AlabamaSpothunter

The Yumbrella ones are the easy button, they come with everything you need, are the most affordable, and ulitmately work great. Just play around with the actual swimbaits. I like a finesse A Rig as well, and Piscasso makes great ones. They banned it for no good reason, remember FFS is still allowed so it clearly doesn't matter if a piece of tech makes catching fish that much easier. Fish have become conditioned to it over the years, but once the water gets below about 55d it becomes a major player at least down here in the south. I've never seen a bait more dependent on the water temp to work than the A-Rig. When they're eating an A-Rig, it's pretty much unbeatable. I often catch 2 and 3 fish on a single cast, and have got 5 fish limits on 2 casts. It's a huge pain to rig, cast, and keep from getting stuck, but again it's an invaluable winter time staple. Very fun bite to get on as well.

Maine sure is beautiful when it's not snowing......those are the type of trees that make people tree huggers 😆

I'm not so sure, and that's coming from a guy who hardly watched the MLF. Their new FFS rules are going to make their events much more interesting than BASS events for me personally. If they can get a guy like me to start watching, I'm sure they'll get many more new viewers as well. I think both MLF and BASS have to really start worrying about the NPFL.

Not to mention a folding stock and flash hider. Easily one of the worst states to be a lawful 2A gun owner 😔

Dude, it's THE gun of A-Team back in the day 😎 Very iconic gun of my childhood.

Admittedly I'm a simpleton, but I'd never do this on a reel that wasn't going into some kind of deep storage........this sounds like a recipe for disaster. The last new reel I bought I spooled it up, fished it for an hour so, then had a monster eat a buzzbait and ended up dumping her because the drag never got set out of the box lol. That scene would repeat itself in short order if I started to mess with my drags off the water. For my reels at least, tightened drags is the least of their concerns 🤣

My local store has these on sale for $250......started to read the Tackle Warehouse reviews and see lots of negative reviews about the tips breaking off. Combine that with the 1 year warranty and it's a bit concerning. Looking at the 7'2 H or 7'3 MH for bottom contact stuff like Free Rigs. Can anybody comment on the breaking aspect of these rods? I assume the ones on sale are the older model if a new one is out.

There's something very real about this. I think it has both positives and negatives. One of the best things we as anglers can do is establish confidence in other baits, and the very best time to that is when the fish are biting. On the other hand you end up leaving a lot of meat of the bone when you do that in the middle of a hot bite. Drives me crazy that I do it. I find a great bait and for seemingly no reason at all I'm using something else before I even consciously know it. Very weird thing that I'm sure has some psychological reason.

Awesome, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

Monkey has been riding me for months about buying some "taku powder" 😁

That's interesting because like you I know 100% that Anise doesn't repel Bass. I switched over from garlic to anise oil at the beginning of this summer and had my typical results. The reason I switched scents is the thought that fish can become conditioned to smell. If they can learn baits, why not smells. So from now on I plan on rotating scents every season or two.

You know I just got to thinking about this since you said you were considering a fixed 3x optic. I would think a RDS with a 3x magnifier would be the best of both worlds for you. Primary Arms SLx MD-25 G2 ACSS Red Dot with SLx 3x Magnifier & FTS Mount

Big user of scents, not really picky about what scents as long as I'm using one. Like WRB I'm not using them for attraction qualities, rather to mask my scent. I use heavy Deet, so I want something to help mitigate that.

Have you used an ACOG before, if so and you liked it, then that would be a great option. The word 'tactical' gets thrown around too much imo, but that's really as close to a 'tactical' optic as you can get. I would liken that optic to a technique specific rod, whereas a variable powered optic is more of a 7' MH F that offers more versatility. A good shooting Mini 14 with factory M193 or M855 should group about 3-4MOA @ 100yds. At 200yds you're looking to hit a target about 6-8MOA so anything powered more than about 6 is wasted given the rifle's potential. 3x should be plenty mag to hit that sized target at 200yds. The ACOG has been used by front line US military forces for decades now, so a fixed mid powered optic certainly has it merits, however I personally like either true RDS optics or a variable powered optic. All of those Primary Arms in house optics are great options and have been well vetted by customers for many years now.

Great job Katie, bet that was a metric ton of fun! I've never caught 70 quality Bass in a session. Mid 50s is about my best.

Given that 99% of defensive firearm scenarios involve distances less than 100yds..specifically 3-7yds, I'd have a hard time using any kind of magnified optic that didn't include a 1x setting. I find target shooting at 100yds to be quite fun with a magnified optic, and as we get older it gets harder and harder to use 1x type sights at those distances with Irons or a red dot. So I think you'd be most happy with a dual usage type setup. I'd recommend going with a 1-6x type optic. You can run it like a 1x red dot for defensive purposes, but when you take it to the range or hunting you can dial up the power to 6x. I don't own the below scope but PA has long been regarded as the best maker of budget friendly/reliable optics. In your situation that's what I'd buy. Primary Arms SLx 1-6x24 SFP Rifle Scope Gen IV - Illuminated ACSS Nova 5.56/.308 Fiber Wire Reticle - Flat Dark Earth

It all depends on what you're looking to do with the Mini 14? Hunting? If so at what ranges? Home defense? Red Dot General purpose rifle? Maybe something like a 1-6x The Mini 14 isn't a very accurate rifle, so even if I put a magnified optic on it, I'd limit it to something with a max power of around 9 or 10x.

90%+ of baits have junk OEM hooks. I consider hooks to be more important than any other single factor in regard to landing fish. I can fish awesome hooks on a 25-30yr old rod and reel and see no difference in catch rates. On the other hand give me a brand new Steez and Conquest and 25-30yr old hooks and my catch rates would plummet. I replace OEM hooks and split rings with upgraded ones for the .01% of fish. If you fish long enough, you'll encounter a fish that is able to free itself because of inferior hooks or split rings. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, but recently had a 8.6 come in the boat 1000% because of Owner STX 38s and Hyperwire split rings.

You were oh so right about the Johnston brothers. They really are terrible for the sport. It's a team sport, yet these guys get to operate as a team.....way beyond what roommates and friends do. They literally share a bank account where all their derby purses go into. And your right, more coverage of a bad product is not going to improve said product, it will only showcase more of its deep flaws Crazy that Zaldain would rather have YT clicks than a good reputation. He chose to release that confrontation video which blows my mind. Then he got fined for it LOL. That or he didn't even release how bad of a look that was.

I got about as much as I could handle of BASS in 2024. The last event was disgusting with the Johnston brothers. The only league to not make either the fans or the anglers happy. It's a bold business strategy, we'll see how that works out for them over the next few years. NPFL should be awesome next year though, and even the BPT will be interesting.

He lives the most charmed Bass fishing life I could imagine. He deserves it though as he was the pioneer of FFS. A guy like you who also lives an amazingly charmed fishing life can relate I'm sure 😎 He either recently got back or is going to South Africa in the near future specifically looking for the next WR.

Dworkshak Reservoir in Idaho He's been going there for a few years now. Has caught 8s before. Long ways to go for 11.15

The vast majority of fishing I do is with FC lines, but Tatsu has always been a bit too expensive for me. Shooter however is a very strong and abrasion resistant line. I suspect Tatsu is as strong and abrasion resistant as Shooter, but more supple and manageable. Maybe someone else can weigh in with a direct head-to-head comparison. It's really hard to beat Sniper in terms of price to performance ratio and seems to be the best jack of all trades FC line again based on bang for the buck. Tatsu is widely regarded as the best overall FC line made. So many factors come into play when picking the right FC for your application. For example I hate the knot strength on Sniper, so I try to avoid it for bottom contact presentations or at least upsize a pound test category. On the other hand I love its perfect balance of stretch, and suppleness/castability. I love this line for moving baits. Shimano Mastiff and Daiwa J-Flouro are two more FC lines that I think belong in the mix of top tier options to try or consider. Shimano's knot strength is awesome. I still need to use it more to really rank it verse Sunline or Seaguar's options, but it's high quality stuff. The Daiwa J-Flouro is the closest thing I've found to Sniper. It's a bit more expensive but comes in a bigger spool so sometimes I opt for it when doing the math on how many spool refills I can get. Specifically Daiwa makes J-Flouro Hidden Concept line that I feel is the best Jerkbait FC made. It's even more invisible than traditional FC, and has that awesome suppleness that Sniper and Invizx have in order to launch Jerkbaits into orbit. Lastly P Line makes some really good FC, and in my usage is stronger than any other brands, however the line diameters of their offering are usually bigger than the others listed above, and is usually less supple. TL/DR: Everything is a tradeoff with FC lines.

The OG Steez is what I use on a P5 110 Stick. Perfect Jerkbait reel. I'm a Zillion fanboy so that's what I'd go with.

It's easier if you think about it like Seagur's Invizx is a direct competitor with Sunline's Sniper FC. The two lines are very similar. I wouldn't really bother replacing one with the other and vice versa. Now if you want to upgrade either with Shooter or Tatsu, that's a real improvement depending on what specific attributes you are looking for. Both Shooter and Tatsu are stronger and significantly more abrasion resistant than Invizx or Sniper FC. Shooter gives up manageability and suppleness to Sniper FC, but in return is a stronger, more abrasion resistant line. I don't use Tatsu but it's generally regarded as the closest FC to being perfect in every category. Tatsu is at the top, below that you have to make compromises based on what particular aspects of FC you stress the most.