OCdockskipper

In our group, Fishballer (S. Duffy) is leading this event with 1359 points. I looked a little closer and realized that his picks in Buckets A, B, C, D are the top point-getter in each group. Tyler Rivet is the top in group E, but he only has 0.3% ownership, so the odds of someone having those top 4 & Mr. Rivet are pretty slim. The only thing this doesn't take into account is the possible 40 additional points if Brock Mosley's big bass holds up. Otherwise, although it is early, it is cool that most likely Fishballer is tied with the top score. I looked down the leader board and saw 2 other folks in the top 500 that had his same choices, so it would come down to the tie breaker. If my choices came through as the winning selections, I would be in a tie with Odell15 (P.Odell), who is also leading in the season points in our group. Odell15 & I have the same choices, his tie breaker is 67.0 lbs while I have 70.7 lbs. With 30 less anglers in the Elites, it seems as if people having the same selections is a less rare thing.

You should have Happy Gilmore'd him...

Cobb (1st) Auten (6th) Lowen (8th) Gustafson (15th) Hartman (31st) So far so good. Tomorrow will be completely different conditions, weights are close enough that it could help me or hurt me. Just need my top 3 to keep it up , Gusty to improve and Hartman to pretend it is his rookie year. As an aside, I read that last year, 6 of the event winners in the Fantasy Fishing were not BASS members, meaning they won $2500 BPS card instead of a $3000 BPS gift card. I find it odd that so many folks who like bass fishing enough to play Fantasy Fishing (& know enough to win) are not BASS members.

"Missing" may not be the correct term, but there are times when an overhead cast has advantages. If you are seated when fishing, overhead is just about the only way you can cast. If you are casting down the side of a dock or parallel to a bluff, an overhead cast is easier to keep in line with your target. I'm sure there are other situations, those are just a few that came to mind.

I have enjoyed watching MLF & BPT events over the past few years, however I think they may need to make some tweaks to their format. Specifically, the BPT's 3rd & 4th round do not follow the traditional prerequisite that competition should get tougher as an event continues. For example, the 3rd round winner Alton Jones beat 39 other competitors to win the round. Then, 29 of those competitors were removed and Jacob Powoznik (sp?) won the title by beating the same 9 guys he participated against the day before. I would say that Jones acomplishment was more difficult than Powoznik, yet Jacob won the title and the big check. Now I understand the need for preliminary heats to pare a field down to a manageable number, but that is what the first 2 rounds did. Rounds 3 & 4 were like a mile long race among 40 people, drop the slower runners & then race again. The more I watch their events, the more I see a need for rewards for early round performances. The easiest method would be to carry all weights forward, but more creative options could be invented. It would eliminate any "managing" of fish or areas. Instead it is a 4 day sprint to the finish. As far as differing conditions favoring or hurting contestants, that would be no different than a later flight in a golf event. They have have to deal with different conditions than the first flight.

For where you live, with plenty to eat (you could add a feeder initially), black crappie will be 8-11 inches in the first two years while LMB will be slightly longer (9-12 inches), but about the same weight. They are a fun fish on light gear, good eating and will devour everything in sight they can get their mouths around. Adding Channel catfish will eventually result in a couple "Queens of the pond" that will keep the crappie population in check if you don't remove enough yourself. It is fun for kids or guests to be catching crappie & then unexpectedly hookup with a 15 lb catfish that spools them across the pond.

I have been pushing/wishing for Mead in every comment I make on the BASS site. I know Vegas is not as LMB focused as many other cities in the country, but it would be a great way to celebrate history and divert any potential negative comments coming about it being the first Classic without the names who left. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. No place sizzles like Vegas and the historical relevance could be the story. They could also tie it to a West Coast swing, they haven't been here since 2015.

Largemouth are probably the most adaptable bass when it comes to ponds, but if your criteria involves eating the fish, you may want to consider crappie or catfish (or both). They are still sporting fish, but generally thought of as better table fare than LMB.

The title of this thread had me going down a completely different path. I thought you were trying to earn some extra cash and were good at multi-tasking.

If many fishermen on your lake use Senko's to skip under the docks, go old school & show the bass something different with a Slug-go. Since you have vegetation on the bottom, rig it weightless T-Rig (I use Gama Skip gap hooks). They skip really well & will "swim around" under the dock once under there. When it hits bottom, it will sit on top of the vegetation instead of sinking down in. There are also Slug-Go type knockoffs that also work well, I found a small local manufacturer who makes some in some unique colors. Mister Twister has one called the Exude Dart and Yum used to have one called the Swurm, but I believe they discontinued it.

If it is too dark or windy for sight fishing, most topwaters will draw a defensive strike from males and a subtle slurp from females. Even if you miss them, they have given away their position. For sight fishing, Ned rig, lizard (T-Rig) & Senko (weightless wacky) in that order. A 1/16th oz TRD won't spook the fish if you accidently cast on the nest instead of past it, and it's buoyancy makes it look like it is rummaging thru the nest.

So I'm watching the 2019 (2018?) MLF Summit cup final and the following quotes occur as anglers hookup: Jacob Wheeler: "Wow, this a tank" - fish weighs 5 lb, 4 oz Brent Ehrler: "Look out, this is a giant" - fish weighs 5lb, 8 oz. Mike Iaconelli: "Oh My God, its a giant!! - fish weighs 1lb, 10 oz. What is wrong with Ike? How can a pro who catches so many fish, consistently over-estimate their weight as he is landing them. Is he just a drama queen, screaming that every fish is a giant in order to gain attention? Or is he an idiot? I know some folks like him, for he is very talented and a good teacher. For me, the act has worn thin, to the point that I find myself actively avoiding the products he endorses unless I have previous experience with it. How many of you think he does this (screaming every fish is a giant) on purpose as a way to get more facetime ?

Does my Koi pond count? If so, then yes. He wasn't the biggest fish in the lake that I caught him in, but he is the biggest in the body of water he was released in.

Yes I did. When I lifted him out of the water, the lake level dropped a foot and a half. I put him in the bed of my truck and it broke the rear axle. It fed my family of 17 for over a year.

As a pre-teen, my sister & I used to fish out of a canoe. One day, she brought my moms cat along on the trip and oddly enough, the cat loved it. She was interested in every catch and if a bluegill was brought aboard, she got breakfast. Every time we hooked up, she would run to the front or back tip of the canoe, peering in the water as to what would be coming out. She even fell in the water once, kind of chaotic to get her back in the canoe. However, in all of those trips, she never came close to getting a hook in her. However, one evening, I tied on the lures for the next days outing and stored the rods in a corner. Around 2 am, we heard a crash and a horrible howling. The cat had actually bit one of the treble hooks, hooked herself and was dragging the rod around. Our neighbor was a fireman/paramedic, so my mom went next door & woke him up. We had to wrap the cat in a towel and have 2 people hold her to stop the poor thing from scratching us. Our neighbor snipped the hooks and backed them out to get the cat unhooked and she bolted under a bed for a few hours. The next morning as we were getting in the canoe to go fishing, she jumped right in the boat, ready to go.

My favorite rod is a new Carbonlite with the Winn grips.

Expect to land? 10 Results using an open hook technique (Ned rig, wacky rig, small swimbait) - 9 plus Results using a Trig or other weedless application - between 8 - 9

I sure hope I don't catch any lonely male bass who have internet access...

That rule did change. It now is a certain number of anglers from the Open's Championship. Litner & Lester got in that way.

Does it or does the winner have to fish the Elite series or Opens to cash in the automatic invite? I'm thinking of Luke Clausens Classic win, I believe he fished FLW the next year and wasn't there to defend his title the next year. Largest bag for the tournament was by an Elite angler (Zaldain). I heard the MLF guys kept releasing keepers instead of putting them in the livewell and were asking when the 1st period break was going to be...

I don't dislike sight fishing, but it is probably #6 or #7 down on my list of favorite ways to catch bass. I play a game with the male bass on beds, if I see them before the see me, they get fished for (at least 1 cast). However, if they see me first, they are off the hook (pun intended). I think if they do a good enough job to camoflauge themselves from a predator (me), they deserve to be rewarded. This game does not apply to the fat girls...

Chicken Liver is good, but can be frustrating to keep on the hook. Here on the West Coast, you can by frozen Mackerel at most any bait shop or sporting goods store. Cut pieces of it stay on the hook well and catch larger than average catfish (at least in my lake). The smaller catfish are caught with nightcrawlers, hot dogs & dough bait. I think it has to do with smaller catfish being more of a scavenger while larger catfish are more of a predator.

So like many people, I had DeFoe (leader plus big bass). I also have Elam, Lane & Pwroznik (all in the top 12). Hey, maybe I have a shot at winning this...oh wait, I have Keith Poche (50th out of 52). That D bucket was a tough choice, I thought Poche might just junk fish around and be better than anyone else in his bucket, even if he didn't fair well against the rest of the field. So help me, if my other 4 guys hold up and Poche costs me a $3K BPS card, I'm going to ask Ish Monroe to push him in the water again. Go, you crawdad eating Cajun, put 15 lbs in the boat tomorrow!!

Not a whole lot said, but I think he could have approached it even better. Instead of thinking the worst of the kids, he could have pulled up next to them & said something like "This is a great spot, huh? I think you know I am in the tournament, would it be okay if I fished this area for the next 45 minutes, I need to catch 2 more decent fish to win". He could have even invited them to stick around near him and given a play by play to them. Yes it wasn't cool for the high school kids to do that, but Latimer would have created 2 fans for life had he approached them from the perspective that these guys could help him (by allowing him to move back in) as opposed to the fact that they were hurting him (by fishing the spot).

I still have 3 of them, they were the first spinnerbait I ever caught a bass on.