Team9nine

Maximum Catch at AliExpress:

Have to agree with Ted Williams as the greatest at both. Two other names that would make my list (golfball players ?) Sam Snead was a B.A.S.S. member and bought one of the 1971 B/M Classic boats off Ray Scott: Bobby Jones (with Buck Perry in photo below): If you look at the cover on Buck Perry’s little Spoonplugging booklets, you’ll see the picture is of he and Bobby Jones fishing together back in 1954. The story made the pages of Outdoor Life at the time. All 3 of these guys (Buck, Sam, Ted) would compete together (against each other) in the World Series of Sport Fishing events back in the 1960s. This pic is of Buck Perry with some fish (saltwater) from the 1964 event in Florida. Notice the names on the board behind Buck: Buck, Ted Williams and Sam Snead. Ray Ostrom who founded Rapala is also listed. Bobby couldn't compete because of his crippling syringomyelia, which eventually killed him.

Walked to a pond that turned out to be 60 percent froze over (skim ice) when I arrived. Already here, so started on the open water portion, which eventually became 90 percent free thanks to the start of a warming trend (high 53 today) and some good wind. Turned out to be a better than expected afternoon, hooking up with a dozen bass in about 2 hours of fishing. One of them turned out to be a fish with the most melanosis I've seen on any pond bass I've ever caught. Warming trend is supposed to stick around through mid next week, so looking forward to getting out a couple more times after a storm system passes tomorrow/tomorrow night.

Fin-tech Title Shot Jig may be along the lines of what you’re thinking…

Hard to say since we don’t know what settings you have at time of picture. I agree 2D looks fine. Start by getting rid of that orange/blue color palette - lol. It’s horrible. Reminds me of H’birds red/green palette which is used for hardness differentiation, but terrible for actual object viewing. Also looks like the right side is reading weak, and/or the left side is picking up interference, maybe from the engine - or both. Hard to make solid judgements off a single screenshot, so I’d recommend keep playing with the unit; sensitivity, contrast, scroll speed, and color palette. Also graph and compare shallow vs deep and see if they’re much different. Maybe post a couple different ones to this thread next trip out if you’re still not satisfied.

Could be. Definitely not a ‘lucky’ shirt. Maybe it’s the holey jeans ?

Was going through my catch pics from this year when this fish caught my eye. To me, it looks like the exact same fish caught three times this year. This fish hovers around the 5 pound mark. The first pic (black shirt) is from June 7, and you can see the bottom tail fin eroded/gone, but the top of the tail fin appearing infected/red, but still intact. Also check out the dorsal fin and the fishes gill plate since it is being held in the exact same position, same hand in each pic. The second pic (grey shirt) was from August 4. Upper tail fin now eroded away to match the bottom of the tail fin. Third pic (orange shirt) is from Sept. 7. Same top and bottom tail notch. Same dorsal and gill cover irregularities to me. What say you? Same fish in each pic? Anyone else with pics of the exact same fish caught multiple times?

You could probably say that about every brand of boat, rod, reel, line, lure, etc. that he uses, and it wouldn't matter - he probably doesn't pay for anything. I'm sure he also has braid on some outfits, and probably mono or copoly, too, and he doesn't pay for those All the top pros would refuse to use anything that knowingly cost them fish, free or otherwise. They simply don't like losing.

Ditto this for me (Seaguar) ^^ except I did spool one caster with Big Game this year for topwaters mostly. First time in a decade ? Several reasons from what I can tell. First, most guys aren’t good enough casters to be able to use fluoro well. Probably the number one complaint you read on these forums about fluoro (unmanageable, birds nests, line conditioner, etc.). Then you have the skeptics that think the pros only use fluoro because they get it for free, and the line companies only push it because of profitability. Then there is the argument over its shock absorption, knot strength, susceptibility to kinking/breaking. Then there are the braid/sensitivity guys that get themselves trapped. Pretty much covers most of it. You just have to go with what is most comfortable or beneficial to you. Every line has positives and negatives that can be argued. Your fishing - so you have to be happy with it.

Pretty good summation right there ^^ Ned and small blade baits get the most action for me, but smaller suspending jerkbaits and hair jigs of various sorts are also productive. Our shallowest ponds started icing last week, but we’re still getting bit on the open water ones. Small blade bait got this one yesterday. Don’t be afraid to probe out deeper with long casts to see if the weeds end somewhere. Very common to find here, and a lot of fish will stack up on that deep weedline or beyond at times.

Yeah, a lot of the old time finesse bass guys used to intentionally cut off the wire bail arms on things like the Cardinal Series of reels, I believe to mainly avoid bail spring issues, but also because some reel bails couldn't be closed manually - Charlie Brewer, Stan Fagerstrom (article excerpt below), Ned Kehde among them.

Rotor balance is definitely off now, but I only notice it when I reel in steadily and quick. Being my finesse reel, most presentations are slow enough that I don't notice, or it doesn't affect it enough to bother me. Same with playing and landing a fish. Since the wire actually snapped right where it enters that housing on the one end, I don't think it can simply be put back into place. I'd have to figure out how to get the broken off piece out first, then see if the shortened bail wire would still fit into both ends securely. I'll probably just play with it "as is" until I decide to pick up another reel. Buys me time to find a good price on a new one. Good timing though since we're almost into hard water time here

After I don't know how many years of use, the bail arm (wire) on my Lew's spinning reel simply snapped the other day. First time I've ever had that happen. You can tell in the pic if you look close and follow the bail arm...and look at the part it is supposed to be connected to where the line is still over the roller. So I decided to just pull the metal arm out of the other end piece holding it and now I have a spinning reel to fish without a bail arm - "old school." No more opening or closing the bail, so it might last forever now - lol. Have played with it a couple trips out and getting more used to it that way. So far no big issues.

It's slow, but I wouldn't call it a struggle. Jerkbait, Ned, jig and a small blade bait are all I carry this time of year. Ned scored today on an open water pond after having to pass on one completely skimmed over. Small black marabou jig used to be a go to, but now days I throw hair. Some days they are active, but other days you better barely move the bait. Play with retrieve speeds to determine activity level.

Walked to a pond this afternoon only to find it completely covered in skim ice. Turned around and walked a different direction to the deepest pond I have access to - it was all open water. Was able to pick off a handful of bass on Ned before calling it. Small warm up in the forecast for later this week. Hoping to get out a time or two, maybe even get the boat out. This was the best of bunch today.

Nobody has been able to confirm that it is specifically TW related or not. It started the week before Thanksgiving, and some posts on another forum, and it turned out that naturally on a fishing forum, most everyone had TW purchases in common...but not all. Might be coincidence, or might be a third party processor or vendor they use to process credit/debit transactions and not them directly. Nobody knows at this point, but the message/lesson is to definitely be keeping an eye on your credit and debit cards as there seems to be a big surge in activity the past week to 10 days in regards to CC theft, much of it to purchase crypto currency.

Within the normal range of traditional trolling speeds, speed doesn't have a great affect on depth with most cranks. Lipless baits that sink when stopped are more sensitive, and slower retrieves result in deeper running depths. Trolling charts show that a 1/2 oz Trap runs about 6 ft on the cast, and between 7' to 11' on the troll depending on line diameter (deeper with lighter line).

I may not have looked it at the time (1980s), but I was pretty boring from the sound of it compared to most - lol.

Anne Orth (“Bobber Anne”) was also just recently inducted into the Hall of Fame (2018). Below pic; Dan and I at a Midwest sport show.

Majority of my shakyhead fishing has been 10# Sufix 832 to 8# leader. Will likely bump to 14# YGK SS112 when I finally need to respool that outfit. Sticking with the 8# leader though.

Finesse TRD - lol - when I want to get a little "crazy" and break out of Midwest Finesse mode and throw something 'different'

lol…fueled my interest in science ? ? ?

Still Waters Alexandra Marshall There was a companion one hour television show on the old PBS science show, NOVA, out of Boston (WGBH) to go with the book. It came out in 1978-79, and fueled my interest in science/biology. The book followed the biology, life and death of a New England beaver pond over the course of one year, and even mentioned largemouth bass living in the pond This was followed the next year (1980) by the release of Cosmos by Carl Sagan, another great book (and related television series) that did the same.

I looked through the owners manual online and there is no mention of speed and temp capability with it. I also looked at the list of discontinued Eagle transducers, and that was the only one listed as compatible with that unit. None of the other temp/speed capable transducers were listed for use with that unit.

Hyperpigmented melanosis