punch

We have a lot off stupid and outdated rules & regulations in this state, that's why. It's irritating.

Just a heads up, FFO (fishermans factory outlet) has their buy 1 get 1 50% off promo going.. which I think is the best one they do. Their current stock has actually has some good items. You can get two size 30 Pfluger Supreme XT's for $150 (basically BOGO). I have a size 30 XT and it's pretty awesome. They also have a good selection of Veritas 2.0's and fenwich HMG spinning rods. I notice they have a 7' ML fenwick HMG for 60 bucks which would be a pretty good dropshot rod.

Hey man! Funny.. i've camped there at Father Hennipen on Memorial weekend before! I've also brought my boat and attempted to fish. If you're chasing smallies around Memorial outta Father you're going to need to make a run because Isle Bay is kind of a dead zone for smallmouth. It's very weedy and more known as a pike/largie/walleye spot. If the weather permits i'd make a run over to Cove bay in the south end or Twins Bay over on the east side. You SHOULD be able to find spawning fish in those spots. If the wind is terrible you may want to trailer over to the spots. Cove bay is pretty protected and sorta close to Father so it's a spot i'd check out. You may be able to find spawning fish around then.. it entirely depends on water temp. I'd just read fishing reports leading up to memorial to see if the spawn is going on or no. The mayfly hatch could be in full swing around Memorial, which makes the fishing kinda miserable because they get THICK. So be prepared for that. If the mayfly hatch is going you may want to bring some hair jigs and some super light tackle. You can have a great plan for when you go camping/fishing at Mille Lacs and then that plan can be totally destroyed by the wind/weather conditions.

It's more likely that the seller pulled the item, not ebay. They killed the listing. He might have sold all the stock and wanted to erase the proof haha. The orders could still very likely go through. I've seen this sort of thing before.. someone has some stock they either stole or acquired, and they need to liquidate quickly so they go WAY under MSRP to "dump it".. but then will toast the listing so they don't get caught by the distributor/manufacture.

You get buyer protection from Paypal & Ebay. Plus he left a return option on the listing so he has to accept your return. There's literally nothing the seller can do if you open a dispute on this sale if it's somehow bogus. Buyers have all the power. I ordered two for my lefty buddy. (i sell a lot on ebay, buyers have way more protection than sellers) Plus, is it realistic that there's a bunch of fake diawa tatula CT's out there? Doesn't seem like a reel that's worth forging.

Especially furniture stores. Their sales/promo's during tax return season are off the charts. It's like black friday to them.

A lot of tournament guys up here like JB's Fish Sauce. Been meaning to try it out.

Pro G's are super versatile. Get one, seriously. I have a couple and they are awesome.

Hello, fellow popper addict here. I've been in love with the popper for over 20 years so I'll answer with my personal opinions in the order of which you asked.. 1. I pick a popper when it's overcast/cloudy and calm. With cloud cover the fish are roaming around a little more and will come and investigate a popper more often than if it's bright and sunny. Overcast mornings or overcast late afternoons are usually the highest percentage for the ole popper. If it's bright and sunny you CAN get fish on the popper, but you'll need to fish the popper a lot closer to cover vs out in open water. If it's sunny I'll fish a popper right along visible weed edges or around docks. They will come hit it in the sun, but you'll need to put it closer to their safe spaces. 2. I fish the popper painfully slow if the water is very calm. You'll always get bit on the pause, so why not pause more? The commotion gets the fish curious, the pause gets them to eat. So I pause.. a lot. If there's a bit of chop, i'll pick a popper that also walks very well like the Megabass Pop Max. Work it a little faster but still give some nice pauses now and then. 3. I've always had the best luck with the prop bait (xprop is my fav) with a little chop/wind. Dead calm the prop bait doesn't produce like it does with a little surface activity. 4. Some days fish want walking the dog so I'll toss a spook-like walking stick.. some days they want a super slow popper presentation. I don't think there's a specific tell with the particular conditions... just the mood of the fish that day. I will say that the slower I work a popper, the more effective it is. If the conditions "feel right" for a popper bite.. but they aint hitting the popper, then out comes the whopper plopper or the spook. If they don't want it low and slow, I'll try giving it to them fast and noisy. The only poppers I use these days (in order of favorites) are 1. Chug Bug 2. Pop Max 3. Rapala X-pop (for when I want to downsize). Seriously don't think i'll ever buy another popper other than those 3. Chug Bug is the king though. Forever and always. I ALWAYS change out the tail hooks with ether the VMC or gamy feather hooks. The stock tail hooks on all poppers SUCK.

Boy I'm glad I didn't swing by the Quantum booth! Be gone vile temptation. That sounds like a killer deal. I did buckle and pick up a sterling silver Diawa Tatula LT "limited edition" reel to pair up with my tatula elite dropshot rod. Got 20% off at Joe's, plus a $25 gift card (that i'll use at their spring sale), plus a free Huk Diawa jersey.. and they even tossed me a trucker hat because I asked nice. I'll double up and do the online rebate for a 2nd Huk jersey and toss them both on Ebay. This combo just looks siiiiiiiick together. These new Daiwa LT (tatula & ballistic) reels are the real deal.. there's a couple good tear down videos of them on youtube and they have some real high quality gears. Diawa really stepped their game up with these reels.. pretty sure I'm going to get another one for my Steez. I sold some rods this weekend though so I can sleep a little better at night knowing I blew almost $200 on a spinning reel.. and i'm about to do it again. Side note, one of my favorite things about the NW Sports Show is that I got have some long conversations with some of my local fishing hero's. I got to talk Tony Roach's ear off for a bit, got to talk to Feider, and got to have yet another nice long conversation with FLW pro Josh Douglas. He's such a cool guy and every time I talk to him I learn something new. He'll literally sit and answer any possible question you could have with very specific information. He's my fishing spirit animal.

Anyone do some damage at the NW Sports Show?

Only got 4 of them?! I'm disappointed.

Anyone doing some spring cleaning and selling some gear? I got a few sub $100 spinning combo's that have been sitting in the rod rack for far too long that I'm looking to move. Shoot me a PM if anyone's interested. I'll give BR members a hookup!

Surprised nobody has posted these yet..

I've always wanted to go to enemy swim.

American Legacy.. they also have a Lews Tournament Pro G 8.3:1 for $108 shipped after the 20% spring coupon which is a killer deal as well.

The new St Croix legend tournament flippin stick has my attention.

I think we've officially ran out of things to talk about.

Any specific lakes/areas?

I didn't get to watch the Sunday Bassmaster Live (I will later).. did Christie keep tossing the spinnerbait/chatterbait combo all day? Worked for him on day 2 pretty well.

Up here in the north country we have NO Xpress dealers. I never see those boats in person.. anywhere. Kinda sad. I keep hearing people say how great they are and I've never seen one in person. It's weird how some boat brands never make up to the northern part of the country. Everyone up here LOVES Lund/Crestliner/Alumacraft deep V's and that's about it.

Speaking of a fast rise, I'm also SUPER impressed with Mark Daniels Jr. The dude wins the TBF championship in 2013 and makes the Forest Wood Cup. then he becomes a FLW pro for 3 years, makes the Forest Wood Cup again, switches to BASS and then makes the Classic in his rookie year.. oh and then finishes 15th! MDJ has done quite a bit in the last 4 years. Pretty insane. He's going to break through soon.

It's going to be VERY interesting to see where his career goes from here. He's made such a splash at such a young age. Has anyone in pro fishing put together this kind of resume before age 25 before? Carhartt sure hit the jackpot with Jordan & the college series in general. He's making them cool to younger anglers. Carhartt has always been the working mans "dad" clothes, now they sponsor a lot of the youth movement in bass angling. Pretty savvy move on their part. He just went and started tossing around a wacky worm around docks right? Seems a lot of guys said 'screw it' and started junk fishing around docks.

New bass fishing superstar right there. Back to back at what, age 23?! Ridiculous.

Man they really milk these weigh ins.