buzzbaiter83

I have a Tatula LT, Stradic CI4, & a Revo MGX. All 3 are great reels but my Tatula is my favorite of the 3. I like being able to back reel with light line if needed and I like the handle on the Tatula better than the MGX. I use all 3 reels though. For the price I don’t think you can beat the Tatula.

Norris, Cherokee, & Douglas for me. Occasionally I get to Chick and Watts Bar but most for crappie or frog fishing in the fall.

I love the 2lb minimum. It’s made it more interesting for me. I’ve spent more time watching MLF live this year already than all of last year combined.

I love both but at different times. I have a lot of success with the chatterbait in cooler waters 45-55. Once it hits 55-60 I catch more on the swim jig. That may because that’s what I have confidence in but it just seems that way. It also coincides with water levels where I fish. When the water is down I fish the chatterbait. When it gets up in the grass and trees I like the swim jig.

BASS is promising MLF guys who return that they’ll schedule tournaments on their home lakes. They’re just waiting to see who all comes back. Bass is waiting for MLF to release their schedule first so they can plan around it allowing pros to possibly fish both. BASS only had one handwritten copy to be sent to HQ for production but Mercer used it as TP during an emergency stop on the way to Birmingham.

My family have videos of me catching my first blue gill at 18 months old. My dad or Papaw would always take me along. As far as bass, I cut my teeth on the river. I’ve been blessed to live my whole life on one of the 3 forks at the start of the Cumberland River. When I was 10 my Mom finally let me start wade fishing as long as I stayed within distance to hear her whistle or our car horn. I spent every day i could wading and catching smallmouth & redeye, then camping out and fishing for bullhead and channels at night.

I have been blessed with great fishing partners but my dad is the best. We still fish a Tuesday night derby every week and our Club Tourneys every other week. He’s the most high strung guy I’ve ever fished with but he’s my best friend. We have one tomorrow night and I’m looking forward to hanging out with him.

This X10. I never back reeled til I started tight-lining for winter TN smallmouth on 4-6lb line. I usually use my pinky & ring finger on my rod hand to assist.

I fish, hunt, & grow a lot of my own food. I try to be as self reliant as possible. Harvesting animals/fish give them value. Making them valuable leads to protections and ensures survival of species. To each his own. Whether you hunt/fish or kill/release just enjoy the outdoors and get outside.

I help run a Bass Club. It’s in our rules that suspected cheaters can be subject to polygraph. It also says that if you’re the accusing party then you agree to pay for the polygraph. We’ve never had anyone ask to administer one.

Upstream for me when possible, although I’ve done it both ways. We always took 2 trucks. Parked one where we wanted to get out, drove the other and parked it where we started. I’ve even waded upstream with my kayak tied to my waist and floated back down to the truck when finished. Most of the time, if I’m alone, I fish my way back down though.

If you’ve ever watched BASS Live on some of the northern lakes or southern spotted bass lakes it can be a total dink fest too. I watched most of the tournaments when I wasn’t fishing myself and it’s just like any other trip. Lot of casting and not a lot of catching. Guys may catch a couple fish per hour or go hours without a bite. Depending on the lakes they fish we’ll see different strategies come in to play and could be good drama seeing which will play out. MLF was running a lot of smaller lakes and I’m betting they change with angler input. Imagine the weights at Chik on schooling 5-8lb bass in early spring.

I like the idea behind The MLF Bass Tour. Most other sports have a players union and these guys didn’t have the representation they deserved. Most bass clubs are angler driven and it’s nice to see the guys generating money get some say so. This will give anglers another avenue to make a living fishing. There are 3 major tours now which opens the doors for more guys. If you’re a fan of the sport & not just a fan of a particular angler then you should be happy there will be more opportunities to watch fishing. While I’m a fan of 5 bass weigh in tourneys, I still like the MLF model. But I also enjoy watching guys cast all day on bass live.

That’s how I feel being between Norris, Cherokee, & Douglas Lakes. 3 lakes and 3 totally different types of bodies of water.

If I ask someone on my boat to just fish I don’t expect them to pay for anything. I’ve asked them because I genuinely want them to have a good time for no more cost than their food or I want their company for the day. If they offer, I’ll let them buy my meal or something similar. If I’m on someone else’s boat I always offer to split on cost but usually my friends and I are pretty likeminded. Club tourneys are different. We split everything 50/50.

I always tuck my rod in my underarm. Never had an issue. Any solution that would add more bulk to carry wading would either be a burden ornin the way for me personally. I like to carry as little as I can get away with.

I don’t use superline hooks unless I’m using 16# plus flouro and then it depends on technique and application.

Don’t have a clue but with the new changes to the BASS Elite Series announced & Major League Fishing it could be a new sponsorship opportunity.

I fish from a kayak, bassboat & pontoon. I’ve wakeboarded & tubed all over the lake. I stay off of high traffic lakes during summer with my kayak just because I know how ignorant folks are. I’m sure some are just inconsiderate but most probably have no clue. Unless they’ve been in a kayak with waves coming at them then they have no idea what they’re doing to you. At least it usually calms back down after Labor Day and a lot will be done for the season. I keep my kayak in small “no wake” lakes or rivers in the summer. If I do go to a big lake in Summer I go early at daylight and leave before the party crowd starts getting out to play. Stay safe out there

I buy worm binders and use one for each type of bait. I take out all the plastic sleeves that come with it. I leave my plastics in the original packaging. Then I take a hole punch and punch holes in the packs to match up to the rings in the binders. I arrange them in order by size. I take a sharpie and write on the binder what’s inside like craws, tubes, stick worms, or whatever is in the binder.

I’ve caught the most fish with 5” Yum Dingers. But my biggest fish have came fishing deep with Mann’s Jelly Worms in the 9” & 12” sizes.

I still fish a Silver Buddy, a firetail power worm Texas rigged, & Salty Crawlin Grub. All of which I rarely see thrown or talked about anymore. I catch more 2-4lb smallmouth on a Berkeley Gulp Minnow in the winter than all my other baits combined. +1 on the rattling rogue. I like the suspending version, orange/silver/black with the black gill stripes.

I’ve had cranes grab my buzzbait at night. No fun to try and get off. Had a raccoon try to grab it one night. Thought it was gonna climb in my boat with me. I had a friend accidentally foul hook a beaver on a spinnerbait at dusk once. The fight lasted a couple seconds. lol

My local lake is really small. Just a couple hundred acres. I’ve looked all around it for crawfish and only found a couple tiny ones in the very head of the main feeder creek that runs into it. There is little to no rock or pebble in the entire lake. I catch a bunch of bass on a zoom speed craw on a standup jig head. They’ll eat it if it looks good to them.

I love throwing them on all the TN lakes. Dandy smallmouth bait and great when the LM bite is tough. It’s very underrated as a flipping bait Texas Rigged. It imitates so many different things.