BassNJake

MLF's online exposure is nothing like BASS. You have to pay to see anything online and there is not any live coverage due to their TV deals. This may change but I doubt it. I'd venture to guess there will be a lot more ways to pay for content thru various packages. The same stuff we have been watching for years for free. Advancing the sport is getting Colleges, High Schools and the youth involved. BASS has been doing this, MLF has not. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this shakes out and see how committed to advancing the sport MLF is.

You want to sneak me a hint as to who he tagged? Unable to access social media at work to take a look

I go thru plastics a lot. I primarily fish a toad style bait and frequently will go thru 10-15 in one trip. I save them and have a 5 gallon bucket about half full of used baits. I made some molds and started using the old plastics to hand pour baits. My favorite drop shot baits are swim baits that have lost the paddle tail.(keitech, rage swimmer types) It still has that bait fish profile and the ribs + the thinning of the bait towards the tail still gives it a subtle action.

The fat free shad is a bait made by bomber and the 3xd is made by strike king. I know some of the older fat free shads were suspending models. I have seen people add/remove rattles or weight by drilling a hole in their baits.

As a fan, I dont like this at all. The Elite series was turning the corner becoming the premier league. Out were the guys that just had the deep pockets to afford to fish the series. In were the guys that have qualified through the opens. No bias involved except with the legends and I could overlook that for their past accomplishments. Yes, FLW has some good anglers, a lot have already come over and a lot were still trying to qualify. The Classic and all the prestige and buzz that surrounds it, the hope for a nation angler to win it all .... I love the bracket tourneys at the end of the year to determine the last few Classic spots. Now it will never be the same. It sucks that there will be this change for me as the fan, but I am very happy for these guys that have put it all on the line to bet on themselves. Now they can fish for these bigger paydays and hopefully get more sponsor dollars. I like the emphasis on fish care and I like the decision making when deciding to fish for numbers or for bigger weights. Part of me can also see this going the way of the USFL or the Affliction MMA league. They threw around too much cash in the beginning to be sustainable in the long run. I blame BASS for screwing anglers for a long time by being too greedy. Their instant ability to throw 67% more money into the equation seems to support that.

6 day tourneys and they are split up? It will suck to fish days 1 and 3 and then have to sit around until day 4 is over to find out if you will fish day 5.

When they dont commit, I'll try variations of what I have been doing using the same lure at first. Speed up and/or slow your retrieve based on water clarity. If its clear water, move it faster. I will also vary my retrieve, speed it up then kill it or use twitches and pulls instead of a straight retrieve. If that fails, I'll try changing colors and then downsizing my offerings. I will also switch to something like a chatterbait, squarebill or a different moving bait to see if that will trigger the bite after trying the above options

I relearned that when they are pulling a lot of water; the shallow topwater bite gets tougher but you will still find them if you cover enough water

Beer fridges are open !!!!

I love living in TN !!

I throw top water all year if the water temp is above 55 I have caught fish on top water as low as 50 but its fishing all day for hopefully a couple bites I've had smallmouth come up from 15 feet to hit topwaters The key is to target active fish or areas where active fish might be active at ie... points extending into channels, large flats with some cover, current breaks ... ... It's my belief that I can catch them on topwater almost all year, sometimes I just have to cover a lot more water

I found this in a google search

Gotta make some concessions to try and keep some of their guys from fleeing to the new tour

That's awesome!! I love seeing that kids are still getting into fishing, good job dad!!

So a big announcement, that only confirmed the rumors and now leads to more questions. I cant see some of the bigger names leaving to fish exclusively on another tourny trail. So KVD is going to throw away chasing the most classic and AOY titles? Ike will leave his 20 straight classic appearances and go fish a new trail built on promises? Jordan Lee is going to pass on making it 3 straight classic wins? Scott Martin will walk away from FLW after all the support they have shown him and Roland? (FLW has an event out of Rolands marina every year) I still see 3 separate trails with MLF scheduling around the Elite series and Flw being the 3rd wheel

hahahahahhaaaaa.... now that is funny

I'm including my post on another thread related to this same type of behavior. I have been known to be a hothead and will stick up for myself when I think I am being wronged. The incident below happened about ten years ago and I'm lucky I didn't eat a bullet for the way I went off on these 2 guys. I am very grateful that I now have the experience and understanding that nothing I could have done would have changed the behavior of the people I had an issue with. You cant change someone else, but you can make changes in yourself that will allow you to avoid these type of situations. Props to everyone that has been able to walk away from idiots on the water. I learned my lesson the hard way because I am that guy. The guy that wasnt taking any more of this BS. The guy that picked up a DT 10 and bounced it off the shiny new ranger that cut in front of me and started fishing all the way in the back of a cove. The guy that threatened to fight these 2 inconsiderate jerks, the guy that motored right in front of them and harassed them until they left. Then I was the guy at the boat ramp that had all 4 tires slashed on the truck and 5 more on the trailer.( they cut up the spare too) Did these 2 idiots get their Karma? I'll never know. I know I got mine for the way that I behaved.

It's location for me, followed by timing. All my biggest fish have come on crankbaits fishing a deep hump or a channel ledge. Sometimes you can throw to these spots for hours without a bite but when that current gets right it's go time.

The last few weeks I've been doing pretty good tossing my toads around flats that have alot of this stuff. Now that they are dropping the water, they will hide in the little holes and depressions waiting for something to go by.

I keep my plastics stored in their original bags and same types are stored in a ziplock. Tournament prep for me includes making a "day" bag, where I'll keep plastics most likely to be used based on what "pattern" or type of fishing we will be doing for the day. This goes right on top of the center compartment for easy access. Ideally when I have prepped correctly my rods will be rigged with the correct tackle, it'll just be the plastics I'm switching out. This works pretty good for me until those days when the entire "plan" changes mid day.

It would seem like Scott and Billy were mistaken. They announced the 2019 season rules on Aug 31 and no co-anglers on the pro tour. https://www.flwfishing.com/tips/2018-08-31-2019-flw-tour-rules-and-entry-dates Among the rule changes for the 2019 FLW Tour are the implementation of the new VIP Marshal program, which will replace the co-angler program, as well as the transition from a priority entry system to a qualifying system with a 150-boat field starting with the 2020 season.

The keitech is like a bomb landing thats for sure. I often use short pitches around cover or will toss it on the bank to bring it into the water a little stealthier. I have not found one that skips better than the horny toad, so I will use them for that specific technique. @J Francho said the new yum tip toad was also good for skipping so I will have to give them a try.

Scariest boater- I got tossed out of the boat at about 60 MPH as we ran into a submerged rockpile. We both ended up ok, his boat not so much. Scariest 5 minutes of my life as my inflatable pfd never opened. Racist boater- I got back boated the entire day we were on the water while my boater was bed fishing. We stayed on one fish for 3 hours and he never changed baits.(no wonder he couldn't get bit) To top it all off he said some racist things about another competitor and had me boiling mad wanting to fight him. He refused to take me back to the ramp so I spent the last 2 hours doing the Guntersville slap everytime he would pitch to a bedding fish. This got him boiling mad as well and thats when we left. When we got back to the ramp he went right to the tourney director to report me disrupting his fishing on purpose. Tourney director suspended him as he did not deny what he said, he tried to pull the I'm not racist, my best friend is (insert minority here) card. Wedding boater- I had a boater take a call around 11am telling him he was supposed to be at a wedding at 1pm. We left on the spot. I ended up missing first place by 2 ounces after weighing in at 11:30, while everyone else fished until 4. Hissy fit boater- I had a boater break 3 rods in about 20 minutes. He was fishing a deep brushpile with a jig. He broke off on the hook set the first time and just instantly snapped the rod over his knee. He flips back into the brushpile, this time he hooks the fish and its a pretty good one. He fights it for a short time before it gets hung up in the brush. after about 5 minutes the fish gets off but he's hung up and its his last PB&J jig. He gets a lure retriever slides it down his line and it was never tied off so it just keeps going and we watch the rope sink. He gives it a pull and the line breaks again. He hops around on the deck and then breaks rod number 2 over his leg. He picks up another rod in disgust and as he goes to pitch it out he snags the console and gets a major blow up. He then smashes the rod on the gunwale about 20 times. I bet he dropped the F bomb and other variations of it a hundred times in those 20 minutes. Best Boater Ever- I drew a boater once and he ran a bakery with his wife. We had these amazing donuts and scones in the morning and some type of pastry wrapped ham and cheeses for lunch. We had a pretty good day and he ended up taking third. At one point I let him have a pack of Keitech swimbaits as he ran out. After the weigh ins he took me to his truck and gave me 2 left handed Shimano Citicas he had bought off of ebay by accident. I was a co angler for about 10 years and had about half a dozen bad boaters and they were downright awful. I did learn a ton and wouldn't trade it even with the jerks mentioned above.