AlabamaSpothunter

Third that Little Jon 50/type R.....surprised I forgot about it. I've actually caught more fish on the Little Jon 50s than the others I listed in my reply, but the Flat 75x uniquely seems to trigger a much bigger bite.

Works like magic if you put the time into your 2D and the fish are actively feeding I've found. Less is more in terms of imparting action on the bait as well. They don't like that small presentation jumping up and down big time imho. Learn the sink rate of your bait "manually" prior to using it in the game so to speak, it's not always that easy to perfectly track your bait down with 2D sonar, in windy conditions it's impossible. Note the location of those active fish and countdown a couple feet above their heads, and lower it if need be. They don't usually want this presentation below their faces. For neutral or negative feeding fish, I don't think it's effective at all. Then again not much is unless you have FFS to try out various other techniques in real time.

You folks in the New England area that catch green fish amaze me! It's cultural down here, but up there you really have to march to your own beat to target them.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! War Eagle! What a soul crushing day for all the Bama fans. He's the goat, I strongly dislike him as a person, and as a coach, but his record is the best.

Dang A-Jay is quick on the trigger.....beat me to my reply. No doubt, the Crush Flat 75x is the best big fish flat side crank I've found. Frittside cranks are fantastic as well. Lastly, the Rapala Tiny 4 and new Tiny 7 are dynamite as well. Then just pick the colors based on the forage in your lakes. For me I'm trying to match Threadfins.

I regret more and more the Shimano Curado 150mgl I picked up last Spring, not because the reel is awful, but because I realize I should have spent another $50 and got more than twice as good of a reel in a JDM Zillion SV TW. I've never regretted BUY ONCE, CRY ONCE. The only thing I've found wrong with the JDM Zillion SV TW is that it ruins you to your other stuff in many aspects. It's performance (casting/smoothness/drag) blow the doors off other $150-300 reels. It's user friendly nature is only something Shimano could dream about. Unless you're prepared to buy the most expensive reels from Daiwa or Shimano, you're just not going to get a reel anywhere close to Zillion SV TW for the price point imho.

@Bluebasser86 love seeing those fatties! Looked a little too cold for me though 😁 @benburkefishing great job, and great finish! Here's to an even better 2024!

This was a truly magnificent catch! Congrats, I've only had one good day of chasing/catching Stripers, and then in college I used to drive to Thurlow Dam and fish for them below it, lost a monster like yours. Still can vividly remember the 5mins or so before it broke me off.

Had a great day, caught 55 fish which is the most I can remember catching in a single day since I was a kid fishing a golf course pond for sub 12" Bass. Big fish was a 5.4. Caught some 4s, and 3s, but well over half the fish were sub 3lb fish. Best 5 would have likely been around 20lbs. This Drift Fry is really something else, today I both mopped and mid strolled it. Also vertical jigged quite a few fish on the Vaults. I'd say 30/55 fish came off it. The durability of this bait is incredible. The thing I never really mention is the fact that 2D sonar so many days is the most important piece of "tackle" in the boat, today included. It's such a novelty catching fish from sonar alone, I can only imagine FFS makes the novel experience 100x better. As I type it's dumping rain, and will be for the next many hours, it's also gusting 40-50mph, and then the rest of the week is equally unstable. The fish and pattern will scatter like the few remaining leaves of our trees. The puzzle will completely reset, and that's why we love these green fish. You go from mainlining the secret truth of the Bass universe to wondering if all the fish in your lake died within a span of a month.

This bait is nothing short of epic brother, and I don't throw that word around much for baits. It's so incredibly unique when mid strolling or mopping it with that secondary rolling action. The back color along with the side colors flash back and forth with that retieve. Caught over 40 fish on my first bait until a Spot ripped the tail off this morning, switched to a new one, and busted another 25-30 fish on the second one and it looks like it's gtg for another 25. The most durable "expensive" JDM soft plastic I've ever used. I thought Damiki Armor Shads were durable, but these things are energizer bunnies. Today I caught them mopping and mid strolling it, yesterday just mid strolling it. Both days in open deep water 95% of the time like your friend using 2D sonar heavily. I posted a report in the latest catch thread. A guy like you who has all the gucci JDM awesomeness must get these imho.

MOTHER OF GOD that was an epic fight @TnRiver46, I would have been a nervous wreck after the first minute. Congrats on a fish and memory you'll never forget. @Woody B My man! That's one heck of a day and using great skill to catch them. A true grinder like yourself earns every ounce of those slaunch donkeys.

Haha Katie, you're replies never fail to make me giggle and smile. The nicer the house, the less I see the actual homeowners. They have armies of folks who keep up those properties. I did have a really nice couple come down one day and give me the phone numbers of a bunch of folks who lived on the lake because they were worried that I didn't seem concerned fishing in storms 😁 Yeah those Drift Frys are a JDM bait, but tackle stores in the US get them, they've just been sold out in Japan. My local store got them in the other day, posted the night before about them......I showed up a few hours after they opened, they were almost sold out already. If you can't find a pack before the fishing season, let me know and I'll send you a couple.

I agree, one of the cooler baits I've gotten in awhile. The lip makes it roll rather than dive.

Wow friends, I'm truly honored to have such a group of hammers leave such awesome and kind comments!!!! I said it last year when I first started posting reports, but to be able to share such exciting and special moments with a group of friends is priceless as the majority of my family and friends simply don't understand why we love these fish so much. Today was another great day, and in terms of learning as an angler I believe it was one of the better days I've had. The main reason for this is after months of wanting to learn how to mid stroll, and playing around with it here and there with zero success, I finally learned what it's all about. Caught 36 fish, with the best 5 going 22.5lbs. A 5.5 was big fish (red Vault), 4.8 (mid strolled Drift Fry), and a 4.7 (Bucca Burrito) were weighed, and then another pair of 4lb+ fish rounded out the bag. 31/36 fish were caught on this 4" Jackall Drift Fry with a 1/8th Keitech tungsten super round jighead with 2/0 hook. All of those Drift Fry fish were caught on a single bait that still's gtg. I'd been wanting these things for months, and finally got my hands on them yesterday.....they exceeded my expectations! This is the super sneaky bait that Kyoya Fujita used with so much success on the Elites last year, and if you watch Milliken's stuff, he's uses them in some videos but won't ever name the bait. Tomorrow looks to be the last day in the streak of stable conditions, tom. night into Tues. we could get 2-3" of rain, and almost surely will be getting 40-50mph gusts and possible storms. I pray to the Bass Gods that it's not a heavy rain and doesn't blow out the water quality.

Been wanting these Drift Fry for a cpl. months, really hard to get bait but the local monkey got them in today. This is one of the baits that Fujita kept trying to keep secret during the last season. Apparently, you put them on ball jigheads, and most mid stroll with them. Not much info on them though.

Officer Fashionista, I humbly submit the fact that rednecks don't own appropriate cold weather attire. If you saw the poundage of layered clothing that comes off you Yanks would die of laughter 🤣

Thanks so much for the kind words and funny gifs guys and gal!!!! Great day, we had a moderate steady rain overnight in which the outside temps were about 10d higher than the previous weeks' worth of nights, so to me it qualified as a "warm rain" which has shown to be among the best times to be on the water during the winter these last two. Caught 32 + 2 big Crappie.......22lb+ bag, big fish was a 6.8, and a 5.15 got weighed as well. Another close to 5, along with numerous 3+ fish rounded out today's bag. Same pattern as the last 4 days......First hour after Dawn I'm throwing the Vision 110 at visually surface breaking fish, then I move on to the Vault where it does the vast majority of catching. I like to use the BASS derby benchmarks in my fun fishing, and I've always thought one of the coolest things in the sport was the guys who earn Century Belts (100lbs+ over a 4 day event). From Weds through today, my 20 fish total went roughly 93lbs. In the past, 75-80lbs would have been my best. My luck will surely run out on this deal, until then I'm going to ride it as hard as I can, and put it away wet each evening 😁 Big fish 6.8 Other weighed fish 5.15

Seemingly very favorable conditions and what at the time seemed like a relatively small change in the pattern I've been on led to a day I'll never forget. I believe that small change was trying out the red Vault, with a secondary aspect being I also received STX-38 Zo Wire Size 6s, the absolute perfect hook for this bait. Fished 7+hrs, edited for 6.....turned into a 27min video 🙃 A true 50 fish day, right on the nail, it's like the Bass Gods gave me the 50 and then said now go home. 27lb+ bag.....7.6 and 6.4 weighed fish, with 3 easily in the 4-5lb range. 7.6 fish 6.4 fish was super cool with the black spot tail and again so short and fat for relative weight chart metric. The bait with upgraded hardware and my new favorite thing in the boat....the most magical lure retriever I've ever used. Thing has freed these Vaults 20-25x now. I'm sure they won't work perfect for everything like big A-Rigs, or maybe even single hooked baits, but for 2-3 hook treble baits, thing is incredible.

Beautiful mixed bag as always @TNRiver46! Variety is the spice of life, not too many watersheds have more variety for an angler than the TN River. Getting a fish feeder for the dock in a cpl. months, gonna be on like donkey kong.....straight back to 8yr old me...Gils and Kitties 😎

I know you wouldn't charge, but to experience a typical "Katie day" would be worth what premium guides charge across the country. Others who have paid a Bass guide I'm sure would agree. Your fish, where they live, and the way you fish for them is totally unique.....other than your modern tackle, I could imagine reading your posts in a 1950s era Field and Stream magazine. The beauty of this thread to me is that it showcases how unique the sport is for each one of the regular posters in it......we're all vastly different in geography and styles for the most part, yet here we all are connected by the obsession over Black Bass.

As always Katie, part of the reward of having a nice day or catching a nice fish is getting a reply of yours 😁 As far as the lottery tickets go, the smarter move for me is to just book a plane ticket to coastal Maine mid summer and hire you as a guide. You're the undisputed heavyweight champ of fat healthy fish. In the next life when I come back as a Bass, I better be born in a Maine bog 😎 That Buck was doing very "stag" things to his lady friend 😂

Quite different conditions from yesterday, 42d/high winds/bluebird sunny skies. Fished about 6 hrs., caught 21. Best 5 went about 20.5lbs with a big fish of 5.9 and 4.13 got weighed, 4+ on the 110, and a nice 3lb Spot were the highlights. Vision 110 caught a few but was quite disappointed they wouldn't fire on it with such great jerkbait conditions. Damiki Vault continues to dominate the catch count. And finally, the first big Buck of winter I've seen, pretty sure this is the same Buck I've seen for three winters now. He's always an 8pt so maybe it's a different one as I don't know much about Deer biology. Such a magnificent animal.

@TnRiver46 @Pat Brown @Blue Raider Bob Many, many thanks gents for such kind words, this is the most supportive and positive place for Bassheads, and it's because of folks like you guys!

Bwahahaha.....nice shop friend 🤣 You're so awesome and kind Katie!!! Thanks for that, and I knew you'd enjoy seeing Bass that you're familiar with......these were quintessential Katie fish 😎

Haha, I never started to pay attention to the bug eyes until you mentioned it last year, now I think about you honestly every time I catch a bug eyed one 😁 Appreciate it brother!