Aaron_H

Lipless is my all time favorite confidence bait, but you've got me beat with numbers. I'm right at 50 my last count.

Admittedly I did have a really great season for 2022. My best five went 45lb 6oz. 10lb 9oz, 10lb 2oz, 8lb 10oz, 8lb 10oz, and a 7lb 7oz. Biggest four on that H2O jerkbait, number five on a chatterbait. Four of them were within a span of 3 weeks, from the middle of Feb to the first week of March, then the second 8lb 10oz was in first week of Dec.

Nice ones, Mike! I've still got tilapia on beds down here, haven't seen any bass beds yet. I don't know about lately, my biggest of 2023 so far is a paltry 2lb 12oz, but hopefully soon! Lots of other guys here (you included now) crushing some big ones lately and it's got me super pumped.

Holy guacamole! Incredible bass, I'm so proud of you man. Hope the rest of the year continues to produce bigs for you!

No disqualifications, they just never paid up. It was a paltry amount of money, $50 in Berkley giftcards that was supposed to come with free shipping. Seven months later after back and forth with FWC and Berkley, they sent me a couple of cheap spools of mono and letter saying sorry for the wait this is what you get instead. Really rubbed me the wrong way.

There's no spot on the doll for where they left me hanging on the TrophyCatch prize money they owed me last year.

I'm a big fan of weightless Texas-rigging them. Holds a special place since it's what got "the one that started it all" for me.

Congrats on an awesome new PB!

I won't sacrifice quality to save a few bucks, personally. The potential fish of a lifetime is worth more than that to me, but if I can get a quality hook for a good price, why wouldn't I use it? The EWGs come in a 25 pack for $4.99 and they are every bit as good as the Gamakatsu Superline EWGs I used to use which come 4 or 5 to a pack for the same price.

Lipless, jerkbait, chatterbait.

I've been using the EWG worm hooks for ~4-5 years now after switching from Gamakatsu. Very happy with them, they hold a point well and never had one bend. I haven't tried the other hooks, though.

The truth is Clunn is secretly just 4 Bassmaster Classic trophies in a trenchcoat. Best of luck to KVD, looking forward to what he does after he retires from being a touring pro.

Not yet this year, and my best last year was only 6lb 1oz. Big enough for FWC's BigCatch program but not what I'm after. I've got a few over 7lb (7lb 2oz, 7lb 13oz, and 8lb 10oz) but still gunning for that IGFA record. Big ones have been stingy lately, they might be on to me....

Only noteworthy fish today, got a crappie that just touched right at 13" on the tape, my biggest out of this spot. Bass bite was trash but this was a nice little surprise.

We'll see! I'm still waiting on a Bass Pro giftcard that FWC owes me for a TrophyCatch submission, going to use it on a handful of spinnerbaits that were recommended to me by @LrgmouthShad and see what's what after the spawn. My biggest spinnerbait fish right now is 5lb 12oz that I caught in between weather bands during hurricane Ian last year so looking forward to breaking that this year.

Academy dropped their clearance to an additional 50% off, so I picked up a few more things. Chatterbait Big Blade: $3.98 Two 13 Fishing Jabberjaw: $3.58 each Savage Gear 4" Pulse Tail Baitfish RTF: $2.38 Savage Gear 4" Pulse Tail Bluegill RTF: $3.58

I don't throw any light jerkbaits, nothing under 3/8 oz. All of mine are currently thrown on a 6'10 M/XF SLX A paired with an SLX MGL 71HG, straight 12lb mono. Any lighter and I would switch to spinning, but all of mine are 3/8 to 1/2oz.

I missed out on a Curado 201HG at my local Academy on clearance for 100 bucks last week. Still salty about that one hah....

Star is a great brand with a long history. I have multiple of the Stellar line both spinning and jigging, and other friends/family have many of their older rods. They are good to go, but keep in mind they are built with saltwater use in mind, so their powers are a little different versus bass gear. Pay closer attention to the lure weight range to get on target with what you're looking to use it for.

Lipless is traditionally my numbers bait, but it's my all-time confidence bait so I throw it basically all the time. Last year, because I made 2022 my "Year of the Jerkbait" mission, that presentation beat out the lipless on numbers. This year, I made a promise to throw a spinnerbait more (which I will start trying to grind out after the spawn, still hoping to try and pattern some big fish on a jerkbait soon) so who knows how that will go, but if I put money on it I'd say the jerkbait might win again this year as I'm still learning my way around them.

Incredible fish! Huge, huge congrats on the new PB!

Yeah they did a packaging refresh/rebranding in the past few months from H2O Xpress (old name) to H2OX (new one), and have been blowing out all of the older branded items to clear shelf/peg space for the new ones, I was lucky to snag this one.

Fingers crossed! I doubt I'll come close to last year but that doesn't mean I won't try. My best five went 45lb 6oz but I was very, very fortunate. Just hoping I can pattern a few good ones this year.

You guys are killing me, I haven't even broken 3lb so far this year. Soon hopefully! Congrats to you both, those are some gorgeous plus sized fish.