Team9nine

One of the tenets of the Devolutionary Oath ? “Wear gaudy colors or avoid display. It's all the same.” Either is just as likely to work...or fail. Best to try them both.

Two shots down as of Wednesday. Less arm pain than the first for me, but so far no other symptoms (Yeah!). Wife had a 2 week delayed reaction after the first (“Covid arm”), and has been floored by the second. Fever, aches, chills, nausea and vomiting starting day of. Having a rough go of it as we approach the 48 hr mark, but hoping things resolve quickly like most report.

Might double check, but in many units you can go into settings and choose the degrees/minutes/seconds format that you want to use on the unit. Would be a simple one-time change of a button so you wouldn’t need to manually convert any of them, now or in the future. DD.DDDDD which is Degrees, Decimal Degrees DD MM.MMMM which is Degrees, Minutes, Decimal Minutes DD MM SS which is Degrees, Minutes, Seconds and sometimes decimal seconds SS.SS

Eight years later, but nothing has changed my opinion. Main difference is Fluoroclear sucks and fluorocarbon doesn’t ?

Guess the only thing I'd quibble with is the use of "none." Texas started stocking Florida bass in 1972 well before the Sharelunker program began. No doubt some big bass as a result of those early stockings occurred, and would have likely continued to happen to some degree. We also don't know what the program would look like without SAL. Might have just been continued regular stockings similar to what Tennessee is doing. Regardless, pretty sure most would agree that Texas is putting in more effort than about any other state in regard to producing big bass.

Just something to try. On mine (998/999) it makes a big difference with clearing the screen and clutter, but I almost always run Max Mode myself - but I'm not in pea green soup, either.

Totally understand, and I know they do everything in their power to treat those fish like royalty, but that figure of 86 percent survival was from the past 5-6 years. I know they lost one this year and two last year, and I’ve also read the earlier years had considerably higher mortality rates. I’m not trying to point fingers, but merely looking at the larger picture, which is everything is cumulative. So SAL loses 14% of it’s big bass, then add the mortality of every big bass caught and carted to a weighing station for verification that ultimately ends up dying (read several posts to this affect going on now). Plus add in every fish that perished because big bass are being held in livewells for hours so they can all be held up and video/photo’d together at the end of the day for YouTube and Facebook glory. Simply pointing out that every dead big bass is one less chance at a record, and that a variety of circumstances that weren't around in the past are making it more and more unlikely for another record to happen...but I’d still like to see it happen ?

Certainly have to look at other factors as being important, though the effort TPWD has done in this area is commendable. One big question to ponder is why has the state record not even been approached after 30 years of trying to create it? If I recall reading correctly, a 16.5 pound fish caught earlier this year was the largest documented in 22 years or so. Why hasn't the record been shattered by now? To that point, genetics play a part, but the genes are already in the system, they're just being preferentially increased and spread in this case. But as Tom and RDB mentioned, even without intervention, the genes will still be around and show up - probably just not to the same degree. Also look at the sporadic year classes of giants that show up at places like O.H. Ivie this year, but also happened, I believe, two other times before (2010 or 11, and one other?). Why no giant fish flurries in between all those other years? One theory, as has been studied by Dr. Gene Wilde, associate professor of fisheries ecology with the Wildlife Fisheries Management Institute at Texas Tech University, is that the weather and water conditions play a large role in this happeneing, and you only get an ideal mix of those every so often. His work tied it to an El Nino effect, but I'm not sure if the question/work has been followed over the years to see if some of these more recent "outbursts" of big bass followed a similar pattern. Another factor is probably pressure and leaving the fish in the system. I believe this was a big problem in Cali, but you obviously can't break the record of 18+ pounds if you remove or kill all the 13-15 pound bass first. They have to stay in the system living and growing just like they have been before that point to have a chance at becoming the record. I'm just not sure given all the social media hype and instaneous news feed that most of these giants get the chance to escape that window. And now to add to that, with forward facing sonar technology, what used to be the last largely untapped realm of big bass, the world of open water suspension and evasion of angling pressure, has now begun to disappear. I think you'll see a couple more great years of big catches thanks to this technology, but iin the long run, it will eliminate that last realm of seclusion and make it even tougher for these fish, and the lakes, to pump out giants...at least giants that can be caught. Anyway, just a few thoughts I wanted to throw out there on the subject.

If you’re not already, you might try running in Clear Mode (instead of Max Mode) and playing with settings to see if that helps. It will take out the majority of the weak signal clutter you typically get on your screen.

Simple - I almost ALWAYS go weighted ? ...and mostly with Elaztech plastics, too. Only time I go weightless is with trickworms around the spawn/post spawn in very shallow water.

Which is a big part of the reason I got out of the tournament game after 25 years - its become a bit ridiculous.

You’re walking a fine line ? I hate what LS is doing to the sport, and more generally “the art” of angling, but all electronic technology is contributing. On the other hand, the learning is just incredible, which is where my “torn” comes in. Right now I refuse to add any of it as a matter of principle. On Josh Jones and his “technique;” he’s the real deal. So is his “technique.” What makes it different from Pack and others (IMO) is the complete unreliance on structure, cover or baitfish. It is simply a game of ‘needle in the haystack.’ Launch the boat, turn on the LS, and start searching for a big bass (or crappie). Doesn’t matter if he’s in 6 ft of water or 60 ft., around cover or totally suspended in the open. Find it and throw at it. Yes, there’s some nuancing involved, but that’s what it basically comes down to. It’s kind of a hybrid/mishmash of all the big bass greats along with things like Hope’s tracking. You can see little pieces from all of it, but it’s taken the LS technology to be able to access that final frontier and bring all the pieces together - kind of a Grand Unified Theory on the last remaining untapped big bass universe.

This, pretty much ^^ Every reel I own has mono backing...except my two all mono reels which are straight spooled. Size or type doesn't matter - whatever is handy. Fluoro and braid reels (90% of my outfits) are just 75-100 yd toppers. When it’s time to replace, strip off line down to the connecting knot and respool with fresh line until full. Once it’s set up correctly the first time, there is never a need to measure again.

If scent works for you or gives an angler confidence, then by all means use it. In this regard, and others, it’s always interesting to follow and observe professional anglers as compared to recreational anglers. As for me, scent does have its place...left on the store shelf ?

Was supposed to be a bass trip, but an hour in, I went over a point and graphed a bunch of deep fish schooled up. Turned out to be a bunch of nice crappie that had pulled back after this severe front we are dealing with. That's when the trip took a 180 degree turn and turned into a panfish battle

Yep, if held upright, but it’s not because you gained any additional leverage on the fish. You actually had to use a little more force to do it ?

Which, I think, is why Ike screams “it’s a giant!” every-time he hooks a 2 pound bass - he’s using too long of rods ?

He is...probably the most misunderstood belief in fishing (long rods = more leverage). It’s everywhere...and it’s wrong.

The bass guys I was referring to are non-fly, but use the fluoro leader for extra abrasion resistance (mostly) and weight for wacky or other finesse presentations. The fly guys, bass, trout, etc. use it for weight/power transfer, if I’m not mistaken.

Absolutely doable for what you are intending. So many fly guys use their own tapered leader designs which are nothing but short segments of different mono/fluoro lines tied together to create exactly what they want. I know a few bass guys that do it, too.

Kids these days with their low rise skinny jeans have absolutely nothing on Lux Interior ?

Tear It Up and Human Fly. Might have done Drug Train then, too, not sure. The Ramones were the other band at the time to routinely cover Surfin Bird.

Yeah, I’m going to count it as a legal catch. We’re still well outside the spawn, and I’m sure I felt him take a swipe at my bait

Grackle?

Too windy to get the boat out today, with steady winds at 20+ gusting to 30 mph, but I caught several chunking cranks and jerkbaits from the bank instead. This one is the best I've caught from this little lake - on a HJ08 tossed on 6'6" ML with Curado G and 8# fluoro.