AlabamaSpothunter

I mean I can see a certain level of stress if you're not actually booking trips, but I simply can't imagine the pressure and stress is like trying to maintain your spot on the Elite Series for example. I deck handed in Orange Beach through college during the summers.....I never felt any stress ?

This kind of confirms what Josh Jones said all along, he can make way more money with zero stress guiding vs. fishing derbies.....not that JJ is in the same league with Milliken in terms of Bass fishing. JJ charges $2k per day IIrc. Kyle Hall and I forget the other big O.H. Ivie guide's name, but I suspect they make around that as well. Milliken could be making a few hundred thousand a year guiding if he wanted.

Okay so not a review for this exact J Fluoro type, however I just picked up the Daiwa J Fluorocarbon Samurai Hidden Concept Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai FC Hidden Fluorocarbon Line - Tackle Warehouse I bought this particular line specifically for Jerkbait fishing, and after an afternoon of fishing it I was blown away by it. This is some seriously impressive, and cool line! It's like the best version of Sniper or Invizx you could imagine, it takes that suppleness that both of those are known for and surpasses it by noticeable amounts. Casting distances from the first cast are further, and from the spool up you realize just how much more user friendly this line is, it's not flying off the spoil, twisting on the first guide. That, and the brilliant Daiwa spool design really takes away the headache that many Fluoros cause on spool up. Stuff is extremely gucci, just looks cool on the reel, and if you thought premium Fluoro couldn't get anymore translucent in the water, give this a shot. I paid $32 + tax for a spool of 12lb/220yd. The Spool has all the fly features that OP already pointed out, half spool sticker, and a really great spool design that allows you to spool very easily. It's a $36 at TW, either way this stuff is at the top of the price points for high end Fluoro, Tatsu is more, and Shooter is about the same IIrc. It's about $10 more than Sniper or Invizx, but at least for Jerkbaits, I think it's worth the extra money over Sniper or Invizx.

Pitching is going to break the Brave's hearts, but tonight we celebrate one of the most exciting wins of the year, and the most historic accomplishment and season I've ever seen a player achieve by Ronald Acuna Jr.......40/70 CLUB Again, 40/70 CLUB.......absolutely unreal, he's the most electric player in the history of ball imho.

I mean it's their responsibility to ensure adequate and safe launching. Sure they hit the buoy, but B.A.S.S. created the situation for them. Really hate seeing that, that's practically a brand new fully loaded Caymas. Dream rig.

I went electric, never looking back

When a Beaver slaps the water with the force of a thousand tsunamis in the middle of the night

Two others put holes in their boats on that exact same buoy as well.....this was all caused by B.A.S.S., and holding a derby where they didn't have adequate ramps to handle the load. Ben talks about it on BTL

GAS LEAF BLOWERS.....debil's machines

The ironic thing is that the Largemouth have destroyed more local species than most any other living organism in the modern world. Very few FW fish can compete with LGMs. They've evolved to be truly apex predators in most FW environments. Heck the LGM is the main culprit for the entire extinction of the Giant Pied-Billed Grebe in Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala. They stocked LGMs in the lake for tourism, within 4-5 yrs they were spearfishing 15lb fish. The LGM outcompeted everything. After extensive poisoning and commercial fishing efforts, the lake still has a Bass population decade and decades later. The U.S. Gov't put LGMs on trains back in the day, and wherever they found a lake, river, or stream, they stocked the Bass along the way. S. Africa and Japan have some of the biggest LGMs in the world but are considered a super invasive species and are doing everything they can to eradicate them now. Today the Alabama Bass is the boogeyman, but Black Bass have been the boogeyman in general globally for some time now. People and governments will always move fish around. Those darn Californians stole our Bass and our WR ? Our gov'ts traded Bass......CA wanted Smith Lake Alabama Bass, and AL wanted specifically FLGM from the S. CA lakes that had been stocked decades before from the actual Florida Dept of Wildlife using their FLGM.

Beautiful fish, you can change that avatar now ?

I run a very tight drag on bottom contact stuff and disengage and use thumb spool tension at various points when fish get close to the boat to facilitate an easier hand landing. Other baits like lipless I let my drag do the majority of the work, especially once I got new Zillions with clicker drags. It's a beautiful sound when you set the hook on a lipless/blade bait fish and the drag sets the hook with the perfect tension. No wrong way, just figure out what works best for you.

I want a big nylon mesh net with a very lightweight long aluminum pole when looking for a net. I prefer large hole opening in the net as well, not netting little fish. I want to one hand it in a split second and make an athletic action of netting a wild large Bass. eta: I use a 50+ yr old net that I inherited from my grandpa, my net is very sentimental and special to me.

Exactly what I do. Always have the scale and cam within arms length ready to grab as well. Makes for a really smooth streamlined process, and the big girls stay in the water for all but 30 secs for a pic/weight.

Congrats Katie, magnificent fat Maine beauties as always! They'll be there for you this time next year as well due to your fish care.

Imagine drawing somebody like Milliken or Clunn as your boater....that's awesome, that dude already won, he'll never forget today that's for sure.

Thank God, glad to hear things are better!

It will always be Watt's Gar now that you said it ? Seems like 20lb bags are the hallmark of a really healthy Bass fishery. eta: Amazing that the same half dozen or so guys have managed to catch them every place after 8 events

Weigh in is about to start......hopefully Ben caught them today 2023 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake of the Ozarks - Bassmaster

As a guy who primarily uses Fluorocarbon, there is a world of difference between the various ones on the market. Some have more or less stretch, some have better abrasion resistance, some have smaller diameters per lb. test, some have better knot strength, etc. There really is a lot of variances between types. Expensive is not always better, or the law of diminishing returns kick in at some point, but the expensive stuff usually merits it's higher cost. Tatsu and Shooter are at the top of the heap, and if you read the reviews, most are happy with it.

Haha, wasn't trying to do it but you know how the storms work down here. That night it wasn't even raining where I was at, but in the back drop you could see the storm rolling across.

Very, very cool data point and fish

That's odd that you don't see any bait, but agreed that your Bass aren't skipping any meals ? To me the mysteries I want to unlock the most in LGM Bass are the stomach contents, and my theory that certain Bass know and prefer certain prey items over others. I think there are Threadfin eaters, Gizzard eaters, Bluegill/Crappie eaters, and finally opportunistic eaters in my home lake. I think they all start on the Threadfins, but I think once many of them reach the 17.5" size range, they switch over to either Gizzards or Sunfish. The fact that so many sampled Bass have empty stomachs is another perplexing thing I'd like to understand, especially considering you'll catch them when they are puking up bait they are gorging themselves so heavily.

In August, some nights I'd be out there in a thunderstorm, and every time the thunder erupted, you could see what looked like millions of threadfins ripple the surface with the corresponding thunder, one of the coolest things I've witnessed. To me fishing at night is so foreign from day fishing that it's hard to compare the two. It's downright magical at night. Nothing like watching hundreds of Green Tunas launch themselves in the air after bait during the day, that season is coming soon. August night fishing VS. winter day fishing........hard to pick a favorite.

Still my favorite hooks, been using them since the late 90s. I used more 4/0 and 5/0 Gama EWG hooks than any other by a huge margin. To me there is something magical about the wire size, it's a very thin diameter hook for what it is, which really allows the bait to have better action imho. Never had a fish bend one out, but perhaps have missed a few fish by not having a stiff enough hook. The superline EWGs are massive compared to the standard EWGs for example. Great writeup and history lesson!