Alpster

The cork sealer looks fine. Use it.

Midway had a sale on "Yum Dingers" so I bought a couple of hundred. Yep, I needed them....?

I really love mine!

Shimano Antares, because "Shimano".

This is nearly identical to a Smithwick "Devil's Horse" another great old bait. Another old favorite of mine is the "Snagless Sally". Great search bait!

The bait aisles and rod/reels were pretty well stocked, but I agree that the boats were sparse which was a disappointment. The real buzzkill was hand loading equipment, nearly nothing.

I took my wife to the Orlando airport yesterday sending her to NJ. With a little time on my hands I went to BPS. Walked around for over an hour. Up and down the many aisles of baits, rigging, line and accessories. Every time I stopped to be tempted by the Bait Monkey, I realized I already have this or that and don't need/want anymore. It was kind of surreal and I left without buying anything. I am thankful to have so much stuff, but it was kind of a let down to leave empty handed. Now if I had some thousands to drop on side/downscan electronics, power poles or high end trolling motor, it would certainly have been a different story. LOL

I haven't fished the Watermellon flake color, but the Culprit black shad color is my go to, confidence bait. Many hundreds of fish over the years. I have collected boxes of them as I fear they will stop making them.

Many years ago, I read an article by a genetic scientist, who was also bass fisherman. He hypothesized that the fish caught by Perry was a genetic/mutation anomaly that caused it's unusually large size. A 1 in a billion occurrence but similar to the giant humans recorded with excess HGH, etc. He sites "Andrea the giant" and Robert Wadlow who was almost 9' tall. No matter what you believe about Perry's fish, you will have to catch a bigger bass to hold the record. I searched for, but can't find the article.

Went to my local store and bought a big sack full of zoom baits. You know, because you never know. LOL

I watched them launch this morning. It looked to be a good day.

Also, it dawned on me that I just moved 1100 miles to FL and packed my rods the same way. This time in the back of a tractor trailer (moving company). Still no problems.

Several years ago for a BassResource road trip, I transported about a dozen rods from NJ to Pickwick about 1,000 miles one way on a trailer behind my motorcycle. I used a flannel sheet to wrap them so they wouldn't touch one another and put them in a "Plano" rod carrier. Tied them down to my trailer, got rained on several times, but absolutely no damage.

You may want to try 15lb braid equivalent to 6lb mono. You can add a leader if you want.

Nope, 1 piece. I would post a picture but its still packed away from my recent move. It goes back many years, they may not make it anymore.

I have a noodle spinning rod that I built from a "Lamiglas" 8' 4wt fiberglass fly rod blank. it is a blast for panfishing.

I'm not a fan of natural cork, except for fly rods. My preference for casting & spinning is synthetic burl cork. It's nearly indestructable and looks nice. I have no issues with eva or hypalon.

Zoom finesse or trick worm w/small splitshot.

More details?

I have a 5' Lamiglas heavy rod with a pistol grip for pitching. I can toss a jig into a red cup within 50' easily. Everyone should have one on hand.

My boat is 16' aluminum vee hull. Paid less than 2 grand for boat & trailer. My buddy and I got caught in a thunder storm in a huge lake in Canada. 3' swells that scared the crap out of us. That little V hull proved to be quite sea worthy. We ran about a mile with several big fast boats blowing past us. No problem getting back to shore safely. Motor was an 18HP rented outboard.

Back in the 80s, I worked for more than a year surveying the Joyce WMA just south of Pontchatoula Louisiana. Every day we slogged through that swamp in knee deep mud and chest deep water. We saw a dozen or so gators a day. Never saw one come towards us. They avoided us like the plague. Now living in central Florida, it seems they are much more domesticated and acclimated to humans. Not so skiddish as before.

Just a reminder that the monster you caught at Guntresville was on a pretty light rig.

Culprit 7.5" black shad ribbon tail worm. I've caught more bass on it than all other baits combined.

I fish Shimanos almost exclusively. Clean and oil at the beginning of the season. I have several that are decades old and work like new.