buzzed bait

Sad day for sure. No coach will fill his shoes. He coached that golden era that had me absolutely hooked on the heels.

only thing i know about the new river is i floated one time with a friend, leisure float, it was super muddy but only because of recent rains. mostly slow going, slow moving part of the river i was on. fontana can be down right tough. but perhaps the coolest looking lake this side of the mississippi.... pretty sure it's the highest dam in the east. it looks like a canyon style lake, ultra clear, ULTRA deep water (like 300-400 feet deep in places). quite a few house boats out there, but otherwise a wide open lake. it is just very tough to fish most of the time. i would suggest a trip to the franklin area. you could be at glenville lake in about 45 minutes or you could be south of town on the little tennessee in 15 minutes. you could also make the journey about 45 minutes west and hit chatuge. then if you decide to hit fontana, it's only about an hour or less away. it would be a pretty decent central location for you.

i have a lifetime hunting/fishing in NC - so that's zero bucks resident license here in GA was like $13 (includes trout permit needed for fishing the chatahoochee) last year i bought an alabama license, may do that again. it was pricey though i think $65 for out of state.

thanks for that! i just got one a month or so ago, sent it straight to DVT. cannot wait to test it out properly! i got a lefty in the 7.6:1. in the meantime, i've acquired a cumara 6'8"MH to mount it on for jigs/plastics. so stoked to get it back now especially after that read!

awesome work

neither of them are "wrong" for those applications. were it me though, i would use the tatula for frogs (i had a few and used a 6.3:1 for frogs JUST FINE). had a pq quite a while back, but used it more for plastics and jigs, though i'm sure it would suit you fine for cranking. you can always slow down your retrieve while deep cranking with a 6.4:1 as said above, you can always try them both and determine which you like better.

VERY nice reels and a cool comparison of old school to new school

a few different colors in my hardbait boxes. but soft plastics/jigs do not vary much: green pumpkin pb&j black/blue junebug

place a quick online order then go snowboarding? i'm in, work sucks anyways!! happy bday!

Awesome fish!

the little tennessee river is where i've caught them in western, nc. just beyond franklin, nc. pretty sure the lake spots are going to be glenville or fontana in western, nc. you could go towards hiawassee, ga and fish chatuge (pretty sure that's where the GA and NC record smallmouth were caught)

i kid you not, their website has ALL the information about the sale that you need to know.

frogs are cool and turtles....

according to their website (which is a fairly reliable source of BPS information) the sale begins 2/6 and ends 2/15

I won't have a ton to offer, but to specify are you looking for lakes or rivers or both/either? Also, you looking to fish the bank, boat, canoe, kayak, etc.?

are you talking about spinning reel or casting reel? either way for $160 i would find a much better reel to spend my money on.

had to come back and throw heath ledger in the mix for the Joker performance....

just saw where there was a jonboat tournament on varner this past weekend, certainly why it was so crowded! you decide where you're fishing this weekend?

this is exactly right. i have two of the same 6'10" rod and they are nice, light, and a little stiffer than other MH. they are far better than the falcons, i was not impressed with a bucoo i had. i love my 6'10" for throwing spinnerbaits and the other one for tossing some jigs.

that 10 pounder was practice until you get on the big water

you might find that pond fishing regularly turns out giants in every state, NC included..... that is since the state record was from a private pond.

i will say that they have the best online customer service. i have spoken with the chat people a few times and always had my issue resolved. my only gripe with them is one you experienced which is an outrageous shipping policy. they price themselves out of a lot of my purchases just because of the way they calculate shipping.... but they really do have phenomenal customer service.

All i was going to say is with all the awesome country between philly and CA, why in god's name would you want to come to Atlanta. I can think of about every reason under the sun to AVOID Atlanta, few would make me want to come here. i'm just saying skip this part, spend extra time in TX or NV or CA or CO

i can honestly tie faster than using the snap. i don't know why, i've tried the snaps and the norman speed clips and for the life of me cannot keep them open enough or something. just me and my non-responsive fingers i suppose. in about 15 seconds i have a palomar knot tied on about any bait.

dress warm this time of year, may be 50 or 60 one day, may be less than 10 the next. i have never fished there, but i think kerr scott reservoir is the closest lake from there. that or lake james, but lake james is down right tough. there's a few guys on here from the morganton/hickory area that may chime in and point you in the right direction.