5bass

All the guys we picked arent doing so hot.....Nixon is in the Top 30, Fritts is 52nd > Yelas is way down and Cochran was near last place. Brian Thrift is leading by less than a pound over local fave Scott Suggs. Mark Davis is 8th or 9th, just 3# back of the leader. David Dudley is sitting 11th.

Good point Raul. I mainly use the L045's with regular sized worms, not for finesse type stuff.

dabnis, check your pm box

He may be referring to the Eagle Claw L045's which are offset worm hooks with a bend thru the middle. I still use them to this day. If you lay a regular worm hook flat between two pages in a closed book and pull it out, you dont grab any paper. If you lay a kinked shank (L045) between two pages in a closed book, when you pull the hook out, you grab paper because the hook point is not inline with the shank. When you begin to pull, the point starts digging into the paper. Try it. The closed book obviously represents a fishes mouth. Alot of times when the fish bites down on a kinked hook, no matter what angle your hook is, the point has penetrated a little skin before you do anything. I'm not saying that the kinked worm hooks are necessarily better than conventional worm hooks but if you're having trouble with hooking fish, you might want to give the kinked hooks a try.

Back to the original question.....G Blanks are good rods for the money. I own 5 or 6 now myself and I dont regret buying any of them. I will warn you though that their spinning rods are a little "off" on the ratings. Their medium is closer to a med-light, medium heavy is closer to a medium.....and the med-light is like a noodle, seriously. I would suggest calling Larry at G Blanks and explaining in detail what you are looking for.....and he'll be able to tell you what you need and answer your question about the guides. I have Fuji's on all of mine so I'm not familiar with the ones you asked about. Good luck.

Keep in mind that you dont have to wrap the entire handle. This will save you some wrap and keep the weight issue down if you're concerned with that.

Scatterbait ;D.....nice!

The chatterbait got all the hype a couple of years ago in Florida in which there were many tournaments won with it, all within a few months. The hype exploded on it and everybody just had to have one. I was one of those guys. I think the chatterbait did so well in Florida a couple of years ago because of the time of year (early spring) when the fish were real active and didnt mind chasing down something to eat. Another factor was that they could be fished effectively over/around/thru the grass, cover a lot of water and it was totally new to the bass. It was a whole new "thump" coming by and they were not accustomed to it then. Those guys were hammering bass with 'em when they first started throwin them. I still use the chatterbaits but in the summertime, its strictly a night bait, in fact,its replaced the spinnerbait for me at night. In the spring there are two lakes that my club fishes that it does great at and both have grass. I come back home the next day and can barely get a bass to look at it. My home lake has no grass and dont do very well with it during the day but I can catch fish with it at night. Its a strange lure indeed.

The Forrest Wood Cup (FLW Championship) starts Thursday on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. First place on the pro side pays 1 MILLION !! Anybody care to make a prediction on the winner? Although there are a bunch of locals in it and other true bass fishing legends, I'm predicting that my boy David Fritts carries home the big check!

What he said and WAY TO GO!

Yep, one of his "boys" rolled on him. That cant be a good feeling.

I only have 2 right now. An IMX MBR843C and an 844. My favorite is my Kistler Helium LTA 7' MH

I wonder what Atlanta would give up to have Matt Schaub back? He was a way better QB than Vick but they couldnt just bench the guy they paid $130 million+ for to let Schaub play....people PAID BIG MONEY to see Vick run around. Now Harrington is the starter? Things will get worse in Atlanta before they get better. Michael has screwed Atlanta in more ways than one.

You'll hear alot of different opinions on the optimum depth that bass will live but 34' seems well within reason, especially if there is timber and stumps involved. Did you notice any bait in that area?

I would not recommend Hybrid for a spinning reel but for casting reels, its good stuff.

Yep, deep crankin' is my favorite way to catch 'em in the summer. Just find some main lake points and other structure if possible and bump a deep crank around on the bottom for a while, you'll get bit. The carolina rig is another good option. I always use braid main line and a carbon leader, I make the longest cast possible and sweep the rod to the side, that way your weight stays on the bottom and kicks up a little mud trail. Bass are always curious to find out whats kickin' up that mud.

I prefer splitshot.

As a follower of Vicks career here at Virginia Tech and beyond it makes me sick to know that the guy has so much talent and natural ability but lacks so badly in the brain department......just like his little brother Marcus. At least Mike was smart enough to get PAID first, then screw it all up unlike Marcus who just couldnt wait to let his true thug colors shine through. I have washed my hands of Mike, the things he did to those dogs is dispicable and I have absolutely NO RESPECT for him anymore. I hope his buddies roll on him in court and he has to pull his fair share of time in prison. Enjoy Mike!

Thats cool then. Maybe your window of shallow big bass will hold up longer than the usual period we go through here. Sure, we can still catch a few good ones shallow (at night) but once the shad spawn is over, the shallow bite is not nearly as dependable as the deep bite.

Russ, does the lake you're fishing have shad? Do you hear them flopping around close to the bank during these times? The reason I ask is that on my home lake the shad spawn during the early summer and about 11pm every night the shad will be thick along the shoreline just about anywhere you go. That is when we get parallel against the bank and throw topwaters pretty much dirt shallow and usually can pull some good bass like that. But once the shad spawn is over, we have to back off into deeper water because the majority of the shad wont come up like they had been and the (bigger) bass wont either. They stay out in deep water where the shad are hangin out. The shad spawn was over here about 3 weeks ago and with you being to the north, you may have just hit primetime. Either way, it sounds like you are having a great time and catching some good fish.

WOW! Nice work Glenn! Everything is the same and 1,000 times faster! Its good to be able to get back on here.....it was a long week without it.

The Sure Sets are intimidating to look at and you would think they are a snag waiting to happen. I have been using them since they came out and I havent noticed any more snags with them compared to regular trebles.....besides, if you crank enough, you're going to get hung no matter what hooks you have, its a fact of life. The confidence I have with that one big hook on the Sure Sets outweighs any thoughts of getting hung up. I like seeing a bass come up with the one big hook stuck all the way thru the lip. As for red hooks, I will generally put those in the belly. I believe if they will key on something like that, I'd rather them hit the middle of the bait instead of the back. That way if they miss the belly hook, I still have one set coming behind to stick 'em.

Matt, as RW said, the Mann's 20+ baits are not user friendly but they are very effective when you need to crank deep. I suggest a crankin' reel in the 4.?:1 range and a long fiberglass or composite crankin' rod. The slow ratio reel will help tremendously if you crank deep for any length of time. I use a Lew's BB1 and also a Fritts 4.7:1....both are great crankin' reels. Another deep crank you should consider is the Lucky Craft CBD-20....it's becoming one of my go to deep cranks along side the DD22 (which in my opinion is THE best deep crank ever made, just wish I could get a few feet deeper with it) Just be sure when you're crankin' deep to try to make contact with whatever you can, even if you're just bouncing along the bottom.

Saturdays 9am (eastern)

Not sure on the make of the DD22 stock hooks but I switch mine to VMC Sure Sets as soon as they come out of the package. Size 2.