E. Guido Soda

Never caught a smallie, either. Coosa spots are great fighters, too.

How does Friday 4/1/2016 through Sunday 4/9/2016 grab y'all? If these dates are agreeable, we can hammer in the brass tacks in short order. Lemme know...

LOVE the big spot fights. I thought I had a striper when this freight train spot hit it; even took a couple minutes to land her. Caught it on the rod that can't be mentioned here, 6' 7" MH, 1/2 oz Wedge spinner in sexy shad with a sexy shad Big Bite Cane Thumper trailer. Deduct 4oz for the fish grips, which were holding the fish when I weighed it...

Thanks, guys. I'll check out the live blog...

So this can't be correct, can it?? https://www.bassmaster.com/tv-schedule And if so.....why???

My first paddle was a Werner Camano, and it performed great....howevah, one trip to the beach and it was toast; that crappy latch system rusted up and seized shut in less than three days. So I bought a Bending Branches Pro Angler and haven't looked back. No fancy-a** locking mechanism, just a little metal button with an internal metal support tab and bingo.

I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but if you fish non-consecutive days you could in theory fish a day or two or three in between; it's a level playing field for those who fish consecutive days and turn their pictures in after only two verified days of fishing. Not saying anyone here would take advantage, but I just don't see any down side to turning in your pictures the same day you fish if you choose non-consecutive days. It's like the daily weigh-in, I guess.

I get 'em mixed up all the time. In that particular location, 90% of the ones we catch are spots, and many of the "LMB's" have the rough patch on the tongue, continuous dorsal fins, etc.

I'm good with that, too. Though if we do it that way, I would request that the individual turn in their pictures after their declared days, or in the case of non-consecutive declared days of fishing, after each day on the water. Results will still be tallied and posted Sunday / Monday. But in fairness to everyone, if you choose, say, Monday/Tuesday, turn in your pics Tuesday night. If you choose Monday/Thursday, turn in your pics Monday and Thursday nights. I can cull if in the case on non-consecutive days they have a larger fish on the second day...

Yeah, you're right, they are healthy and beautiful right now. And, quite frankly, these little spots fight like hell. For the last two or three weeks we have been regularly catching 2.5 - 3.5/4# spots in this one little collection area...until this week. Now it is pretty much a dink fest. But these dinks fight harder pound-for-pound than the fatties. This 16"er dragged me around for a minute or more - I can't reiterate how much I love the SB's!

Believe it. #proof #evidence #truism

Wow - great catch and re-cap. There's them weird spots again...

Anyone know what the two black spots on this otherwise healthy looking spot might be? Just above the gill cover and at the front of the base of the soft dorsal fin. Freckles? Fish AIDS? WTH?

I like the idea of two day tournaments - keeping track of three fish over the course of two weeks or more might be a little tedious. It could be a spring / summer / fall series multiple tournament type thing. Though I reiterate, I'm completely open to whatever the group agrees to; if a longer one tournament format is what folks want, I'm in for that, too.

Let's shoot for the first weekend of April, if all are amenable. I coach little league baseball pretty much every weekend from 3-12 through June, but we are off that on the first weekend of April. That gives us time to firm up the rules, etc. As far as species, I'm cool with all species of black bass. Perhaps we could have a largest spot/LMB/smallie award, as well. Lots of potential here...

Fair enough, but Central is two hours earlier than Pacific, not three. Regardless, good point. How about time-stamped no later than 12:00 AM CDT and I can tally results on Monday?

^ You can use that fish...I have no problems with that.

Nice smallie - wish we had them where I live. Yes, something like that, and no, no fish from last year!

With all due respect, I think we are over-complicating this - I don't care how we do it, let's just do it! There is nothing on the line except for fun fishing in your kayak or canoe. You tell me how we should do it, and let's just do it!

The format is immaterial to me, quite frankly. I just think it would be something interesting and fun to do while you're out on the water anyway. Though I am partial to simple length; you could give certain regions extra fish - northern regions get five, Midwest four, southern three, western regions get 1/2 a fish seeing what they're bringing out these days. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter - it's just something to do. Are the other rules agreeable?

I wholeheartedly disagree, we do city/county-wide tournaments all the time with fishing permitted on any public body of water - and it isn't like this is for cash or prizes, it's just a thing I thought may have garnered some interest. However, based on the two responses, both in the negative, I guess that isn't the case. No big deal; to quote Ty Webb, I guess I'll just have to keep beating myself.

Handicap 'em, Just something to do, I guess...

Thanks, dood. See my post in the kayak/canoe/boat section - any interest in an online tourney?

Unless that vehicle is a, say, Toyota 4Runner. I have driven 4Runners for the last seven or eight years - I had a 2005 that I bought in '08 with 30,000 miles on it. Over the next four years I put roughly 100,000 more on it and then sold it for a premium. Before I sold it in '12, I started looking for a 2010 model with less than 30,000 miles; the price difference between a used, relatively high mile 2010 model truck and a new 2012 truck (comparably spec'd) was less than $3000. So I went new. Now I'm no boat expert, but if you buy the right one, the hit can be mitigated.

I'm pretty new here, so this may have been done before, but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in an online kayak/canoe tournament one weekend? In case there is interest, we use the following rules in our local tourneys: - fishing out of a canoe / kayak / other man-powered craft (Bass Raider, etc.) - no electronic propulsion of any kind; Hobie Mirage and other pedal driven / paddle crafts are fine - three fish stringer - stringer is tallied by aggregate *length* of all three fish. Fish must be pictured in a ruler, belly facing the angler, mouth snug against the left edge of the ruler. A popular ruler is the Hawg Trough: https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=hawg+trough+fish+ruler&oq=hawg+trough&gs_l=img.1.1.0l5j0i24l5.66507.68269.0.69757.11.9.0.2.2.0.192.1064.0j8.8.0....0...1c.1.64.img..1.10.1092.Y8_l2NlCr-Q but you can use whatever. - token-based system; the night before the tournament, a unique word or phrase is sent out to all participants - the token must be printed out and visible in full in each picture (ours are laminated and on a lanyard for safe keeping) - the kayak / canoe / whatever must also be partially visible in the pictures - artificial lures only & foul hooks don't count - honor system! - one line maximum in the water at any given time and no trolling - tournaments around here allow bank fishing as long as the kayak is within sight while fishing; I personally don't like this rule, but I'm not 100% opposed to it - public waterways only, no private ponds / lakes - black bass species only; LMB, SMB, spotted - though since we don't get smallies down here (Central Alabama) and some folks don't get spots, we could limit it to LMB's - whatever works - fishing from first safe light to last safe light; locally we only do FSL to 3:00 or so, but since we won't have a captain's meeting or a "weigh-in", I say you can fish all day if you want - pictures due in by Sunday 9:00 PM CST - don't post pictures until after the tournament when all pictures and results will be tallied and posted That's all I can think of right now, though I'm sure there is more - is anyone interested in something like this?? -EGS