Mattlures

Use them for their strenght. When rigged properly they are EXTREMLY weedless. look for areas that have weeds that are holding fish and swim them through it.

I wonder how you guys would feel if you spent thousands of hours and dollars inventing, developing, promoting, and getting a a pattent. Then finaly all your hard work starts to pay off. Then before you can make the proffit you deserve you get ripped off by a bunch of companies who did zero work. All they did was steel your work and now because they didnt have hardley anything invested into it they are under cutting your prices. Of course its rediculous for this guy to want compensation Man what a jerk Also these companies are given fair warning to stop or they will be sued but they ignore the ceice and disist letter and keep on taking money away from the guy who did the work. Oh and one more thing just because a company is big like Berkley doesnt mean they will win a court case. Big companies loose more then you know. When they have blatantly infringed on a patent they can loose a lot of money because they sold a lot of that product. Their game plan is to try and make the court costs too high for the plantif to see the case through.

Nope I didnt even call the local paper. Its cool but not much af an acomplishment.

KVD is the best there is at catching small bass. If the weights are up he is mortal. If its a swimbait bite he does poorly. He needs a realy tough lake with a bunch of 2lb fish and he will be very hard to beat.

I remember them contacting me a while back and asking for a bait so they could take pictures but that was along time ago. They didnt tell me when tey would use it. My plan was to contact them if I needed to but I figured somebody here probably had one laying around and I would make them happy with a trade. Kent thank you I am sending you a PM

I caught the world record goldfish and I drove it to the fish and game biologist and let certify it. I also had him fill out my IGFA aplication. I had no problems with that. If I ever caught the WR bass I would call the DFG and have them come out and certify it. If I catch a lake record and I decide to report it, I will bring it into the ranger and let them verify it. I dont think it is that hard to certify a fish if you have nothing to hide. WRB case is a different story though. Trying to certify a fish that was caught 20 years ago could not be easy. However I would still try and jump through the hoops because I think it would be awsome to have a top 25 bass. That is my lifetime bass goal. Get it done Tom

I had a customer send my a photo copied page out of the March 2010 magazine. There is a swimbait article with a pic of my bait but I only got page 20. I would like that magazine. If anybody has it and they are done with it I would like to offer a swimbait(ultimate gill) for their copy in decent condition. I only need 1 so if anybody is interested please send me a PM thanks

Thanks Raul. I figured he was just asking about the paddle tail tubes

Basstrix are the best followed by Kamkazee treats then Berkley.

depending on how intricate the pours are a quart should last you more then a nights worth of pouring. I recomend a gallon though insted of a quart. also be careful. The plastic is HOT and it burns you right now

Very nice fish, looks like a spawned out female to me.

No problem Tom. Manabu seems like a regular guy. Not cocky and not over the top actualy seemed very grounded. He was excited to meet us. Their culture is a little different. When he went fishing he was wearing a pink shirt and a cap with rinestones on it. Mike kept teasing about that. He wasnt wearing the hat at Mike's house and he had a jacket on ;D ;D. He was like a little kid, how excited he got when we gave him baits and he was looking at the millions of swimbaits Mike had. I have said for a long time that I hoped who ever broke the record, worked for it. I can tell you, he worked for it. It was no fluke and luck played no part. I am glad it happened that way. Of course I would rather it happen in the USA but I am genuinly happy for him. He earned it. One interesting note, Michi said he paid $1500 a month for his apartment which he said was the size of Mikes dining room. On top of that he has to pay $500 a month for parking, OUCH!

I just got back from Mike's house. He invited a bunch of guys including myself, Jerry Rago, John Kerr and few others. We hung out in his garage and Mike was showing us boxes of baits. He has more swimbaits then I do! Manabu had a couple of his own boxes loaded with very interesting huge swimbaits. Poor guy couldnt speek english so as we were busting jokes he had to here them from his interpretor Michi Oba who is an Editorial writer for THE Japanese magazine. Both were very polite and humble. Ok so I wrote down the questions you guys asked. #1 He is a self taught fisherman #2 He says he believes he has seen a 30lber. It came up and looked at his mother swimbait but did not hit it. He says the fish was 4 times the size of his bait and he guestimated it at 36inches #3 His favorite depth is 16ft #4 Yes Biwa has crawdads. Yes he fishes jigs but not hair jigs, his biggest jig fish is 12lbs #5 I asked him about the 2 oz rule. I also told him I felt he should have the record outright. He said it didnt bother him as he is going to catch a bigger one. #6 He could not answer what his favorite artificails were, or what his favorite live bait is. He said with artificails he has too many to pick a favorite. With live bait he says he uses several different types depending on the season #7 How has catching the WR changed his life? He said he is in Amerca meating his hero(Mike Long) because of that fish. He also said financialy his life has not changed. He hasent even been given free line from the company he used. Shimano has also given him nothing for using their reel. I am going to try and help him with having his fish molded by a big american taxidermy Co to see if he can make a little royalty money. One thing I can tell you is this guy is a huge bass catching machine. He pulled out a bunch of pics and WOW he has caught many BIG bass. The record was definatley no accident.

Thats a great looking fish. I actualy had my first guess at 6 3/4 then I edited my post. That one was tough. Because it was fat like that it made it look shorter then it was which made me second guess the weight. Actualy I changed my guess 3 times :-[

If Texas were to grow a record then I would consider it legit. As long as it came from a public lake. What they are doing in TX is actualy hurting their chances now. They remove most of the bass that have the potential to get there. If they stopped the SAL then their top end weights would go up. CA, especialy so Cal still has the potential but Japan currently has several giant bass swimming around right now with guys targeting them. Japan will have more in the top 20 in the next couple years. We just need another freak like Dottie to come around. We have 18's and 19's but thats still a ways away from a 22. and it could get much harder if Japan kicks out a 25+

The fish looks to be an overachiever. It doesnt look long but very fat and healthy, tough call hmmmm 5 1/2

Tomorrow night I am having diner with Manabu Kurita. He is fishing with Mike Long in the morning throwing swimbaits and we are having a get together in the evening . Do you guys have any questions you would like me to ask him. He doesnt speak english so he has an interpreter with him. I am sure if you read the articles you can find most of your answers but there are always a few things missed so let me know

Cool post Paul. I have owned small ponds, managed big ponds and had bass in aqaruims. Most times I didnt do experiments on purpose but I learned things from just watching them. I feel big bass are soo much smarter then people give them credt for. I have seen way too many things to think otherwise. As for tadpoles, when I was a kid in elementry school I had a little pond abouth half the size of a small swimming pool. I always had some pet fish. I would fish almost every day and alot of times I would bring a net and catch food for my pets. It doesnt take a sceintist or a "natural setting" to see the bass dont like eating certain things. They would eat juvinile bullfrogs as long as they were fully developed. They would not eat the tadpoles.They wouldnt even bite a toad unless you tricked them but they would quickly spit it out. I am sure tadpols come equiped with some kind of defence mechanism. the first time the bass encountered tadpoles they would usualy eat one and then spit it out after 10 seconds or so, after that they wouldnt eat one again. Of course there are those that feel bass cant learn :

You guys are delusional. Not counting Dottie its been about 20 years since Ca produced another 20. This 20 was caught in a differnt lake then Biwa. There have been small packs of fish spotted in both lakes with multiple fish in the 20+lbs and Kurita has said he has seen much bigger fish then his 22.5. Japan will break its own record. Trust me guys I'm out here on the front lines trying to bring the record back but the reality is Japan actualy has know fish swimming around right now. I know of a few lakes that have produced 18-19lbers in the last few years but I dont know of any this year. I am sure there are a couple around that may be a bit over 20 but Kurita has seen a fish he thinks could go 30. We need another Dottie

Roger that is a great picture. You nailed it. When I catch a good fish I ususly take a few pics and most look a little off. That one is perfect. Great fsih too.

those are not the ones that I was thinking. They could be junk or decent depending upon how durable they are. They look like they should swim decent. I am not a big fan of all the the little hard shad "simbaits". However they are all comparable. If you can find one of those baits cheap in a decent color then try it. I dont think I like the $20 for 2 of them though. One thing you have to check before fishing, is the strength of the hook holders. Many of the plastic China swimbaits are notorious for having the hardware pull out under big fish pressure. Just apply reasonable preasure and if it stays put then you should be fine but if you notice some play then, at the very least reinforce it with some superglue.

I think some better baits would help alot. Keep the money minnows and rig them weedless throw them where they shine,through the weeds. (Basstrix are much better) Go buy a little 6in weedless Hudd fish it slow. drag it on the bottom. Swimbaits are not like regular baits. A walmart jig or plastic worm might get bit as good as a premium jig or a Robo but "lesser" swimbaits do not produce like good ones.

Post a pic or a link. I googled it and I am not sure I found the same bait. If so it looked like junk and I am sure I can recomend a better option around the same price. (without recomending one of mine)

Pretty girl and pretty bass.

I will turn it in when I catch one. I will also do my best to release the fish in good health. Not much chance for a state or world record but I do plan on breaking a lake record, which around here is a monster fish.