Bluebasser86

This reminds me of when I'm walking around a store and someone randomly ask me where a product is like I should know just because I'm there. Seems like it would make a lot more sense to ask an employee (i.e. email TW or join their mailer to get notifications of their next sale).

I'm about an hour too late but Happy Birthday anyways!

Unless it's caught off a bed and hooked outside the mouth, or intentionally snagged, they're legal catches in the tournaments I've fished. Sometimes in the spring when I'm fishing jerkbaits, probably close to half of them are hooked outside the mouth somewhere. A lot of times they'll have a hook in the mouth and another one or two down the sides and the one in the mouth pulls out so I only have them in the side. So then that fish doesn't count anymore right? A lot of fish get foul hooked on spooks too despite the fact they were obviously trying to eat them.

Really like it so far. Fits my hand very nicely, handle is great, casting distance is great and smooth, easy to setup, and the reel looks nice. I've been a big fan of their spinning reels for several years so I figured it was time to try a casting reel. Wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with a few more.

Great looking fish! A far cry from our washed out stockers.

I carry a ton of Berkley baits in my boat, especially the Havoc lineup. The twitchtail minnow is a great bait and one of my favorite multispecies baits.

I use to catch some monsters when I was a kid out of the pond by my grandparents house. A live grasshopper with a tiny hook slipped under the collar so it didn't kill them and let them kick across the surface. No idea what they weighed, but some were probably approaching 2 pounds. A 2" tube on a 1/32oz jighead and a jig spinner is one of my favorite baits for big bluegills.

Seems like as long as you stick towards the higher ends of their lineups it's all pretty decent.

Is rigging them with the jighead inside the tube not an option? If not, you might push part of a plastic worm or grub inside the tube so you can push the keeper into that so it has something more solid to hold onto.

Welcome!

Welcome!

I prefer the 130 because it seems to ride through choppy water better (always windy here), attracts larger fish, and I just prefer larger baits in most cases. Nothing wrong with the 90 though and I'm sure there's plenty of situations when it will outfish the 130.

I don't think there really is a "wrong" color. It seems like it's mainly the disturbance that grabs their attention and makes them attack so viciously. The shad colored 130 has been great for me.

I do well in what I consider stained water with jerkbaits (2-3 feet visibility). Clown and bone are usually pretty solid producers in those conditions.

We used somewhat of an MLF style format for our Thursday night tournaments last year, except it was still the standard 5 biggest fish. Everyone was required to use the same scale to weigh their fish so they could be released right after being caught. It worked well and was a really good time. It was mostly guys off the forum and their buddies to help with the obvious potential for someone to fib about their weights.

Welcome!

Mine's heavy enough that I have to tag it to haul it on public roads.

Those peas are toads!

Welcome!

Welcome!

It's a largemouth.

C&G, I was about your age when my GF of 5.5 years left me out of the blue. I was on a 9 day fishing trip at a buddies place on Lake Minnetonka when she called me on day 2 and told me something was wrong but wouldn't tell me what. I packed it in and drove 9 hours home for her to tell me it was over. The next few weeks were spent trying to drink away my pain, but all it did was replace one hurt with another. I didn't fish hardly at all or spend any time with my friends. After about a month I let a buddy talk me into going to a country bar to catch up a little. As soon as we walked in I saw the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. It's been over 7 years since that night and I still thank my ex for what she did because I would have never met my wife if she hadn't.

2015 was a pretty good year for me. Caught my second biggest wiper ever, my 4th biggest smallmouth ever, the first bass over 6 along with more over 5 than I've caught in a few years. Had a terrific tournament season winning quite a few of them and finishing in first overall for the year. I finally bought a bass boat and it's been great so far. Caught my first peacock bass along with a few other new species while I was in Florida. Bought my first kayak and have been loving that. Broke several lake PB's. Started recording some of my fishing trips, which has been fun to be able to go back and relive those days on the water. My biggest cons to the year, I didn't make it to many different lakes, spent a lot of time on just a few of them. I had a few tournaments I should have done much better but I made poor decisions or lost fish that cost me I felt like I had the winning fish found for the end of the year fish off but I just couldn't make them bite, then equipment problems kept us from being able to fish like we needed to the second day and ended up in second place.

The Academy jerkbaits are very good. They say floating online but all mine suspend out of the box or with very little modification. The RC Stix have been one of my go to baits since they came out. Duo and Spro are both a little cheaper than LC and both very good baits.

I have a lot of lower end rods and catch a fish with them every now and then.