SudburyBasser

Yesterday at work a co-worker and I were of the opinion that the ice on one of our main lakes was likely thick enough to support the weight of a tank. We were only half joking.

It's a sad commentary on my life that I was thinking of this very thing earlier today.

I swore to myself I wasn't going to buy a darned thing this winter but that kind of broke down about two hours ago when I bought a new Quantum Smoke 6-6 rod and an Abu Garcia Revo S I'm putting together for a jerkbait set-up. I have to admit I love the pairing and so bloody light for a sub $300 set-up. In my defence, the rod was on sale.

Nowhere near as many as some of you addicts...I'd probably say a little over 150 bags.

I think it's arguable that all spinnerbaits are "disposable" by their very nature but I haven't had any problems with Booyah spinnerbaits. At the very least I don't find them any better or worse than most of the brands I use.

On the FLW side I would go with Shinichi Fukae, great guy with a good sense of humour, and Scott Martin (though he needs to let go of the "dude" and "bro" stuff). Over in BASS I like guys like Randy Howell, Shaw Grigsby, Kevin VanDam, Timmy Horton, Ish Monroe, Gerald Swindle and Denny Brauer. I get annoyed with Aaron Martens because of the whining (I know people defend it as a laconic humour but it sounds like whining) but I admire his absolute command of the sport.

I occasionally use a rod my grandfather bought back in the late-60s/early-70s though its largely retired now. I have a rod and reel set-up from 1994 that my sister bought for me that I used last summer several times. Nothing crazy like some of you cats.

Same here. My local outfitter sent back a faulty Shimano and I was charged $20 as well, though in my case they sent the rod back for repair (faulty reel seat) and Shimano sent back a brand new rod.

Am I the only one who had a sneaking suspicion that they knew the victor of the Classic before the live weigh-in? It seems like Aaron Martens let the cat out of the bag when he mentioned Howell and Evers and then said something along the lines of "Did I say too much?" At that point I pretty much figured out that Randy Howell had won... not that I was disappointed as I was rooting for him. And the dogs... Lord... I think they can come up with better entertainment then dogs jumping for what is supposed to be the world's premier fishing championship.

Pass. The Scatter Raps I do have didn't blow me away this past summer. Besides, everyone knows this summer's money wasting It Lure is the Live Target Bait Ball...

I wonder how well Paul Mueller is going to sleep tonight knowing if he had even half-decent first day he would be the Classic champion...must be tough.

And congrats to Randy Howell! A fine angler and man!

I wonder how much Howell is sweating.

Same here, guy is class act... and he responds to every tweet I make at him, haha

I love how they put this "half-time" break with only six anglers left.

Greets to a fellow Ontarian!

Thanks for the assist gents, much appreciated.

Sorry what I meant by "general purpose" was that it was geared to different kinds of jerkbaits, be they suspending, slow sinking or otherwise.

Good day: I`ve been doing some research about jerkbait setups so I figured I`d see if there was a rough consensus about what I should be using. What do you guys think about what kind of rod, reel and line to put together for such a setup? A general purpose setup as I can`t quite justify multiple setups for now. I thank you in advance!

I officially went snow mad on January 2. We're expecting more this week. Raul, help a Canadian brother out...I don't take up much room... :-)

I did not know that and I would have thought otherwise. Given their pre-eminence and name recognition in the fishing space I would have thought otherwise.

Eh? Their internet strategy seems to be working just fine. Could it be executed better? Sure, but not everyone can be Amazon.

Fun fishing I'll typically bring a sandwich or wrap with some water. Tournament fishing I'll bring a few granola bars, perhaps a hoagie, and water. Small breakfast with coffee before leaving in both cases. Low input, low output.

Without knowing how tall any of those men are -- and there are no other viable measurement reference points in that picture -- I'd say it's pretty dangerous to assume anything about the measures of those fish.

In fairness to MLF, they did have a tournament on Chautauqua Lake last year, though that was predominately dock-based large mouth bass fishing. Here's a novel idea: Instead of another MLF in the south -- where we will all once again be entranced by flipping vegetation for several hours -- how about a tournament in the western United States? I'd like to see them try fishing deltas and lakes in California.