AlabamaSpothunter

Caught this fish a few hours ago, and in all my years of Bass fishing, I've never seen a LGM that was as brown as this fish. This is the most uniquely colored Bass I've ever caught. Pics don't really do the brown justice. The "browning" was all through his jaw, tongue, and front inside mouth area.

Fellow big 2A guy, copper is not just for hunters of 4 legged critters. While you may like them for their penetration qualities, their expansion rate, and retention weight once expanded is what makes all copper bullets do lethal in terms of wounding mechanism. The only downside to all copper bullets is you can push them too fast, and the pedals will sheer off upon impact rather than expanding and remaining intact being non bonded and more brittle, and the other thing is they won't expand at lower velocities as well as a bonded bullet will. 2000-220fps is the threshold for Barnes all copper TSX IIrc, whereas Federal's Gold Dot bonded bullet can expand down to 1600-1800fps Some of the finest ammunition loaded for personal defense/home defense/PD use terminal ballistically speaking incorporates all copper bullets. The 50-70gr Barnes TSX bullets are among the best tested bullets for .223/5.56 in ballistic gel. For a handgun though I still prefer bonded bullets like Federal's HST lineup in terms of the best money can buy for terminal ballistic performance in your handgun, whatever caliber you carry.

Surely a Crappie fisherman. At what point do you have the conversation with yourself in the mirror when you got half a dozen LiveScopes hanging off your bow ?

Ever since Bass fishing has existed, it's been hard to catch Bass. It doesn't matter what advancements we make, the fish will adapt, and on the macro scale, even evolve over time. One thing I know about Bass, maybe the only thing......they are extremely unpredictable, and don't adhere to any hard and fast set of rules. I have a Koi pond.....I can see the fish anytime I want, they will only eat one or two times a day no matter how many times I throw food in there. You can't make a Bass eat that doesn't want to eat.....Sonar, FFS, underwater camera, whatever.

Dude you should just start fishing for lures, you'd be like those dudes who rake in side income from collecting golf balls from golf course ponds ?

Pretty fish brother. Same here the last week for sure, slowest it's been in months. Maybe try a little bit once the sun goes down. I'm going to try that this evening. Instead of fishing the last 3 hours of light, I'm gonna fish the last hour of light + a few hours after light.

My AA rod that arrived yesterday cost $24 and change like MN Fisher said, I think 50 round trip is likely what it actually costs. Well then that doesn't sound right......that's twice the amount it should cost to ship a rod CONUS with 2 UPS air.

Just when you think they can't find a more ridiculous way to shake you down for more of your hard earned money. 90 years old....give me a break, what a joke. I can't remember the last time I saw a 90 year old on the water or the woods. Talk about money hungry.

Most excellent and thanks, gonna Google them now Thanks! I'm the same way with your Whopper Plopper, and frogs by in large Katie. I fished a frog once this summer for about 5 mins. Amazing how we find all these different ways to catch Bass. I guess that's what makes the industry so big, so many different products will catch em

3 hours of fishing......one single bite on a roboworm, and two lost small Crappie 30 mins of fishing right before I end the day........6 fish, 7 bites. Biggest was 4.2lb LGM, however I caught a nice little chunky spot on a Crappie setup that felt like a Tarpon in the Keys lol. Fishing is the ultimate game of patience, me and one of other gentlemen started fishing the same time, he packed up and left at 6:30 after experiencing the same lockjaw conditions. 30mins later like magic the fish decided to bite. You always here it stressed, but it's really the golden rule of Bass fishing......time on water is the only thing that matters. The last spot, the last 10 mins, the last cast can always be the best of the day, season, or even your PB. Chatterbait took 4, small Chatterbait for panfish took one, and then caught a smaller LGM on a 7" Bold bluegirl Roboworm. Thinking I might just have these fish's feeding time nailed down after this session, and the one two days ago. They just won't eat right now during the day. pics: Biggest LGM, biggest Spot, and I'm not sure what type of bird this is, but it let me get right on it unlike Herons, very cool bird. That laid down tree top is a favorite for Herons, so I guess this bird is more alpha.

Alabama Bass like the second pic of yours can't be topped imho. Just incredible. They have almost snake camouflage to them Great thread Katie, I could look at Bass pics for days

Wow, wow, wow is all I can say. I can't ever remember having a "EUREKA" moment in fishing like I had today with this new rod. I figured I had to post this review after posting some dirty laundry before allowing a company to rectify the problem. Every single 5 star review about this rod, all the gushing verbiage, it was all spot on correct. This rod is nothing short of amazing, has the sensitivity of a bottom contact rod, and the action is just ridiculously tuned for chatterbaits, and I can already see this will be true for all other moving baits. I've never had a rod flip a switch in my fishing game like this one. Cosmetically it was terrible, functionality however is off the charts. Started fishing at 4pm.......had one single bite on a roboworm until right before dusk when I got the skunk off the boat with a small LGM and Spot. Figured I'd try one last spot in the dark on the way home that I've had luck using the chatterbait at. Long story short in a period of 20 minutes I caught 4 fish, 3 Spots.....and one 4.2lb LGM on this dedicated setup. You know that feeling you get when you first learned to ride a bike.....I swear I got the same feeling when I went 4 for 5 on fish that bite the chatterbait. Not just that but I hooked every single fish perfectly, and right in the corner of the lip. This rod is doing exactly what it actually says it does, and I hoped it would do. I'm normally an Indian verses Arrow guy, but in this case the Arrow makes all the difference in the world, and that's an understatement. This place, and the membership's knowledge is unbelievable. Putting it all together after struggling for 2 months, fishing 45-50 days of that, is a "high" that only a fellow fisherman could understand. Steve was who sent me the reply. You guys were more correct than I could have ever imagined. I really can't stress how big of difference this rod made. Thanks for all your help specifically as well!

Thanks for confirming that seriously, I never want to be the cosmetic complaining Karen type, but I went back downstairs and look at every rod I own, and none of them had these things. That said, from the time I contacted them, and gave an update to this thread, I received the following reply back...... "Our apologies......I will get a replacement rod on the way including a return label so we can follow this one back through production. Thank you for the pictures and bringing this back to us. Any concerns or questions please let me know." I have absolutely no problems with a company that puts out an occasionally bad product which happens to every company, and then is so quick to make it right with the customer. While the rod disappointed me, AA's CS really impressed me.

Just got the new Chatterbound in from UPS. Compared to even the lowest tier Loomis I have, a GL2.....this rod looks like it was put together with child labor, or in some shop in China. Numerous places where residual glue remains, and more worrisome, one guide is wonky as heck, and a couple others are not centered. To be fair this rod was like $200 before shipping, expecting high end Loomis perfection is likely not reasonable. Might fish great, but I like quality controlled and tested products, I highly doubt this rod had either. I bought a $50 half off Shimano SLX rod weeks ago that has perfect guides and is free of defects from the factory. Quite disappointing, and I'm at odds with how this rod lines up with hundreds of 5 star reviews on AA's site. I mean not a single non 5 star review. Maybe I'm just extremely unlucky, or picky. Either way it was a valuable lesson.....from now on I'm always gonna buy rods in person. Just a few examples of the glue left in numerous places, and the guide does concern me. Second from top.

That would have been interesting. That said, many of us who use Garlic don't do so to "attract" Bass, we use it to mask our own scents that we impart on to the baits. I'm not a smoker, but that's a huge one. I do however have to use a heavy deet formula, and so I use the Bang Garlic to mask my scent. Gulp stuff is to actually mimic real bait so I get why he would say that.

LMAO....If UT goes 5-0 you'll be just an entire annoying orange blob by that point. Don't think we aren't noticing your UT swag game increasing ? Great stuff though, beautiful fish. Fun way of fishing as well. I don't do it often, but live bait fishing has always been my favorite because of the excitement.

Tomorrow is the day I hopefully cash all this excellent info in. Think I need to get a few things based on the replies here though. I like the idea of the gulp minnows, and I need better bobbers. Thanks for the help, friends!

Yep, and it's freaking sweet! I can't think of any downside, and audible drags have some nice advantages.

Look at that tail on the top one, besides being a swimming muscle, that tail is ridiculously large in proportion to the rest of it's anatomy. How can you not love Spotted Bass! I just got my first A-Rig, well kinda, it's the Picasso Bait Ball finesse version. I bought it for this exact reason. These smaller spots hunt it packs, twofer is better than onefer ?

I can't get enough of the fish biology stuff. That's my favorite stuff to read about. Hope they keep posting, and we add some more to the roster.

Nice fish! I want to throw a cast right by that covered concrete drain looking area.....looks super fishy Drinking brews and catching fish......still the American dream friend

Yeah the Zillion is easily the smoothest reel I've personally fished with. Bomb casting a 3/8th chatterbait, and then slow rolling it on this reel is pure butter. I can't imagine a reel being smoother, Steez or otherwise. When all you guys were talking about the clicking drag I was like so what all my reels have clicking drags.......not until I had it in hands did I realize it has a saltwater type clicking drag, not just when you turn the drag dial. That is so freaking cool! I'm not sure what other reels offer that, but what a brilliant little detail. Do the new Steez reels offer that? I have the OG steez, but nothing of recent vintage. I really want another Steez, but this new Zillion delivers everything I could possibly want in a reel. I'd just be getting another Steez because I'm a Daiwa fanboy, and dudes always want the flagship models regardless of the law of diminishing returns ?

Dynamite friend! Man those are some really pretty fish you guys got up north. That's a super nice fish in the first pic, hard to always gauge a pic, but that fish looks easily over 5lbs. Love the fog pic, if heaven exists, I hope it looks something like that. Another fantastic report Katie! Hate to hear the frog bite died off, fishing is a cruel mistress sometimes to be sure. It will make that new frog rod/setup all the more awesome when they return to the bite next year. Eventually will there come a point when you can no longer catch any LGM at all, or does the coastal climate allow them to be caught all year long?

Love me some bank fishing, some of my best Bass fishing days/nights were from the bank. We'll have to meetup someday and fish the Sipsey River for Trout

I've never caught a single one of those toothy fish. A Musky is on my bucket list fish.