Tim Kelly

Sounds like all three are curable, so take heart from that. Good luck with the prostate, they have some very non invasive ways of dealing with that stuff these days, so hopefully you won't be too bothered by it.

Out on the water a couple of hours before dawn this morning. Didn't do me any good though. Very slow bite today, last Sunday it was a bite a chuck for a while, complete opposite this weekend. Tried one last spot with some history on my way back to the ramp and must have landed my dropshot on his head. Dreadful picture, but a great memory. 4-06, my biggest of the season so far and as far as I can remember my biggest for a couple of years. An ounce bigger than my biggest bass in Spain a couple of weeks ago!

Time to wave you burner round before you go near that valve. I'm a plumber here in the UK, people have often said that I should move to Australia as they're crying out for plumbers. That photo reminds me why. I expect the life expectancy of plumbers in Oz is about a fortnight. There are some pretty unpleasant creepy crawlies in the states, but in Oz everything wants to kill you, and most of them lurk in the dark crevices plumbers hands always spend most of their time!

The Minn Kota Ulterra would be your ideal solution, but probably cost more than the boat. It deploys and retracts itself and has a remote to steer it as well as deploy and retract it, but I think they're around $3k.

If the boat's going to have other people in it it might be awkward going to the front of the boat to deploy the bow mount every time in a relatively small boat. You could easily get a transom mounted trolling motor and turn the head on it round, then fish "backwards. It saves climbing over everyone to get the TM down and works reasonably well. I used the system on my previous boat. Much cheaper to buy a transom mount than a bow mount too.

I had an 06 Grand Cherokee. Nice vehicle when it wasn't in the garage. That car nearly broke the bank!

Looks like he's fishing London tonight. From the picture I saw it looks like he's fishing "my" stretch of river. Wish I could watch it! Anyone know whether it's available online anywhere?

If you're that clumsy you might want to get a recoil tip top. They don't have any inserts, so will give you some leeway.

Just back from a week in Spain chasing little green fish around in the broiling sun. Fantastic week, pure hedonism, a proper boys week with some great lads. The fishing was difficult most of the time, but we had little flurries of success throughout the week. Luckily I ended our last afternoon with a good flurry, which included this 4-05, which was my best of the week. We all need a little recovery time now to catch up on sleep, give our livers a break and repair broken tackle. There is talk of another trip in June. Aww, go on then.

Swindle's gone, Ehler I think will go. BP, no idea, though probably. Ish, he has been on MLF for a few years, but it doesn't really suit his style. If the new format doesn't suit big fish catching, then he might stay. Lee bros? Might be Jordan goes and Matt stays? It would probably suit both of them to fish different tours and get some separation, so they're not constantly competing with each other. Other than Swindle, this is all guesswork. I imagine it will be quite hard for anyone invited to the MLF to turn it down.

BASS making their pitch. They have a good pitch, but it's hard to think they haven't blown some of their currency but not treating the anglers better over the last few years.

But a much smaller spool. The shimano 3000 is often a shallow spool model of the 2500, which is why the capacity is less. 2500 is a good all round bass reel size.

You've missed a bit.....

I'm sure you'll feel like it's a huge upgrade. The 2500 spool is much bigger than your 1500 size reel, so it will cast better and manage the line better too.

It's not a re-branded Tatula, or any other LT style reel, it's a rebadged version of the previous, pre LT, reels, probably a Ballistic. Not that that's a remotely bad thing, very good reels. The LT series have a different spool design and the reel sizes are slightly different.

Do you think Cliff Pace got an invite? ?

Nothing like banks and insurance companies to get the blood pressure pumping. Hope you get it sorted OK, and your Mom is as well as she can be.

If the V2 is a serious improvement over the original super slick, then it's probably the better choice. I didn't like the original super slick. Too limp and loosely woven. Original is great and very tough, but it is coarse and I think less well suited to finesse applications, especially in current. Smoother 8 strands seem to catch the flow less. I've gone over to spiderwire smooth 8 for all my finesse stuff now. It's relatively inexpensive, smooth and less limp than some 8 strands, which I find easier to handle.

Must make them wonder whether they'd be in this mess if they had rolled it out a few years ago.

It's entirely possible to over do those reels to a point where they're pretty much uncastable. Went down that road 20 years ago with ceramic bearings and bearings in idler gears etc. Super fast reel, but incredibly difficult to cast.

My trailer's galvanized too. ?

Nice start to the "winter" canal season.

I know, but it looks custom.

Love how the silver lower unit matches the silver of your trailer. It was meant to be!

The best five vs the total weight thing is going to be interesting. I enjoy the MLF format and have subscribed since it's beginning, other than when they made it impossible. The downside is that, while it does offer a level playing field and is a test of some skills, it is, or can be, a little dull sometimes seeing everyone bank beating. I expect if they were dropped on an unknown version of Kentucky lake in the summer they would beat the banks and miss the ledge fishing giants completely as it would take too long to find them. I enjoy seeing who can make the best of the lake and catch the quality, but they probably need a little time to get the best from a lake. If pro bass fishing were to be completely dominated by people who were good bank beaters and numbers fishermen it would take away from the knowledge growth that has happened with the best 5 formats on how to get the better fish. There's room for both, but it would be a shame for the whole industry to move away from the 5 biggest as the gold standard.