buzzed bait

forgot to mention this dude (some call him DVT others call him Mike, not sure what the ladies call him) he supertuned my curado 51e's, one of which is in the picture above with the BFS spool, and WOW what a difference it made! i liked the reel before that, loved it after the supertune, thought about sleeping with it for the last week since i put the BFS spool in there!

that looks familiar!!!! i was tossing the 4" wacky weightless on that sweet sweet unit this weekend! the fish liked it as did i!! i caught a rainbow trout, crappie and some nice little 1-2lb bass on it. the 8# yozuri i was using was plenty strong enough for them all. and i am soooooooo glad i got that spool too, it makes it so easy to cast that lighter weight, almost effortless really. i think one big advantage for me is the accuracy i was getting because of the fact that i could feather the spool with my finger and plop the worm down right where i wanted it. the fish were all in small pockets between the laurel bushes that were hanging out over the banks on this lake and being able to stop the bait before it hit the bushes was a major win for me. with spinning gear i can do it, but it's a little more of a "jerky" motion with a less subtle entry into the water.

i'd like to tango with a nearly 4# smallie!!

nice fish paul! she's chunky!

nice work dude! very nice fish on that chatterbait!

nice going man! can't grow much confidence in techniques if you don't try something new sometimes!

It was as windy as I think i've ever stuck it out and fished with the kayak.... but when they're biting, they're biting right? I was up in Western NC to see my grandmother who is terribly ill and fading on me. after visiting a while on saturday morning, she asked me when i was leaving to go fishing and told me to hit the road. So of course, like a good grandson, i listened!! hit my favorite little lake in the world. they recently drained it and did some work there, but i had hoped that maybe a couple big ones made it although i don't believe they did. All the fish were stocker size. caught one quickly on the spinnerbait, as in on the ramp before i even launched! after a little while the wind was killing me so i got off on the bank and fished there for a while and was getting a lot of bites around the culvert that goes under the road. all they wanted was the wacky senko, so that's what i showed them. I learned a good lesson too about sharp hooks! i used the same hook nearly all day and had snagged and caught and blah blah blah. well that hook got fairly dull towards the end of the day and i ended up having about 6 fish come unbuttoned. about the time i really figured out what was happening, it was nearly dark and the bite had really died down. still managed to land either 5 or 6 bass, 1 hungry rainbow trout and a fat crappie.

can't beat a kid catching a fish! she'll break her jaw smiling any harder than that!

nice going man, i'm sure it was tough to go back to work today after a week of fishing!

dude those are some tanks!

welcome and nice going man! i'll take a PB in numbers on a new lake erryday!

that gut is bigger than mine!!! nice fish clayton. and the dog could care less.....

that's a sow there Jeff!

nice catches there, i'll take some quality fish in tough conditions any time!

another very easy knot to tie that works well for fluoro is the uni knot, you might give that one a shot. it has worked very well for me. i usually connect leaders with a double uni and that works just as well.

10# braid to fluoro leader for me as well. i tried straight fluoro and didn't like the way the line handled and much prefer the braid with my lighter rod for a better hook penetration. I don't use the drop shot a ton, but when i do i use my pflueger supreme mgx. works for me!

nice catching!! don't "getbent" out of shape about it!! (see what i did there...) i'd be stoked for being so far ahead of 3rd place!

well no thanks on the snake encounter.... i more or less hate allatoona! they do call it the dead sea here and after fishing it i know why. you pick up the occasional straggler, little dink sized spotted bass. never had a good day out there honestly. i've more or less abandoned that place for the smaller and somewhat more fruitful lake acworth on the southern end of the lake. easy access for my kayak and still has some fish in there despite the abundance of fishing pressure. in fact the only "good fishing" i ever had on allatoona was one weekend that a friend and i did some camping and i was killing the white bass on a topwater popper. i just lucked into a good spot where we were camping and they were very hungry it seemed. otherwise, that place pretty much just sucks in my opinion.

^^this right here is my go to on river/stream trout

i'll go ahead and claim those bragging rights my friend!! hoping the heels take it all so at least my championship picks in my other brackets will have all been winners!

i ran cross country in High School.... only reason was the school i attended you had to either work after school (like cleaning dorms, cleaning the barn, dining hall, etc.) or you could do a sport. Well i cleaned the dining hall one semester and a girl's dorm one semester and swore i wouldn't do that again. so i took up cross country! it was pretty beneficial for me in that it got me prepped for basketball season. then when golf season rolled around it was right back to my usual no exercise routine.... i applaud those who run for fun, but i just can't find the pleasure in it myself.

well i guess i was half right.... nova won, but it wasn't by a small margin!! it's got me a little nervous about the game tonight, but either way, we made it to the big dance so i'm stoked! hoping for a great game tonight with a HEELS WIN!!!

i'd also check on the laws as far as transporting the fish and all that... never know! that said, i wouldn't just throw them on the bank. Tons of families out there that could use some food for the table!

man that h12 is a slick looking unit! i'd never seen that one before. The SOT can be wetter and colder, but i assure you once you get some water on the inside of that sit in, it'll be just as cold, if not colder than the SOT unless you manage to bail all the water out. the self bailing scupper holes are great, keep all the water out of my SOT. i have no scupper plugs and have no use for them either. i used to have a sit in, then bought a sit on top and would never go back to the sit in. But it's all personal opinion and experience.