AlabamaSpothunter

You tried that Zillion yet? I wish I had half dozen more.

Just wait until how fast you're fishing with it too!

In all of my hobbies as an adult, the JDM exchange rate along with just how amazing Digitaka is to do business with as an American is the best "sale" I've come across. Second place was a few years back when Wal Mart went anti 2A and decided to blow out all their handgun, and "non hunting" rifle calibers.....a.k.a. 5.56/.223 and 7.62x39. Deals were the stuff folks on the forums still talk about years later........the JDM/exchange rate deal will be the same way. I'll regret not buying more just like with the Walmart ammo deal, but I'll take comfort in knowing I bought all I could "responsibly" buy. 2 Jackal big Swimbaits saved me 25 Zillion SV TW saved me 80 Zillion TW HD saved me 120 Certate LT 3000 CXH saved me 170 That's almost 40% off the best price I can find USDM on the Certate.....not to mention most sales exclude Daiwa, Shimano, and other high end JDM stuff. I highly doubt you're gonna find any BF sales that have Daiwa or Shimano reels 30-40% off

I was thinking once I learn Japanese, I'm gonna seek treatment

Digitaka Monkey has been loving you tenderly lately, how much longer can we use the excuse of exchange rates ?

Great observation, and I'd agree with the premise for sure. Your pond is awesome, and you've made it even cooler with your carpentry skills. There are some really talented folks on this forum like yourself

Heck yeah, 45 min video is on youtube. Watching now, how they got those scenes in 1996, let alone 2022 is crazy. Wonder where it was filmed

You're a good man A-Jay! Agree, those puppers will be gone in no time.

Great points, and especially point number 1. Matt from Tactical Bassin talks specifically about how the really big fish we all want to catch inhale a bait with a huge suction of water and many times the only clue you ever get is a small "tick" when the big fish closes her mouth on the line. I'm going to get one of those underwater cameras that connects to your line and trolls in front of your lure. Since I've found how to catch lots of 1-2lb Bass trolling, I think I can get them on film and see what is happening. The mystery and magic below the surface is one of the first things that drew me to fishing.

I'm so stingy with my LFT Magic Shads I haven't tried them on the A-rig. They just work amazing as trailers on chatterbaits and on the back of Scrounger heads that I'm stocked up on them. Might have to try a few. OP, I went more budget friendly and used the Strike King Squadron baby heads in 1/8th and used Rage Swimmers in the smoke color. Those Strike King jigheads have hooks as sharp as any I've ever felt on jigheads.....I mean super sticky. They are high quality, but don't have the realism some more expensive heads have. Fish really like it if my shoulder doesn't wuss out.

The more I watch Matt from Tactical Bassin, the more I realize how important reaction/feed response baits are if you fish anywhere that other anglers do. Bass are incredibly quick to adapt to realism approaches and won't even bat an eye at them when they aren't in feeding mode, however, force their hand into a reaction situation.....50/50 that fish at least bites your bait. I imagine it would blow our minds if we could see underwater all the fish that follow or acknowledge our bait's presence yet never commit. These are the baits that I'm focusing on learning currently, big hard swimbaits, chatterbaits, A-rigs, and my next is speed cranking. All four of these baits trigger a reaction many times regardless of if the fish is hungry, they simply can't help themselves from lashing out at it. This reaction/feed response is a nuanced subject. I imagine many anglers believe all lures are reaction/feed response ones, and in some ways they'd be correct.

When I was kid I would cut myself on accident playing in the woods with pocket knives.....I would wig out inevitably, and this one time I came running inside flailing my cut finger all over the place screaming.......long story short, it looked like a Haunted House until my parents locked me down, and wrapped it up ?

I'm better as an adult, and it's only my own blood that would do it, but if I had a gasher as a kid or had blood drawn, there was 50/50 I was turning into a fainting Goat. Meanwhile my sister is a surgeon, and blood has never bothered her in the least. ETA: You can actually rid yourself of things like this through desensitization therapy. You're slowly exposed to more and more of what bothers you, until it no longer triggers the same response.

I read an old reply of yours on trolling a few weeks back and it was great. I've learned how to wear out 1-2lb fish trolling, but I've yet to figure out how to catch a bigger one doing it. I had no idea how many of these 1-2lb fish were in the smack dab middle of the lake. I also never heard of Buck Perry but just read this article on him. Sounds like a legend. Buck Perry - The Bass Fishing Hall Of Fame (bassfishinghof.com)

Outside of just whatever you'd normally be fishing with, I'd have as many versions as possible of swimbaits with different jigheads. The best Spotted Bass lure I've found is a Chatterbait Flashback Mini in the 1/8th model. Doesn't matter what color because you'll be tossing the supplied swim bodies. Then you pick up a few packs of different colors of Armor Shads in the 3" model. I've caught hundreds of Spotted Bass on this bait over the last two months. I average 15-20 Spots per Armor Shad as well which is incredible. Another bait that I just added is the MegaBass Screwhead Jigheads with the same 3" Armor Shads, just a dialed back approach. Both of these baits can be burned, or Yo Yo'd around bait pods. I'm new to A-Rigs, but I can already see they are very effective for Spotted Bass, and they shine in general in the winter. Lastly, Spotted Bass are suckers for suspended jerkbaits.

You catch it out of the sink ? Very nice fish Mike

If the fishing isn't dynamite, I'm not interested. HOWEVER, if it's a special body of water with big fish....I'll go to no ends to please whomever grants me access to fish it. Down here in the South, many if not most DD LGM are taken from smaller lakes and ponds that are privately owned. Those are the places I'd happily trade work for. Learned this from my mentor. He had all these magic honey hole smaller lakes around the state from doing favors or sometimes just treating people right. He ended up spending most of his time fishing on water that contained DD fish without much to any pressure.......what more could you ever dream of as a Bass angler.

Lol....all it took was a $10 jump in the JDM prices to get me to finally commit on my "buy once, cry once" spinning reel. I mean still......$280 JDM vs $450 USDM(TW best price), I'd never buy a $450-500 one. Ordered last night, so I hope to be glowing by Friday. Once I get the rod for this reel, I'm so done lol Items: DAIWA REEL SPINNING REEL CERTATE 19 CERTATE LT 3000-CXH 4960652202800 @39,800 JPY x 1 qty = 39,800 JPY Shipping Cost: 0 JPY Oversize Charge: 0 JPY Total Amount: 39,800 JPY Discount: 0 JPY Final Total: 39,800 JPY

Hi fellow Alabamian! I fished a ton down in your area when I was going to Auburn. Thurlow Dam is a really fun place for big stripers if you don't mind the drive. So many pigs in all those golf course and small ponds area the area. Conway Acres always makes me laugh....that dude must have kicked out thousands of Bass fisherman lol. ETA: I caught my PB in Auburn.

I'm building big XMAS lighted trees for someone in order to fish from their property. I love trading work for fishing access. That said, earning income and taking care of your own home and family obviously take priority. Outside of that, I'll do most any odd job in the fishing is good enough lol.

The definition of the American dream imho. That's fantastic, and I'm sure it took a lot of hard work to get there and will take more hard work to get the new pond built. If you want excellent inspiration, check out BamaBass youtube channel. My ultimate bucket list item is to buy/build a 100-200acre lake and raise the next Alabama state LGM record.

Makes me crazy jelly knowing that highschools and colleges have Bass fishing teams, and you can even get a scholarship to my Alma Matta Auburn for Bass fishing. Great job, beautiful fish, and never forget to stop and enjoy this period of your life. I guess now I've got to begrudgingly pull for the Boilermakers unless they play my Tigers in March next year. Like you said, if your losing fish, the most important thing is that you can find them. You'll refine your techniques and equipment in due time and those fish will be boated. My Chatterbait journey was exactly like this. I could find the fish with chatterbaits, but just lost way too many. Then I got a dedicated setup for them, and everything changed.

What a dream that boat would be for my home lake......I've been shopping on FB marketplace for something similar, obviously not nearly as nice as that one. That thing is money.

Dang Scott, so sorry to hear that. Such a cute, and beautiful pupper. Few things are as painful as losing a good animal. I still think daily about a cat I lost 5 years ago. Try to have a good time and enjoy that awesome new trailer.

One thing that never gets talked in regard to the Covid pandemic, it put tremendous pressure on fisheries, and it all but killed the only public stocked trout stream in Alabama. To this point, and gimruis's point about pressure......my mentality towards Bass behavior and my lure selection is heavily predicated on pressure. I will start throwing a new bait simply because I think the fish in a body of water haven't seen it. Some baits will always work like T-rig bottom contact stuff, but I've found other baits become less appealing to fish over time if I throw them enough. I got into big swimbaits recently because I know nobody is throwing these things on my homelake, and the big fish haven't seen them. It's a lot of work and requires special tackle and expensive baits. I view this the same way I like to fish in bad weather, I'm putting myself in a position to catch fish that the majority of anglers on said body of water aren't having. My goal is to catch big Bass, not trick the smartest Bass on the lake into biting lol.