Logan S

I think its easier than it's ever been. You can watch a few YT videos about catching bass at your local lake, then a few more to learn how to rig and fish whatever was in those videos, then go over to another site and buy some waypoints for $50, then a few more YT vids on how to import those waypoints to your unit, maybe one about how to launch your boat, then drive your boat to the 'dot' and hit spot lock and start casting. You'll probably even get a few bites without ever having to put your own effort into the process. The best part is that you can get home and make your own YT vid on what you did that day to 'figure them out' and then you're officially a bass fishing social media personality! (this post is a 'funny because it's true' type of joke...don't get mad at me )

Why? I don't understand why so many people are spending time trying to prove what he did was legal. It doesn't matter what was 'legal', within state boundaries or regulations, or whatever else....Same guy broke state laws and was trespassing on private property (allegedly) last year at the James River but wasn't DQ'd because the TD gave him permission. When it comes to a tournament DQ, The only thing that matters is the tournament rules AND the interpretation of those rules. The AND part is important because it allows the organization to enforce the 'spirit of the rules' in the event something isn't explicitly spelled out in the rules, because you can't possibly list every single potential scenario in your rule book or it'd be 1000's of pages long. Every single tournament rule book has a clause to the effect of, "TD has the final authority on interpretation and enforcement of rules." So literally anything the TD interprets is 'in the rulebook'. The only coherent argument I've seen against the DQ is that maybe BASS should have let him off with a warning and more clearly defined the rules next year...Which is logical. But my guess is that with the supposed stuff that went down at the Red River and James River last year (and maybe others we haven't heard about) they were finally fed up with these antics and had to drop the hammer on him.

I just want to park in the spots designated for my trailer. If I can't because the spaces are mostly filled with non-trailered vehicles it's annoying. That's about all I'll say because I'd like to keep my account here on BR .

You have an interesting point of view. I never thought that expecting a designated boat trailer parking area (as in signed and posted) at a boat ramp to be free from non-trailered vehicles was a controversial stance.

I think we found a kayaker that parks in the trailer spots, "because he's launching a boat too." Kidding of course because this has to be a joke.

Oh, we have those signs too...but I guess people must think it's just a 'suggestion' or something (This is me trying to be positive and not saying what I really think of them ). It'd be nice if there was some enforcement.

Cars without trailers parking in the trailer spots at ramps....I generally try to keep a positive attitude about things and people, but this one will test my resolve. It's hard not to stew on it while parking in the overflow and then walking back past 3/4 of the trailer lot filled by vehicles without trailers...Especially if I'm solo or if I have my kids with me.

Please let us know how NFC responds if you ask for a replacement. I recently ordered 2 Deltas and neither were 'straight' but one was about as bad as your picture. I knew going in that it was possible based on numerous posts online about crooked NFC blanks. When I mocked up guides on the blank (with the guides on the upward curve) I could barely tell it was crooked, so I built it like that and it's looks and feels fine. Delta's are sort of NFC's 'basic' models and were only about $40 each on sale though...I think I'd have a different outlook on it if it was one of those XRay C6O2's. Supposedly their flagship and the latest and greatest in blank tech. I'm surprised they'd let a flagship blank that crooked out the door.

It's like that here too...I fish against guys with that have jet boats and full size fiberglass rigs. They'll run the jets on places where they can run up rivers and the glass boats on normal lakes. Our local tournament trails allow it and I personally don't care....More power to them.

Would've been pretty easy to clarify with the TD before the tournament started...Just an observation from the sidelines. The way the rules are on all the trails these days...If you have to jump over something to get into a spot - Or cut your way into something to get into a spot - Or cross some other type of barrier to get into a spot...It's probably against the rules or at the very least questionable. In which case you'd be smart clarify with the TD ahead of time if you wanted to fish whatever the spot was. I'm not commenting whether the rules are right or wrong, just stating reality. Side note...People think it's too expense to compete at the Opens/Pro level right now with the cost of boats and electronics and accessories. If those single-boat rules weren't in place you'd have guys with literally a fleet of boats for each season....Jet or tunnel hull for river tournaments, normal bass boat for normal lakes, walleye or deep-V for big water, and maybe even more depending on the schedule.

Getting back to posting builds, long post incoming because I've built quite a few since my last post...Been fishing a lot lately . OK so a while back I post in another thread my first ever build, which was the Hydra FL955. Well now that I've got my style and preferences down for my personal rods I didn't want this one to be an outlier...So I stripped everything off (which was good practice in general) and redid it more in line with my 'theme'. While I was at it, I decided to try out a spiral wrap since this is my punching rod - I've yet to fish with it because we are at least a month away from that pattern. Next - I built a spinnerbait rod on a Point Blank PB691MHXF, I had a red Daiwa Salamandura I wanted to use for this so I built it with red accents to match. I absolutely LOVE this rod, it is (IMO) the perfect spinnerbait blank...It has the tip for close quarters accuracy, the backbone needed for hooksets and big fish, and the sensitivity to feel exactly when the blades stop turning on subtle bites. I've caught a ton on this rod already, but this past weekend I stuck a 7lb 7oz monster on it to sort of put the exclamation point on how much I like this rod. Next up, I built a pair of Rainshadow Immortals. First is a 7-6 MH that I build with gold accents as sort of a 'do everything' heavy power (It measures 1000g IP so it's definitely a Heavy power, not a MH). The other one is a 7-6 H that I trimmed down to 7-4 and made with purple accents to match my Tatula HLC for a frog rod. I haven't actually used this yet as it's early in the season still, but in test casts I feel like I am going to like it a lot. I really like the look of these blanks, they go great with contrasting accents like the gold and purple. Finally, I ordered the two NFC Delta Hybrids during their sale, a CB705 and CB706. These were probably the most difficult I've built so far because of the thick diameters and the ridges on the blanks. Burnishing the thread wraps was much more tedious on these with those ridges. I accidently split the cork handle on the 705 because I had to ream it so much, but a little wood glue, tape, sticky fingers, and some sandpaper I was able to fix it and still use it....Another good practice item . These will get a workout when I head to Gaston next week, I've only made test casts with them so far. The 705 will be for squarebills and the 706 will be for bladed jigs. I've now done 17 builds and I'm getting better with each one. I've really been enjoying this and it's accomplishing exactly what I wanted - Which was the ability to pick different blanks for different applications if want something specific, but keep the same ergonomics and style I like. I'm probably going to be slowing down a bit now because I have most of my primary techniques covered.

Yea I've already got some heat from some other buddies about down locking...I just prefer it that way. With up-locking, I always seem to accidently loosen the nut from fishing, casting, etc. I got a few more builds done in the last month and half I'll post up soon, been busy fishing . I've got the 2 NFC Hybrids on the bench now and these have been a challenge with how thick the butt sections are...I'll post them up when I finish.

?? It's pretty standard for a tournament paying 3 places.

We have a basic tabletop scale we got from BPS that's works well. We've also used handheld scales too. Any modern digital scale, tabletop or handheld, will do the job for this type of event. The only one I would stay away from is the Brecknell handhelds that you see MLF use...They are probably the worst scale we've ever used for weighing fish (and we've used a bunch).

If the number of boats is that variable, then adjusting for # of entries make sense. Paying 1 place per 5-7 boats is what I've seen the most. You didn't mention a lunker pot...Can either take a buck or two from each entry and hold that as the lunker pot or have a separate buy in for lunker. I prefer holding a small amount from each entry so that it's consistent tournament to tournament and not dependent on people buying in...But both methods are common. We have a pretty consistent 15-20+ boats so we have a fixed 3 places paid, 50/30/20 on the percentage. We take $2 from each entry for the tournament lunker pot and another $2 from each for the year-end classic pot, so the placement payout is 50/30/20 of the pot after those deductions.

Chatterbaits in FL and flukes on a east coast herring lake are about as 'bread and butter' as bass fishing gets....I don't think any of them needed to be told about that stuff. Not saying they don't talk to each other and do research within the rules...but unless it was like all of the top-10 using some odd-ball technique I think you can chalk it up to them just being bass fisherman and figuring the same things out.

I know some people use those things, but if a Co showed up tournament morning with that I'd kindly but firmly suggest he leave it in the truck. If a boater wants to put it in for their co, fine...But I'm in and out of the back compartments (as are most boaters) enough for it to be an issue, not to mention it's another thing to make sure is secured before and during a run. My buddies and I have talked about this before and we all share the same opinion, not on our boats. Just use the space that's there on the passenger side, it doesn't need overthinking to this level.

The co's in my boat that end up with tangled rods are the ones that don't take the extra few seconds to secure and organize them throughout the day. Leaving baits hanging from the tips, not wrapping the line around the blank, chucking them down quickly, etc, etc... Obviously my boat doesn't change...But some co's have all kinds of tangled messes and others never have a single issue. It's simple, don't bring more than 5 rods and be intentional about keeping them organized. Different boats have different layouts, but the same strategy should work regardless...In smaller boats you might have to take less stuff. The #1 reason is bringing too much stuff. Too many rods, too much tackle, too much extra gear. There is also a very strong correlation between the co-anglers that pack efficiently and stay organized and success in catching fish....With the opposite of both also being strongly correlated.

I built a rod for similar baits on an MHX CB841 and it's working our very well. I built mine for finessey cranks like balsa flatsides, shad raps, Frittsides 5's, etc....Light cranks with light wire trebles.

It'll be mostly prespawn with maybe an early wave of spawners if conditions are ideal. Good time to fish the Upper Bay, if you hit it right with good weather and good tides you might have to remind yourself you're in MD and not FL or TX .

It's likely there were fish in both areas, but the ones up on the flat were better suited for you to catch. Early in the prespawn there are probably less fish moved up shallow compared to what's still out on points/bluffs/etc, but the ones that are up there are probably a lot easier to catch than their counterparts still out in wintering areas. So its high percentage, low success -VS- low percentage, high success. Sounds like if you could go back in time and try again, you might have had a pretty good day targeting the shallow fish by running a lot of similar water quickly. With time, the goal would be for these things to stand out to you before the tournament day instead of after . Part of the fun of tournaments and how they help you get better.

How so? Did they illegally snag the fish? Is there any legitimate reason to call them sketchy? It's not fair cast a poor light on these anglers just because you don't like how they did it. You don't fish bass tournaments, you don't fish musky tournaments (do you even fish for musky at all?), and you don't have FFS to even have firsthand knowledge of it's usage. So how does any of this actually impact you?

Got to fish a few times with all the rods I've built so far, very happy with all of them. I think the Point Blank 7'MH/F is the most impressive of the group, it's an amazing jig rod...Power and action are perfect and the sensitivity, balance, and overall feel are the best I've ever used for how I fish a jig (lots of skipping and casting). The Point Blank 7'ML/F is also impressive but I think it's just a little more powerful than I prefer for what I built it for originally, hence the 2 builds below which are slightly lighter in power. I'll use the 7'ML/F for heavier shakeyheads and tubes. I finished two PB691MLXF spinning rods the other day. Still learning with every build, my decal troubles are behind me I think ever since I started sealing the edges with color preserver before finish. I also snagged two NFC Delta Hybrid CB blanks, the 705 and 706, to try for squarebill, lipless, and chatterbaits since they were having one of their big sales...Hopefully they don't take forever to get here, I've heard NFC shipping is questionable at best.

You're taking it way too literally... It just means that many people without FFS tend to over-exaggerate how 'easy' it is to catch bass with it...It's more of a joke or shot at the people that act like it takes the skill out of bass fishing. It is accurate though

They also use a lot of flourocarbon...To quote @Team9nine, but if you’ve read these forums long enough… There was the fuzzy cube lure in the spotlight just recently though, sooooo....