JHoss

It's important to note that $60k when he first started fishing was equivalent to $135k today. That's not as much as I would expect from the GOAT, but I also don't know many people who would turn down $135k/year to fish every day. Drew Gill has won almost $350,000 this year alone. So there's certainly guys who can make a great living on tournament fishing, but they're very few and far between.

That's part of what irks me. I was one of the one's who said what a class act Scott was for self reporting and how he handled it. But if I'd known the story coming from Scott and BASS wasn't true, I certainly wouldn't have supported the guy in this case. To me, it seems like they're trying to protect the image of one of their golden boys. And that comes at the sake of their credibility. It makes me question what else they've covered up for the good of their brand. All of BASS's problems here go away with one of two simple changes: 1) Punish Jaden Parrish the same way they punished Herren and Martin. OR 2) Be more transparent about what happened. Tell us why Parrish's violation was minor enough to warrant a fine when he top 10'd the event while Herren got DQ'd when he finished 44th and didn't even go near the area he was alleged to have gotten illegal info about. Tell us that Scott self reported after he learned a video was floating around outing him. Just my opinion. I'll still watch the same amount of BASS coverage this year because I want to see the best anglers compete, but I wouldn't be surprised to see BASS lose its grip on the top tournament trail over the next few years. Great analogy. And the only people who get hurt by it are the honest ones.

Kinda like when Ike got fined for yelling at the dog then BASS used that clip heavily for their promos? Wouldn't the more posts and activity you have on here, be better for you?

It's the way they handled it for me. BASS kept everything rather secretly while NPFL's was cut and dry on their stream. Speaking of double standards, BASS's double standard is the biggest issue with me. BASS slapped the wrist of an Open's angler with a $4,000 fine instead of a DQ just weeks before a complete DQ of Herren and Martin. Also, I think NPFL letting that angler keep the weight from his first two days was absolutely the right way to handle their situation. My understanding is that a lot of BASS leadership are not tournament anglers and it's shown a few times this season and offseason with their rules changes and punishments handed out for rules violations.

Any publicity is good publicity they say. Call me old fashioned, but I'd much prefer the controversy and drama be about the two guys who threw down at the ramp because one cut the other off. From the complaints about the latest MLF coverage, it sounds like Boyd DQ'd half his camera boats for half that event.

I certainly don't believe his or his son's side of the story 100%. Of course Jr is going to be loyal to his dad and not admit to something truly nefarious if it did happen. I think Crosby's being the most likely to be an honest mistake is very true. Otherwise, he's the dumbest cheater in history to try and do it on camera with an employee of the trail. We don't know if BASS knew or not, but it's on them as the tournament organization to fully investigate these things before going public. And let's say they found out later, why not release a new statement instead of helping to keep it buried? They were way too tight-lipped with the Jaden Parrish violation in the Open this year. They've kept the details of the Tony Christian cheating scandal under the tightest of wraps for decades. I'm just saying, at this point BASS has shown us their pattern of hiding ugly truths from us. It's beginning to hurt their trustworthiness and I'm not sure how long their run last with legit competition in MLF and NPFL if those organizations do it the right way.

They've allowed him to spin the story in a way that makes him look good. Even going so far as to have him on the actual broadcast for that event. Martin pushed a story about how he didn't stop someone from sharing info in his shop, when the reality is that he was asking for info. IMO, BASS should have been more transparent about that and not let him lie about it.

That tracks with BASS. Kind of reminiscent of the Tony Christian drama back in the day. To this day, only 3 or 4 people really know what happened. Really kills their credibility when this kind of knowledge is commonly out there in our community, but they sweep it under the rug. I've said on here before I like how Brad Fuller is running the NPFL and it seems like he's surrounded himself with the right kind of people. BASS and MLF could learn some lessons here.

I bought 6 piscifuns a few years ago and agreed with this until I didn't. I'm down to 1 phantom and 1 Spark that still work. 2 other phantoms catch or bind every few cranks of the handle and the 2 spinning reels (can't remember the model) had their gears rust together. On the other hand, the cheap Kastking rods and reels I purchased at the same time are still kicking.

I don't foresee an issue. My jon boat was customized by a well regarded rigger before I bought it used. He set up the 3 lithiums in the main storage compartment in the rear of the boat. I keep some tackle and supplies on one side, and the other side is reserved for any gear my coangler brings. I also keep a spare prop, safety supplies, and life jackets in the rear hatch with the fuel tank.

+1 for the senko and fluke crowd. I usually keep the wacky rig close by and with a footish of line out so I can just pick it up and throw.

Where can I see the Scott Martin video? I've heard rumor of it multiple times now, but didn't know it was out there somewhere. @AlabamaSpothunter Based on what I know about them all, I'd agree with you on Scott Martin. I clearly haven't seen the video yet, but it seems to be the only case of an angler intentionally breaking a rule.

I get the info side of this and agree with y'all he could've gleaned valuable intel from knowing if his roommate was getting bit or not. But I'm looking at it as the most common question/pleasantry exchanged between folks on the water. Also, I would like to think that cameraman are sort of like league officials. A league official in any other pro sport is going to not answer that question instead of answering and the athlete getting DQ'd. A linebacker in the NFL could ask a ref what play the other team was going to run, but that ref would never answer if he did know. It's probably time to give the folks employed by these leagues a course on what they can't discuss with anglers too. I did not realize at the time of posting that the NPFL let him keep his weights from day 1 and 2 and the points he earned for the event from those weights. That was the perfect way to handle this IMO. @Team9nine and @AlabamaSpothunter, who's DQ was most deserving? Herren, Martin, or Crosby?

I doubt that would be enough to limit your casts to 8-10'. You'll have some line twist from doing it wrong, but it shouldn't twist enough to cause that many issues. Also, if you did it wrong and want to fix the twist without unspooling, cut off your lure, open the bail, and let the line trail out behind your boat until the spool is empty. Let it drag for a couple minutes, then reel it in with some tension and you'll be set again.

That was on a trout, not a blue gill. ETA: I see that it's widely reported as a blue gill, but from what I understand, he caught it on a live trout. But it's illegal to use live trout as bait in Japan as it is in many other places so he's claimed it to be on a swim bait and a blue gill over the years.

He's 22 years old. He's only had so many hours in his life to work on his craft and I would imagine a lot of that has come in the last 5 years... which is about the same timeframe as FFS. I'd say he was smart to spend the bulk of his time focused on FFS seeing as it's made him one of the best anglers on the planet. Now that he's mastered scope, he can focus on rounding out his game with some shallow techniques and still have a great shot to Top 10 every derby he enters while he's "learning". I doubt he'd be at the same place in his career if he spent as much time practicing flipping or cranking as he spent with FFS.

Anyone else catch the footage of what got Skeeter Crosby DQ'd? He's making small talk with a camera boat and the conversation goes like this: Skeeter: "y'all been over there and seen Buck?" Assuming the camera boat responds in the affirmative because you can't hear it. Skeeter: "He catching em?" Some other response you can't hear. Skeeter: "He's probably getting blowed out over there." This no info rule has gone way too far in my opinion. Guarantee every angler on every pro tour has violated the rule if we're going that far. Whenever I pass another boat fishing, I almost always ask something like "y'all slaying em today?" I guess even that could get someone DQ'd with today's rules.

Not familiar with a world record caught on a bluegill. Can you please elaborate?

I was dying when Ken Duke realized they had him on the show the night before he was set to fish in the knockout round. Listening to him on that show and another recently made me realize how smart he is. You're right, he could be successful at anything he chose. When he started talking about the mind games he plays with people in practice and during the tournament... at 22 years old... dude is going to be a threat for a long time to come.

You sure you aren't tip-wrapped or missed a guide somewhere? There's some serious friction going on somewhere.

If we're talking everything to consider for a new body of water, one thing no one is talking about is researching the forage. I'll check the State's DNR site for that lake to see what type of forage species are supposed to be there. The other thing I'll do is go into Fishbrain and just look at the recent catches in the area. I don't care about the bass people are catching or what they're catching them on. I want to see what species of brim and perch people are catching and what they look like. Map study is one of my favorite things about bass fishing. I'll spend many hours looking over Navionics, C Map, Google Earth, Omnia, etc going over every detail and thinking about where fish should setup and how they should move. This year, I'm incorporating more water clarity and historical water temperature maps into my study I won't be able to prefish much.

Sounds like the line is the most likely issue. Anything more than 10 or 15 lb braid is overkill on that setup. Also, what kind of cast are you using? If I'm going for distance with a spinning rod, it's got to be over hand and use my off hand on the butt to "trebuchet" that thing.

I remember Edwin Evers talking about coaching his son's high school fishing team. He talked about how much different their accuracy was vs a pro. They would flip at a target and be happy if it was within a few feet. He drilled into them that they had to hit a spot the size of softball because that's THE spot a bait needs to land to get a bite. That goes to what @Catt said. It's about being in the right place at the right time. If you're there and they're in the mood, they'll eat a lot of baits. Most likely you'll catch that PB on whatever bait you have the most confidence in because it spends the most time in the water. I've broken my PB on a bladed jig every time. And every time was in a lake I had 0 expectations of catching a PB in. But that's the bait I had the utmost confidence in at the time and threw 75% of the time.

The most prominent memory took a few hours to figure out. Took me an hour or so in the morning to relocate the fish I had found in practice and picked up a few on a buzz bait as expected. As the sun got up I caught a few more on various baits (probably cycled through 10 or 12) and had a decent limit. Eventually the sun got high and they stopped eating anything else. I finally put that BangOLure on and went back through the same areas and proceeded to cull most of my fish. It was a kayak derby and I ended around 90". I'm not sure I'll ever forget the 6+ that threw the BangOLure back at me. I had a feeling there'd be a good one on a small flat point with some stumps. I had switched rods a couple times from losing fish already and had it on a M F spinning rod with braid to mono leader. I knew she was big when she hit it. She made a jump completely out of the water 75 ft away and shook that big ol head and threw the bait back at me. I did manage another around her size a short while after that I was able to get in the boat. Another time was in a river and all the usual baits weren't working. Decided to try the BangOLure but didn't figured out that's what the wanted until I made a cast between a few cypress knees and backlashed. As I was picking out the backlash a fish took it under. That's how I caught them the rest of the day. Were there other baits that would've worked in those situations? Absolutely. But there's plenty of times the first 10-20 baits don't work and I figure something out that does.

I'm also surprised it's not fished more. I've only seen one other person throw it in a tournament over the years, and I think I may be the only person under 65 in the whole state who has them in his box. I can think of a few days where the bite shut off entirely for every other bait, but the BangOLure kept producing. I imagine if they weren't so hard to cast, more folks might use them. I haven't used a Bomber version, but sounds like they're more castable.