BassNJake

My grandfather told me a version of this story when I was little its a little long but worth the read... One day, two monks set out for a temple in a valley beyond the woods. While cutting a pathway through the woods, they came across a choppy stream they needed to cross. There, stood by the bank of the stream, was a beautiful young maiden dressed in silk. She was clearly at a loss as to how to cross without getting muddy and wet. So, without thinking twice, the elder monk gestured to pick her up. Shocked, she obliged. He put her over his shoulder and waded across to the other side. The younger monk, dismayed and uneasy at what he had witnessed, followed in tow. Upon reaching the other side of the bank, the elder monk put the maiden down gently. The maiden paid her respects and walked on. The monks then continued on their way to the temple. As they navigated through the forest, the younger monk, still troubled by what he’d seen, asked, “How could you do that? We aren’t even supposed to make eye contact with women, let alone pick them up and carry them!” Without a thought, the elder monk turned to the younger monk and said, “Oh, are you still carrying her? I put her down when I reached the other side of the stream”. And with that, the elder monk turned and continued leading the way through the forest, leaving the younger monk to contemplate his words for the remainder of the journey. Also “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.”

One of those blow up pool floats work great as a bed in the SUV with the seats down. I also had a solar powered motion light I'd put on the Pathfinder pointed at my boat. My thoughts were that they light would scare off potential thieves at the boat. My sidearm would prevent thieves at the SUV.

I took a girl out on my canoe for our first date on a hot summer day. She had only been fishing a couple of times before and never in a canoe. We paddle out to this spot and she can see something in the water. She stands up and leans over to take a look. Like the idiot I am, I purposely shake the canoe a little and she goes in head first. She's terrified, I'm laughing and trying to keep her calm so she dont tip the whole canoe over. She finally gets in and we ended up having a great day. She kept apologizing and I kept telling her it was all good and it would be a great story for us. I meet the parents later that night and she tells the story to her mom and dad. Her dad takes one look at me and says I bet he dumped you in on purpose. (I didn't fess up until later that I may have caused the canoe to rock at the same time she was leaning over) We ended up being friends and had a laugh or twenty about it over the years.

Thank you!! I usually throw a frog but have a senko(reverse rigged) and a jig tied on to throw at laydowns and frog misses. I've broken 2 rods when after a blowup I try to cast the senko at the frog miss. It's always 1 specific cleat, so your solution will work quite well for me. I was going to break out the duct tape, but I dont want to advertise that I have a masters in hillbilly engineering.

I spent my childhood destroying about 4 or 5 of those. I remember saving my allowance to buy extra 9 volt batteries to keep playing.

Boat 90% of the time I'll also fish around my father in-laws dock, shoreline with my son and wife.

Looks like these guys are the ones out of BASS for 2018 Koby Kreiger Shane Lineberger David Williams Chad Morgenthaler James Niggemeyer Clent Davis Brett Pruett Brit Myers John Hunter Jr Chad Grigsby Jay Brainerd

I pitch and flip the reverse rig most of the time to complement my topwater frog. (reverse rig for me is a senko rigged weedless and weighted on the bottom using a screw or nail weight) Nothing comes thru cover like it, I can twitch it like a fluke and it's deadly around docks. Amazing how it falls away from you where as a texas rig and a jig will fall towards you. If you are fishing laydowns this is a must use rig, IMO.

I'll second that. Never had a problem driving in the snow when I lived in Ohio. Down here its crazy because of the hills, curves and drop offs. It it snows down hear it's going to be on a wet road that'll become ice. Up there if there was a 3 foot embankment they put up a guardrail. Here you need a 50 foot drop off before they even consider it. A few years ago while at work it started snowing like crazy and I thought I'd be good because I have a 4X4. I didnt make it, had to retreat back to work and stayed there. They ended up shutting down the main roads and there were hundreds of vehicles left on the side of the road. Another lesson the "locals" had to teach a northern boy

I think there are about 4 more missing from the list. All of them worse than Siemien at the time they played for the Browns.

Country - City - Country Grew up in a rural town about an hour from Cleveland, OH. Fished a lot with my dad and by myself. I used to tape my rod to my BMX bike ride to the Cuyahoga river and catch crayfish and hellgrammites. Then ride up the road to catch bass in the sand pits Went to college at Akron U and lived there for several years also lived in Cleveland while pouring concrete all over northern Ohio. My early to mid 20's I didn't fish as much. usually a trip to the lake was to relax- catch some rays and a buzz. After moving back to the rural area I grew up in I found tournament bass fishing and it was on. I lived and breathed bass fishing. Read every article, watched all the shows and spent all my free time on the water Fate took over and I reunited with a girl I went to high school with who had moved to TN. We live in a very rural community where I have access to 3 boat ramps and 6 lake access points less than ten minutes from the house . The first time I visited East TN, I felt like I was home. I love it here and would recommend it to anyone

Congrats !! Cant wait to hear about your Cumberland adventures

Hahahaha, My wife is a Steelers fan. When I was growing up I despised the Steelers(because they always killed us) but after they fled to Baltimore I had a new team to "hate" I don't mind the team now(probably since the Polamalu days) I actually went to the same High School as Jack Lambert. He came to our school to give us a talk and because the high school kids would not stop talking, He stormed off the stage and never finished his speech. Tough guy on the field but couldn't handle 200 kids at an assembly. By the way how did the Pirates finish this year?

I'm also not on facebook or twitter or instagram !!

I'm going to also vote for east TN. I have within 2 1/2 hours drive, 14 different TVA lakes. They offer a little bit of everything clear, deep, rocky to shallow and weedy. They also stock trout in the creeks and streams. I lived in NE Ohio for about 35 years. The summers near Lake Erie were hot and miserable compared to what I have experienced in East TN. It's all about the humidity and I believe it is better here than it was near Lake Erie. The biggest surprise in TN was the people, d**n are they friendly here. I do not miss the traffic, the stop and go on the freeway or the rude people. Never once have I been inclined to go back there for anything more than a 1 week vacation.

Good luck at Norris!! Thats my home lake and finesse is all I can catch them on the past couple of weeks. Damiki and ned rigs mixed with a shakey head. (I usually do pretty well with blade baits this time of year, just havent gotten on that bite yet) I've been getting more bites in the mid section of the lake(Loyston Sea) than I have running either one of the rivers. Lake has stabilized as they stopped dropping water the last month.

Congrats on 2nd place, it was crazy windy mid to late Saturday!!

Awesome job and thanks for sharing the progress as it went. I'll be due for new carpet in mine soon and I'm sure I'll come back to reference this.

When I was a BFL co-angler I drew a couple of guys that ran 18 ft boats with 150's on them. I had no issues at all with the boats size. The "pros" ability now thats a different story.... I did hear some "dock talk" from other co anglers that they hoped they didnt get stuck with the smaller boat and they've got a bigger boat at home.

I'm with the majority here that have only lost a couple over the past few years because of the plug knocker. I got my plug knocker hung up in a tree once so i had to tie it off and went back the next week to use the new one to get the old one back.

This is my opinion as well and I throw soft plastic toads/frogs the majority of the time, the majority of trips. I think its design allows for it to be retrieved right-side -up more often than other similar baits. With its slightly wider design I like to rig my hook slightly crooked/ slanted to which ever side(bank) I want it to run. This way I can stay off the bank a little more yet still be able to run my bait parallel to the shore/breakline/weed edge. I also like how slow it can be reeled and still stay on top, kicking and leaving a trail.

That is awesome!! 2 days on 2 different lakes weighing 2 kinds of bass... very cool I started fishing tournaments with my dad and I will always look at those days as some of the best. I really like the title of the article," Falcons Soar To Club Championship" Good luck on the upcoming tourneys as well!!

@RichF I have been seeing a lot of the pro's talking about the no info rule like there was a bunch of guys doing it. Almost seemed like a mini conspiracy theory where everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, yet nobody is admitting they have done it. I agree that it's funny how guys find that spot after a 100 mile run like the 100 miles they just passed didn't look good? I'm sure that guys were getting help but how often are fished camped on a certain spot day after day? If there was a 30 day cut off period before the tournament, how likely are those waypoints going to help today? How often does one years conditions match the previous years conditions? I tend to view this the way I viewed baseball during the "steroid" days. Were McGuire and Sosa juicing - Yes. Were Clemens and Shilling juicing - Yes. Advantage - none All of the above issues are why so many of us like the MLF format

You can get a cheaper start fishing as a co angler in the BFL series run by FLW. $125 per tourney You can also fish BFL's on the Pro side for $250 per tourney The nice thing about these as they are regionally based so for me the 5 tourneys on the Volunteer trail are all within 2 hours or so from my house. There are probably local clubs and tourneys on your home lake as well. Start doing well locally and maybe you can get some type of local sponsorships ... marina, boat/car dealer, tackle store and then add sponsors as you move up the ladder. This will also appeal to the bigger sponsors as it shows experience in promoting products.

Good article by Kevin short former Elite Series Pro on yearly costs http://bassblaster.rocks/bidness-expenses