AlabamaSpothunter

I'm blushing Katie, you are always so full of kindness and humor! I'm the living embodiment of a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, but that's what makes it so exciting I guess. 2 Hours of rolled footage gets turned into 14mins, you can bet I look like a donkey on that other 1hr45mins ?

Some might remember my first double up on an A Rig where the big 5lb class fish came off at the very end a week or two ago......today the universe rewarded me with an even better opportunity, and I can now officially say I've joined the double up A Rig club. This bait is one of the most exciting baits I've ever thrown, once you get a bit of confidence with it, you feel magic is going to strike every cast. Caught around 20 I'd say, and the double up was a 5.6 and 2.7 fish. Caught another 2lb Crappie.....2lbs on the dot. Caught a 3.5-4lb class LGM, and then tons of 1-2.5lb football LGMs, and Spots. 1 fish came off a 110jr +1, close to 10 came off the A Rig, and then close to 10 came off the Flashback mini including the Slab. With Winter pool I went to the furthest most north end of the lake at times in 1ft of water, I was rewarded with dynamite Spotted Bass fishing. 65 degree rainy weather. Main lake bodies were at 54, but where I was chasing Shad up in creeks it was 56.5. Winter might be my new favorite time to fish. The girth on these fish makes you want to keep fishing harder, FOMO is real when you realize the white whales have 2-3lbs extra on them from eggs and fatting up for the spawn. These fat little Bass make me smile so much

They are an awesome store, bought lots of tackle from them as well. Good people. They got me for $500 for a Trijicon RMR last year, Marks is just closer to me.

Awesome stuff Scott....and that green model is killer, I haven't seen that one yet. I got one with a Chartreuse blade, but not those green swimbodies. Love my Garmin, I'm sure you will too. Caught about 10 fish on that bait today......and one 2lb Crappie. Second 2lb+ Crappie now on this bait. Now you got to get some 3" Armor Shad, and then you'll see that it makes the perfect 3" Shad imitator. ETA; I'll send you some of the Armor Shads if you can't find them locally, Marks Outdoors carries them.

Katie I'm the same way on skinny fish for the same reason. I also hate when a fish I catch spits up a shad. Great part about this place is that I know the membership by in large cares more about the fish's health than catching the fish. Use the trash talk as fuel, let the hate run through your fishing pole ?

Same here, I catch fish in the middle of the lake in 30ft holding on no particular structure or cover, catch them on nothing banks, then I catch them in the places that smart people on here stress to look for them. It's completely random lol. Bob Lusk or the Pond Boss has documented this well. The cold water causes parasites, and he says that when you have these wild cold to hot temp swings in the South, it super stresses these fish, and weakens their immune system making them even more susceptible to parasites and infections.

I watched it last night, neat but very little info that I can take from it. The sample size was incredibly small, many fish died, and ultimately the data was quite random. Just because one 8lb fish was randomly chilling in non fishy spots doesn't mean a typical one would. Just seemed pretty random to me. If there is a concrete scientific conclusion that we all can take away from this study I'm all ears by all means. My big takeaway is that Bass behavior remains a mystery and is almost totally random to each individual fish.

You guys better be nice to Katie, she'll be back to embarrassing us all in a few short months ? Fished in schizo weather, misting rain, sunshine at times, cloudy, weird conditions. Once that sun started peaking I out though, and after being skunked for about 1.5hrs, I headed to the north end of the lake where it's much more shallow, and an untold amount of more recently spawned Shads get herded against structure where wolf packs of Bass turn the water into a volcano. This happens quite often, and usually ends it terrific amounts of frustration. You could net the fish going crazy easier than getting them to bite a bait 90% of them time. I threw 6-7 baits at them, and then started to throw the A-Rig, and it was producing quite well. Caught 5-6 fish in about an hour, but eventually I realized the size class fish that were there weren't worth risking maiming by this very harmful A-Rig. First time I can remember driving away from dozens of fish blowing up in the background. I made the right call I think, these fish were getting SO FAT and I want big fish agressive fish next year, and the year after so it's not completely altruistic. I love the A-Rig for big fish, but these smaller fish can hook themselves with the other free hooks in some bad ways. Just didn't feel ethical to me. Caught a tank of a Spot, and these were the 1-2lb uber belly LGMs.

Yeah it's a real shame because Dottie herself deserved to be remembered by history as the WR fish. She was found dead a few years after I've read, wonder if she went downhill those last two years, or if she managed to gain a pound or two. I've only seen her bloated dead pic. I still think Cuba might have a 25lb fish swimming around eating 18" Freshwater Eels. Now that it's opening back up to Americans, maybe we'll see what the rumors were about all these decades. This is the article I read on her.... World Record Chasers | The Story of “Dottie” the 25 pound Largemouth Bass – Bass Fishing Facts

Cold and muddy water is without a doubt the toughest Bass fishing conditions I've encountered. I had to take a week off recently because of an epic rain/flood. I'm not sure how hard it is on the fish during these times, after all they don't depend on sight 100% to feed.

Technically snagged, or she would be the WR correct? IIrc she was caught on the outside of mouth on the bed.

Man that interview answered so many questions, what a fantastic 1.5hr 1 fish over 10lbs before FFS.....100 fish after. He was fishing out of a 15ft AI boat His story is amazing, God bless him, he's the American Dream incarnate

live magic shad is my favorite

I think any 6-8" multi jointed swimbait that looks like a Shad will work just fine. I fish a big 6" BD Shad exactly where I caught this 7-8" Golden Shiner, and that BD Shad has caught 3 fish over 5lbs from that same spot. What I'm learning about big swimbaits is that it's really about the size and profile of the bait. You want the big fish to feel it's a worthwhile endeavor to chase down the bait. Rainbow trout don't exist in countless place they are fished with fantastic success. You can see the tail of the BD Shad in the top right.....basically the same tail on the Shiner. To me the Shiner looks enough like a Gizzard Shad of equal size that it just makes it easy to buy Gizzard Swimbaits.

Nice little tank there Alex, congrats! Only a Spot can be a tank ?

Dang that's terrible! Problem with those Havaheart traps or really any trap in general is that you'll get the stupid animals before the smarter ones like Otters. I always end up with an Opossum in them when trying to catch feral cats. In your position I might just become the supreme predator of the ecosystem one night and I'm a bleeding heart when it comes to animals.

Those Shimano WM Flash boost are worth every dollar. Very intricate and unique lure. The flashboost really works too. Perfectly level when suspending as well.

Awesome fish, keep throwing that Chatterbait!

That's awesome Bob, and I sure hope Gigi/Crash returns. Had the same deal as a kid growing up. A Canadian Goose was wounded and never was able to fly fully again, so my fishing mentor basically had a pet Goose for about a decade it seemed. Her name was Annie. Such a sweet animal, she loved humans. Many of great memory sitting on the dock catfishing with Annie.

I'll yield to your expertise and location, but I still would love to fish with one of the best big swimbait and Spotted Bass fisherman in the country.

So your 19.3 is among the top 25 biggest Bass ever landed I would assume. That's pretty dang awesome even if you didn't get the WR.

Out of emotions lol, but agree totally. I'm paying for that drag. I love watching my new's Certate drag in action.

I'm patient these days, but after 5 or 6 orders now from them, my average time from order to mailbox is around 1.5 weeks. My main complaint is that on a number of baits they've sent me, there's minor damage on a few lures, but not enough for me to go through the hassle of returning them. In the future though I'll let them know about it. I shop with TW because they are the walmart of tackle price wise usually, and they have almost everything I want to buy. My local store is out of GG Threadfin in MB 110s for example, they are GTG. I see both sides of the discussion here, they are legit good business in most regards, but like most companies they do these sales at holidays and get hugely bogged down. Now with the Free shipping if true which I have no reason to doubt, I'm conflicted on it. After 5-6 orders they never made that clear enough that I knew that policy, I do like coloring books though.

@WRB we're all sitting around the campfire waiting for a story, I'm sure you know this gentlemen? A week ago in Bass history.....

thanks! I like the edge because it seemingly holds each bait firm and secure. For high dollar $25 Jerkbaits, that sounds like a worthy investment.