Supermat

Honestly, I burn out every year. Somewhere between June and October I get to where I don't want to get on the water for about a month and if I do have to get on during those times I refuse to use anything but light line and little baits. Thankfully, it doesn't take me long to mellow out and I get back to smacking the fish in no time.

Definetely BassWest USA. I still read In-Fisherman and others but if you want to know what is up and coming or what's up in the big-bait world, there isn't another magazine that can touch Bass West.

I use trailers as well but I've found that I prefer to keep mine rigid instead of free swinging. I think there are plus' and minus' to both but the reason I keep mine as rigid as I can is that I've seen fish come slap the bait when the hook is free swinging and it simply slaps to the side, out of the way. That said, a downside to how I do it is that if a fish slaps it and misses your hook is now permanently tweaked to the side for the rest of the cast and you probably aren't going to get a follow-up bite.

I had never used lure retreivers until a couple years ago. I was out with a friend and got a lucky craft stuck tight in a rock pile and was about to snap it off when he pulled out the retriever. 10 seconds later I had my staycee back... I was sold! I currently use two retrievers. I have a pole for shallow water applications and then I have a "traditional" knocker on a cord that I made myself. I went to the store and looked at the available knockers, I then made my own with a 1 lb weight so that I could hit the baits harder in deep water.

Hey guys, I wanted to give you all a quick heads up. I bought some of the Mattlures shads (unrigged versions) at the bassathon last weekend. Even before seeing them in the water I decided that my preferred method of rigging would be with a 1/2 oz. Revenge baits swimbait heads so I could effectively fish the bait in deep water. http://revengebaits.com/ Now, I haven't caught a bunch of fish on the bait yet since I just got them but I thought you'd all want to know that these baits look awesome in the water! They've got a lot of tail kick and are sure to get eaten by bass everywhere. Check them out! I don't see them on Matt's site yet but they're up on tackle warehouse. http://www.***.com/descpageSWMMATT-MLSD.html

Alright, here is how you count it down... take your boat out into whatever depth your fish are holding in and free spool your swimbait down right next to your trolling motor. Count as it goes down (you can see it drop on the depth finder). Add a second or two for the line drag you'll have on an actual cast and now you're ready to go. Back off and fire out to your fish... count down whatever count you came up with and start a steady retrieve with no jerks, pops, etc... just constant motion.

I knew you'd love that rod when it was all said and done. One shake was all it took for me, I assumed you'd feel the same way when you gave it a real shot. I've put a few more in the boat on the 8'6" now and after swinging that 7.35 up the bank last weekend I'm convinced that rod will be my bread and butter for a long time to come!

WOW! I think I'm going to agree with Raul on something! ;D j/k, you guys hit this one on the head. The Dynagone is a sweet bait, its definetely chunkier than the flappin' hog, but it does tear up. Few things suck worse than sticking a fish and when you get them up there is no sign of the bait... over and over again.

There are more BIG bait guys than you might think there are in your area and they're catching a lot of fish on 9"+ baits. Don't be afraid of a little size, you'll still get fish.

My only question... why doesn't your boat have a jack? ;D ;D ROFL!!! Why don't you tell that story, or if you'd like, I will. Congrats on the win bro, way to stick it to the folsom boys.

Nice friggin' fish bro. That kicks the **** out of my PB! The 10" TT is the 10" triple trout, seen in the first pic.

Bingo! That just hit the nail on the head. I throw the mattlures for smallmouth all the time. The 6" trout is awesome for that! I've caught smallmouth on the Mattlures 6", the Huddleston trout, The 3:16 wake Jr. , 10" Triple trout, Black Dog lunker punker, SPRO BBZ, and a handful of others but the mattlures is my favorite for the application. Matt www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/supermat/smallmouth/

Yeah! Nothing like getting all pumped for a week just to suck all weekend! Woohoo, love them pike! On that note... talked to the man and I think we need to go back, I'm torn between stoked on the new knowledge and bummed about feeling like I should go rot through another weekend! :

very nice. How deep will they run and on what kind of gear?

Congrats again homes! That's sick. I swear, if Steve hand lines one this little group of misfits is going to really have some issues.

Loved the BassWest article buddy, way to get some national coverage! Very cool! It was well written too, I enjoyed the read. Matt

I use the Redington RFXC 7411. Its a 7'4" Extra Heavy, fast action rod. I have two for frogging so I don't have to retie when I want to throw two contrasting colors. I strongly recommend this rod and its at the top end of your price range at $99. Check out www.redington.com , its part of the RFX Series.

Slip the hook between the gill plate and the first gill raker. DO NOT put it between gill rakers as you can damage the fish but between the first raker and the plate will do no harm as long as the fish isn't flopping uncontrollably.

That can be a TOUGH lake! Good job bro. I would suspect that the scarring you see came from a bird or possibly another bass but when the bass you landed was much smaller as those are old scars. As for that lake, the reason there ARE big bass is exactly because of what you mentioned... there are only trout! There is nothing to compete with the bass for food except the other bass.

Yeah, you definetely can. Its not ideal if you hook a 15 pounder but it will definetely sling the baits and land fish for you. Have a blast!

I use the Redington RFXC 7911 coupled with a Shimano Calcutta 400B. That will leave you a tiny bit of money to buy an extra swimbait! www.redington.com

Catt, that's awesome! Congratulations! I'm going to leave this up a few more days as many of the guys on this board that are known to catch double digits haven't piped up yet.

Awesome so far! Let's keep this going a little longer. Anybody else have feedback?

I think bulky was the wrong choice of words... its long and thin. As for the catching, I've never had that happen going out but it can happen while reeling back in. Sorry to hear you wrecked a spool of braid, that's a bummer!

I actually learned about it on here. From what I understand its the strongest of the connection knots. The drawbacks are that its pretty bulky and its definetely not easy to tie.