j bab

Same goes for the Opens. For example Ike just won the Open at the James River recently.

They're undoubtedly in a weird transition right now as far as name recognition is concerned @WRB but give it some time. I think we have the next generation of stars in the making, they're still hammers even though we haven't heard of them yet, look at some of the weights from this year

So less than half are reruns, and the ones that are will be at places where they hammered em this year. And it's fairly common for the Classic weigh ins to be a drive. I don't see any issues In fact, all the elite series guys I know are pretty stoked about the schedule!

Lake Eufaula (Alabama) has been utter crap lately! And it's not just me, the local hammers have been getting skunked lately too and they actually know what they're doing

6'6" MH is a great all-around rod! There are an unlimited number of uses for it, I've used mine for spinnerbaits and worms (weighted or weightless) mostly

The codes FISH10 and THANKS10 stack on top of Rapala's "buy 10 get 20% off" sale. So DTs are only 5.50 each, which is 11% cheaper than getting them from TW during the labor day sale

I'm officially dubbing this moment an "enthusiast awakening." Congrats but also I'm sorry, because that combo is going to ruin "lower end" gear for you. Prepare your wallet for the impending high end gear buying spree that just might last the rest of your life.

I agree, except I might choose a plastic craw

90% of my rods are casting So if I were you I'd definitely get a casting rig. Since it sounds like you have the basics covered and some money to spend, you could splurge and get a high end combo instead of two in your normal price range.

Oh good lord, that thing is alive? At first glance it just looks like a waterlogged soft plastic bait

Also, I said that to someone at ICAST and just a few weeks later this happened:

Great discussion here. I've never fished barbless, but it sounds like there are some good reasons to consider it. Does anyone make barbless bass hooks, or are you required to crush them yourself?

That is really cool, I hadn't seen those. Thanks for sharing

This is probably the truth assuming OP is referring to the Elite Series when he says BASS. Many pros from MLF and FLW do fish the BASS Opens though. As far as why a pro would pick one over another, it's probably just whichever one they are invited to. If they qualify or are invited to multiple, it comes down to $$$

This one is good, but on mine I took off the hook and added a fish gripper (6"). A gripper is a must, you will never use a hook-style scale again after using one. In hindsight, I should have just bought one that comes with a gripper pre-attached from the get go. Learn from my mistake! Also, in my opinion boga grips aren't worth it for bass. I could definitely see buying one for heavier fish though.

I had to unsubscribe from their emails (and Dicks) for that reason, too many good deals too often. My wallet couldn't keep up

If I were you I'd get something like this, in medium-heavy: https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/abu-garcia-revo-x-baitcast-combo I can't vouch for it from personal experience, as I don't own a single Abu Garcia product, but I sold a lot of similar combos when I worked at Cabela's and people seemed really happy with them. Plus, that rod is a mod-fast action, which should be perfect for the application you're describing. Some general baitcasting tips: make sure you let the rod work for you, don't try to muscle every cast. Kinda like golf, when you TRY to swing hard, more often than not the result is worse than if you took a 3/4 swing. Spend lots of time reading BR articles and watching YT videos about baitcasters, but more importantly PRACTICE. In the yard preferably, so you're not wasting precious fishing time untangling backlashes.

I hope my man Michael Neal can pull off a win. He's had consistently good finishes all year (5th in AOY I think), just needs a few more key bites and he could win it all, whether that's redcrest or a regular season event next year.

My first bass came on a wacky rigged Zoom Centipede in Watermelon Red out of Toledo Bend. I'm pretty sure it was an offset worm hook too, not one of the modern "wacky hooks." Call me crazy but I still prefer to wacky rig stick baits with EWG hooks

Mix and match any 3 packs of BB Kickers for $18.99 with free shipping using the code "kicker": https://bigbitebaits.com/product/bb-kicker-bundle/ I convinced them to do free shipping this time thanks to feedback from @paulmandude and @cookieman It would be smart to also get some sale items such as the $2.49 wacky sticks (or literally anything else) in order to take full advantage of the free shipping deal, cuz it applies to everything in your cart

Big Bite Wacky Sticks are $2.49 a pack https://bigbitebaits.com/product-category/soft-plastics/monthly-sale-items-soft-plastics/original-wacky-sticks-

+1

Possibly coincidence, but I used to fish a pond in OKC all the time in college and the biggest fish I ever caught out of that pond came on the first day I ever threw the livetarget lipless bluegill

I had this happen earlier this week! Unfortunately it was too deep for the braid trick, and it was somehow stuck to where I couldn't push it the rest of the way through to clip the barb so I went to the hospital. It took the doc a couple attempts to push it through even with my finger numbed because it was stuck so bad!

Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota A lot of the places I've fished have been on a border so I get to count two states