OCdockskipper

I really need the details on this one...

This is so true.

Time can play into it. When I started fishing in the mid 70's, Mister Twister was one of the top brands with huge name recognition and Strike King was looked upon as a smaller company with a few unique baits. When I came back to bass fishing about a decade ago, their positions had switched. My opinion of both companies would have been incorrect without updated experience. Knowing the history of companies is also helpful in evaluating their products.

And you were right in the midst of it to the end. Canterbury came so close to grabbing both bonus' s and giving you the win. Great run!!

That makes sense. I don't see Blalock falling down 7 or 8 positions to cough up the points you need to catch him. If Cantebury gets Big bag & wins the tournament (and Crews & Kreiger improve a spot or two), that might be enough to squeak in for a win, barely. And please tell me you are a BASS member so you get a 3K BPS gift card instead of $2500...

I was looking at the standings for this event & EBBass (from our group) is in 6th place, only 35 points out of first. He has Cantebury, Crews & Kreiger fishing tomorrow, so he has some shots to move up. The linchpin will be big bass & big bag. The person in first has Blaylock, who will get 40 more points if his big bag from today holds up. There are 3 or 4 people who have Williamson with Big Bass, again with 40 points if it holds up. So to win the BPS gift card, EBBass needs to have his three guys take big bass & big bag. It works out better if it is split (one guys gets big bass, another gets big bag), but I think if the same angler does both, it may still be enough to push him into the winners circle. Good luck tomorrow!!

One positive of sight fishing in the spring (for both bed fish and cruising fish) is being able to see the different ways bass take jigs & worms and getting physical feedback thru your line & rod as to what different bites feel like.

If you want a compact profile and a trailer with subtle action, try a Larews Bass Shooter, turned sideways so the bait is shaped like a bluegill. I had a bag of these & was disappointed in how they worked as a soft jerkbait. While trying to find a use for them, I found they make a good Chatterbait trailer when you are trying to imitate a small bluegill.

I don't know the rules for that tournament, are you sure it is ok to solicit help to win? Also, if someone gives you advice that leads to a win, how much of the prize pool do they get? Do they get their name on the trophy too?

Walters Menendez Combs Prince Hudnall You may have noticed that you moved up in the standings, even if you had only an average start today. Historically, back to back tournaments in the middle of the year mean about 10% of the participants will forget to set their lineup for the 2nd tournament. We had 8 people who had not missed an event fail to set a lineup in time for this weeks tournament, including a couple of guys who were in our top 10 (BMci84 & stratoliner92). On a side note, currently our top 2 point leaders (Odell015 & Bigfishadventures78) are in the top 50 for the entire contest (39th & 45th respectively). Pretty darn good out of 23,500 entrants.

Actually, Britt Meyer won it the last (only) time they were there. Hite & Kelly Jordan were second & third.

Me too. This is a guess, but I think he fished the Opens only for all these years as a way to get a shot at another Classic. As I mentioned, he could be in the Elite Series just by asking, but that grind may not be what he is looking for. Back when the opens were a "win one & you are in", Roland had an above average chance to pull that off. Then, once he was in the Classic, the adrenaline would pull him through the practice, 3 days of fishing and the hoopla. BASS could have a Legends tournament once a year, invites go out to all past AOY & Classic champs only. Make it like the Classic, no entry fee and all anglers get paid. I'm sure ESPN could foot most of the bill, they would love to have content that featured Martin, Clunn, KVD & Jordan Lee all fishing the same tournament. Schedule it at a time that doesn't interfere with other tournaments and I think you will draw just about everyone who qualifies. Older guys like Martin & Dance would love to see how they stack up against the current pros and youngsters like Lee & Lucas would consider it a dream to fish against guys who were the original superstars. Those who don't qualify, like Jason Christie or Jacob Wheeler, would be chomping at the bit about not being included, maybe to the point of eventually leaving BPT back to BASS. Give pro anglers another reason to want to fish your tour.

For me, bass are put on a pedestal compared to other fish because of their traits. I believe they are the perfect sportfish. Accessible, willing to bite lures, adaptable to many climates, durable enough to survive being caught & released, able to be handled (via lipping) without a net or being hurt, will put up a fight without making it last 30 minutes, etc. They are a curious fish, often willing to stand their ground & look at an angler instead of always swimming away. I have had a bass in our Koi pond for almost 5 years, along with a bluegill big enough to avoid being eaten and 5 Koi slightly smaller than him (now, he was half their size initially). I feed them all twice a week and still marvel at the difference in personalities of the species. The Koi are flat out dumb, persistent & tough, but dumb. The Bluegill is a bit smarter, but is a also a bit finicky about eating. With the bass, if it moves & he can fit it in his mouth, meal time. He is the only fish of those species that turns & faces me when I am tossing food in. He is the only one who will anticipate what is coming out of my hand and race to where the food is being tossed, as opposed to reacting once it has hit the water. He is much more pet like, almost an underwater dog. During the spring, I see fry in schools number thousands and I think how only one or two of those little guys will reach keeper size. To then extrapolate how few reach "big 'un" territory makes me really respect that particular fish. How can I eat something that had to beat those odds? How do I reconcile feeling this way about them & then catching them via hook? I have no idea. I know it bothers me when people are nonchalant with bass, letting them flop on the carpet, keeping them out of water for an extended amount of time, things like that. Last year at Texas Fest I witnessed one angler continually cut the line on deep hooked smaller fish instead of taking a few moments to get the hook out. Another angler literally ripped the lips off a small bass rather than taking the time to remove the hooks properly. Those things bothered me, but that doesn't mean my perspective is correct. It carries over to other predators as well. We have small fishing birds that live on my home lake, they catch all kinds of small fish, including bass fry & fingerlings and that is fine. However, a cormorant large enough to eat a keeper bass is another thing, I will chase everyone of those off the lake. The one exception for cormorants was at a private pond that had a stunted bass population, there I welcomed the cormorants to do the dirty work I wasn't willing to. I have no problem catching other types of fish for food, when we go to Lakes Mead or Powell, stripers are part of the menu for the trip. I know some lakes benefit from having LMB removed, I'm just not the person you want to go to in order to have it done. It is more of an emotional attachment that logical reasoning...

Same topic, just a bend in the path - I don't know how ZMan stays in business with how long their plastics (Elaztech) last. If I am skipping docks all day and using a soft plastic jerkbait like a Slug-go or Senko T-Rigged weightless, I end up with a bag full of damaged baits. I end up using Mend it on them, so they get a second go round, but it is typically 1 or 2 fish per bait. On the other hand, if I am skipping a ZMan TRD, it will last me all day, often multiple trips. In fact, the TRD often outlasts the jighead (at least the paint on the jighead). As far as the cost per fish caught, if a TRD is not the champ, he definitely is a contender.

Aren't all of the cups going to be that format, shown on TV the year after they were fished? I thought I saw a schedule that showed when the Cups were and that the 1st one (the ones filled with the top anglers of stages 1 & 2) was to be fished prior to stage 3. In other words, the first cup event fished in 2019 has already occurred, but we won't see it until next year. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the exact information on the MLF site, so I may be mis-remembering.

Like many of you, I have a spouse who is ambivalent towards bass fishing. It is not something that interests her, but she knows how much I like it, so she supports my enjoyment of it 100%. Many days a week, I'll be watching different bass fishing shows on TV, while she is in the same room doing something else. Until today, I never really realized how much of that content soaked into her head. I took the day off today for my birthday and went fishing. My wife said she would go along for a few hours, not to fish, but just to hang out with me & see some of the nature I tell her I see every week. Here are some of the excerpts: She knows I keep count of all the fish I catch on every trip and what they were caught on. After I land the first fish of the day, she asks "Do you want me to put that on the Scoretracker?"; I set the hook on a fish & it doesn't budge. I tell her "This one feels pretty big", but as the fight continues, I realize it is just a nice 14" keeper that fooled me initially. When she gets sight of the smaller than advertised bass, she says "You're as bad at judging fish sizes as that guy who screams all the time"; I later hookup with a nice fish, just under 4 lbs. As it breaks the surface, her voice changes from typical Southern Californian into a Southern Belle and she declares "That's a Big'un"; I hook a dink and swing him aboard. As I catch the line in my hand, the fish comes unbuttoned & falls to the deck. She immediately says "That will be a 2 minute fish landing penalty". It was a fun morning...

It depends on the lake & what the fishing pressure would be if there were no tournaments. If the lake is a destination of anglers whether or not they fish tournaments, then you would have the same (or near the same) amount of pressure. In that case, the tournaments do not affect the lake. However, if the lake is not a #1 destination folks choose to fish, but you get tournaments there every week because the tournament trails or clubs don't want to fish the same lakes every time, then yes, it would have a negative effect.

He fished all of the Eastern Opens last year and has fished at least 3 Opens a year since 2013. He fished 1 Open in 2012 and 4 in 2011. He hasn't cashed in an Open since 2016 (33rd at Douglas Lake) and his best finish in the last decade was a 5th in 2011, also at Douglas Lake. Ironically, he could fish the Elite series if he wanted to. Except for KVD, he has the most points to qualify as a legend, so they could give the boot to David Fritts to make room for Roland. He hasn't this year, his last tournament was in September 2018, again at Douglas Lake. Either that, or there is someone impersonating him & doing a poor job at it.

The only issues with a fluke is that it may not be considered an intruder on the nest (by the bass) and it is tougher to place exactly where you want on the bed. If you want to make sure you see the bait, choose a color that contrasts with what color the bottom is.

As an extreme example, if Mother Teresa had committed a murder, she would not have been let off the hook based on the good works she had done previously. The good things Ike has done do not create the situation where the negatives are excused.

It depends on what that mission is. I think you will notice that nearly everyone of us who dislikes Ikes antics also compliment him on his skills and how well he teaches. We aren't "haters", we respect what he has accomplished and how he deals with others in a 1 on 1 situation (especially kids). However, those positives do not erase the negative. Standing there screaming at the top of ones lungs is not passion, it is a scream for attention (pun intended). Time after time declaring "its a giant!!" when he knows it will be a 1 lb, 8 oz fish is not over exuberance, it is a scream for attention. It is to the point that it turns some people off from the products he endorses, not the mission his sponsors hope to accomplish. Like a gorgeous woman who is immersed in drama, Ike is high maintenance.

Oh my gosh, I didn't even see Gundog has shot into the lead with 1373. With Cobb, Lester, Cherry & Gustafson, he has 4 of the top 7 and then Whitaker in 20th place. If Lester had hung on to big bass, that would have been huge, although if they are sight fishing the next 2 days, it won't be a stretch to imagine a 6 lb fish hitting the scales. So another Bass resource member is staking a claim for the event win. Good Luck!!

Wow, this is getting interesting. Fishballer06's team (and the other folks with the same picks) pretty much held serve at todays weigh-in, dropping ever so slightly to 1350 points. However, my & Odell015's choices rode a Jamie Hartman comeback to close in to 1348 points. We have the top point getters (before big bass & big bag) in buckets A, C, D & E, a slight flip from yesterday when Fishballers choices held that distinction. The biggest monkey wrench for all of our choices is Drew Cook, who if his big bag holds up and he stays in the top 4, would be the top point getter in Bucket A, even if Cobb goes wire to wire. Chris Groh actually did us a favor by bumping Brandon Lester out of Big Bass, for Lester is the Bucket B leader and an extra 40 points for Big bass might have sealed the deal for someone else. This is cool, having multiple Bass resource members with a legitimate shot at the BPS card. Both Fishballer, Odell015 & I have Cobb in the A bucket. Our choices differ in the other 4: B - Arey (8th) vs Auten (21st) C - Cherry (5th) vs Lowen (4th) D - Williamson (11th) vs (Gustafson) (7th) E - Whitaker (20th) vs Hartman (14th) I will be on the water all day tomorrow and at a gathering after that, so I may not see Saturdays results until Sunday morning. I would really love to see Cobb stay on top and those 8 anglers above make the top 10. It would make for a nailbiting Sunday for all 3 of us.

This thread is an excellent example of why both engineers and non-engineers are needed in this world. The first group will figure things out to the most minute detail while the second grabs the rod out of their hand saying "dude, they are busting on top, just make a cast!!". Each needs the other.

4 out of 5 Bucket leaders is more than solid, it is outstanding. I obviously am rooting for a few different guys than you have, but if I fall out of contention, I'll jump on your bandwagon & cheer for you to pull off a victory. After all, do we really want the winner of the BPS gift card to spend that money on women's clothing and snacks? No, the bait monkey needs to be fed with rods, reels & lures and nothing helps satisfy him like a Bass resource member with a $3K BPS card in his hand.