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AlabamaSpothunter

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Everything posted by AlabamaSpothunter

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Nice, I signed up on their website.
  5. 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 🤔
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. So sad to see Florida destroying its fisheries. See what anglers are complaining about from FWC hydrilla spraying (theledger.com)
  12. 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.
  13. Not me, and I live next door to Satan this time of year. Fishing down here has been better than any other summer I've had thus far. Last August was one of my best months ever so I have high expectations again this year. The fishing in July, and August down here is only matched by Jan., Feb., and March fishing.
  14. Agreed about Alabama Bass, the violence and top end speed of that fish in unmatched pound for pound. I had a 2.5lb one literally jump in the boat last night when I was trying to retrieve a stuck bait, then proceeded to go absolute nuclear. I've never had that happen before, still blows my mind.....just like you see in those flying Asian Carp videos.
  15. The death of Bryan Kerchal - Bassmaster Such a bittersweet story. RIP Bryan, at least you reached the summit of Bass fishing in life.
  16. One of the defining qualities of a true elite level pro angler is casting accuracy......all of them are jedi masters for the most part. When you spend that much time on the water, it's hard not to become a master at casting. That said, I'd look to older pro anglers vs. the new young guys. While both are extraordinary casters, the old guys know how to skip, flip, punch, etc. The new guys simply know how to pinpoint traditional casts to a blob on a FFS graph. Power fishing experts would be my first choice for a teacher.....somebody like Greg Hackney or John Cox.
  17. Welcome from Alabama Scott My mother is from Dayton, spent a lot of time there visiting the grandparents.
  18. 10-20% of LMB can have that tongue patch, so I wouldn't use that as a full indicator. Imho, that's a LMB. I haven't witnessed any LMB with the rough patch, but it could be geographical. Outside of the patch, that fish looks 100% like a LMB.
  19. I take a bath in 40% deet before I go night fishing all summer long, and the summer is one of my most productive times. The only thing I do differently to account for deet usage is use a scent masking agent on my baits, and I don't spray deet onto the inside of my hands. Without deet I can't fish, so it's not even a consideration in my gameplan.
  20. Easily the Free Rig and Whacky Rig.
  21. For the record on multiple podcasts Kristine Fischer has never said she felt she wasn't wanted or discriminated against because of her gender. Perhaps women did feel that way in the 70s, but that's 50 years ago and a lot of stuff has changed. I was never alive when women were discriminated against for fishing, moreover in my lifetime I've only witnessed men trying hard to include females into the sport. Most men I know would LOVE to take a woman fishing, be it wifes, daughters, GFs, friends, whoever. If you really want a good opinion on the matter, her interviews on the Dave Mercer podcast, and the Bilge podcast are good listens. At least according to her, it's not because of biased opinions towards female anglers. She says all the male anglers she competes against are extremely welcoming, and helpful.
  22. This site is a great representation for the Bass fishing public in terms of true committed or "obsessed" anglers. To my knowledge we have one very special, and incredibly talented female angler, which is @ol'crickety This goes to @Choporoz point above.
  23. There are less professional anglers (folks who actually make a good living) than MLB baseball players, and just about every other major professional sport. Do you realize how many men try and fail at becoming professional anglers? There are roughly 100 Elite Series spots, and roughly 80 BPT spots. Female derby anglers make up less than a percentage point of all those anglers at the Invitational (MLF) and Open (BASS) levels trying to qualify for the Elites or BPTs. The reason more women aren't represented in pro fishing is because very, very, very few women try to make it. Nothing is holding women back, sponsors would love to sponsor them, tournament organizations would love to have them, and ultimately male professional anglers would respect them if they earned their ticket to the Elites or BPTs on meritocracy.
  24. Don't get the Zillion unless you're prepared to be ruined by that reel. If the Zillion is a choice, then there really isn't a choice, the Zillion is all that and then some.
  25. Hopefully Scott Martin's group AFLO or Angler's for Lake Okeechobee gets the attention of Florida lawmakers. Okeechobee's story is especially tragic because it's a natural lake, as humans we have no right to destroy that lake!
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