Hawkeye21

It depends on what body of water you are on. Okoboji area has some really deep, clear water and would fished differently than a backwater lake on the Mississippi. Fishing in Iowa really isn't that different than fishing anywhere else. You'll have bodies of water with lots of wood lay downs, rocky shorelines, sandy shorelines, grass, lily pads, flooded trees and stumps.

If in eastern Iowa a trip to the Mississippi River is a must. Pools 9, 10 and 13 are great spots. Lake Delhi is not very big but has some good large and small mouth bass along with walleye. Lost Grove is a great fishery and has some monsters in it.

I think that's more of recommendation than anything. You're looking for where the water warms up first. Since bass usually start spawning when water temps reach a certain point it makes sense that they would spawn on the warmer areas of the lake first. The north side of a lake usually warms up first because the sun hits it early and often throughout the day but there are more factors than just that. I think that's a good place to start looking and then venture out to other areas.

I never saw it as him poaching people from BASS. From what I saw, the anglers were not happy with BASS and were ready for a change. MLF was built by the anglers and meant to benefit them. The fishing format may not be for all of them but financial format sure seemed to. In the next few years I think we'll see things settle into place more and they will complement each other well. We will see more BPT guys go back to BASS and we'll most likely see some BASS guys leave for the BPT. I think the BPT has helped shake things up for the better and we're in for some exciting years of professional bass fishing.

I ordered mine from Amazon last week. It was $5 off and arrived in two days.

I don't think Duckett's goal is to knock out BASS. It's better to have both than it is for one of them to fail.

I have the NuCanoe Frontier 12. I bought it for it's versatility. It's under 13 feet long so I don't have to register it in Iowa. It has an open deck so I have plenty of room for gear or whatever I want. The long gear tracks on the deck are great for seat adjustment and adding extras like a pedal drive or a second seat. I have the H2Pro pedal drive on mine and it's a great addition for fishing tourneys. NuCanoe kayaks have a flat transom which easily allows the addition of an electric or gas motor. NuCanoe makes great accessories for their kayaks like the bow mount adapter for adding a trolling motor to the front. My ultimate goal is to add a trolling motor to the bow of mine. The Frontier 12 is wide and pretty big so I don't car top it. It's size makes it extremely stable though which is a big advantage because I like to stand and fish a lot. I did a lot of research when deciding on a new kayak and the Frontier checked off almost everything for me. I've been very happy with it and don't see changing from it anytime soon.

I fish them just like the smaller ones. I'll even wacky rig them occasionally.

The people I fish with have bass boats. Most times I want to go fishing when others are not available and I like to go alone. The kayak is perfect for it. I bought the NuCanoe Frontier 12 so I have the extra space so I can take my daughter when she wants to go.

This gets said all of the time and while it can be somewhat true it's not always that accurate. If the people who stick that much money into their kayaks wanted a jon boat they would have bought a jon boat. I know I don't want an ugly jon boat taking up space in my garage. I'd still have to register it. I'd have to put some kind of motor on it. I'd need to get a trailer for it unless it's small enough to fit in the back of my truck. I wouldn't be able to fish in as many tourneys with it. I don't see many benefits to having a jon boat over a kayak at all.

They were discussing the MLF on BTL this morning. Sounds like they are going to focus on education more this year and talking about lures and techniques.

We all know Ike can catch the big ones too though. You don't win the Bassmaster's by catching small fish. I saw that G-man and Palaniuk struggled in the open yesterday. Regardless of what format you're fishing, it's a challenge.

Easy to do but hard to master.

That's one I saw and then there was an interview of a pro I saw on youtube where the guy only used knock off reels as well.

Another downside to having a boat that I don't see get mentioned as much is trailer maintenance as well. Not only do you have all the maintenance that goes along with a boat the trailer has plenty of issues too. You have to worry tires, wheel bearings, lights and it's another thing you have to register. There's so much that goes into owning a boat. I think the best thing ever is to have a kayak and a few friends who own boats. That's what I do. ?

Welcome to the addiction. You'll find yourself saving a lot more money and doing a lot less maintenance. If you're into fishing bass tourneys they have them for kayaks as well. Put your kayak on sawhorses so you can just back up and slide it onto your truck and strap it down. Doesn't get much easier than that. Can also have a small kayak trailer and do exactly what you do with your boat.

I listened to Ike talk about the new rule change and he said he's not a fan of it. I'm all about strategies when it comes to competitions so that's one of the things I love the most about the MLF format.

If you are trademarking a name and logo you'll probably want to hire some legal help so you can make sure the name and logo are available and do not infringe on any other companies. This is most likely going to cost a couple thousand. You'll want to get a domain name for your company website and make sure it's an easy name to remember. A site like GoDaddy can help with this. There are sites like Wix that help you create websites as well. If you are making your own lures it's most likely you'll be ordering molds or blanks that are the same that every other custom lure maker is using. If you want to design your own lures then you'll need the equipment to do so or you'll have to get in contact with a manufacturer that can create the design you have. If your plan is to to all this as a fresh, new, original company you'll be looking at thousands of dollars in initial investment. You need to get some legal advice on setting this up. I'm guessing you'll set it up as an LLC. First step, talk to a business lawyer and ask them how to get started.

5-12 largemouth on a black/blue jackhammer chatterbait on Easter.

I listen to his show at work a lot. Even if you don't have a pond it's great info for those who want to learn as much as they can about bass.

I want to play it. I'm looking for a real fishing simulator instead of the arcade style games out there. Lately I've been playing Fishing Sim World Pro Tour and it's decent but not great.

I noticed while searching for flipping rods that I found multiple sites showing the same exact list of their top rated rods. I found that to be a little suspicious so I made sure I checked as many reviews as possible. Most of the rods look to be good and are good brands but it's strange that multiple site would have the same exact models picked. I can't remember the angler's names but I know I've seen two different guys saying how all they use are cheap reels they order from China. The one guy was on BTL and showed them.

One of my favorite things is how much I learn about the anglers. There were guys that I though I didn't like that I know do. I wasn't a big fan of Montgomery until watching MLF and now I really like him. I use to like Martens but now he's probably one of my least favorites. I don't know what it is about Martens, his personality just bothers me.

I've got a variety of fishing pants and while most are comfortable there is certainly a difference between them. I have some Columbia ones and I find them to be a little restrictive in the crotch area. I especially notice it because I fish from a kayak and am sitting a lot. My most comfortable pair of pants also happens to be the least expensive I own. The brand is White Sierra and I found them on sale on Amazon for $11. I ended up buying a second pair for a few dollars more later.

This is what I really like about MLF. It's all about the anglers with this league and they vote on all the changes. Each year we should see it being fine tuned.