AlabamaSpothunter

33+ is insane, bravo. Doing it on your home pond isn't that much easier I'd imagine and the pros say it's harder. In a open could he achieve a 3day Century Belt......he's on pace to almost hit that, that'd be something to really achieve. ETA: My understanding is no he can't unless he fishes the other two regional opens......so you have to fish 3 events including one with a win in order to Classic qualify.

It's amazing these fish can humble the greatest among us, posting such a report really helps growing anglers like myself. Still stinks for you, but when a guy has a bad day who has vastly more knowledge than myself gets stumped, makes it easier to understand why I get stumped. Next time out you'll kill em and be thinking it's time to enter some local derbs 😎 What were water temps if you remember, and thanks for the report. eta: I saw a 11+ was caught in the MLF event Also this kid got ruined for life

I wish brother, but in all honesty your results are VASTLY more significant than mine. I've pondered at times "what if Pat fished this lake". I have little doubt you'd show me what actually lives in the lake, the fish I've tried to catch so unsuccessfully. You've gotten a 9.1, 11.5, and 9.3 in NC on pressured public small bodies of water within the last year or so, I really can't stress enough how incredibly impressive that is! @Woody B Let's GOOOOO! Congrats on the tank of a Spot! That's more than a decent one, congrats!

@Pat Brown Awesome fish brother! Congrats!!!!!

Hybrid Bass is my guess. eta: Based on the size I don't think it's a White

Great stuff, and beautiful scenery @Creek Pirate!

Thanks @FishTank In regard to sensitivity being needed or not......there's not a wrong answer, does a Camry and Ferrari both take you to point B, absolutely. Does driving a Camry vs. Ferrari to point B feel differently, absolutely.

Went to get two packs of the Kietech jigheads, the monkey rammed everything else in lol. The Flashboost popper isn't my favorite color but for $5 I'm not saying no. Same deal on that Sunline FC....not my preferred Sunline FC, but at $3.99 per 110yds, might as well lol. @ol'crickety might as well spend some of your money as well 😂 Those Midst heads are what I wanted in the beginning based on what the actual Japanese guys use (they been mid strolling for several years before us) and recommend for the technique. Their reasoning is the line tie orientation on the Midst head. These are the three heads I intend to play around with: 1. Keitech Super Round Tungsten Jighead 1/8th 2/0 *** Proven winner in my book 2. Owner Range Roller 1/8th 3/0 for the Drift Fry Mellow 5.2 or similar 5" minnows ***looks amazing, better than the Kietech, no fish catches though. 3. Deps Midst 1/8th 2/0 *** Haven't tried them yet. The Midst is on the left, and Keitech on the right in the pic. ETA: I just put together what MIDST means lol, Mid Strolling. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

That's a beautiful way to send off your buddy. Sorry you lost him brother.

That's a daygum STUD shellcracker! I don't even have to ask if it will be in the fryer soon 😆 Love those fish.

If you wanted one rod for traditional weighted Free Rigs, C-Rigs, and 1/2oz Jigs......would the Super Destroyer or FMJ be the better pick?

Digitaka is $20.94 and the cost for a 5ct of the 3" RV Drift Fry is $6.12 My local funstore where I've been buying them had them at $11.99 the first week they got them in.........two weeks later they got another batch and they were $12.99 If you buy 3 packs you're almost breaking even, and even the most modest buyer would likely order more than 3 at which point I'd be saying money at $12.99 per pack, let alone at $20 per pack. That said, I caught over 100 fish on two baits, and the only reason it's not more is because I snagged it in a brush pile this morning. The baits are pennies on the dollar vs. non Elaztech soft plastics, and maybe even those I just don't use them anymore. If you look on YT, there's a video where Fujita shows a sneaky little trick to get these to roll even harder. Basically you remove about half the lip. I've yet to try it, but since we're starting a thread on them.

Happy to help! Yeah Katie you're gonna wanna search for "mid strolling" in order to find technique stuff, and then on the actual baits what makes them especially fit for that technique is the rolling action when you "stroll" or twitch the rod tip. The whole hover/mid/bottom stroll/damiki rig/mopping really makes for a confusing deal. TacticalBassin had a good, dedicated video a month or two ago.

Lol Katie, always making me blush with such kind words. There was another guy out there today and I thought to myself, if I wasn't using this bait I doubt I'd be getting bit as it really was such a slow day. I usually miss as many fish as I catch, today I feel like I only got 8 bites, and caught 8 fish. Here's the setup I've been using, but I really like the action on these new Owner Range Rollers......thus far I've just tried the 3.5 Spunk Shad with it, but wow does it roll back and forth on that head. My local store only had the 1/8ths in the 3/0 which I think is overkill and hurts the action, and I wish they were tungsten instead of lead. You never feel the bite on this technique, or at least I don't. Really make it your own, I was intimidated by the technique because all the folks I saw doing it were using it with FFS. This and the Free Rig have been revelations. Fujita had me curious, but when I saw Milliken hiding them in a video I knew I had to try it. Took a really cool bait for me to try the technique, and I say all that because I don't think the Drift Fry is the only bait that would excel, but for me that's my confidence minnow now 😁 I really want the biggest size, the 5.2mellow I think it's called. Then that 1/8th 3/0 would be perfect. That's actually the size Fujita won with on Champlain. ETA: one of the best features of these Drift Fry is they have a guide hole already in it, so you just insert the hook tip in the tiny hole and then you'll feel the hook point sliding instead of piercing straightly along that guide hole and then just come up in the area needed for straight indexing of the bait.

Thanks A-Jay, and thanks for the advice as well!

I bet it was in that 48min video he posted about this bait a few weeks back. I couldn't do 48mins for a bait I didn't own at the time 😁 The guy I won it from has really cool big swimbait footage on his channel where he trolls them in front of one of those underwater cams meant for it. He did a recent one on this bait and it was blowing out. He gets fish catches on KGB glides on it which is how I found his stuff.

Won some great stuff from Basslivesmatter. Think I need to wait for a bit warmer water temps for that Hangover as I'm seeing reports and footage of it blowing out like a magdraft unless you get the right speed.

Today was the coldest water temps I've had success in and really can remember seeing at 42degrees. I've never seen Threadfin dying before, but throughout the day I was seeing them really stunned, and a handful of small ones that were dead. Their threshold is 40d, so hopefully too many didn't die off, but I could tell the fish weren't hurting while we were having a week of freezing conditions. Caught 8 fish over 5hrs for 21lbs......that's a rare stat line in my book, a little over 1 fish per hr is less than stellar, on the other hand 6/8 fish were over 3lbs, including two 5lb fish which is excellent. All were caught strolling Jackall's 4" Drift Fry on the 1/8th super round tungsten/ 2/0 Kietech jighead. I've caught over 100 fish, with dozens of Spots in that mix, and I've yet to burn through my second bait. Might be almost $3 per minnow, but once amortized per fish......it's pennies on the dollar vs. my favorite Zoom products. Big fish was a 5.5, second weighed fish was a 5.3, and several fish squarely over 3lb including a pair of Spots, one of which had a tumor? that was insane. Long and leaner 5.5 Short and super fat 5.4 Craziest abnormality on a Bass I've seen, I present the Tumor Spot

Lot of truth in this even when you don't receive a rod that's in half. Of those 7 rods I had shipped to me over the last year, 3 of them were re shipments because of flaws in the rods that the company replaced. In person I would have never had that happen because I would have seen them and not bought the rod. On the other hand I bought a JDM Megabass P5 Destroyer a few months ago from Dance's Outdoors and the thing came in the most robust tube I could imagine and was truly pristine. I'll continue to roll the dice, but you're right, buyer should certainly beware when buying rods not in person.

Might be able to turn lemons into lemonade since you got the insurance. I'd see if the person you bought the rod from still has the receipt, and then see if you can get the typical nowadays rod warranty replacement fee to get a brand new rod from Shimano. New rod + leftover insurance money = net win, especially if you aren't in a hurry to fish with it. Sorry to see that, I'd be quite upset as well. I've gotten half a dozen rods sent to me over the last year or so from the factory.....they shipped in very thick tubes. Not that's its on the seller, but I think if folks used the really robust tubes we'd see less of these posts. Pure Fishing sold a bunch of rods at pennies on the dollar two BFs ago......a number of folks here received rods that were broken. You don't have to name the shipper, they're all terrible for the most part these days sadly.

Imagine a local derby where 4-5 Elite Series anglers are competing against the local hammers, and the best finish by an Elite guy was 5th (Wesley Gore), and Scott Canterbury finished 9th. If you can win local derbies in Alabama, you can win them anywhere on the planet. Took 17.5lbs to win it yesterday too, pretty sure it was won offshore with a minnow and FFS.

@Dwight Hottle and @king fisher Nailed it in terms of my thoughts on trolling. Closet troller......yeah that's a perfect term 🤣

And you thought you had a dirty job 🤣😉 Hope your brother makes a full recovery brother!

He become a true diva after that Viking playoff game years ago.

Wow, but I think the fake punt or going for it was the right call, they arent stopping the chiefs on D. Come on Bills! Gotta hold them to a FG here eta: come on touchback ETA: OH SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!