Logan S

I think they have some sort of agreement with the anglers that all will get at least some time on live during the season - and Day 1 is really the only day where they can pick anyone....So they probably try to keep day 1 a mix of favorites and some sort of round robin situation with other anglers to get everyone airtime throughout the season. Milliken was on live a good bit at the first tournament already and they were probably banking on him earning a live camera at some point before the Fork event is over.

Hey I said next couple tournaments...That gives me til about April to let it play out. I'll probably have to cut my grass by then 😁

Sure, that's the "All news is good news," type of thinking. It's valid. But at the same time, it's probably short lived. Because guys like me will make our peace with the situation and be done with it. If the next couple tournaments are as one dimensional as this one, I'll be mowing my lawn while Bass Live is showing a quad box of 4 guys staring down, not fishing.

I've always been an early adopter of tech in bass fishing...Since back when having a sonar unit at BOTH the console and the bow was a big deal. Vertical 'video game' fishing on greyscale 2d sonar, GPS, SI, DI, power poles, spot lock, and now FFS. So I'm not anti-tech (I'm also not that old, I've just been doing the tournament thing since I was 15). I have FFS on my boat, it's pretty fun to use and catch fish with....But I do think it's a problem that needs to be dealt with. The Toledo Bend tournament was just not very captivating to watch because it was so one dimensional. Don't tell me about Johnston and Lee going up shallow on the final day either, because both of those guys were not realistically in contention to win and on the final day they had a lot more flexibility to fish differently....Who knows, they could have done it intentionally to get the focus put on them when they would otherwise not move the needle as much because of where they were in the standings. On of the most fun parts of following pro bass fishing is that the professional level tactics have always been attainable to normal guys...So you could see KVD cranking a 6XD and go out on your home lake and try to apply the same tactics. Sure, there's always been overhead of boats, tackle, etc...It's never been cheap...But for most bass fisherman, the stuff they saw the Elites doing was something they could try to apply themselves in some way or another. IMO opinion its a key reason why bass tournaments are popular, viewers are not only interested in who wins, they are interested in applying the winning techniques to improve their own game. But now you add a 6 screen electronics setup (with one being 22"), 3-4-5-6 FFS transducers, 360 sonar, extra pole mounts, extra batteries (and chargers) to run everything, and all the other accessories....It really is pricing people out of that experience. Heck, I've got a really nice 21' bass boat, multiple screens, power poles, spotlock, and FFS - And I'm still priced out of the level of precision I saw at Toledo.... And it shows no signs of stopping. Lots of things in bass fishing tournaments are banned because of the real or perceived impact to the quality of competition.... Trolling, live bait, A-Rigs, strolling a crankbait, max HP on boats, jet boats, changing boats during the season, obtaining information outside certain time windows, locations you can or can't fish, etc....I don't see why sonar technology couldn't or shouldn't be among these. We've become so saturated with technology that FFS on top of everything else is sort of the straw breaking the camel's back. It appears to be making the future of bass fishing one dimensional, which is not a great direction to be heading in. I guess we still have the rest of the season to see how it plays out, but I hope BASS keeping an eye on the trend and the fan reaction...Because from my point of view what we are seeing right now isn't sustainable in keeping bass fisherman interested in tournament bass fishing.

It's not just the safety thing, though that's a big part. It would also put more emphasis on individual angler development. It also wouldn't exclude HS kids that aren't fortunate enough to have access to a boat. It also wouldn't require a 'captain' to be involved in the entire day on the water. Accidents happen, no argument there. There are many accidents that seem to be realistically preventable though...Either through format changes, better 'coaching', or what have you. The industry can do better for these young anglers if it tried...But as of now, it's not.

HS and college fishing is out of control. I have a ton I could say on the subject but don't really want to come off as unsympathetic to the young man that lost his life. I think most of us bass fisherman can admit to running in the fog in our past - I have. But we've also learned our lesson (hopefully) and realized how dangerous it is...I'd rather see a culture of passing those lessons down to younger anglers instead of the, "well I did it too so I can't fault em," approach. I read the coach's statement too, its an awful look for the sport. I've seen people wanting boat size or HP limitations, but that misses the mark in most of these scenarios. Although IMO high school angling being done of kayaks instead of boats makes a TON more sense than the current method, tons of people will hate that idea though....But from a development, competitive, logistical, and financial standpoint I can't see how it's not the best way.

What the tournament results provide is data on a large scale that is pretty reliable...If you compile it year after year you can keep a pretty good eye on the fishery and its trends. I think it's a lot more useful than the usually 2x per year DNR shock surveys.

It's certainly eye opening, for us the tournament scoring system helped a ton. Some lakes/rivers had either good or bad reputations and there was always discussions about when we should schedule certain places. Big winning weights, but poor results down the standings don't really mean it's a 'good' tournament...And conversely, tournaments with relatively low winning weights but tons of fish caught all they way down the standings aren't 'bad'. Still, the average 5 bass limit across ALL those tournaments and anglers? Right at 10lbs .

My club keeps accurate data on all of our tournaments going back 15+ years and hundreds of events. We also rank tournaments on how good they are, all of this was/is done to help with scheduling our tournament trail each year....But is interesting on it's own as well. We are based in MD and fish MD and VA waters mostly, average 15-20 boats and 30-40 anglers per tournament. If I had to guess, my average 5 bass limit would be 10 to 12 lbs...probably the same for most, for every great day you'll have another one that's tough. It all averages out to whatever the average keeper bass is in your area x5.

Well, that would have been like 34 years ago .... The first one remember was like 2003/2004, I was a freshman in college I think. I think the most recent one was 2021 here. They are LOUD and constant, its pretty crazy. Fishing wise, the biggest impact to me was trying to make sure one didn't smack me in the forehead running down the lake . Open water away from the bank/trees was pretty safe, but if running in tight quarters, stay behind your windshield!

We've had the big cicada hatches here in MD twice while I've been heavily bass fishing...about 19-20 years ago and again a couple years ago. Honestly, the fishing wasn't really any different. I caught fish on topwater when there were some cicadas on the water....but in late May and June the topwater bite is pretty good anyway. Those cicada crawler baits have the right look, but their movement and action doesn't really mimic what the cicadas do. They just sit on the water and buzz their wings every so often... A small prop bait worked with very long pauses would be a more accurate presentation. Sorry to potentially burst a bubble... It's a pretty interesting thing to witness regardless.

I use one of these Matagi winding checks, they have a tenon made for this application, sized a MM or two larger than the blank diamter. I cut the cork cover down to the OD of the winding check and epoxy it on. I used the SK hidden thread hood/nut on this but I'm sure it would work with any hood and or cork hood cover.

I'm usually out on BH anyway if I'm not fishing elsewhere and not otherwise busy. If a date gets picked I'll pencil it in.

I think you're going to see a lot of pro boats with over-the-top electronics setups and it'll continue to be a hot topic. I also think this will be the season that illustrates just how excessive some of the electronics setups can be and the big tournament organizations will use it to evaluate what types of rules they want to put in place. I'm not for outright bans, but at some point I think there has to be some type of limitation on electronic equipment...Whether it's the # of screens, # of transducers, total screen area, or whatever. (Disclaimer so I don't get lumped in with RandyB...I have FFS on my boat)

Not specific to the 110, but its a cool little promo even now almost 10 years later. The 110's did seem to change sometime in the past couple years, if you have an older one and newer one in one of the more translucent colors, you can see slight differences in the internal structure.

I got the standard startup kit from mudhole and I'm still using pretty much everything it came with tool wise...I don't see myself changing anything drastically in the future either, it will take you far beyond the 'startup' stage. Take the advice from others and build a couple inexpensive blanks first... I wish I did, but instead decided to build on a "nice" blank first and while the rod was more or less fine and functional, I ended up not liking the quality of my first attempt once I had a few more builds under my belt. I ended up stripping it and redoing it later. CRB color blanks are cheap and easy to build on and you can throw them and some basic CRB components in along with a start up kit. After my first build I did a couple CRB blanks as rods for my kids, they still weren't great quality but perfect for the kids to beat up and they don't know the difference. I watched a bunch of Mudhole videos (especially the MH Live Shows) on YouTube as my training and used the how-to book that came with the kit as reference....Worked out pretty well. I also agree that an XRay would make a tough first blank because of the ridges. They aren't THAT difficult, but for a whole bunch of reasons already discussed it's more productive to start on something cheaper and easier.

On the IMM72ML - I got that from the CCS DB on rodbuilding, so it's not 'my' number. The power rating is my own personal tool. I only really care about bass fishing so I only have blanks in my DB that would be applicable in one way or another to bass fishing....It's a function IP and length because in my opinion and experience on the water - Take two rods with the same IP but different lengths, the longer is more powerful. It's predominantly based on IP, but factors in rod length. (IP * (Length/96"))*100 is my formula, I use 96" as the denominator because 8' is generally the max rod length for bass fishing...Multiply by 100 at the end to get it into a single or double digit rating (rounded to nearest tenth). If you notice the 'Spec' column, my traditional rating in there is derived from Power rating...IE, 4.0 to 5.5 is what I call 'Medium'. My sheet has all these formulas plugged in so when I measure a new rod I just put in the Length, IP, and AA and it does all the rest. Like I said, it's my own little tool and I've found it to be pretty reliable...I like this kind of stuff so I tend to go overboard. Sorry for the tangent, I'd be happy to post more about it separately if people are interested.

I see a 66MLF, not a 66MLXF, but I think PB has changed around their model #s because I've seen other instanced of these. Have not used that particular blank either way, so can't comment specifically. It does appear very similar to the 69MLXF and the 66MXF. Point Blank publishes their specs on the Anglers Resource site like Mick said. There is also a CCS database on another rod building forum which is helpful. I keep my own database with rods I've personally measured and also from trusted sources (like the rod building forum I mentioned).

For jerkbaits on a spinning rod, I'd prefer the PB691MLXF over the PB701MLF by a pretty wide margin...But for everything else you described I think it'd be a toss up between the two. The 701MLF is noticably more powerful than the 691MLXF...I have 575g vs 510g respectively for my own rods in CCS (both 77deg AA). The 701MLF is on the more powerful side of 'medium' and the 691MLXF is on the lighter side of 'medium'...Neither would be what I would call 'medium light' if I were to use traditional terms, just FYI and my opinion only. I love the PB701LXF for dropshots, but given the 1/2oz weight you mentioned plus the addition of jerkbaits I don't know that it would be the best fit for your goal, probably a little light on power for you....Although it does match pretty close to the CCS of your existing rod based on the numbers posted above. 435g/77deg for CCS on this one, worth considering with how close it matches. Hope that helps a little.

That's a very overused and overgeneralized saying about tournament fishing IMO. The 'spirit' of that saying is more about not getting so locked into your history that you ignore obvious clues in front of you (like, the conditions of the day). There is some truth in it, knowing when to fish in the moment and ignore your history in favor of something different is one of those nuances or instincts that really only gets developed with more time on the water and more tournaments fished. BUT... History really is one of the most powerful tools you have. If you have ton of experience on a particular lake you'll have spots, areas, baits, and patterns that you know you can rely on...Sometimes as a primary thing and sometimes as a backup - But regardless, in the vast majority of cases it's a strong advantage over anglers that don't have extensive history on the lake. I would say that newer tournament anglers should almost ignore that 'advice' and actually use their history for a baseline...And should focus on actually developing their history by spending time on the lakes where they fish tournaments. One of the most stressful parts of a tournament day is being out there struggling and having no idea what to do or where to go next....Good history will at least give you some options to try that you know have worked in the past.

One guy unhooked two 5lb+ fish before bringing them into the boat (the fish still in the water) on camera. Why on earth would you do that if the fish was legally hooked? And yes...The same fish were being caught multiple times a day and day after day. It looked great but it was sort of a joke of a tournament.

Confidence is a wacky thing in fishing...If that's what he thinks is happening he's got to do it or else it'll be in head all day. I don't agree with him, but I've done some weird things before too so I can't really fault him .

Sounds like it is. Even if it doesn't feel like it, you're also gaining valuable experience both in tournament fishing in general and on the specific lakes your fishing. It's all cumulative and pretty soon things will start clicking and getting 5 will be just something that you do.

Pretty common in your first few seasons...Don't be discouraged. It's import to put some perspective on it...Your first couple seasons of tournament fishing is sort of like going from only ever shooting hoops in your driveway to playing in an organized basketball league. You can make shots in your driveway, but things are a whole lot different when you're on a full court with 9 other players around you, a bunch of rules, a clock, and you're keeping score. It's natural to miss more often until you are more comfortable with the new setting. Couple things that might help... It's common to overestimate how good your practice or non-tournament days actually are. Fish you assume are 2lbers are really only 1-8, what you assume are small keepers are really non-keepers. Stuff like that. It can give you a false sense of security if you're not careful. Throw a few fish on the ruler or scale throughout the day to calibrate your expectations. I would suggest you spend some time focusing on weighing in a limit, even if it's just five 12"ers and won't be competitive. The process of getting those 5 fish is good training for time management, strategy, bait/pattern identification, and a lot of other things. This is a 'base of the pyramid' type of skill, very important even if 5 fish for 6lbs gets you 17th place a few times....Eventually it'll be 5 fish for 11lbs and 5th place...then 5 fish for 17lbs and a win. Focus on the techniques you have the most success with, even if it's different from what dock talk says is the deal. Most dock talk is BS anyway. This sounds simple and obvious but you'd be surprised how often people fish outside their comfort zone because it's what they're 'supposed to do' or what everyone else was doing. Also make sure you can separate what you are good at with what you like to do the most, because sometimes they aren't the same . Take your lumps. Tournament fishing is a different game and you just aren't good at it yet but you will be if you keep at it.

Some of the lightest and most sensitive blanks I've ever used are also considerably large on diameter near the butt. It's a function of overall blank design and simply comparing brand X to brand Y on blank diameter alone tells you almost nothing.