Basswhippa

This is blowing up the other forums with various articles. Forgive if it has been posted here already. Mother nature has dealt the Guntersville a bad hand this year and it looks like it's going to get worse for the north Alabama jewell. The stars are aligning for a down time at Guntersville. First the weather and weed death by mother nature. Second all the tournaments and the mortality the summer ones produce.. Third the overexposure due to guides putting somewhat unrealistic expectation in the minds of out of town fishermen with photos that only someone on the water every day can achieve. Weekend anglers can't stay on fish like that in most cases. Fourth, property owners are going to be working with the TVA to rid the milfoil, hydrilla, and I'm sure pads and eelgrass. See ya'll down there in a decade. Course it's been two decades on Wheeler, which was just as good as Guntersville back in the day. Enjoy http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/03/sick_of_the_weeds_in_lake_gunt.html

Let us know how you do. Good luck.

Spyderco, Buck, Kershaw, Benchmade, CASE

Besides if there were no ugly reels then we wouldn't appreciate the pretty ones.

Dead River, you have some spectacular mounts and seem to have an aptitude for taxidermy yourself.. You know what looks good. Ever thought about taking it up? I know it is a difficult skill to master, and not everyone has the fine motor skills to do it.

I was on a pier in Panama City Beach and hung into a wonderful Spanish mackerel. All of the sudden a I had the ultimate topwater hit.. As I was reeling it, a dolphin came up and grabbed it running about 20 mph. LOL. In order to not have my 5500C3 full of 10 pound line spooled, I just held my thumb on the spool so the line would break immediately. I didn't want 300 pounds of mono floating in the ocean. The dolphin knew what he/she was doing I am sure. They are very smart. Picked around my "gotcha plug" and had itself a good breakfast.

Yes it is. That is a perfect smallmouth replica. We cacth them all the time at Muscle Shoals. He said it was a "shoal bass".

The E series may be on the way out. I've held a I series. It is small. I would get it. Shimano always builds a superior product. Their parts are of quality, and they are very simple mechanically. The G was fine, it just wasn't marketed properly. Read the Citica G reviews on BPS. People love them. The I will go down as an all time great Curado, as most new Curados do. They normally just get better. The only failure was the G and it just was a downgrade of an E. Still a solid reel. If you read the reviews, one person has put the freespool on the I series to be comparable to the Chronarch 100 SF, which is the all time favorite of several reel mechanics that post around the internet. If the E series goes away, you will be able to get parts for a long time, if you even need them at all, but the I will be around for a long long time. Another poster posted it works as good as the new Chronarch.

Nice smallmouth!

I have not looked at the white Revo closely, but you are on the right idea. Red handle with red wrap would look good.

If you never get them, you won't want them. That said.......... I've gone over 40 years without them, and I recently put them on my reels and they are awesome. Most of my reels are older Shimanos and the newer Citica E's which have small knobs as well. These new grips were one of my winter reel projects. They make the grip larger and easier to grab. Their colors are really good. They do really add some bling. I matched my "Greenies" with the camo color (Black, Green, Yellow) my silver Citica 200E's with Black and White and my Pearl Chronarch 100A with the royal blue. They look incredible. I used one for about two hours in the rain today and it felt pretty darn good. Don't think I'll go back. That said, if I had a reel with bigger grips, I probably would not add them.

Actually the pro max and black Max came out around 1993. The pro max was ABU's answer to the Calcutta. It was $189.00 and although a great reel it was a failure. I don't know why except for price and the finish wore off easily.

Are you squirrel fishing?

If she were a bass, she'd be on somebody's wall !

I pick the dog days of summer and the Ohio River as being a better idea. That is the way to grow the sport. Nothing like a few guys with a limit of 7 pounds a day to grow the sport you know.

My first name is Bass and my last name is Whipper so I shortened it to make it easier to say. Rolls off the tongue better that way.

KVD or someone like him will win because they will hit 100 spots a day to avoid the fisherman taking advantage of any mega school. They will save mega school fish until the last day.

Each new version was in improvement in quality until the G and it was a step back. A good reel but not as good as the e or d.

Using small and clear line matters when the water is clear. When the water is stained, it's strength, visibility to you as a fisherman and diameter in terms of how it affects the lure presentation are what matters most. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. I do believe bass can be very curious and attacted to high vis lines from time to time, as has bene mentioned by WRB. If I fished the deep clear highland lakes of CA, I would use Flouro. Glad I don't. I may not catch a 20 pounder from 60 feet of depth but I'm OK with 7 to 9's with with a real shot at a 10 or 12 in shallow grass of the Tennessee River. Braid gets the nod most of the time.

Which lake did he come from?

What. You think somebody might tell a fish story on a fishing website?

Who did your mounts? Nice!

Fluorocarbon makes my lures sink. 10 lb red label.

Thank Hootie. If we looked at the thousands if not millions of helpful educational posts on this forum what I stated is probably in the Top 10 Most Helpful of All Time in terms of helping folks become better fisherman. Thanks again. I try.

Same junk. Different badge. Get yourself a Shimano and quit worrying about it. That is all.