MoBassFishN

Well, IRish, your gonna believe what your gonna believe. They are a corporation. They are not in business to give things away. I don't mind them making money. I just feel that the wealth has to be spread around.

I am in no way a big fan of Mike although I do respect him for his drive and accomplishments! That said, I would say that I'd rate his book a 10 out of a possible 10. This was the easiest reading book I've read in many years even though it's not packed with information. I also purchase KVD's book at the same time, Secrets of a Champion. I still haven't read all of it. I keep falling asleep on it. That said, it only took me 2 evenings to read Mikes book!

Sponsored fisherman are not always on the cutting edge as far as boats. That combined with Ranger dealers preferring to fill customer orders first, are part of it. Then you have the sponsored anglers that don't want to get the first ones rolling out of the shed! Most pros would rather have the bugs worked out before they crawl into a new boat since they make their money in them. I know of 2 sponsored anglers that could have gone with the Z boats but went with the proven older models.

I think the biggest problem is that ESPN is looking for the quick fix. As a matter of fact, I think they've proven it with their changes and all of the changed changes. LOL They are coming off as a bunch of incompetant idiots! Why do they have the problems with not bringing in the big sponsors like the PGA does? Participation is at an all time high. Spectator showings have been outstanding! In the past, they have added to entry fees somewhere short of $1,000,000 for the years payouts with sponsorship money, yet this years drops considerably in their preliminary payout schedule. ESPN may have deep pockets, unfortunately, the seem to only want to line them with the sponsorship money that is coming in rather than grow the sport. I think it's basically coming down to a get rich quick scheme by the executives! If it keeps going in the direction it's going, I don't think we'll be discussing it within the next couple years. Also, if the PAA starts putting on their own events, I can see things going to hell in a hand bag real quick. ESPN needs to drop back to a good set of rules from a couple years ago and run the season with them and totally revamp in the future using input from the PAA. All I can say for sure is that right now, it's a mess!

Yep, our Truman Lake and Mark Twain are very similar. Jigs and texas rigged worms work well. Sometimes a slow fall works best with the lighter weight or even weightless but few have the patience or desire. Many times, the heavy weight and fast fall work better. As was previously noted, vertical presentation is important. YOu have to work close to get the worm to continue to fall to the bottom. Once you have found the preferred depth of the active fish, you can nail down your presentation. Sometimes a shallow crank works well when they are positioned in the upper level of the water column. Other times the venerable DD22 works well banging through those limbs. If you throw cranks it's best to use a highly buoyant model so when it does bang into a limb you can stop your retrieve and let it float up a bit prior to resuming your retrieve. often this is when the fish will hit. On Table Rock, where we have trees in depths considerably deeper, the jigging spoon or the football head jigs perform well. Again, the vertical presentation is a must!

I Wish they would have done a test on the polarization. I know that it is extremely innexpensive to block UV, but the polarization is the issue that has escaped me. Do the cheap glasses with the sitck on polarization work as well as the more expensive glasses with the polarization built within the lense?

I agree IrishJig, but it doesn't look like it's going to be short term. I just read that they are thinking about some major changes for next year and turning the Opens into Elite 100's with a $5000 price tag. Considering there are about 50 anglers making a good living fishing tournaments, it's going to be 50 great anglers and 50 rich guys competing. I guess that's one way to pick up sponsors! :

Yes, C-rigs tend to be difficult to cast with light weights. The heavier the bait you are casting, increases this difficulty. Your weight has to be considerably heavier than your bait or the bait will want to take the lead and let the weight run up your line, creating drag as the line passes through your weight at increasing angles. One thing that will help this if you find it necessary to fish with the light weight is to keep some rubber bands handy and tie a short strip of it a few inches above your weight. This will allow the weight to clack against your bead yet keep it from running up the line. One of the principles of C=Rigging is for that weight to stir up the bottom and make it seem that the bait is investigating that action. A heavier weight helps this! However, when C-riggin on certain types of rocks, it can be necessary to use a lighter weight. I've found that in most situations like this, it's better to find another method or a better type of weight that don't wedge in the rocks as easily. Sometimes it just requires that light weight though to keep it from going to deeply in those crevices.

I have always let the lake I was on dictate what I was going to do. On Lake of the Ozarks, if I am a long way from take off, I get close to but not touching the largest dock in my area and as another poster said, make sure your kneeling not laying in your boat. Lightning has a way of making things a little ?uncomfortable? prior to many strikes. I've seen line stay floatingin the air after a cast. I've had the hair on my arms stand straight one end. The closest I've been is had it hit a tree on the bank I was fishing. On Truman, I head for the steepest sided cove I can find with threes on the bank. I want something considerably taller than me on as many sides of me as possible and don't ground myself to anything if possible. Of course, if there is a marina close, I'll go sit under that or go in and have a bite to eat until it blows over The worst I've seen it was on Truman back in the early 90's. I got hit by a hail storm running wide open on the second day of practice, the lake level rose by 15 feet in three days of practice and two days of tournament. That weather was horrendous with many stories of lightning stikes, but luckily noone was injured!

Well, to each their own. Here is something from a BASS Insider write up. this is copied and pasted. For VanDam though, it wasn't the first tournament won using Biosonix. VanDam is 3 and 0 with his Biosonix on at this point. The Classic was his third straight BASS win using the innovative product. During the last two BASS Elite 50 wins at Lake Lewisville, Texas, and Wissota, Wis., VanDam won those tournaments with his Biosonix Fish Activator. VanDam first got a Biosonix Fish Activator from the manufacturer in March, 2005, says the company's PR guy, Wes Higgins. At first skeptical, VanDam started using the Biosonix unit at the Table Rock Lake E-50 event in late March. Fishing with it, VanDam was in first place after the first two days. On the third day, he had to switch out of his own boat, and inadvertently left the Biosonix Fish Activator behind. Whether through coincidence or fate, without the Biosonix, VanDam fell out of the competition on the third day. At the next E-50 event in April on Smith Lake, VanDam was in first place again using the Biosonix unit until he bumped and broke the underwater sound-emitting speaker and again the Michigan angler sunk lower into the standings without being able to use the Biosonix. At the next event at Wissota, VanDam again won it using the Biosonix. By this time, VanDam had shed all skepticism, and held a strong belief that Biosonix was helping him win, says Wes Higgins. Every tournament Kevin VanDam has started and finished using the Biosonix, he has won (the Classic, Wissota E-50 and Lewisville E-50). Scary, huh? Has Marty Stone won three major tournament in a row? Has anyone for that matter? I'm not promoting it, but I also have no personal experience with it and won't rush to make a judgement other than having the personal opinion that they should be outlawed in tournaments for the above reason. It'll only do more to widen the gap of classes of fisherman if they do work.

Either they ain't using them or they ain't telling! :

Cost of that software is $49.95. I like the idea of it and really should start using it as sometimes my memory isn't as good as I'd like! Here's the link: https://www.americanbassanglers.com/products.php?cat=7

You didn't say where you were from. My guess would be a predator. If you were from Missouri, I'd guess at it being an otter. They can really put the hurt on a local fish population in a small river!

I think G man is referring to the weigh in for this season where they get weight from their pros. A co angler can go without catching a single fish and win an event this year.