 pounds from land using these combos, so I don't see the need for me to buy more expensive combos.

They grow slow, but they grow very thick for their size from the looks of it. Last month I caught a bass a little over 9lbs and she was 4 inches longer than the bass you showed. Would of easily been a double digit if she had some more thickness to her body.

You played MegaMan as well? That was one of my favorite video games to play when I was a child. As for going down and blasting fish there's a sport called spearfishing that you can do and is extremely fun(where you are allowed to). I have dived days where the ocean vis was over +100 feet, its paradise down here for anyone who loves the outdoors!

Live Target Frog

Nice invention, but I rather go diving and see the fish in their natural habitat.

Congratulations to Mr.Williams,that bass is a beauty.The bass is thick all along its length, which shows this bass was extremely healthy when it was caught.

Less is more when it comes to bank fishing. Carrying more than you really need will weigh you down,especially if you plan on fishing for +10 hours.A Plano box filled with proven lures, a couple meal replacement bars, couple water bottles and a can of bug spray is usually more than enough items for a backpack . As for rods,you only really need 1 rod/reel combo and more than 3 combos is really not needed for a successful day of bass fishing.

Bass fishing in ponds isn't as easy as some might think,especially if your targeting trophy bass in a highly pressured public pond. In these ponds, you need to know what your doing very well and even then you will have to put in more time to catch a big bass than fishing a low pressured big body of water known for big bass.For example, I find lake Okeechobee to be far easier to fish that most small bodies of water I fish and have noticed this for other big bodies of water I have fished as well.With that said,private ponds are significantly easier to fish for big bass than public bodies of water and its no coincidence many people's PB's come from farm ponds or other private ponds that are not accessible to the general public.

Thank you.I learned a long time ago that expensive rods/reels wasn't what I needed to succeed in bass fishing ,what I really needed was to put my time on the water and apply what I learned to improve my bass fishing. There is a man from Georgia who is known for catching over 1,100 bass over 10 pounds each and his biggest bass was well over 18 pounds,with 6 bass over 15 pounds each. His favorite rod/reel combo was a Ugly Stik/Ambassador 5500C, which he mostly fished buzzbaits with.

Knowing how to bass fish well is much more important than how much your gear is worth,nothing will change this fact.I have a custom bass rod (was given to me as a gift over decade ago) which is very light and strong,but it hasn't caught me as many bass as my rods that cost me less than $50 each. In fact, almost every bass I have caught over 8 pounds has been on fishing rods under $50 each.I do spend more money on saltwater rods/reels, since saltwater fish put more stress on my fishing gear and saltwater is much more corrosive than freshwater.

Ugly Stiks are great rods,plain and simple. They come in a wide variety of sizes,for big saltwater game fish to fish well under a pound . I have well over 10 Ugly Stiks,many of them are over 20 years old,and these rods have caught me thousands of fish.Not one of them has ever broken,even with the abuse I put them through.They are not the most sensitive rod in the market, but a highly skilled bass fisherman with a decent Ugly Stik will often out fish a decent fisherman with a professional custom bass rod.

For me, nothing beats seeing a big bucketmouth basss jump out of the water to destroy my topwater like it was a great white shark after a seal.

My hookup ratio is good without a trailer hook when using spinnerbaits/buzzbaits.

It never gets old for me seeing alligators when I am bass fishing.This weekend I had a +10 footer get less than 15 feet away from me,so I stopped fishing for a while and just admired the sheer size and beauty of this alligator.Such a impressive animal,I highly recommend anyone who have not seen a alligator to make a trip down here and see them with your own eyes.

A person with a large amount of patience is often a successful person in most aspects of their life.Having patience has allowed me to excel in every form of fishing I have given my best effort in,my professional life,my personal life,and other aspects of my life.Patience is something that cannot be given to someone, it is something that has to be earned,the old fashioned way.I am grateful for my family raising me the way they did,since they taught me that life rarely gives you freebies and you will have to work very hard to reach your goals.

A couple pairs of shoes,a nice shirt, and 2 awesome fishing trips this past weekend.

Congratulations to the man who caught that huge Muskie!

The following lures are my some of my favorite lures to catch large numbers of bass in a day; Rebel Pop-R Hollow body frog Spinnerbait Rapala X-Rap Zoom Super Fluke Senko

That's one of the main reasons why I fish for bass.There are so many different ways to catch a bass and that makes it fun to catch them with new techniques. One can spend a entire lifetime bass fishing and never use every single lure known for catching bass.

Sounds like a fun challenge. I enjoy multi species fishing and can't get enough of it.Down here in South Florida you can easily catch 10 species of fish in a couple hours, even +20 species in one day if you wanted do.

It's shocking how heavy the Montana state bass was at only 22.5 inches in length.What was the girth on that bass, 20 inches? Reminds me of the current Texas state record bass which only measured 25.5 inches yet it weighed 18.18 pounds.These are some truly thick bass.

The amount of rods I carry when bank fishing for bass depends on many factors. On long fishing trips(over 10 hours of fishing) I tend to only bring 1-2 rods.Normal trips I bring anywhere from 1 maybe 3 rods,and sometimes I bring more.With that said,you only need 1 rod/reel combo to have a successful day of bass fishing from the bank.