Hower08

Regular and tiny torpedos are some of my best topwaters. Smallies absolutely inhale them as well as largemouth

Channel cats. Cut or alive creek chubs or shrimp. Flatheads , it's hard to beat giant chubs, Suckers, giant feeder goldfish and yellow belly bullheads. Bullheads are byfar one of the top baits for flatties

I grew up wearing out the carp. We made it real fun by using ultra lights and 4 pound mono. Just gotta wear them out. Then I got into fly fishing for them. My biggest is a 60+# grass carp on a 6'6 medium action spinning rod and 8 pound test hard to beat bread for carp. Use to make my own concoction strawberry Jell-O flour and anise oil . Mix together then add water till it's the consistency of playdough. If you want to catch them on top chum them up with tore up bread, when they start feeding on it pinch a corner of a piece of bread on a size 4 Tru turn hook . The crust must be on in order for this corner piece to float.

Crankbaits jerkbaits spoons vib-e pop r swimbaits jig head and twister tail are all great whitebass lures.

Guys also don't forget that a weightless tube can absolutely hammer the fish

Throw it any time you would think of throwing a jig senko or creature bait. Most guys do not think to throw a tube for largemouth. I like these guys come tournament time. I turned one of my buddies on to tubes for largemouth and he hasn't put it down all year

Not sure where your located but most places you can buy live bait or general stores will have a small fishing section. I would start looking places where most "planedemic" anglers wouldn't think to shop

A jig is my go to no matter the time of year. Each day will be different but the bass will position a certain way on the wood. Beside it under it sparse beaches thick nasty branches on the deep end or at the back near the bank. Sunny or shady side. Each bite is a piece of the puzzle . After a few bites you should start to see a pattern develop

Why no company has created a color called blue waffle is beyond me

To the guys saying they may carry in the near future. You don't decide when you will need a gun to protect yourself. The criminals do. Need to be a step ahead of them . Wait till you need one and it will be to late. This is why I carry every second I am awake and am never a full arm's length away from one while I sleep

Outboards of similar size are often built on the same platform but de-tuned to make certain horsepowers. Go with the 60

I will put it simple. I am left hand "incompetent".I cannot reel a spinning reel with my right hand or a casting reel with my left hand. I have tried and it just doesn't work that way for me.

Yum vibra tube . Venom tubes are good. Poor boy baits. Elite tubes. Strike king flippin tubes. The thing that will set a tube apart is the durability. Most of them are pretty much the same. I'm a tube freak fish them all year and I still have yet to find the perfect tube. The strike king flippin tubes are nice because they have a solid nose

Guys are going to recommend braid if you go braid make sure you use a rod that will load up good or you WILL get your heart broken when you loose a giant due to tearing a huge hole in its mouth. Experience has taught me well on that one. I went back to my tried and true big game 14 pound for buzzbaits and it allows enough stretch to not pull the buzzbait away from fish or rip the hooks out

Just looked at your profile and seen your around Akron. There is a canal right off 93 between long lake and Nesmith lake. That canal is full of bass and some good ones to boot. A weightless worm and a frog will get you on some fish. The towpath runs along the canal for as far as you want to walk. We have also kayaked it and was able to cover a lot of water and catch plenty of fish. 40 min south of Akron is sugar Creek. Fish it in the strasburg area and catch a bunch of smallies. Also the tusc is full of smallmouth as well. Anywhere around canal Fulton down to massillon is good. Pop r and buzzbaits usually produce on that stretch. If you would like some more info on spot PM me

Small cheap boats are for sale all over Ohio. I'm in n.e Ohio and always see boats in peoples yards with for sale signs and on C.L. Kayaks can also be had for very good deals as well. If money is tight and you can trust your buddy split the cost of a boat with them. Don't be the guy that befriends someone just because they have a boat. I've had guys do that to me and it doesn't take long to figure it out.

Not sure where your located but most streams across America hold smallmouth. Go wading catch some fish and stay cooled off. Very simple to catch creek smallies. A simple jighead and twister tail is hard to beat

Jbsoonerfan it would be a set time to weigh in as who ever is in charge of running the scale will also likely be in the tournament. WRB the few big bass tournaments we have here always takes one over 5 to win and it's not uncommon to have fish over 6 pounds weighed in. I would say 4 1/2 is usually the lowest weight that will be in the money. There is typically multiple 5+ # fish weighed in

Your graph should have standby mode. Hit the power button once and it will be on the bottom of the list that pops up. At least both my helix units have this. I always just put on standby when I pull TM to move. This stops the transducer ping but allows graph to stay on safely

No we will not go the direction of an hourly pay out. Their is already one of those that happens every year here and it gets alot of mixed feed back. It will be a single fish tournament with a set way in time like a regular tournament. Theirs a B.B tournament like that and then an hourly at the beginning of every year and the first one where it's one way in time gets alot more love

Pfluger gets my vote for affordable quality spinning reels. I will never own another daiwa reel highly recommend AGAINST the Fuego LT spinning reel. I have never experienced more flex from a reel than with this P.O.S you can twist the main body on the stem around half an inch with almost 0 effort. Stick with shimano or pfluger.

I could throw away all my tackle and flip and pitch a jig all year and never complain

Definately would not put a minimum weight. That would just be silly and push majority of guys away. And payback would be around 95% my buddy and I personally know most of the guys that own our local boat dealerships and tackle stores so getting sponsors to add in some extras will likely not be an issue. Yes Ohio is flooded with tournaments. The issue is they are all the same. Nothing different. The two big bass tourneys at the beginning of the year are the most anticipated by everyone which is why I feel this could turn into something very successful.

Great replies guys. The two big bass events at the beginning of the year here have great turn outs. I think they cap them at 60 boats each which is alot for the 1300 acre lake they're held on and the top spots are always 5+# fish. If we move forward with this the lakes will obviously be hand selected to get the biggest fish possible. We're thinking one tourney a month March through September and then a championship in October. Possibly even a 2 day event. Not sure what entry fees would be yet.

We have a lot of slot lakes around here as well. And we also have a few hourly pay out and one big bass tourney at the beginning of every year but I would really like to start a big bass only circuit. I think it would really take off around here.