Logan S

A lot of people appreciate some consistency. Most normal fisherman will add a small number of rods to their lineup each season and not 20 at once. If someone likes to stay with Loomis it's nice that they generally keep the same aesthetics and ergonomics over a long period of time.

Well yeah, this is a thread about a tournament in the forum about tournament fishing. A large portion of the overall bass fishing narrative is influenced in one way or another by tournament fishing.

They limited FFS but it's still all anyone is talking about. Use it or don't use it, like or don't like it.... Regardless, it's completely taken over the narrative of bass fishing.

November won't be 'cold water' yet, should be some good fall fishing. I'd expect the rivers to be low and clear, they all are around here in the fall unless we get a major storm around the time you're coming. Not an expert in that specific area but I grew up fishing the upper Potomac both wading and from a boat. Generally speaking the upper parts of these rivers are known more for quantity than quality. A 3" senko on a weedless head will catch em, as will most other finesse techniques. It's true river fishing, so lots of rocks and lots of current, even when the rivers are low. Hope you enjoy your trip to the area.

I have an NFC IM SWB 806 on my bench to build, CCS measurements are 925g/70deg - so a Heavy/Mod-Fast...Feel like it would fit the bill for that. I am building it for someone who wants to throw smaller glides. I think a Chad Shad at about 2.5oz will be the biggest bait that would be appropriate on this blank. Not sure how well it'd handle big cranks, but the measurements lead me to believe it might be a decent fit for like 8XD type oversized cranks.

If you buy a license that's for a fixed time period, like Jan 1st to Dec 31st, and they don't pro-rate it based on your actual purchase date....Didn't you technically 'buy' all of the days in that time period? Or put another way, a fishing license exists so that the DNR or whatever organization gets money to do all the things they do...If you buy it for a fixed interval - 1 year, 3-day, whatever - There's a cost per day. If a person pays the full cost for every day of whatever period it is - Does it matter when they actually paid for it? DNR gets all their money either way right? Obviously if your state does it by time of purchase it's a different story, since that's technically a pre-pay for the days ahead...But for fixed interval licenses that's always a funny little question I've asked myself. I checked out of this story...But given the talk of licenses and when they are bought, etc...It reminded me of this little thought experiment.

I personally use Daiwa. But really there's only a handful of scenarios where the reel actually has any impact on your fishing....And even then it's nuanced and more of an "optimization" than an actual advantage or disadvantage. The trend since the 2020 wave of newer anglers has been toward "premium" gear and baits and Shimano and Daiwa definitely fit into that...But there used to be just as many "cool guy" JDM Abu reels as there were Daiwa and Shimano. About 10 years ago I got my buddy a JDM Revo Aurora as his wedding gift, he got asked about it every time he fished. He still uses it and it's still cool. There's plenty of reasons someone would prefer to use Abu, they make good reels. Only thing I care about other anglers is how much weight they drop on the scales 😉.o

Many years back I caught a 6-3 in a CWR tournament and a buddy of mine also caught a 6-3. After weigh in we joked it was the same fish, then got to talking...Same point, same depth, same bait - about 3 hours apart. Compared pics and sure enough, same fish. It was July, so it wasn't a bed fish situation, fish was in about 18' of water and we both caught it on a 1/2oz jig on the end of a popular point. We both tied for lunker in that tournament and funny enough it held up all year so we also tied for the lunker-of-year award that season 😄. I think it happens more than we realize. Its one of several reasons I consider CWR tournaments fundamentally different than traditional tournaments.

A longer rod will generally be more sensitive than a shorter one....Lots of caveats in that statement, but could be part of the difference if they are otherwise similar. As for a good jig rod blank for bigger jigs - I really like the Point Blank 73HXF and the NFC HM MB709. They are both close in power and will handle a 1/2oz jig very well. The PB would be good if you prefer a faster tip, the NFC would be good if you like the traditional mag-bass, mod-fast type of tip. Based on what you posted about liking a stiffer tip, the NFC 709 might be the one to try.

Good news - Hopefully they all go that way in the next iterations. I think the 'big 3' - LS, AT, and ML all still use the box though.

FFS consists of the FFS transducer and the 'black box' which houses the brains of the system. The FFS ducer connects to the black box, which then connects your unit. You'll need a unit compatible with the FFS system you get. If starting from scratch like you are, it seems that Garmin is the most affordable for a unit and FFS setup combo. Look for an LVS 32 or LVS 34 setup and then pick a unit that is compatible. I personally run Lowrance's flavor of FFS, but the generalized components are all the same.

Sounds like you guys have it figured out, case closed I guess.

It doesn't make me wonder anything...Except maybe why so many are so quick to crucify one of our own for something so minor. He wasn't going to win $10k cash with the submission, sounds more like you get a raffle ticket to potentially win stuff that could be worth that much....Of which the company he part-owns sponsors and donates merchandise, so even if he won the raffle, it'd be for (at least some) of his own stuff. Doesn't matter anyway since his entry was voided. Really seems like the actions of a criminal mastermind at work 🙄

Jeez man....Poacher, Cheater, Fraud..... Dude forgot to renew his license, it happens. He got popped when it was submitted, he paid the fine, and his submission wasn't entered. But the Share Lunker program still got the benefit of having the fish, which is a net long term gain for all TX anglers given what the program does. So who or what is being harmed in this situation? Yes, I agree everyone should play by the rules...Which is why he was fined for not having a current license and his submission didn't count. To bring it back up almost a year later really seems like someone just has a personal axe to grind. Back in the day Aaron Martens won $200k in an FLW tournament....Turns out he didn't have a license, must have forgot to buy it when he got in town or something. They fined him for no license but didn't make him forfeit the win or money. Which one of y'all is gonna call him a poacher, cheater, or fraud? I certainly won't.

Sounds like he forgot to renew his license and a string of technicalities escalated it. My personal guess with almost zero information is that at least some of those escalations could have probably been handled in a less dramatic way. It's very easy to overlook license renewal especially if you have licenses for multiple states. Heck, here in MD I have to buy TWO separate licenses as a resident just to fish for bass every year...Add in VA, DC, PA, NC, and sometimes DE and I need a personal assistant just keep track....That's all for a 4 hr driving radius. The fact that he renewed after the fact doesn't mean he was trying hide anything, it just means that he was continuing to fish after realizing "oh crap I need to renew," just like any other normal angler would do. It's not like he was never planning to fish again and bought the license for the sole purpose of tricking the SL program. Don't know the guy, not defending, just being logical.

Before you slip too far into the winter doldrums - Start planning for the 2025 season! Fish On Bass Anglers is the largest bass club in the region and IMO the best local tournament trail option you will find. There will be a meeting in early January, on Zoom, but many of us usually meetup at the Germantown Mission BBQ and reserve their private room to hang out while we put the meeting up on the big TV. Our tournaments are competitive enough for people to take it seriously, but laid back and fun enough for those that just want to fish....Really a perfect mix for local tournament fishing, a good place for experienced tournament anglers AND people new to tournament fishing (or even bass fishing in general). No commitments or expectations, fish when and where you want. Costs are pretty low and its a non-profit club with 100% tournament payouts. No affiliation with BASS or MLF so you don't need to maintain a membership with either. We had several long-time co-anglers buy boats in the past couple seasons so the co-angler field is wide open and it's unlikely that that we'll have any co-angler waitlists this season. You can post here or message me for information and check out our website -> www.fishonbassanglers.com

I first responded to this thread in 2019....And my response at the time was much more glowing that it would be today. I still think the 110 is among the best overall jerkbaits on the market, but unfortunately in our post-2020 world what @MediumMouthBass wrote here is more true than I'd like to admit. Not only that, but with the huge increase in demand for MB baits there were changes made to the bait. A post-2020 110 is not the same as a pre-2020 110....It uses slightly different hardware, has slight internal differences, and the intricate multi-layer paint jobs are just not the same as they used to be. I honestly don't buy them anymore, instead relying on my collection of pre-2020's versions. When I first wrote in this thread in 2019, the 110 was in a league of it's own. 5 years later it's still a quality bait, but there is no where near the separation between it and other options as there used to be.

There are 3 tidal fisheries on this schedule.

I think it's a bigger impact than it initially appears. Allows the tech without letting it get out of hand. Forces anglers to make choices on their setups instead of just adding anything and everything. There will be setup strategies based on the schedule and such, it'll take it from a free for all to something that requires actual planning and thought. 1 FFS transducer on the TM is how the majority of us regular anglers operate, so being able to see the true FFS gurus optimize that setup will be a cool learning opportunity...And an opportunity for content for the league/pros.

I don't think it even needs to be angler 'following' a fish....You could have two anglers sharing water that are a comfortable distance apart normal fishing wise, but still be able to beam the same fish if its within their FFS radius. IE if we're 'sharing water' and I'm 150 feet away, that's a pretty comfortable distance, but our FFS ranges will overlap. If I see you casting in a particular direction, I can beam over there and potentially see the fish you're targeting and try to cast to it also. I think in the real world it's kind of an edge case, but I bet we see something like that play out eventually. I don't think that type of stuff could really be addressed, except the unwritten rule maybe widens the radius of your 'zone' so that FFS ranges don't overlap - which is pretty far apart.

Yes, that's correct.

It would be kind of surprising, but I could see FFS being banned in BFL's. In the BFL's co-anglers exist for 2 reasons, #1 for money and #2 for preventing cheating. BFL's don't allow open boats (#2), so if there aren't enough Co's they make any non-linked boaters double up in boater-boater draws. Most boaters don't want to do this, so if it's known the co field is light, anyone not linked already just won't sign up....Which means even less $$$. I've been reading/hearing BFL Co #'s are down in most divisions and a big reason is FFS. Being a co was hard enough already, but the prospect of sitting out in the middle of the lake all day without ever getting a meaningful cast makes it worse so many anglers just aren't bothering anymore (one even in this thread) Less co's means less money, but the ripple effect of also decreasing boater participation compounds it. BFL income is probably pretty important to MLF as a whole since it is by far the largest angler (customer) base for them. If they have good data showing FFS is a major reason for declining numbers, banning it would be logical.

The pearl-clutching about the Johnston's is funny to me...Gee beat Chris in the tournament. Dude went toe to toe with one of the kings of the SLR, on the king's own spot no less, and beat him....Why the crying? Corey never even went there, he was out in the deep blue sea and won by a pound and a half.... Both Chris and Gee had a TON on the line, one a tournament win and the other an AOY title. They had their words and it should have been the end of it, let the fish on the scales do the talking. Leaving to try to convince another angler to interfere with Chris was worse than anything Chris did....Thankfully the other angler was smart enough to not get involved.

Can't use a $10 step stool to get a better view of a bedding fish that is at most 50' away...Which is already limited by time of year, water depth, water clarity, and wind/weather conditions. But $30k+ worth of screens and transducers that let you see any fish larger than a minnow in any depth, any water clarity, at anytime of the year, in any conditions, in any direction out to 100+' away is A-OK.

Textured heat shrink is also an option, easily removable if you don't like it. It's very grippy and doesn't ruin the aesthetics of the rod too much either (assuming you go with black 🙂). Like this...