AlabamaSpothunter

That license plate ? Sweet ride!

I hope I go the rest of my life without seeing snow again ?

Great tools should be scratched, and your boat name matches your fishing personality....a Rockstar ?

Nice one, be interested to see you compare the BD Shad with the Bull Shad should you ever get one.

I've yet to see a Bald Eagle fishing around central Alabama, and even then, they'd have very rare chances to grab a 5lb LGM. 5lb+ fish makes me giddy like a kitty

Keep messing around and see what #BigFluoro does in your sleep ?

That's what makes that such a special fish brother, congrats. That's likely a much older fish than a 5lb fish in my home lake, maybe 5-7yr old fish. Giddy Kitty sized fish down here have no predators outside of man that I know of.

Dang, and here I clicked thinking this was going to be about using big Goldfish to catch trophy class Bass lol. That's one ugly fish.....same as every other carp ?

By baitcooler, you mean your stomach....don't lie ?

Nice one, and lol at the tie off. I do the exact same thing, but with a bobber since I'm in a boat. I come back out with my heavy duty lure retrieval tools.

Use 6lb vs 8lb mono while fishing tuffies or small threadfins, you'll see real quick line diameter matters to fish of all types. Like others have said, might be as simple as it effects the bait. I do however think fish can detect the line, whether that negates the strike is another story.

The Certate LT is nothing short of brilliant. Used it for a couple days now and caught a single fish on it today, but as you already know......it's next level refinement, fitment, smoothness, and design. It's easy to find yourself just admiring the reel while fishing with it. That Exsence is beautiful, and I imagine very similar. Those are so sexy, I'd stare at them all winter too

LOL......lots of oldschool mixed with new school stuff. I always love to look at you guy's big hauls and pick a favorite. From a fish catching perspective, I'm taking that Chatterbait in threadfin color, sentimental.....those two Rapalas beside each other....fire tiger, and brook trout colored ones. Nice haul, lots of sadness mined ?

With JDM reels at least, the 21 refers to the year. So it's the 2021 model

Yeah braid certainly helps. Stuff never touches my reels though ? You might be joking, but this is largely true for me lol. Sometimes I count a "quick release" too ?

You can break this down further into two types of topwater fisherman: 1. Folks who throw a topwater as a search/power/coverage bait. 2. Folks who throw a topwater only when they see what baitfish and Bass blowing up. I'm in the second category, so most of my fish come 10-20ft into a retrieve because I've thrown past where I believe the fish are going to be. For the first category folks, I suspect your theory is correct.

I find it's a really big tradeoff between cast distance and hook up percentage.....this is especially true on top water baits. On one hand like you say, you don't spook fish the longer you cast, however on the other hand the longer the cast, the more stretch involved in the process. Things like line selection, rod selection, and reel speed help overcome some of this. The best hooked fish I catch come in between those freight train heart attack hits within 10ft of the boat, and then those bomb casts where they hit close to impact. I lose a ton of fish at both extremes, but when I hook them 20-30ft out, more times than not it's a quality hookset and the fish get boated. I don't think I bomb cast much besides cranks and chatterbaits. I was mentored by a bottom contact guy, I've personally broken away from that mold in adult life, but that mentality always stays with me. I'll never bomb cast bottom contact stuff for sure. Like most things with Bass fishing, I doubt there is a true right or wrong way.

So beautiful Bob, what a piece of paradise you've built. I can see the feeder. I'm going to buy one just like it. Wish I could convert my deer feeder. Do you use the Purina Gamefish Chow.....about 60bucks a bag. I love watching the volcano of fish when feeders go off. The entire food chain including birds get it on the action.

That's good news! Small steps add up to big ones in the end.

not working for me with zman or damiki stuff.....only getting 20% showing ETA: It's always in the fine print lol **10% Additional Discount on select brands has already been applied and is reflected in current price.

That's the correct advice, and advice given by SE Pond Management who are the gurus of pond/small lake health in my area. The smaller the pond, the more you really need to think if Catfish are worth the detriment to Bass population. You should do winter small stockings of Rainbows in your pond. Then aggressively feed your bream as studies have shown a pond can support significantly larger biomass when using fish feeders. You'll have a DD swimming in there in no time ?

Nice job Scott! Glad to hear the new rig is meeting expectations. Fish weren't biting here either. I have an OCD thing about the skunk, so I always get rid of him with a couple smaller fish, then move on to the priority of the day. Today was using 2D sonar and the Damiki Rig with the spinning rig. Struck out big time, seems stupid lol.

What...BR roadtrip, Pickwick, 78 Bass......definition of epic ? Appreciate the knowledge, will certainly try that out.

Thanks, how are you fishing that, vertically.....or casting it and letting in pendulum down?

If you haven't experienced a brush fire during windy conditions, it will stun you how fast fire moves. Great job being fast, you have a very small window to get it under control before it's beyond your control.