AlabamaSpothunter

I got one of Matt's first baits a soft big bluegill swimbait, wish I had one of his hard baits. You and your buddy love to fish these big hard swimbaits, I can't wait to get back to them. They are perhaps the most exciting way to catch them. They also remove my overzealous concern of small fish's welfare being caught on the heavy gear and lures I'm trying to catch a white whale on. Dang small fish still hit the A-Rig, but nothing small will hit the big hard swimbaits, and if they do they certainly aren't getting hooked badly.

An aquarium 13+ is epic in my book. Any wild Bass is the same to me in all honesty(my PB was caught in a small pond in Auburn), If they lived in the sewer, I'd be down there ?

The real question is will it be bigger than the 13-14lb fish you caught......man I'd quit after that fish ?

That's like walking into a garage with a Ferrari, Lambo, 911, and a Prius.....and you drive away in the Prius ?

I can see your fish also coming off a topwater. That place in some of your videos that produced big ones on topwaters IIrc. Looks like a nowhere place. I hope everyone's big fish of the year comes off topwater including my own, what a thrill that would be. Since starting back I haven't caught a fish 5 or better on topwater. I'm dying for the topwater bite to turn on again so I can learn how to do it.

I mean a MiniMax is lowing hanging fruit to those in the know ? God speed brother....12.1 on #6 is not jumping out of an airplane, you're now wingsuiting ?

Meh.....when you catch 50 fish seemingly every trip, and when Tim is catching fish the size of ones that belong in the ocean, I think I'm the one who's got catching up to do ?

I learn so much from your posts! Most excellent information.

Thanks for such kind words Pat! Don't give up on those offshore fish brother, you'll have that breakthrough soon enough offshore if you keep studying them on sonar. With your water temps and being a bit north of me, you might just be a few weeks behind me. The fun always returns, that's why we're junkies ??

This is my biggest struggle on the water, along with wind....when they combine things go south quickly ?

Starting tom. I guess I'm going to start making some rounds in shallow areas as it keeps warming, this is all new for me. I've just seen the avg. size of catches exponentially grow over the last 6 weeks, one thing's for sure, it's very exciting to fish these couple of months. Our weather is very similar it seems.

Yeah I've been trying to plot my big fish and the moon phase since IIrc reading a WRB thread or post. I definitely noticed it as yesterday you could start to see the almost full moon starting around noon. It followed two extremely hot days for me, however the full moon day itself, today I only caught 7 and no fish over 5lbs. Maybe the following two days after the full moon are as good as the previous two to it....one can hope lol.

Can I place a wager on whether these fish were caught deep relative to Toledo Bend, with FFS, and likely in a relative short period of time?

For you Spinnerbait hammers it makes perfect sense. I think one day I'd like to try to make my own bladed jigs. I'm never gonna recreate a Vision 110 lol.

Man what a beautiful fish Dwight! You're on some big girls right now! Thanks Jar! I can't wait until you guys AND GAL make that first report in this thread ? God love you Katie, he surely must laugh as much as me while reading your incredibly well written and always funny replies ? I can't even imagine how giddy you guys are gearing up.....getting much closer now HAHAHA....look at that 4th pic, all of them are uber fat. Fantastic fish!

Please explain this.....beyond the obvious fact they are from Canada ?

What lure weighs 20oz that is used for LGM Bass? I fish baits well into the 3oz range, 6"+ hard swimbaits, A-Rigs on a Zillion HD. It's fantastic in that role on a 7'9 Alpha Angler Wide Glide. Ergos are killer, lighter than most similar big bait setups, holds enough 17-20lb line for my needs. If anything it's maybe too nice of a reel for big baits. Too me a Tat 300 is the best/most expensive reel I wanted for this role, but then the Zillion HD just did it's magic. Now a question for you, how many times do you buy something because of all these "XXY top tier vs ZVY top tier" threads?

Finally 2/3 ingredients for creating two of the most memorable days I've ever had fishing. I've never had a bait match so perfectly outside of maybe a big swimbait and the common sized 6-8" Gizzards on the lake.

40gb of catch footage is a bit much to go through tonight, but hopefully tom goes well and I'll roll only the big girls from the two days into one. If not I'll just make a video of one of the most wide open bites I've ever had. All these fish are suspending over and around huge carpets of what I believe are mostly very small, like the smallest size I ever see Threadfins. I think it's extremely key to why this bait is producing so spectacularly. I consciously fished several other baits to check, and while the Damaki Vault produced a fish relatively fast, only two other fish were caught on a downsized A-Rig, and then nothing again for the two dozenth time on that stupid Tactical Crank. Matt Allen got me on that zero of a bait ? Truly Garmin's and Damaki's fish. It was a pleasure to be a witness to their incredible day though. Unlike yesterday where I knew lots of big fish were present, today lots more fish were seemingly present in a larger area, and oddly enough LOTs more quality and big Spots showed up today. Still the best 5 LGMs would have gone close to 20lbs. A couple of 5lb class fish. Several 4lb class fish as well. Best 5 Spots would have gone 12-15lbs. Several at or slightly over 3lbs.

Dang Katie, you own two more than me now......Luckeeeee ? I will 1000% be ordering at least a few more after today. In the last 48 hours this bait has caught over 75 fish. After going through the files on the GoPro, I got 46 fish alone on film, "quick released" another 3.....that's almost 50 fish in 7 hours. A single bait, 75+ fish with the caveat that the stock treble sucks big time!!! Same goes for the ones they put on the Vaults. Two broken hooks over the last 48 hours but thankfully no cost fish because of it. The big lost fish at dusk yesterday just straightened one side of the small stinger hook which is an ingenious design regardless. The second best angler on the lake who has been fishing it 25yrs, and certainly a better Bass angler than myself, has his own nice Bass boat, has fished some tourneys......caught 6 fish today. I'd like to take credit, but the reality is that I lucked into one of those rare occasions when you find the absolute perfect bait they want. My thumb actually died at 4:46pm, it was an amazing soldier.....pour one out for my homie if you can ?

I love this thread. Beautiful pics, incredibly cool boat and connection, and good luck tomorrow with the LM! Dang bro, looks like the Great Lakes in the background......also what a toad!

Tim stacks deep on only the essentials, guns and tackle. When I grow up I'm going to have collections just like his ? "That sonofagun, braided wonder" was the first thing that went through my mind when he went on his recent epic big Musky tear, and I was like yeah I'd fish braid too ? You and me both Katie, that's one of the coolest fishing holes I've seen! The camping thing is so cool and talk about epic potential for a BR article......your fans demand continual content ? Thanks so much for that Dwight, that's a real compliment coming from a hammer such as yourself! Talk about taking a bait that puts the advantage in the angler's corner squarely to a bait that puts the angler at a huge disadvantage. Must be an artform trying to get the fish to key in on one specific bait with 4+ baits surrounding it.

I love reading your replies more than catching the fish ?....you might be the most supportive and encouraging person I've ever known, you are truly a gift to all of us in this thread! You fish so hardcore and spartan that I think your fishing season is perfect. Most year-round anglers aren't spending the time on the water that you do once conditions permit you to. As for the sizes of your fish, you catch so many fat fish it's crazy, and I honestly believe that you could break Maine's record. She just might be in that special place you recently discovered. I love how Bass fishing is relative, a Maine hog is equal to an Alabama hog is equal to a Texas hog. We can only control catching the biggest Bass we have in our home waters. I bought them as dead of the winter baits, but now I'm thinking I'm going to try fishing these things whenever I think they are keyed in on really small bait. I'm finding that when they are eating a smaller particular size of bait, I have lots of trouble getting them to consistently bite a single bait like a Jerk, or A-Rig. I think right when you hit the water for the year, throwing one of these in deeper open water pockets might work great for those girls still staging in a bit deeper water. Might be coincidence or a testament to how many people listen to Tactical Bassin, but many of the items they'll recommend will be sold out.

Thanks brother, yeah those are the new Zillion reels with clicker style drag. Really addictive hearing that drag ? Thanks Tim! Now if only this pattern can hold for a few days. I'd love to see how big of fish is down there.