redux

DSG close to me has fishing rods in the gun display racks and random fishing stuff in the display cases. I'll spend my money up the road at Bitter's Baits.

BASS has said numerous times that they reschedule events for the safety of EVERYONE BUT the Elites. Read that to mean the spectators, camera boats, first responders, etc.

And Wheeler still won by a mile.

Solution to "talking" - Leave all your baits on deck and your graphs showing all your way points when you get back to the house.

@James Niggemeyer Sorry to see that you got sick during practice, but happy to see you do so well with 1/3 of the time on the water. Proud of how you look on the bright side and keep your PMA on point.

Nooooooo! You gave away the secrets!!!

I get the strangest feeling that @Team9nine is Pat from Stray Casts.

I'm interested in what Lebrun and Niggemeyer will do the next few years with FLW. I can't put my finger on it, but I am always rooting for those two to do well.

The first two things I see in that area are that most of the lakes are inaccessible from shore or surrounded by private property. Which now that I am thinking about it are why I don't bother to fish down there. However, there are a few places that are good if you want to fish. Two easy to get to places that I have caught plenty of fish at before. Lake behind Ikea is too young to have big fish but there are numbers so the fishing was good the last time I was there. Basically it is bare shore except on the east shore - https://goo.gl/maps/95G2sa8z9jhHU47L7 Lake next to Mall at Millenia has numbers and big fish since it is old. The mall is marked as no fishing but I ignore it. Friend caught an 8 plus post spawn female there a few years back on a white spinner bait. Freaking jerk The issue is finding them since it is so big - https://goo.gl/maps/r7eN5K25NfttZk4A9 I have not fished this canal, but a friend said he went there a lot when he was working at the Convention Center - https://goo.gl/maps/HLugsQvw5n1MYLGa6 Hope this helps.

Add candy bug to that list.

Honestly, take a look at old phosphate pits. The ones you can get on get a lot of pressure and have a limit on the number of boats per day but, they are very interesting places that can produce big fish. Make sure you have your GPS because those places are mazes and you can get lost very easily.

Tell me the general area you are looking to fish. A city or neighborhood name is good. "Around Hunter's Creek" or "east Maitland" is enough. I'll look at a map and let you know what your likely best options are. I've been beating the banks around Orlando for years and have been on most lakes and ponds you can fish from shore. I will tell you what should be good based on what I know; however, there is no way that I am going to tell some random person on the Internet the bank spots I fish myself. Not trying to be a jerk, but there are a lot of bank beaters in central FL with terrible manners (leaving trash, taking fish, being rude to locals, parking on the grass, etc.) that have ruined good banks spots for me so I don't share anything I care about. If you want to look for yourself I highly recommend using the street view feature in Google maps to check for fences and obvious trespassing signs before you get too interested in something. FL loves its private property, trespassing signs, and fences.

Good. Not a fan of Enigma at all and never liked AM representing that brand.

Right. I was talking about the FLW Pro tour. I can definitely see your point regarding the BFL and Costa trails though. Although, I am more likely to commit to the Gator division now ? Hopefully I'm not one of the one's who make things worse on the water.

I think no entry fees mean that there are qualifying standards instead so you actually weed out the poor performers. FLW was going that route already so it isn't a change to their direction.I believe in 2018 they said 2020 was going to start rigid qualifying standards via points. Pay to play setups are more likely to give you a sub par field anyway when kooks have the cash.

Why the hate for the humble stick bait? I have a friend who hates them too and the best explanation I have been able to pry out of him is "grumble grumble hunk o' rubber grumble grumble slug grumble grumble".

I'm 5' 9" so I am exceedingly average. I have rods from 6' 6" to 8'. I use them all for different situations. But I prefer the 7' 2". That translates to a 1.25 ratio. Using that ratio you would sit around the 6' 6" mark. However, dogma has no place in fishing so use what works for you.

I agree that bass don't normally care about your line from a visual stand point. However, your line affects your bait's action in the water and braid can affect the action negatively. There are other nit-picky reason, but the main one is that it affects the action of the bait and that is enough for me. You need a decent amount of consistent, even tension on your braid to ensure the initial plaiting is laid down well. Your first half hitch has to be cinched down hard to work (as mentioned earlier). I also should do another 3 alternating half hitches before the heavy pulling to fully seat the plait before cutting the leader off. You really really, really need to pull hard to seat the plait. Pull evenly and watch the braid as you do. It will slowly darken before starting to look kind of clear. You want the entire plait to change color before you work on finishing the rest of the knot. Something I have not heard anyone mention is burning the bit of leader that's sticking out. You need to wet the entire knot so the wetness absorbs any heat form burning. Use the clear part of the flame just above the metal guard on your lighter because it does not flicker like the rest of the flame and it is also not super hot. You want to control the flame so the leader melts slowly and forms a mushroom cap just above the 4 half hitches. If you do not get it down to even with the knot carefully add a couple half hitches over the exposed tag to fill in that gap. Otherwise that excess leader will create a heavy hing that will catch you guides and cause other line issues. Finish off with another 4-5 alternating half hitches then you can do a Rizzuto. Before you clip the braid tie a single overhand knot and work it down as close to the knot as you can then clip off the braid. If you don't want to do a Rizzuto you should still do the overhand knot. After all that burn the last bit of braid like before. I know this is a lot of stuff but it helps your FG stay straight and hold together longer. Given time all the Rizzuto and the half hitches can work loose and compromise your knot. Yes. On the water all of the finishing steps are way too much to do properly and in the moment you're not likely to want to take the time to do even a basic FG. In this situation I do an Alberto so I can get back at it quickly. Likely I'm going to learn the Shinn because that looks pretty d**n fast and strong.

Just learn to tie the FG and use a Rizzuto finish knot. It is a smaller and smoother knot that will not be an issue in your guides. All the other leader knots have a tag from the leader that will catch in your guides on the way out. Once you are proficient with the FG it does not take a long time to tie even on the water. Why use a leader? Braid floats and inhibits the fall of light baits and weightless plastics. Not good. Flouro sinks and allows the baits to work more naturally. Good. Also, braid will cut into wood the same way it cuts into vegetation. That creates noise as the braid saws into the wood and leads to you getting hung up when the braid cuts deep enough. Not good. Flouro hugs the wood so it does not cut into it and does not make noise as it moves across the wood. Good.

Telling people WHAT to throw and WHERE to throw it isn't really giving away the secret. The secret to success is knowing WHEN to throw something somewhere. Understanding the conditions that dictate fish behavior is not exactly something people can simply learn and apply. Wheeler has that. Most of his competitors never had it or are losing it.

Wheeler was catching some big fish in the world championship fianl. Kinda have to wait for the MLF show, but based on what you can see in Wheeler's footage the field was fishing the bent-pole pattern. Lost a lot of respect for Amart and Tak for poaching so blatantly. Lost respect for Ike awhile back so no loss there.

I guess I have a weird setup for skipping because I can't skip with a spinning rod. 7'2" MH Shimano Expride casting rod and a Shimano Curado 71 with full ceramic bearings. I have 2 break pins engaged, the external break set to 6, and usually do not adjust the spool tension from my normal setting. I tend to keep my spool as loose as I can get away with, but am slowly working towards keeping it as tight as I can get away with. Hope that makes sense. 40# 4-strand Power Pro with a 12' leader. For the leader I use 16# Yo-Zuri Top Line or 20# Sunline Shooter and an FG knot. 5/0 heavy gauge EWG and throw 5" or 6" senkos.

There’s a big HS tournament going on there too. I wonder how much that influenced the time change.

Pro in this type of situation means “promotional” not “professional”. I’d pass unless you are super into the product. If Shimano offered me a “pro” spot I’d take it. ?

I have settled on braid with a leader or without a leader. You could say I tend to run 99% backing. My spools have 80 yards of braid (Shimano 71s have 40 pound and 201s have 65 pound) and I run leaders between 6-12 feet. Normally I use Sunline flouros (15-25 pounds) but have some Yo-Zuri hybrid (15-17 pound) that I like and Trilene mono (12 pound) in case I ever need it. I also replaced all my bearings with full ceramics.