AlabamaSpothunter

Yeah he was scoping a Neko Rigged Nories Flip Ko Gill 3.6" Creature Bait | Tackle Warehouse Then drop shotting a fuzzy dice OSP Saikoro Dice Rubber Max Salt Soft Bait | Tackle Warehouse (I believe he was using a size larger than the ones available in the US though) And lastly he weighed in a fish or two on a spy bait Nories Wrapping Minnow Spy Bait | Tackle Warehouse The last month I've been fishing "hairy" baits and that Nories Flip Ko Gill based on his win, major inspiration. I never would have fished the Jackall Drift Fry without seeing Fujita win on it last year at Champlain. ETA: I call this my Taku bait 😁

In terms of winning techniques this year: Toledo Bend: Scoping a minnow Lake Fork: Scoping a minnow and jerkbait Classic at Grand Lake: Scoping a jerkbait and jig Harris Chain: Mega360 and crankbait/hair jig St. Johns: 90% sight fishing 10% flipping grass Lake Murray: Scoping a fluke Lake Wheeler: GPS/Mapping and a Jackhammer Smith Lake: Scoping a Neko Rig and Dropshot Lake Champlain: Scoping a jig 3/9 winning techniques this year could have been done without the aid of FFS.

Wow, that was awesome, way to go Ed!!!! Dreams do come true!

This is simply unacceptable, man that sucks for the fans!

What a trainwreck BASS's IT team is.....half the time these weigh ins are screwed up This sucks.

If pinging a minnow is in play, Robert Gee is definitely going to be in contention. I've never seen him do well without that technique though. Toledo Bend, Smith Lake, and Champlain have all been great derbies for him.

The biggest thing about the scheduling that stinks for me is that MLF BPT is at SLR this week. There are so many cool and exciting fisheries in the north, I understand the need to go to places that pay BASS to show up, but at least put a few wildcards in the schedule each year. There is no place I want to see the Elite Series go more than Cayuga. I'd love to see them go back to the Mississippi River as well.

The LM aspect is awesome to see, but my bet is still on the scope being the winning technique. Either way it's an interesting derby, I really have no clue who is going to win this thing, and that's always fun. ETA: A friend of mine recently won the MLF Invitational there scoping with a Sakamata Shad

Who doesn't love seeing Hack getting juiced up after making a cut like that.....that's awesome, hope John Cox sneaks in as well.

He didn't say a word to Mercer, Lisa, or the fans......the moment the weight was read out he walked off the stage. So many young anglers watch these weigh ins, I can remember being a boy watching weigh ins. What a terrible example to set for the future of our sport. What a complete lack of respect for the fans and folks who allow you to FISH FOR A LIVING!

Ike truly is a petulant child incapable of handling his emotions like a real man. It will be a good day when he retires, the sport has no room for man babies. His weigh in performance was the final straw today when you contrast that to yesterday's.

Was watching a video from a guy reviewing a tackle store in Japan recently, that same bait in Japan is about $550, still a crazy amount for a bait. There's a level of unique exactment that comes with fishing expensive baits, both in terms of potentially losing a couple hundred bucks, but equally catching a fish on a couple hundred dollar lure. To me it just takes the excitement level up a notch. I don't think a $1000 swimbait is any better at catching fish than a $150-200 bait. Most handmade high end swimbaits range from $150-250. If you have to spend more than that, you're just paying an exclusivity tax.

There's not a piece of technology from yesteryear that even comes close to seeing your bait and fish reactions in real time. Remove FFS from Keith Carson's boat during that derby, does he still win based on the overwhelming power of down scan, side scan, GPS, 360, mapping, or any other technology you want to name? My answer is easily no. He's had all those technologies minus maybe 360 in the past, why couldn't he utilize them for a win before now if they're all equally as powerful. There isn't even an argument to be had that a significant population of fish in any given body is now being caught that were never caught in the past, there is only one piece of technology responsible for this, and that's FFS. You don't have O.H. Ivie with just mapping, 360, and traditional sonar. You can repeat that story time after time since FFS has come out. I'm still supposed to believe that the A-Rig and Double Fluke Rig pose more of fair chase problem than live sonar 🤣

My guess is it's a Workhorse, which is one of their most popular baits. 8'' WorkHorse Glide - Slow Sink (316lurecompany.com) They have a very good reputation in the swimbait community. Friend has some, but he's more of a collector than anything else, he's got everything under the sun lol. Exactly, sure hope the dude got other pictures and measurements. You'd hate for that to be the only memory of a fish you got. My mentor was famous for long arming fish, and so many of my earlier fishing pics are me long arming fish and thereby ruining the pics, sucks.

Yeah it's been reported on by numerous folks in the industry. Bass After Dark IIrc has had a number of different guests on within the industry that have said sales of hardbaits especially are on a major decline. It's really common sense though at this point, just look around, look what's being sold. Look at ICast this year, it was focused heavy on new minnows and jigheads.

Keith Carson is super likable, humble, and doesn't strike me as the type to seek attention, rather quite the opposite. I agree with you, I fully applaud any man that does what it takes to create an honest living for himself and his family, it's just a shame that one of the last great "romantic" "pure" "shallow water guru" etc. anglers in the game had to embrace this technology or be forced to go work a normal job. I just think he understands how poignant his recent win was in regard to the tectonic shift in how we fish for Bass. He was the embodiment of traditional Bass fishing, and was one of the very last holdouts in terms of elite level anglers that didn't cave into the FFS revolution. He fished exactly like his best friend Jon Cox, the last boy scout in Bass fishing imho. That's what makes his win so shocking. Once Jon Cox puts a LVS 34 on his boat, there will be no more holdouts on the elite level of the sport. I was pretty much over this topic a few weeks ago, but Carson's win was pretty shocking at least to me, and just another perfectly clear data point that illustrates how FFS has completely changed Bass fishing at least on the professional level.

Nice, I signed up on their website.

My general observations have been the colder it is, the better the sunrise/morning bite is. The warmer it is, the better the sunset/afternoon and especially the night bite is. The bite is best b/t 530-1030am January through March down here. Then from about May through August, the best bite is found from 530pm through the night. Those are the two best times of the year to be fishing down here, Winter.....Spring.....Summer. As far as Fall goes, I let you know if I ever figure out Fall fishing 🤔

100% agreed! We need to form an organization like the FPC or GOA that exists for firearm owners, a group that lobbies politicians on behalf of anglers across this country. The lobbing money and pressure would be easily attainable given the amount of money Bass anglers spend annually and how many participate in the sport, and as we all know in this country, money talks and BS walks.

I believe both you and Pat are correct. Big Bass love to eat Crappie, however Crappie love to eat Threadfin, and Threadfin are the backbone of the early Bass's life down here in the South. Interesting enough, just last night I listened to two Texas Wildlife biologists, one of which is charge of 200+ reservoirs in Texas and just completed one of the best tracking studies ever done on Bass. He said anglers would have to harvest 80% of 10"+ Crappie in any given year to over harvest the species, and he said it's basically impossible for anglers to harvest that many 10"+ fish in a large reservoir. Small lakes, I'm sure all bets are off though. The thing is that you can't discount individual human intelligence, or ability to learn even with this amazing game changing technology. I'm never going to make the claim that it doesn't require skill, or that some anglers seem to understand it while others it just impedes their time on the water. Imagine giving an angler a tool that allows them to crank as effectively as David Fritts, or flip as good as Dee Thomas in just 4 months time.

If your looking for reaction bites on cranks, the two things I've found that work best are: 1. Deflection, sounds like you're doing a good job with 10-13ft cranks bouncing off rocks in 5-6ft. 2. Speed, burn those baits into the bottom. Don't give the fish time to think about the bait. Outside of reaction bites, you want to vary the retrieve....start and stop, rod twitches, etc. I'll use a slower retrieve in these scenarios. You want to strongly consider colors, sound, and action. When you use cranks in a non reactionary type role, you must remember that what your bait actually looks like to the fish factors in much more. The world of cranks is vast, and there's tons of factors that go along with using them effectively. Beyond that though, why force a crankbait when you've found another bait that is catching them well. Keep playing with the crank but put it on the back burner and concentrate on catching fish first and foremost as a new Bass angler imho. You'll fill out your skillset/tackle box as time goes along.

His win should be an absolute wake up call to folks who run the industry, but atlas they would have already woken up with the numerous other canary in the coalmine type events in the past. Pretty sure it was Pat Renwick's Stray Cast podcast that I just listened to him on......it's truly stunning that a guy can put a "tool" on his boat less than 4 months ago having never used it prior, and then goes out and wins a MLF Invitational against folks like Jacob Wheeler and Corey Johnston shaking a minnow on the scope. It took an angler about 4 months to master a technique that just won a major national Bass derby. Name me one other technique that doesn't require years and years to master good enough to win major national derbies with. He's textbook proof of how FFS is the trump card in Bass fishing, sure it's just another technique that requires a unique skill to master, but it trumps every other technique in the game right now, or requires those other techniques incorporate the tech into them to still play. He was the quintessential shallow water/sight fishing expert, had no desire to use FFS until it meant his very survival in the sport itself. If that's not insidious then I don't know what will convince folks the dark side of this tech. For the record, I'm not anti FFS....the genie is out of the bottle, however the sport needs guardrails for what's inevitably coming down the pipeline in terms of next generation tech.

The cherry on top is that Florida Bass anglers are having their tax dollars used to destroy their fisheries. The best chance public lakes have is hoping a Bass angler has the ear of major politicians or is one themselves. Without political help, this won't ever get stopped. The FWC is actually motivated to keep spraying because in effect it's job security. They get both employed to destroy the fisheries through spraying, then employed to improve them through studies and other remedial efforts. "According to the FWC, more than $19 million was spent managing nearly 52,000 acres of aquatic vegetation like hydrilla across the entire state. " The only state I know that truly cares about Bass fishing is Texas.

So sad to see Florida destroying its fisheries. See what anglers are complaining about from FWC hydrilla spraying (theledger.com)

I doubt the rods, or handles are worth the premium, however if you follow the big swimbait game, then you'll know the DRT Tiny Klash, K9, and Ghost are very much legit. I don't think they charge crazy money for those three baits, especially considering the demand and their ability to produce them. The two most expensive categories in Bass fishing tackle are 1.) JDM tackle 2.) Big swimbaits. DRT squarely intersects those two markets; it's not really surprising the prices they charge imho.