AlabamaSpothunter

If you want to see a true night and day different product, flip back and forth between the Elite Fork event and the MLF Invitational. Never thought I'd choose a MLF event over a BASS event to watch but here I am.

To me most Shimano reels feel geary out of the box, and the Curado 150MGL I bought a couple years ago certainly had that geary feeling out of the box. It's never got worse or better, so to me it's just the way they feel.

Crazy that BASS is using the scales they're using. Things are wildly inaccurate, bouncing from 5.9-5.13 and barely locks into 5.11 and the ambassador locks that in. I'd be ticked if I was competing and had to deal with that.

Haha, thanks Katie! Two years now, March has blown away any other month for 5lb fish. Before that August was the best month. I'll catch a few as 1-3 5lb fish in Oct/November, so I end up paying my dues lol.

It's actually something I've noticed and put some thought into. My theory is that they say "we" because most of these guys call upon a team of friends, and family to enable them to fully pursue their dream. It could be parents that supported them, a wife that stays at home and takes care of 3 young children, a group of fellow anglers that are friends and offer advice and support, basically just personal relationships that anglers feel helped them get on the biggest stage in Bass fishing. Or in the Johnston brother's case, it literally means we as they compete as a true team, and share everything to include a joint banking account where all purse winnings go into.

One thing really unique about sight fishing is that it allows you to really understand just how unique and individual every single Bass's "personality" is. Every single Bass has it's own unique trigger spots on the nest, baits they will respond to, what they want their mate to be doing, how fast you can annoy them, etc. It's such a personal experience, to me it's the closest interaction you can have with the fish, to include holding them in your hand. I watched a 8-10lb fish for 3 days last year.....watched her entire process, and by the end I felt quite the connection to her. Sight fishing is completely unique in that regard. ETA: Agree with everything Pat has said as usual, and it's amazing how quickly we are starting to learn that many of the biggest fish have and are spawning so much deeper than we used to know before FFS. Perspective mode FFS has really started to illuminate this specific topic for sure.

Oh I'm not saying he has the greatest accomplishment list/career by any means, I'm just saying I think today and going forward he's the best angler alive. Jacob and DC have events quite often where they aren't anywhere close to making the cut or top 10 cut, but Trey is dang near in every single top 10 since he's been on tour. I've never seen another angler that seemingly always lands on winning fish. I knew when I typed that I was making a hot take though........Wheeler and DC are no doubt in the top 3-5 best anglers fishing today. You make a good point, but I'm just so impressed with Trey.

The reality is that you can't effectively sight/bed fish on many bodies of water, and I'd say places that you can easily sight fish are in the minority. Between the heavy spring rains and wind, combined with pollen, it's a true crap shoot on my waters if you're going to be able to see them. I don't really get the whole I don't bed fish because it's unethical side of the argument because at the end of the day if you fish in the Spring, you're catching spawning fish 100%. To me sight fishing is the hardest technique in Bass fishing. Drew Cook and John Cox have shown it's far more black magic than science. I managed to catch 22 fish over 5lbs during our recent spawning 6 week period, I spent significant time sight fishing during that period........one single 5lb fish out of 22 came from sight fishing. Your odds of catching big fish in the Spring casting in the blind are exponentially better than trying to look at them imho. That said, there's just something incredibly addicting about trying to catch one with your eyes.

I honestly believe Trey is the #1 Bass angler on the planet. Speaking of Milliken, he actually said he thinks Trey is the best Bass angler alive as well which was shocking to here because he said it before the season even started. He's one of the few "kids" that I think would catch them regardless of tech, he just seems to find fish better than anybody else.

Why can't they just do away with this stupid half time show. The 100 best pros in the world are fishing arguably the best big fish lake in America and BASS thinks we want to hear Dave Mercer talk to some guy name Jesse.

Buddy Gross in 1st place, who had that on their bingo card....or better yet FF roster 😁 This thing is getting won by somebody scoping timber for post spawn giants imho. All these guys up shallow jumping up the leader board are going to fizzle out. If God designed a Bass fishing lake, it would look like Fork. What an incredibly fishery. ETA: It's a catch/weigh/release format just like the BPT except 5 fish vs. every fish. Then if the angler catches an over 24" he can bring it back to "weigh in" to show off to the crowd

If you fish big Glide baits you learn pretty fast that loud splashdowns don't seem to effect the fish nearly as much as we anglers think they do. Moreover in some cases I think it actually helps fish notice the bait. I've caught plenty of fish skipping a whacky rig under a dock where turtles just dropped from. Doesn't stop me from fishing those places at all. Can't hurt at minimum. Casts are free last time I checked 😀

The Alpha Angler Wench is an amazing Neko/Whacky/Shakey rod. The Megabass Levante Shakeyhead is another fantastic rod for those techniques. Those are both $200-300 rods, I can't help with the NRXs though. Honestly any good 7" Medium Fast rod will work perfectly fine.

Awesome trip and report Katie! That's a really nice stringer of fish to be sure! Great news that you were able to save the rod and reel.

Absolutely A-Jay, I've watched that last 7 minute clip a couple of times already. Arguably the most wild thing about it is that Wheeler had the potential winning fish already hooked up and about 10 seconds from being boated when the clock ran out. Like Welcher's dominant win, I don't think we'll see another finish like this one for a really long time. Just too many perfect things that happened. I mean come on......5lb buzzbait fish with 7 seconds on the clock to win $150k, still can't believe it! 😎

Awesome report, and beautiful scenary and fish as always Katie! Since about mid March I've burned through 20 packs of Yamasenkos and 7 packs of VMC crossover rings. Stupid expensive way of fishing, but the fun and results factor are well worth the cost. Stay on top of those water temps if you can, to me that's the single most important thing I want to know when starting off everyday for that winter through post spawn period. If they're biting that whacky this good now, you're going to destroy them on it in a couple of weeks!

Well all I got for that event is one word........EPIC!!!! Absolutely incredible how that event shaped up, the MLF format really is the one that produces the most excitement for the fans. Imagine catching a 5lber on a buzzbait to beat Jacob Wheeler for $150k with 7 seconds left.......I mean that's about as epic as it will ever get. What a treat to witness.

A friend of mine roomed with Lawrence last year on the MLF Invitationals and said he was one of the best anglers he's ever been around, and he's fished against most of the big names. Also said he's legit a great dude to be around. I'd like to see him win this one, he's had the most impressive performances throughout it. Every single day he's had huge periods with and without the scope.

There's no way Drew Gill would be a professional angler without FFS. Goes hours without FFS and a scoreable. Turns on FFS in period 2 and on his first cast catches a scoreable. That's the problem many people including myself have with the technology. I've felt for a while Gill is the perfect example of what FFS has done to the sport.

This right here, my go to baits are the D-Bomb and Destroyer is the Superbug by Missile Baits. Half BLK/BLU, half Green Pumpkin,

I think if you limited FFS usage to only 30mins you'd still have a few guys like Drew Gill winning events using it. Just when you can't hate FFS any more, Drew Gill does this 🤣

I just yell CHICKAJACK 🤣

I got stuff to do, but I can't help watching Gill to see if the gamble pays off.....they got a camera with him now. MLF coverage is so good.

Yeah I'm pretty surprised they didn't put a cam in his boat, it's a compelling story line and drama. I expect AJJ to be in the cut as well, those two are the best scopers on the BPT imho.

As much as it pains me, I think he'll scope up that 12lbs in about 10mins lol