MIbassyaker

Me too. Here was my team a month (!) ago: That would be, as of this moment, 1st, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th. Instead I have 4th, 8th, 9th, 29th, and (gulp) 49th. Oh well, it's early yet.

Bobby lane with only one so far too.

A. Bobby Lane B. Jordan Lee C. Keith Combs D. Mark Daniels E. Jamie Hartman

For fantasy purposes, what I really want to know is whether by saying that, Ott was actually saying "i'm confused"... If the bass are confused, Ott is a pretty good pick. If Ott is confused, not so much I posted my team right after martin, a month ago. I have now changed 4 of the 5 slots, some of them multiple times. I think I'm set, but I'm gonna have to think about it before going to bed tonight.

For me time is the limiting factor rather than distance per se, and I can usually afford to spend one morning at a time fishing. So I stick to bodies of water within an hour's drive of my house. Within that range I have hundreds of places i can choose and pretty good diversity of water types -- natural lakes, impoundments, upper, middle and lower sections of several rivers and streams, drowned river mouths, swampy bayous, and old gravel pits. However, as most of these waters are small and about 1 million people live within that same 1 hour radius, avoiding crowds can be a problem at times. So I spend most of my time on a couple dozen small waters that are a little out of the way or difficult to get to, rather than the ones that are closest/easiest/fastest to get on.

I use Pflueger size 35 reels on three 7' spinning rods, two M and one MH. Two reasons for 35 instead of 30, which I would normally otherwise use: 1. The 35s balance those (longer, heavier) rods better than lighter, smaller spinning reels. 2. The larger spools have a more inches of line pick-up per crank, which is fitting for longer rod that moves more line.

I don't think there is such a thing as a bad finesse worm. But what I like the most is actually a 4" berkley power worm on an Owner bullet ultrahead:

Heh, I did find this: The Pocket Guide to Seasonal Largemouth Bass Patterns: An Angler's Quick Reference Book (2016) Monte Burch 136 pages 4.4" x .5" x 6.3" ISBN 13: 9781634508100

If you're talking about publically-available study results on stickbaits, I doubt there are any accessible, and even if there was a controlled study demonstrating one stickbait outperformed another, the results would be dismissed by most anglers as inconsistent with their own experiences, and not applicable to real-world fishing scenarios in natural environments.

I would not carry my copy of knowing bass anywhere other than between my bookshelf and maybe an armchair! It's just one to read at home for reference. Same with the in-fisherman books --worth reading and re-reading, but probably off the water. The In-Fisherman books have been reprinted a number of times with minor changes in the title, but I think there are only a couple different editions. Check the copyright date -- The "secrets" version may be an earlier edition from the 80s. The version I have is called "largemouth bass in the 1990s", but appears to be the same book as the one in Logan's picture, and I can't tell any difference between it and the most recent printings which I usually see at Dick's. The copyright is like 1992. You can often find used copies for a buck or three on Amazon. I can't think of anything I've seen that would be practical as a literal pocket guide; I'm not even sure how useful such a thing could be given the variables, as WRB says.

Usually 5", but I downsize to 4" for river and stream smallmouth.

I don't fish wacky rigs in heavy cover, but I do use a 7'0" MH-F spinning rod for light texas rigs in moderate-to heavy vegetative cover (yes, folks, the right spinning rod can handle somewhat-heavy cover). If you told me, "choose a MH spinning rod right this second, off the top of your head", I'd go for a St. Croix Mojo Bass 7'1" MH-F "power spin", MJS71MHF. I base this on my complete satisfaction with a 6'9" M-XF st. croix for wacky rigs in light to moderate cover.

I don't know exactly how the odds are figured, but Cox is one of the very top FLW anglers and won the FLW event on Hartwell in 2016. Nice profile of him here: https://www.bassmaster.com/news/tin-man-john-cox

Rank and points come from performance based on tournaments so far this season. As the season goes on they'll be cumulative across events but at this point these numbers refer only to the Lake Martin event -- rank is the final placement at finish, and points are calculated from rank backward: first place is 300 points, with subsequent places earning less points based on rank. Points drop by 5 per rank for 2nd through 5th place, 4 per rank for 6th through 10th, 3 per rank for 11th through 15th, and 2 per rank for every other placement. EDIT: Your fantasy points each event will just be the sum of their points earned for that event based on where they place (plus any big fish bonus). Odds are somehow are baked into the buckets, so that the expected place finishes are lower for bucket A anglers than for Bucket E. But there is no points bonus for picking low-odds angler who places well; points are the same for each placement no matter what bucket the angler comes from

Oh wow -- that was wonderful. Paul just earned a sub.

Everything you say here is correct -- however, he does acknowledge this in the book. And the thing that struck me was how inconsistent his results were with typical anglers' beliefs about the variables that most affect their catch rates....it seems to me that, to the extent that the data ware distorted by sampling biases and inaccurate reporting, it should have been the other way around.

I second the In-fisherman books. There is also the In-Fisherman Critical Concepts series, which is sort of a more recent update on the same material, although it only covers Largemouth. I have heard more than one person here say this, but I confess, after reading the book my opinion is exactly the opposite -- he comes right out and says what his preferred conclusions would have been, and reports that the analysis just didn't support it. It is one of very few sources I have read where the author actually admits his intuitions and preferences are proven wrong by the data. I understand why anglers would be unhappy with his conclusions, but, well, his results were what they were. I second this recommendation too -- Knowing Bass is the definitive scientific treatment of the Largemouth bass as a species, with lots of details on physiology, sensory capabilities, and experimental data on behavior in response to lures. Not a how-to fishing book, though.

That's the only thing I don't like about it -- a squarebill kit should have more than one in a craw color, maybe half. However, it's worth pointing out there is some variety you can't tell from the picture: the kit does come with some crakbaits in 1.5 size and some in 2.5 size. Also, some of them are silent and some rattle. Rattling versions of KVD crankbaits can only be bought at Bass Pro; other places only have the silent version.

I can't find any retailers near me who sell 6th sense, so I put in a small order to try out a couple items. With spring around the corner, I wanted some more craw patterns. The baits even came in a little re-usable 6th sense drawstring cloth baggie:

Look at retrieve rate, or inches per turn (IPT). You'll get more IPT with higher gear ratios, but it depends on spool size. Consider the following comparisons of weight, line capacity, Gear ratio, and retrieve rate from the Pflueger site: President: http://www.pfluegerfishing.com/pflueger-reels-spinning-reels/pflueger-president-spinning-reel/1430660.html Size 25: 7.2oz, 6#/90 yards, 5.2:1 ratio, 22,4" per turn Size 30: 8.3oz, 8#130 yards, 5.2:1 ratio, 28.5" per turn President XT: http://www.pfluegerfishing.com/pflueger-reels-spinning-reels/pflueger-president--xt-spinning-reel/1405300.html Size 25: 6.6oz, 6#/90 yards, 5.2:1 ratio, 22.4" per turn Size 30: 7.6oz, 8#/130 yards, 6.2:1 ratio, 31" per turn Now, I have and use the regular President in sizes 25, 30 and 35. But given the options here, it would be an easy choice for me: I'd go with a size 30 President XT. It's almost as light as a size 25 President, and you gain over 8 more inches per turn than the size 25 President XT. If you value light weight more than a faster retrieve rate, go with the size 25 XT.

^^^ Yep, these are the ticket, from BPS. The moment I opened this thread, before scrolling down, I specifically thought of recommending the same thing.

Soom Super fluke Strike king Blade Minnow Havoc Subwoofer Rage Menace

Really? I use Cabela's bobber stops on #8 line with no problem. They have one rated 4-8, and another rated 8-12. The 4-8 really should work.

I think of it as a way to fish a small plastic bait near the bottom "as though" it were weightless. The weight gets it down, but with the weight ahead of the bait, moving it will pull the bait behind, but let it hunt, slide, shimmy, shudder, flutter, undulate, and settle on its own more freely, giving it very natural look, and I think that's why they'll bite it when they're in a mood to ignore anything else

Megastrike Evolution Jigs have a skirt-forward design, too: http://www.megastrike.com/evolution-jigs