Mattlures

MARK MY WORDS....YOU WILL BE SORRY!!!!!!!! I know you wont litsen untill it happens to you but if you do go out swimbaiting with the wrong gear it WILL I REPEAT IT WILL COST YOU FISH> normal fish is no big deal but your not targeting normal fish. Your targeting big fish and there is a good chance for a lot of you it could be your new personl best you lose becase you are using the wrong/cheap gear. Also making your own swimbaits is extremly fun and I recomend it for anybody who has skills. However keep in mind while its easy to make a bait, its extremly difficult to make one that is a consistant big fish producer. There are hundreds of swimbaits on the market now and half just plain suck and the other half catch regular fish. There is just a tiny percentage that are proven big bass catcher. The differences my apera subtle to the fisherman but the results are about as different as black and white. some baits have "it" and most dont. dsaaverda I wish you luck. I hope your new bait produces your PB bass. However dont give up or get frustrated if you never get a bite on it. It happens. I gaurantee if you went in to any REAL swimbait makers shop you would find baits that just didnt cut it. Thats the difference. So many companies just put stuff out to get it out there and make money. Only a few realy test the baits hard and they KNOW they catch fish before they ever sell one.

I must have said this a 100 times. Its not 1 bite a day. Its usaly a window of bites durring the day. If you hit the window and your in a good spot you can have the best trip of your like. If you miss the window you could easily get skunked. I have more no bite days then 1 bite days. But I also have MANY more multiple bite days then one ore no bite days put together. The difference is experiance. The more in tune you are with your water and the swimbaits the quicker you will realize when you are waisting your time. You will also learn to feel your seventh swimbait sense where you just know your going to get bit and DO. Cant explain it but you will know it when you get there. There reason everybody says fish all day for 1 bite is because thats how everybody starts. Its tough to relearn how to fish but once you do it for a while things get better, MUCH better. LBH has made a good choice in baits. the Slammer is proven. there are only a few baits that are truly proven. Many guys try and go the cheap rout and that only slows the learning curve. Trust me I kniw. It took me 2 seasons of half a$$ed swimbaiting before I even got bit. I bought the cheapest baits thinking they were as good as the super expensive $100 Castiacs a hundred years ago Lol.. My cheapness is what prompted me to start making my own baits so it was a blessing in disguise. Any way Congrats to LBH and the rest of you take note. Just because you dont have 15lb bass doesnt mean you dont have a bunch of 8-10lbers Its just that guys havent learned how to catch them yet!!!!

Listen to Randall! he knows his stuff

Good on you Paul. I dont blame you for keeping your bait a secret. I usualy fish mine for a season before I put them on the market. Its cool to have a bite all to your self. If I didnt make my living selling baits I wouldnt show them to anybody. I am not sure which bait or brand you chose but If ya got any more questions I will be happy to help out.

I'll be there showing off my new line of rods. Plus I'll be walking around talking to everybody. Glenn are you going to be wearing your BR pro shirt?

Where are these guys? I hope they are both alright. Anybody heard from them latley?

There are definatly downsides. For me its harder to get high. If I catch a few fish from 4-7 lbs in a day, I am still disapointed I didnt get a big one. Now yes it was still fun but it definatly spoils you. I realy have to make myself have fun when I am fishing, especialy when I am just fishing for small tournament sized fish. I may go to a pond just to relax and the biggest fish in there might only be 5lb. I have to mentaly prepare myself to have fun catching small bass or it gets borring. I agree with WRB. It take a lot more dedication then most are willing to sacrafice. If I dedicated more time to fishing I honestly believe I could put up some huge numbers. This year I avereaged a little better then 1 big fish per trip. Big being anything over 8lbs. I also caught a bunch over ten and beat my pb twice. The sad thing is I caught a few 9's and 10's after my monsters and they just werent as exciting. When you raise the bar it gets harder and harder to get "high" It takes a reality check and a slump to make you apreciate the non giant big fish. Now as far as fishing for 1 big bite??????????????????????????? Well I used to do that. Now I fish for 3 or 4 or 6 big bites in a trip. I ususly dont get one big bite. I either get several or none. The one big bite is kind of a myth. Ask anybody who consistantly catches big bass if they have ever had one of those special days where they catch multiple big bass. Thats why we put in the hours and dedication. and of course the ocasional monster. After a while catching 6-9lb bass looses some of its excitement. I am actualy a little burnt out on LMB this year. I went about 15 times and had my best year evey and I am good for at least a few months. Thank God I have the ocean. Now I have a bunch of other trophy fish that I am hungy for!!!!!

The guys here on BR are some of the nicest guys youl see on a fishing forrum. In the pic your hand is litteraly bigger then your head. I would realisticaly guess the fish at 2 lbs. Nice little fatty!

Congrats on your retirement!

Becuse you see part of the screw and the hook eye and the knot you tied. Plus all thos thing will grab weeds. When you use a Falcon stlye hook you rig it similar to a texas worm except you push the hook eye through the bait from the chin out the mouth and then tie. Then you push the hook back in and and hook the bait. all you see is your line entering the mouth of the bait. You skin hook the top and all yous should see is some hoo shank and weight under the belly of the bait. I have not tried all the different brands but the rigging will work for all of them . I just dont like a bunch of hardware showing. Its very unnatural looking and I have seen big old smart fish inspect baits even at a prety quick retreiv.

Do not send them back !!! you guys need to use them for their strength. the can be rigged EXTREMELY WEEDLESS. you can throw them places that no crank or spinnerbait could ever get through. Hech you can fish them on top of slop. I preferr the Falcon hooks and burry the whole hook like you would a texas rigged worm. I dont like the hooks with the screw on front. These baits have their place. They definatly arent magic and some work a lot better then others but they can be fish killers.

Thanks guys, LBH 3 6's in one day is good day for me this late in the year. It all depends on the what when and where. If all I could muster was 3 6's while I was sight fishing I would consider it a poor day almost a failer. If I caught them while worm fishing it would be a GREAT day. Now summertime swimbaiting I think its a alright day. It comes down to expectations. I was hoping for a 10 but I didnt realy expect to get one so 3 good bites is a fun day. I probably wont do too much more LMB fishing for a while. Now its time to catch salty fish!!

Sorry about that Paul. i read your PM and forgot to respond. I responed now though

The first and the last look the biggest but he is sticking them out HARD. 2 and 4 look the smallest but its the picture angle. They are all pretty close. probably within a pound of eachother and I still say her fish is not the smallest.

I went fishing a couple days ago and had a decent day. Nothing huge but it was still fun. I showed up at the lake at around 10 and fished untill about 1:30 I got bit and landed one about 6lbs within the first ten minutes. I didnt weight it and I didnt take pictures becuase there were a bunch of other fisherman around and I didnt want them to see that the bass were right under their noses biting. I let it go quickly. I then coverd a lot of water without another bite. I was just about ready to go home when I got my second bite. This time when I swung and stuck this fish I noticed it wasnt alone. there was another one that came in with it trying to steal my swimbait out of the other fishes mouth. I quickly put the first fish one a stringer and casted out. I didnt get the twin on the very next cast but it was probably 3 casts later. Both fish hit hard and it was fun. Becuase I saw that they were only 5-7lbs I let them jump and I fought them but only a little bit. I didnt want to push my luck too much. There was a guy and his wife a few feet away fishing that couldnt believe I caught fish on that huge lure(ha ha my baby bass is only about 4 1/2 in) He started taking pictures so I asked him if he would use my camera and take a few for me since I was fishing alone. I asked him what he thought they weighed and he said "I have no idea, I have never seen bass that big..... maybe 10lbs" I luaghed and said I thought they were both around 6. I weighed them with my salter and they were 6 even and 6.1. I felt prety cool calling their weights that good! lol. I was using a light swimbait rod with a low pro Okuma VS bait caster and I think 20lb test. bait of choice was my baby bass slow rolled. Both fish spent about 5 minutes total on the stringer and then they were released good and strong.

They all look between 4 and 6 lbs. #3 is not the smallest

Actualy Eddie after looking at the non cropped pic the fish does look a little longer. I still dont think its 24 but 21-22 is quite believable. I would have to add about a lb to my first estimate. I dont think its 6 but it might be. It Just looks a little to thin. Heck your not even an ugly guy you should have posted it that way to begin with ;D No way that fish is under 4lbs.

Judging from Eddies pic I am going to say 4.75. Its a nice fish. Eddie keeps saying 24inches. Well thats just a guess and I disagree with that. regaurdless of how tall Eddie is and how far he is NOT sticking it out there is always the tell tale hand. I would guess that fish at around 19-21 inches and close to 5lbs but a little under. Now becuase there is only one pic and its at an odd angle, and it is cropped so you cant see the fish compared to Eddie I could be off by 1/2lb either way. Also when ever a fish is not weighed it is almost always smaller then the angler thinks it is. First off by not having a scale that means that the fisherman does not weigh his fish regularly. So he is bound to be off. When he or she gets a good fish they are way off in there guess. The bigger the fish the more they are off. Just recently a member posted a pic of a "12" lb bass. then he used the exact same pic and the caption read 10lbs. He also mentioned in a different post he needed to buy a scale. The fish was only 7-8lbs but nobody jumped on him. I think most of the guys here are easy going and let it slide. If you want people to guess then be preparred to hear what you dont want to hear. If you buy a scale then be preparred to face reality. If you want to avoid all of it then just post a pic of the nice bass you caught without saying how much you think it weighed or how long you think it was. I just caugh twin 6lbers. One was 6 exactly and the other was 6.1. I guessed them both at 6lbs. However earlier this year I had my best year catching many bass over 8lbs and quite a few over 10. In the beginning I was off by at least a pound but after I caught a few and weighed them I got pretty good at it. My advise to everybody is go buy 2 scales. A good digi one and a cheap spring one. That way when you think the digi is lying to you you can check it agint the spring on and see it wasnt. Warning, you might not like what the scale tells you.

Your daughter is a little stud. She played that fish well!

If you can find some 3x worms, you know the realy stretchy ones that never realy caught on. Those will float a thin worm hook

thetr20one not trying to call you out at all, and I amdefinatly not calling BS. Now had you have claimed to have weighed it and said it was 7lb I would have had to try real hard and bite my tounge, or finger. I am just agreeing with the scale. If you feel it was at least 5 lbs in your mind and you believe it then thats all that matters. If you have doubts about your scale get a new one and check before hand so there wont be any guessing. I still say its a fine fish.

Rondef their is a big difference. The molds are already made. no more fish have to die. One mold will produce as many blanks as needed. Also not all the fish that are used to make the molds were alive and healthy. Many were made with old fish found freshly dead or they died when released. I know a big shop down here that had the rangers save any realy big fish that they found fresh. That site that compaired skin mounts to repros did a poor job at best. It almost like they are trying to talk you into a skin mount. Like I said before most of the big world class shops wont do skin mounts because they are an inferior product. small shops or mediocertaxidermist can find a nich in the market by doing the work that the best taxidermist wont. Now I am not saying that perticular taxidermist is good or bad, I dont know. I do know his comparison is weak at best. I working on a very detailed article that will point out the good and bad with skin mounts and Repros. Since I dont do any taxidermy work for customers anymore, I have nothing to loose or gain by sharring my opinions on the subject.

Good to hear from you Randall. Man sombody need to feed your fish. No wonder why GA doesnt produce any monsters. The fish have the length and the heads but they are all on diets. Maybe the GA male bass dont like thier females big and fat. Out here our femals need to spend some time on a fish treadmill. Actualy I preferr my females to be as fat as possible, well my fish anyways. ;D

Oh man please dont get offendid by this but I dont think the scale was wrong. A 7lber could litteraly eat that fish and I am not exagerating. That fish looks to be about 15in and around 2 1/2 --3lbs. It is still a fine fish. If you still feel your scale robbed you then you absolutly need to get a new one and check it first against a certified one. Then you will have no doubts

Wayne most of the big shops have thier own inventory of molds. Blanks can be altered a little but not much as far as lenght and girth goes. unique features such as split fins or a scar etc can be matched by any skilled taxidermist. There are Taxidermy supply companies that sell blanks(the actual unpainted replica) If you have a typical sized fish your taxidermist should have no problem matching your measurements and getting it in the pose you want. Now if you caught a rare size or shaped fish you may not have as many options. For instance say you caught a 20lb bass that was 28 in x 27 in. Well I am sure a good taxidermist would be able to find a match within 1/2 in on either measurement but you may only have one option for the pose. Or if you caught a 32 in bass that was super skinny and only weighed 12lbs it might be difficult to find a matching blank. In general there are tons of options for typyical sized trophy bass. There are also some shops that will(for an extra charge) make a mold of your actual fish. All of this depends on how important the exact measurement are to you. usualy the taxidermist will give you a wndow. The measurements will be within 1/2 in either way and the weight will be within 2ounces. You as the customer wont be able to tell the difference anyways becase you cant lay the replica flat and get an accurate measurement. Also remember this, Most skin mounts will be off MORE than 1/2 inch from the original measurements when they are finished.