AlabamaSpothunter

Yep got a brand new 50lb thrust never used for like a $80 discount. Found on FB marketplace. Same thing with my Garmin.

You need to impart your own action on the bait, meaning rod pumps, twitches, using a Yo Yo retreive, etc. The reason people think they work so well in grass is because many times they catch fish when they pop the bait free from grass. You can do the same thing in open water with rod twitches. I have plenty of grass but I don't fish them around it that much. I use full sized Chatterbaits to deflect off of cover in that 5-10fow range for big fish. All you need is laydowns, xmas trees, anything you can get the bait to deflect off of.

Donavanlakes is the place. If you join, you gotta take me as a guest ? If I lived closer I'd join no doubt. ETA: I'm an idiot, it's in S AL. My bad brother.

Lol. It's a great idea, very noble.......and then I remember what humans do to nice things they don't have to work hard for. If everyone were like Katie, I'd be down, but she's a unicorn ?

Never realized some buzzbaits or many of them will run one particular way or the other. The one I last posted above has been hammering them with a 5.5" Spunk Shad trailer, but it runs crazy to the left. If you plan accordingly, it's deadly effective and cool running it under docks and stuff. Anyways went into my monkey store and ask for one that runs straight as I can't always run the perfect direction. I'll give these a try. Loved my first Spro Little Jon 50 in crawfish color that I bought one is Homemade Shad. I think this one will get bit more. Missile Baits is slowly replacing Roboworm as my favorite soft plastic maker, they are the first company that has colors that impress me as much or more than Roboworm. Roboworm seems to have dialed it back from back in the day when they had the FX series stuff.

Not me...I want that lake just for me and my friends ?

I recently saw an underwater video of the Chad Shad compared with other big hard swimbaits like Hinkles, S Wavers, Sneaky Petes, etc. I was truly stunned watching the Chad Shad come through the water. I thought it was real. Never been tricked by a lure like that before. It's a Milliken video. Shimano's flashboost is the real deal, and likely touches on this exact point your making. I think you'd like them if you don't already own some. Doomsday Tackle makes a very close copy, I have a pack....just haven't tried them yet Also don't like the color I have but it was a clearance thing. They are called the 3.2 C-Shad

LOL, you are most certainly safe. I'd look like a murder victim ? There still is nothing better than a rescued mutt kitty imho, especially if you save it from a really young age. Bengals are really cool cats, both of mine have been smarter than a Golden Retriever and Alaskan Malamute I had growing up. They talk more than I do seriously. They require the same level of attention as a high energy dog breed. They bond with you hardcore yet half of them want to be around you, not on you like a good companion cat should in my book.

I want in on this, I got a teacup Asian Leopard Cat ?

Variety is the spice of life, not to mention you can catch a trophy brown fish at any time in your waters.

Seems there has developed two types of pay lakes in people's definitions. 1.) State or Gov't owned, charges smaller amounts, usually daily. Is somewhat managed, but many times pressure is unregulated. 2.) Private owned lakes specifically managed for trophy Bass, these lakes can charge by the day, weekend, or in some rare cases you can get an annual membership. High entry fees, very regulated fishing pressure. The second type is what we have down here. These lakes cost between 300-500 a day to fish, although one has a bank fishing option for a $100 daily. The one I'm going to go to first is called Triple D Ranch, they have several lakes. Some have Tiger Bass, some have Gorilla, others have pure FLGM. These lakes aren't a guarantee in terms of DDs, as I follow them closely. Triple D Ranch this year has a 11.5 as the biggest fish caught. Generally speaking though, 100-200fish days are the norm. I don't know how you can have a lake that produces 200 fish days, and still pumps out DDs, but they produce some. My guess is they'd produce a bunch more if they went hardcore on culling, but they want a high catch rate for non trophy fisherman, they have corporate events and such at these places. My dream is to create one of these lakes. They call them Ray Scott lakes down here in Alabama, as Ray Scott kind of started the model, and his pay lakes are still dynamite here.

Catching a 6-7lb LGM out of a river, especially his area is a pretty epic feat. He fishes the same water the Classic was held at recently, loaded with fish, but not exactly a big Bass factory at least for LGMs.

You'll be able to retire on that one day ? Poor redneck just waiting for those SPRO Chad Shads and the new Shimano 280s I'll continue to admire Hinkle baits from the nosebleeds lol.

I want a Hinkle anything ? Those trouts are awesome, I'd be skeered to throw a $1k+ bait lol

Looks like it could be a Green Sunfish as well. The Warmouth's I catch have electric stripes around the mouth, very orange tipped fins, they just stick way out. Never seen one bigger than the specimen above....and as noted above are always super fiesty. A little bitty fish will hammered a 7" Roboworm. They really like hard rock I've noticed. Cool little fish.

8-10 fish on the Buzzbait again today, best fish was close to 5lbs, had that beat up tail, and caught her at a major staging area, but still very shallow. Looks like most of eggs and winter heft were gone. Watched an amazing fish biologist on the big Bass podcast YT channel last night.......fish biologist says 10% of a Bass's weight (eggs, not winter heft) can/will be reduced during the spawning. Then add in whatever heft they lost during the energy intensive spawning process, maybe 15% of a big fish's weight is reduced over 6-8 weeks. Really great info on big Bass, and what it takes for a Bass to reach trophy sizes. I just threw this 5.5" Spunk Shad on there because of the big profile I was looking for while I found something I really liked. Not sure I'm gonna change the game at this point. I'll buy some night fishing colors and run with it. It has almost no action. I tried a trailer hook today with it, and it drove me crazy. I'll take missing some blowups as opposed to constantly messing with the darn trailer hook.

Seems like a great pick, and I like 12lb Bass ?

Well at least you didn't leave without a camera. If I forgot those things, 100% I'm catching a big fish lol. Man that first fish is magnificent. Fat bellies make the world right.

On a straight retrieve, it's very easy to rip the bait away from them......so much so that it took me months, and ultimately, I just hit the easy button and bought a Chatterbait rod. Chatterbaits are my favorite big fish bait, but they were the toughest baits to figure out how to hook fish with. On a Yo Yo retrieve, it's much more easy, you just hammer them when you feel the bite. All I know is when I got the right rod, 95% of the problem went away. I was throwing them on MH Fast Loomis GLX rods. Switched the Alpha Angler Chatterbound. You need a forgiving rod imho in order to allow the fish time to fully get the bait in it's mouth before the rod fully loads up on a hookset.

Lol, and then pay again through various State or even Federal taxes. Pay lakes are a big thing down here in the South, or at least in AL, and TX. There is a really cool pay lake deal in N AL. You pay $1000 a year and get to fish a number of different managed private lakes. I'm going to go to some this winter for sure. We're fish siblings lol.....my first was a white bank fishing with my dad who was likely dying of boredom. I caught that little sucker, the rest was history. I was obsessed with lakes, and the fish in them since that moment.

Awesome, and pops won the day, that's a really nice fish. Big believer in that sig line, we're in the last cycle imho.

Bawhahaa, like we just talked about ?

4 more hours of dedicated buzzbaiting, 8 fish.....double that on blowups which I think are just bucks blowing it off their bed area. It's not hard to trust the "Pat Cullen" plan, few baits are as fun to fish as a buzzbait. I will likely stroke out if I get the white whale to blow one up at night this summer. Perhaps last big wave of spawn with the full moon tom and weds. night, best fish was only about 3lbs, but haven't seen a porker like this since winter, see/he reminded me of the good ole days, the winter. Lastly, this might be the most magnificent, and regal Heron I've seen. I feel like I spend more time with Herons than humans since starting back heavy.

To my knowledge I've never used a Senko either. Ironically I bought a pack of the Speed Senkos the other day.