AlabamaSpothunter

Any person who thinks a Spot should be killed like it's some kind of Chinese Carp or something should catch a 4-5lb one, let alone one in the 6lb range. Having taken a 15 yr hiatus from hardcore Bass fishing, I'm fascinated by the radical shift apparently towards Spotted Bass, let alone the fact a whole new sub species has been created. Former runner up in the Classic back in the day, Dalton Bobo took me fishing for a day in the fall on Lay Lake. We easily caught 20 Alabama Bass over 4lbs, and close to half of that would have pushed or pasted 5lbs. Greatest freshwater fishing day I've ever had. That counts all the vivid memories of the nights when I caught a 7-8lb+ LGM, to include my PB 10.2. How can you call a member of Black Bass family a trash fish, when they win tourneys on the regular with 20-25lb single day weigh ins. Go back in history and look at some of the winning weights in BASSMASTER events held on lakes/rivers that are native territory for the Alabama Bass. They usually are mixed bagged weigh ins with like one or two bigger LGMs, and then the rest are usually trophy sized Alabama Bass. This wasn't a problem 20 years ago, now seemingly every state's Fish and Game dept. is up in arms over them. I look at the TVA lakes like Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, and you see trophy sized fish of all three major Black Bass species taken, and this has been the case since I got into fishing as a kid. Think about the reduction in bass hatchlings each year to Channel Cats, Crappie, and Bream. Then you got various species of aquatic turtles that can be hell for a lake/pond's Bass population. In my perfect world there'd only be one strain of Bass, perhaps the FLGM.....but that sub species is easily diluted the second you introduce the now more common northern varieties, and the now the rage is to use the F1s to stock lakes with. I've lived long enough now to see trash fish become peak gamefish like a Bonefish, and vice versa now in the Alabama Bass's case. Having fished my entire life for Alabama Bass in their narrow specific native range, it's actually sad to hear. The Coosa River/chain of lakes along with many smaller rivers are where it came from, and that's my backyard generally speaking. So, I guess my final thoughts on this to answer the OP's premise, is that I'm just fascinated, and very surprised to see this topic at all. Just 15 years ago, this was an unthinkable topic, and now it seems to be as topical in the community as FFS or livescopes.

Nice fish, and loving the retro tackle box...I don't miss hard tackle systems though haha Little report from today......been a bit under the weather with the Bat flu, but somebody must catch these fish. Went out from about 130-530pm. Very dynamic weather right now in the SE, up and down pressure, daily t-storms and rain.....and the one thing that's killing me in this dang jon boat is the wind. I'd say it was tough bite today, but to be fair I just didn't have the mental focus to fish slow or methodical. Caught one fish b/t 1-2lbs way back in a shallow creek as I trying to get some shelter from the wind. At that point knowing I wasn't going home skunked, I figured I would go and try to find some big bait schools, and try to find schooling Bass for some action before I called it. Ended up catching 6 or 7 Spots, all in that 1lb range......would have ended up with one more, and the nicest of the lot if I hadn't been greedy and tried to get another one that was in a frenzy trying to steal the bait from the hooked first. Kept the hooked fish by the boat, went to reach for a reel with a crankbait on it, and then the hooked fish pulled the hook. I can't ever remember seeing one or more LGMs following a hooked Bass like I've seen on numerous occasions with Spots. You see this with many saltwater gamefish, but I can't recall if I've seen another freshwater fish besides Spots do it. Maybe Smallies would but I don't have them here. Pics: one LGM b/t 1-2lbs, a representative of the schooling Spots, and lastly what I was looking for on the sonar and pulling the fish from) All but the LGM were taken on the 1/4oz vibrating jig head with Live Magic Shad in Albino until I ran out, and then I went with something that looked closely, but wasn't nearly as effective as those magic shad. They are fragile, but wow do they generate violent strikes. TackleWarehouse tackle monkey just got me 50 bucks in Magic Shad lol.

I find it laughable for anyone currently to have a strong opinion one way or the other considering just 15-20yrs ago a Spot was a Spot, and there was no Alabama Bass boogieman bass. I really don't think humans have nearly enough evidence, data, and studies to say whether the Spot hurts a fisheries across the board I also find it quite interesting that GA, TN, VA, and NC's official fish and game dept's have all used the same study, pics, and infographics when deeming it invasive. They all quote the same 2-3 limited data studies as well. It's a dang shame because you can already see in this thread how fast stigmatization works, somehow the species has gone from being prized to being thrown on the bank to suffer a slow death in just a decade and half. In one of these threads the other day, somebody was talking about how destructive Alabama Bass have been to Lay Lake.....LMAO.....that's their native waters, how can they be destructive and invasive to their native waters??????

Whenever I fish a new place, my first technique is to be humble, act like a total novice, and go talk to the people who are already fishing the area. Most fisherman are all too willing to help out and share what they are biting on and such, especially so if you approach them as somebody who is humble wanting to learn. People here can give you general advice, but nothing will top real time action reports from the body of water you're fishing.

Wow, a woman who is such a diehard fisherman she's night bassin......we'll clone you in time Nice one! Spillways are easily one of my favorite places to fish. Caught lots of nice fish around them.

Dang man, great job! Looks like you caught a number of pigs

I grew up vacationing in the summers at the OXBs, it's just an awesome place in general, and it's certainly a great place to surf fish, inshore fish, and obviously blue water fish, but if you are going to move somewhere specifically to bluewater fish in the US......South FL, or even the panhandle area would be much better. Florida is as good as it gets for a fisherman. The Keys are simply unbelievable, and you can catch Sailfish within a mile starting in Stuart....going all the way down to Key West. Then you obviously have pure florida strain Bass practically everywhere, tons of huge and small lakes So it's great area, very fishy, but not among the places I'd move to for fishing specifically

So what's it gonna take to get you to fly down to Alabama and just do it for me....JUST KIDDING lmao Truly, thanks for the help brother, very much needed and appreciated!

Any chance you could link me such a product brother? Dang until I get a permanent boat setup, this thing is a real PITA Thanks for your help!

Their beauty is only matched by their aggressiveness. That's an especially beautiful Spot. Spots love that riprap in the background

Okay seriously I think this is my last request for help, lol. So I want to do what you guys are saying about making a more secure, and easier connect/disconnect method for this power cord situation. If I could just leave everything in the boat it would be great, but I take the batteries and so forth out each time out. Are these gator clamps too small? Will the ring terminals work if I just slide it under the nut of the battery? I'd rather use the clamps, and I tried to find bigger ones, along with a bigger ring terminal, no bueno at Lowes

Thought the same thing when I saw that post earlier. Heck I can't make myself buy 3/4oz stuff. I'm just getting into chatterbaits after pulling my biggest fish in years off of one, so I'm not sure of all the techniques, but it seems these would be killer flipped into weed lines....if that's the case, then a big model like that makes sense. Curious to hear the answer, as I'm trying to learn more on there usage.

Nice one! What always amazes me about smallmouths is the wide variance in their coloring and patterns. That one has little bronzing, and you could be fooled at first if you didn't look for the lateral line. I've been watching the MLF tourney on the St. Lawrence River today, and the ones they are pulling up are super bronze and have pronounced tiger striping. I used to think it was largely based on temp, but now I really have no idea what causes smallmouths to look so differently from place to place. LGMs have some of this as well...some have pronounced lateral lines, some are much greener, some have whiter bellies, etc. Alabama Bass and Spots seem to look much more uniform from location to location. I've always found river Bass to be much more exciting, and hard fighting fish. ETA: Peak irony a spinnerbait man is wearing a zoom shirt, and a non spinnerbait man was wearing a zorro shirt

Thanks, it's a smaller private 200-300 acre lake in Shelby County. It's an electric motor only lake, so that lake feels significantly bigger than it is when you're fishing it. About 1.5-2 miles in length not counting a few creeks. I think the lake was built in the early 70s, and quite deep for it's size. I've found 34ft so far. Huge amounts of threadfins, along with lots of Crawfish. Starting about 20 years ago me and a pal before we knew any better stocked bigger Alabama Bass we'd catch around the Coosa and Cahaba Rivers, and somehow they've managed to thrive, and seemingly balance with the lake's original Northern strain LGM bass. I have to imagine it's the deep water throughout the lake that allows the Alabama Bass population. I've never seen Alabama Bass in a lake this size. Trying to get the Lake Treasury to buy F1 Bass, but we'd have to get 10-12" fish which are crazy expensive, fingerlings would just end up feeding bigger fish. Over the next month I'm going to be making a number of artificial Bass structures and dropping them in, going to concentrate on adding stuff offshore. I'll make a thread about it when I do. Think it should be cool to document. I sold my Bass boat years ago, but now that I'm getting back into it, I'm already seeing my wings feeling the need to fly haha. Good Luck at Neely Henry brother!

Tried my best to make myself not go back out night fishing, but the inner fishing demon won out, and likely for the best. Fished from 10:20pm-1:45am. Perfect pressure @ 30.00, started very dark and cloudy, then ended with stars and a qtr moon. Apparently, it wasn't the wind during the day that was turning them off as it was present until almost the end of the session. Caught 8 fish all b/t 1-3lbs, so no 5lb+ fish which was kinda rare for a good biting night session. Not sure where the big fish went. Did catch one Spot over 2lbs so that got the heart racing. 4 fish came on my all time favorite night bait.....1/8th tungsten T Rigged 8" zoom Magnum lizard in Black Grape on 5/0 Gama red EWG. Fish these off points, and structure located in the 5-10ft range. Then once the wind and clouds started to fade, I caught the other 4 on a ZMAN 3/8th weedless chatterbait in Bream color. I was really slow rolling it, just barely enough to get it to chatter. Must have gotten 10-12 bites, but only hooked the 4. The smaller fish were out last night so it could be that, but I might switch to a non weedless in the future. They were just ripping off zoom twin tail trailers.

One's luck is always turning pal, I just went out for a few hours but did more fish finder looking than fishing, caught two 1lb or less fish. I watched huge balls of threadfins across the area of the lake I was scanning, but unlike yesterday I didn't see the bigger fish under or around the balls. I imagine they were tight on the grass and cover with the wind. That's what I took away from the session. When I know it's been bad during the day, I especially want to fish that night.....they gotta eat some time is my thinking lol. It was brutal in a high sided v hulled jon boat in 5-7mph winds so I called it early, might go back out tonight and re try, bet I get rewarded if I do

Excellent info as I noticed this but only in so much that the difference b/t speed 4 and speed 5 is massive, goes from like low 2mph, to 4-5mph. That said, this lake is huge for an electric motored jon boat. On speed 5 it would take you 20mins at least to go from one end to other, and that's bypassing another huge offshoot of the lake. I really need two motors, and 3-4 batteries......I'm sick in the head, I need help, HELP ME PLEASE lol

naw it doesn't, if the performance is there, that's all that matters. It's the blue one though. The handle and seat are great, it's just that obnoxious blue accent that isn't aesthetic. thanks though as I'll read about that reel now as well

wow, very educational post, thanks yes I'm that idiot that has been just running the leads straight on the battery. guess I'll do it one more time this evening cause I'm about to go out, and then tonight google how to rigged up some connectors. That makes perfect sense, and something I was wondering about yesterday, figured surely there had to be a better way.

I'm here right now big time, been going hard for about 5 weeks, but I got a 8lb fish two weeks ago, and now I fish every single day, sometimes twice a day trying to get another 10lb fish, and top my PB. Not sure what I'll do once I hit my goal. I have OCD so this is kind of normal for me. I'm much happier when I'm fired up over something and obsessing over a goal in life than when I'm not. I do tend to neglect many things in my life when I'm going balls to the wall over something though.

Nice, I'm mainly a Daiwa man, so I'd prefer to go that direction. This rod is so "loud" though that it will clash with anything but a SLX reel I'm sure....good thing rod looks don't catch fish lol

Dang you guys cost me 54 bucks at Academy just now......can confirm the SLX rods are basically half off. Lots of the H20 lineup was marked down...not heavily though. Some other things were marked down as well, but nothing like these rods. Only knew about them because of this thread the other day, and they had two 7" spinning models, and a 6'10 baitcaster model. I have no clue about these rods as I just back into fishing, and this is the cheapest rod I've bought so I hope I didn't just blow some money. Hopefully you guys can help me on something......I'm not a spinning reel guy, but I've heard that this Ned Rig is the rage these days, and a 7" spinning setup with braid and a leader is the way to go. This is partly the reason why I gambled on a budget class rod. Can you guys recommend me a solid reel to match the price range of this rod be it 50 or 100. Lastly what's a good braid to run on it?....not a braid guy either lol

Very cool thread, and the talent displayed is amazing. The Crankbaits from scratch blow me away, some of the paint jobs belong on a show car.....I'm not sure I could create a piece of beautiful art like that, and then have a mean 5lb Bass absolutely destroy it lol. Last time I was peanuts deep in fishing, I was looking into trying to hand pour worms. My favorite bait is a FX series Roboworm. I'd love to make 4/6/8" lizards that have the same action as a Roboworm since they don't offer a lizard, not to mention their amazing multi colored options. Couldn't recreate their really cool patented salt system though. So many unique things about that worm. Anyways, great job folks, can only imagine how much better it feels to catch a Bass on a bait you made yourself.

Remember that when you are trying a new bait to you....you don't have to throw it until your arm falls off.....throw it for 10 minutes, don't get a hit, put the rod up and go back to your confidence bait. THE KEY is to keep throwing these baits here and there until you slowly catch some fish on them, once that happens that thing in your head goes off "hey these will actually catch fish". Remember to note the conditions when you do catch a fish, and then throw those baits when similar conditions present in the future. As a soft plastic slow pace bait fisherman, you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice to give up on hardbaits, especially crankbaits. Fishing is a test of patience and ability to endure trial and error. Don't let a fish beat you buddy.

Had a fun day, started about 130 and ended at about 530. Caught 11, lost 2, and got one epic unrecoverable backlash on a steez reel lol. First few hours were slow, and caught 3 all on a Roboworm. Biggest fish of the day did come this way on a huge channel dropoff, somewhere maybe in the mid 3s. The really fun part was I caught 8 and then lost a few all within that last hour chasing shad balls. Seen balls of shad at the surface on this lake my whole life, only on the rare occasion would I catch one throwing a top water at them. All 8 were b/t 1-2 lbs, 2 were Spots, 6 were LGMs. Today I had a new weapon, a fish finder, so when I saw the bass blowing them up, I motored over a few pods and saw bigger fish below the extremely balled up threadfins. Upon seeing that I took the top water off and tied on a jig vibration head/Magic Shad, it seemed to penetrate down below the balls where I would then pick up these violent strikes, and every single fish practically stayed on the surface. These fish were clearly amped up. Just as quick as they turned on, they turned off. Now I know how to catch these fish in the middle of the lake when I see the shad. Biggest of the day on the Roboworm in first pic, the next two are representative of the schooling Bass I was catching, lastly my setup......TD-X with low gear ratio on a special edition 6'6 GLX Mag Bass with SST handle (there special name for carbon fiber I guess). Greatest fishing handle ever made, wish I could buy more.