AlabamaSpothunter

Prayers for your family brother. Sounds like he acknowledges the depression and is willing to seek help. That's literally the single most important thing. Help is out there, you just have to be willing to ask for it which is tough as a male especially.

You got any TN70s? To me those are the Vision110 of the rattletrap world.....the one high end option that warrants the cost. LV500s to me aren't as refined and I don't think that fall as fast but I could be wrong.

Only bait that truly has disappointed me that I wanted for awhile since coming back to the sport. SB-105 in American Shad.....thown for half a dozen hours easy over the course of a month....two small blowups, no fish caught. Have no idea why I can't get bit on it. In that time, poppers, buzzbaits, wake bait, and a whopper plopper caught fish on top. Looks awesome, super easy to work, just doesn't work for me.

This thread goes to show me how much I value the Zillion SV TW G......for your budget you could pretty much get 95% of the high end combos you'd want. You can honestly get two amazing combos for $1k......and that's certainly what I'd do. Two rigs is better than one no matter how gucci it is. Get two Zillions, and two MegaBass Levante series rods to match up with them....boom, $1k of your hard earned money spent on Japanese awesomeness.

Those are exceptionally beautiful SM, almost a red tint on the last guy

All I really want or expect is for to Shimano to release the 280SF big swimbait, the big brother to the 190SF. If Daiwa wants to raid my wallet, they'll come out with a new Steez SV TW, I'm envisioning a perfected Zillion SV TW G.

That's not okay in my book, and I'd be talking with somebody at Cabela's if it were me.

Awesome fish, and boat.......what kind of rig is that? Had that scale for 20+ years, but finally had to upgrade to the one with clips. It was a great scale.

No I haven't heard that, but I'll certainly look for it in the future. Be a good question for Steven Bardin Second to last LGM has some really beautiful colors in it.

To me MLF opened the door wide open for this situation by having their rules and deciding to plan a stop during peak SM spawning activity. Lot of the stuff MLF does is very silly to me. Lot of the stuff is about optics only as well.

The Big Bass Podcast. Easily my favorite.

"Sipping on Baitfuel and Powerbait" ?

Awesome report and toads Katie! Certainly Bassin season in your locale, great to see you taking advantage of it. Such healthy, and fat fish.......if you keep posting these reports Maine is going to have more people than Bass ?

Like fishing life is funny, you simply never know when things are going to turn around, or when that fish of a lifetime will bite your lure. The only way to lose at either is quit playing, and the way to win is keep playing. Law of averages, and stats eventually catch up. Keep working hard and doing the right thing, the universe will make life easier for you I promise, just got to hang in there and don't succumb to the mental demons.

@Jar11591 What a beautiful lake, looks incredibly fishy. That island makes the inner Huck Finn in me smile.

Tak had a 5min "argument" with his marshall about wanting to go right back up to a fish he just caught, and catch it again ? Some of these dudes were certainly catching the same fish twice. So much commentary about "oh this is fresh one, he's pulling hard, he's got a clean mouth, etc."

Kimura is already Elite qualified, so technically he moves up a spot as well

Awesome job dad! Congrats on the great fish, and maiden voyage, here's to years and years of great memories between you and your son!

What an awesome dude you must be! Congrats on the awesome fish as well! Way to pay it forward, very impressive! eta: Very much not a myth in my experience, one of these days I'll defy it like you though.

As I suspected awhile ago, Trey Mckinney is destined to be an Elite Series angler, and if I'm keeping it real, he's the most impressive EQ angler including Milliken. Kid is 18 yrs old!! Weigh in is about to start.

What did you do with the guy who wears obnoxious UT appareal and catches small TN River LGMs?????????? We liked that guy, please don't harm him ? You better go back out tomorrow, make it 3 for 3......those are some really nice fish, congrats.

saw 3 weighed in b/t two days

9.4 for his second day, not terrible, but I'm thinking he won't be fishing tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

That or the Certate 3000 as already mentioned are amazing reels, and when you factor in the exchange rate going with JDM, you get so much for your money. I've ordered from Digitaka three times over the last year, they are nothing short of brilliant to do business with. They'll ship your reel for free, and it'll get here faster than domestic companies. So yes, I can't think of a place I'd trust more than Digitaka.

Your truly wonder woman, and "unicorn" will always be the first thing that went through my mind when I saw your fishing style ? You prove age is just a number, it doesn't matter how old you are, fishing the way you do backcountry, spartan style, totally unpowered on the water makes me exhausted just thinking about it. This site is proof that the Bass universe is incredibly diverse, literally no two of us fish alike, yet we all chase the same awesome fish.