OCdockskipper

You should have colored it up with some chartreuse Spike It and taken it to the weigh-in, maybe it would have been mistaken as a real ugly largemouth...

That indeed is both amazing and a testament to his skill, all at the ripe old age of 28.

Zara puppy

Owner 2/0 wacky hooks.

I'd love to have MLF fish on my home lake. However, since it is only 100 acres and electric motor only, the anglers might feel a little crowded. Still, even that small, I would bet that every angler would be over 25 lbs, catching at least 10-15 fish and the winner should top 50 lbs. None of this stuff with guys blanking for the first 2 rounds, this would be a catch fest. To make it interesting, they should allow each angler to add in the biggest catfish they catch on an artificial lure as well, that could easily be a 15lb swing or so.

I have never fished for bass anyplace where it snows in the winter, so I may not be the best help. The only advice I can give is if you cast out and the lure skids across the ice, choose a different pond.

Ike is an extremely talented fisherman who loves to teach, but I find myself muttering "shutup already" when he goes through his antics. Interesting comparison between he & Wheeler, a pro almost half his age. Ike hooks up with a large fish, starts screaming and declares it is well over 5 lbs. It weighs in at 4 -3. He hooks up again, starts screaming, says this one is even bigger. It weighs in at 3 something. Meanwhile, Wheeler lands the biggest fish of the tournament and excitedly says it should top 5lbs. It weighs in at almost 6. He then hooks up with another one and calmly claims it is a little smaller than the previous one. It weighs in at 4 plus. He later hooks a smallmouth and exclaims "good fish, not a giant, but it should be 3 lbs". Weighs in at just over 3 lbs. I guess it is just the difference in their temperaments, but Wheeler comes off as the experienced pro. Interesting enough, Wheeler seems like he enjoys teaching as well, he will give you the nitty gritty of what he did & why.

On my lake, I catch more on top with poppers & prop baits than walking baits and buzzbaits. That said, the Whopper Plopper's I bought have produced fish, even at times I didn't really expect them too. What impressed me the most was a 13 lb catfish tracking one down & hammering it. I believe he thought it was a small coot. Like most lures, it is lake dependent. If buzzbaits are winners where you fish and you don't need the weedless properties of the buzzbait, I would bet the whopper plopper may outproduce them.

I will give you $87 if you throw in a pair of jerkbaits....

Thumbs up, unity can be a very positive motivator. Ironically, I believe I went nearly bald because of the kids... ?

When I was younger & fished Canyon Lake in Riverside County (a highland type reservoir), we never caught catfish on lures. We would only catch them in the evenings on cut bait or chicken livers. Now at Lake Forest (a shallow development lake), we tend to catch at least one over 7 lbs every other trip or so. They hit moving lures (crankbaits, lipless, chatterbaits), jigs, plastic worms & swimbaits. Only caught one on a topwater, had a 13lb channel cat chase down a whopper plopper like a shark going after an slow swimming seal. They really are aggressive predators, especially the larger ones.

J Francho on the front deck of the boat with white dress shoes, bell-bottom pants, a white belt, shirt open to the navel and an afro... reminds me of Coach Red Beaulieu in Coach Klien's flashback from "The Waterboy"

That looks really nice, I like how you chose to span over the side gunnels for the additional width. That is much more practical than just making it the width of the chair supports. Did you need to add any support horizontally for weight & if so, where did you put the cross members? If I do a deck, I want to create storage space underneath it, but didn't know if the support needed would limit it and/or create the need for deck lids.

I read that most flock dogs have a different opinion of what a threat is than people do. Captain is sure the two bunnies on the hill behind us are planning an attack, he must have watched Monty Python & the Holy Grail. The do have great baritone barks, deep enough to make any bad guys reconsider getting within 100 feet of the house.

One of our dogs is an Anatolian Shepherd. We didn't know that when we got him from the rescue place, we just thought he was a creme colored shepherd mix. After we accidentally figured out what breed he was, his demeanor made sense. Anatolians were bred in Turkey to guard herds of lifestock (not herd them) by living among them and fighting off bears, wolves and other predators. They bond with those they guard and are because often there aren't people around when they are doing their job, have to be self sufficient and make decisions independent of human interaction. This fits Captains personality to a T. He believes he is the protector of all of our family, our other dog & the cats, even if they don't want to be protected. He pushes his way to the front of any activity and has a need to know exactly what is going on at any moment. Fetch a ball? That is play for kids, he has a job to do, although apparently having his stomach scratched is part of his job description. You can tell him to do or not to do things, but unless the commands are coming from me, he will just look at you and decide for himself whether or not he wants to. Intelligent, stubborn and self sufficient, tough combination. While he hasn't figured out how to open a door like that robot dog, he does know that if he pushes or chews hard enough, he can get through anything. He gnawed the laces off an old plastic football for heaven sakes, lets see a robot dog do that.

Most days, a hop, shake and stop produces the most on my lake, but I have had days where a slow, shaking constant retrieve was more productive and others where they wanted a lift & glide. It is easy to fall into a routine of always using the same retrieve, so I keep a small note outlining all of the retrieves in with my baits as a constant reminder to mix it up.

I am not as open as some of you when it comes to revealing what anglers I have selected prior to each tournament starting. Then again, with my performance this past tournament, it is highly doubtful anyone would poach my choices... . In fact, I don't even look at anyone elses choices when they openly list them prior to the tournament. Not that I don't respect others opinions, but I look at it as kind of "dock talk", that I may find myself influenced into choosing someone not based on my evaluation, but based on someone elses ideas. That would be like fishing someone elses spot...

Yeah, the closest one to us is in this huge mall, sandwiched between a Sambo's restaurant and a Fotomat. It sits across the street from the Builders Emporium.

To qualify for the Elites, that may be true. However, it is interesting to note that since 2005, only 2 of the AOY winners were from the south (Hackney & Swindle) & 1 was from the midwest (Chapman). Five have been from the North (KVD four times & Ike) and Five have been from the West (Amart 3 times, Reese and Palaniuk). The cream of the crop from outside the south will make it to the Elites & prosper. Maybe the tougher route to the Elites for those from the north & west makes them better overall anglers.

The point isn't the quality of the playing fields, it is the amount of them. Clear Lake, the Delta and Havasu are 3 great fisheries, however they are spread over an area equal to Ohio down to Alabama. The whole southern part of California has no fisheries capable of hosting a major tournament until you get to the border and the Colorado River impoundments. A western regional tour would have a limited number of fisheries spread across an area usually covered by a national tour. That may be the thought process against having a Western Division. Since major travel can not be eliminated with a Western division, why have it? If a western angler is going to travel no matter what, make the travel to the East & South instead of up & down the West Coast. Yes, nearly every Western state has a top notch fishery capable of holding a major tournament. And nearly every southern state has a half dozen such fisheries in an area usually half the size of the western states. Please note, I was born & raised here in Southern California and would love to have B.A.S.S. tournaments out here. However, it just doesn't make financial sense to do it, hence why Western Bass is no longer in business.

You kind of proved my point. Those six locations plus Lake Powell are the only locations visited by B.A.S.S. and there are probably a half dozen more lakes out here with the size & infrastructure to host a major tournament. So that means the Western U.S., probably 1/3 of the entire country, has about a dozen "playing fields". To contrast, nearly every state in the south has at least that many "playing fields" each. If there was indeed a "Western Division" for Opens, the anglers would have to travel much further for each event than the eastern & southern tours. I would think that would put a dent in the number of competitors who would fish every event, not to mention support from those communities. It means a lot more to Orange, Texas to have a B.A.S.S. Open roll into town than it does to Sacramento or Las Vegas. I have an old tackle box from my teenage years with a large decal on it that says "You're in Western Bass Country now". There is a reason why Western Bass no longer exists. However, in the interest in reversing that reality, I'd be more than happy to partner up with you to establish and run a Western Tournament trail. I'll take care of most of the behind the scenes stuff and we can make you the California version of Ray Scott as MC. It would be humorous to have competitors hold up their big fish and then have you whip out a replica of your 19.3 for comparison.

Congrats to CeCole no matter how the finals fall out. His will be the highest finish of any BR group member yet. Kyle (Senko lover) is waiting to become old enough to legally collect the prize before he submits a winning lineup, so now he is just messing with us and trying to pick a group where everyone is in 90th or worse. BTW, winning the event is worth a $2500 Bass Pro card, $3000 if you are a B.A.S.S. member. Last year, 2nd place in each event won a GoPro, but I don't see that in this years event. Of course, that is in addition to the 8 track player that Glenn is handing out to each event winner this year...

Google "Bass Pro Spring classic flyer"

I believe that was the exact thought, albeit sarcastic, of that catfish as he began his head-first journey into Mrs. Bass's belly. His second thought was "Now where did I leave my flashlight?".

Well I really aced that one...Wheeler leaped from 97th to 95th. Too bad this isn't a 20 day tournament, then he would have a chance at making the cut. This is a real shock to me, there is no way I saw this coming. On a different note, my wife has entered this year as well. Since the only thing she knows about the Elite series is that Skeet Reese has a cool truck, what I do is make 2 choices for each bucket, the top one for me and I recommend the #2 for her. So what happens? I have Wheeler bomb and 3 in the cut while she hits all 5 into the cut. She even did a victory dance in front of me when she saw she had more points than me so far.