punch

So the Berkley "Chopper" is a total Whopper Plopper ripoff? Even down to the name.

So @rascalP got me in our 2nd tournament of the year by .1 LB! He got 7.99lb of smallmouth and we got 7.88lb on the Mississippi river. So we're 1-1 thus far. Our next tournament is this week on White Bear Lake and Ethan.. I'm ready for ya! Been putting some work in.

I've read that "best in show" awards at iCast are basically purchased.. not 'won'. Like the awards are mostly BS.

Biggest news is the Googans are launching a plastics line with a game changing craw!

Hope nobody had Josh Douglas. Dude tanked his entire FLW season this weekend with a DQ.

We got on an INSANE topwater bite tonight in the north metro. We found a gigantic school of bass at around 5pm that were on an offshore, underwater point busting on bluegill. We started walking poppers in the area and were getting fish after fish after fish. They were inhaling the popper. I've never seen that many topwater strikes in one session. It went on for like 2 hours. We also fished shallow and worked some bluegill beds & reeds with jigs & wacky worms and caught a few nice ones too. Was just one of those amazing nights. We easily boated 60+ (seriously lost count) bass in 5 hours. It was ridiculous. It helped that we had the entire lake to ourselves. Just a few canoes and kayaks.

I was out yesterday afternoon and figured fish would be offshore a bit on deeper grass lines.. nope. I was marking fish. Just a bunch of pike. I switched gears and started tossing a frog and wacky senko around reeds in REALLY skinny water and then I started catching quality fish. They were really shallow, and I also spotted a bunch of active bluegill beds. The bluegill spawn seems to be like.. going forever. Saw beds 3 weeks ago and I'm still seeing active beds on metro lakes.

Nobody seems to talk about Quantum anything. Except for KVD and Jordan Lee..

We're heading up to the Crow Wing chain this weekend. I can't wait! Low pressure (everyone fishes for walleye or trophy pike uo there), clear water and little to no boat traffic. I've had some amazing bass days in the chain.

Me and @geneoh are fishing aginst @rascalP tonight in Greenhorn.. who will be the victor! Bass resource member battle.

I also have the 7' MH casting Aetos (latest model) and I agree that the balance on it is fantastic. I'm primarily using it as a jig rod and i've been tossing a 3/8ths & 1/2oz jig on it with great success. It has pretty good sensitivity, but not amazing....it doesn't blow my hair back BUT it's so light and well balanced it's a joy to fish. I also 100% agree that it's a bit stff. The previous generation Aetos rods were the same way. Thus why I enjoy it as a jig stick.. I can fish bottom contact with the MH rating and have no problem wrenching fish out out of cover. It ALMOST fishes like a heavy.

Only one way to find out! I use a swimg jig as a "search bait" in all conditions because of their versatility. You can work them in all areas of the water column. I keep a bunch of Boss heads and a bunch of Boss skirts and just whip up color combinations on the fly depending on the water quality. Also, don't be afraid of trying a flappy craw or curly tail grub as a trailer in clear water. They work! You don't always have to use a paddle tail as a trailer. Experiment with colors in clear water.. go lighter & more natural and mimic the bait fish you have. Up here in the north it's crappie and bluegill color schemes that I tend to go to in clear water. Another suggestion in clear water is the jerk bait. You can use it all year! I've had great luck with jerkbaits in super clear water.

I find it interesting that so many people can't catch a bass on a jig. To me it's like, the most universal "works year round, on every lake, everywhere" bait. Like, if there's one bait that you can take to any lake at any time of the year.. that's it. Is it just a matter of not wanting to put the time into throwing them when other stuff is more 'fun'? Jig fishing can be a little bit of a chore because you're usually only getting bites when you slow down and work them a bit more methodically.

I actually had one lady say "hook?" when reading my Huk shirt at the boat ramp the other day. I was shocked she got it right.

I have the Ballistic LT 2500 and a Tatula LT 3000 and boy.. they are sweet! The ballistic 2500 is as nice as my CI4+ as far as weight & drag goes. I also have a Stradic FK and I would easily take the Tatula LT over it just based on weight. Theres some very in-depth tear down videos on youtube on the new LT reels and the quality of the main gears is really outstanding. Daiwa really went nuts with the internals on these reels.

Has anyone checked out Angler Assets spinnerbaits? They are a smaller company but are available on TW. I ordered several of them directly from them a few weeks ago and they are REALLY nice.

I find that having a really expensive & overpriced rod & reel make finesse fishing way more enjoyable! So try that.

Hot dogs are actually a very common bait for tip-up ice fishing here in the north country. It catches both bass and Pike. It's so common there's actually hotdog only Pike tournaments.

I'm going to be using my red JJs magic a lot more now.

Me and a buddy went to Big Lake today and we had a really good bite this morning on jigs and wacky worms. The fish were out and about near the shore line until the sun came out. Once the sun came out they started to tuck into the shade and under the docks. The dock bite started to get really good and we caught some pre-spawners and some spawned out females with the red tails. Very weird. I was sure there would be a topwater bite today.. but nothing. They only wanted the jig for me. I did get my first 4lber of the year skipping a jig under a dock. That was really fun.

Dude, I converted to the 1/0 VMC Neko hook for wacky and Neko rigs. The hookup ratio is legit. I was fishing with a few non-fishing buddies last weekend and gave them a 1/0 Neko with a pack of zoom fluke sticks and they hammered bass all weekend.just wacky fishing. A lot of pro's use the VMC Neko hooks for all sorts of stuff. I know why now.

It took me like 4 passes with a scour pad and some Vinyl Sauce to get them to shine again. They cleaned up really nice.

It aint the size that matters, it's how you use it!

Definitely go with the 7' Medium fast avid x. It's going to be the best overall stick. You can toss finesse baits, balsa cranks, and even a light texas rig. It'll do everything. I've found myself adding more and more quality 7' medium spinning rods into my lineup because they are so versatile. I'll 2nd the suggestion for a 2500 series Ci4. You're not really gaining any advantage with a 3000, and getting a slightly heavier reel. The avid X's are crazy light, and the 2500 would feel perfect on it. The 2500's have a ton of line capacity and do really well fighting bigger fish. The drag is amazing.

Daaaaaaaaaang, that's a nice stick right there.