AlabamaSpothunter

Bawahahahaha........I'm famous and so is my new buddy ? Only the diehards stayed in their seats ?

They make flameflowers now for civilians.....is that a tool your toolbox? ?

Great stuff guys thanks a bunch for the ID info. It was a smaller guy, and I guess that's why it's better to give things the benefit of the doubt instead of just killing every nope rope I see. Little guy was likely having himself a huge buffet. Matt Allen from TB during a video was just talking about how his favorite time to throw a rat is after a big rain when all that stuff washes down into the water. Bet the bite was fire last night ? Man there's a huge difference b/t the venomous snakes down here in central AL, and then in TN. I've never seen a rattler in person, got a buddy who lives in the mountains in TN, dude can't rid of all the Pits that call home in those boulders. NOPE, NOPE, NOPE ?

I was so mad about being forced off the water in such a rude manner earlier that I decided to ride the bike down to the dam and fish a Buzzer and then flip a D Bomb. 25 casts with the Buzzer, one small little blowup, picked up the D-Bomb, and 5 casts later I'm hooked up with a butterball 3lber who had me wrapped on a pipe, and in the weeds. At this point I'm like "yeah boy, night game is back on like donkey kong", release the fish, and watch it swim away with the headlamp, and something just happens to catch my eye about 2 ft away from where I just landed the fish. I have no idea if this is a small copperhead or a rat snake, but you better believe that was my last cast LOLOLOL.

You're crazy if you think a person like you has a timeline, that's been thrown out the window long ago with you......find me another 67yr old human let alone woman who fishes in a similar manner ? You don't exactly conform to conventional wisdom or aging, at middle age I might be able to physically fish in your style, but I couldn't do it mentally......I'd be stark raving mad before I even got on the water sweating by but off trucking through weeds lol.

Dude I just got absolutely destroyed out in the middle of that crap. I hate the weatherman so much lol Nice one brother, glad you capitalized instead of capsized like me

So like having a Pit or Chimp as a pet ?

Super easy for me, seriously injuring or killing a fish.

Me too, it was like he was paying homage to the OGs

So it took a day for a legitimate/trusted source of fishing news to write about the 4oz dead fish penalty, and even then it's not called the dead fish penalty. I think this shows how classy BASS or BP is being, if this was more widely known at the moment of weigh in or shortly after, it really would sour the victory in a way for the winner. I mean just like Bobo, BP literally had the winning weight. Glad I wasn't reporting false info. "After leading three days on Lay Lake, a disappointed Palaniuk fell to second with a four-day total of 62-10. He opened the tournament with 19-7 and followed with bags of 16-5 and 15-11. On the final day, the two-time Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year caught the bass he needed to win, but a 4-ounce penalty forced Palaniuk to wait longer for his seventh B.A.S.S. win." For whatever reason I can't mention or link the source, but some other good tidbits: “I knew I was going to expose this to the world. My dad and I have worked all of our lives to learn this lake,” Davis said. “It took me seven years to figure out that deal up there (below Logan Martin Dam) and a lot of torn-up stuff. That’s why you don’t see a lot of people up there. Boulders up there move.” The victory wouldn’t have been possible without a bedding largemouth he affectionately called “White Eye.” Boats had been in the creek where he had seen this 4-pounder in practice, but when he asked Mark Menendez about it in the Day 3 weigh-in line, his fellow competitor confirmed the bass with the white outline around its eye was still there. “At 1:30, I didn’t think this was going to happen,” he said. “I went into this creek, I saw her and she ran off when I flipped to her. I went down the bank and there was a brand new one. I flipped and flipped and couldn’t make her bite. I tied on a jerkbait, threw it out there and after about five casts in a row, she just opened her mouth at it. The next cast I threw it 2 feet away from her and she sucked it in.” When he landed that bass, the back hook came unbuttoned from the fish and ended up in Davis’s thumb. He had to push the hook through his finger. With no hook cutters in his own boat, he, fortunately, found a local angler at the mouth of the creek who had a pair he could use. Once the hook was out of his hand, he went back to where he saw White Eye and caught her with the jerkbait, an old floating Bomber Long A, in a chartreuse foil color. “She was pulled up and positioned perfectly,” he said. “That is what sealed the deal.”

Agreed, it's hard to love Bass fishing without having your first memories being that of catching sunfish. Sunfish have gotten more kids into fishing than anything else.

I just wanted to see how well I could walk this new Flashboost World Popper down on the dock. Made 20 casts, caught 2 small guys, and had two other blow ups......once again a flashboost lure has blown me away almost immediately out of the box. Keep in mind I bought a SB-105 last week, have thrown it for a few hours across the lake, and caught zero fish, two small blowups. The bait doesn't walk all that great, and pops about like any other popper, but between these greyish Shimano hooks they come with, and the flashboost, these things honestly are fish magnets. The Flashboost swimbait outfishes every other swimbait I own The Flashboost World Minnow is every bit as effective as a Vision 110 albeit differently used And now the Flashboost World Popper is likely gonna be the best popper I've owned. Keep it coming Shimano!

I'll be doing this 100% next year, first time I've ever wanted to do a fantasy sport. I'd get destroyed right now, but by next year I'll know more anglers and their styles.

Prettiest fish I've seen posted. Pretty hard to compete with sunfish in terms of a beauty contest. You and Katie are so hardcore I'm not even sure if we are doing the same activity ? Couple of nice fish!

Dude was on the second best/hottest lake in the country, a lake that is absolutely massive at 185,000 acres, and he flirted with the gray area over 500 acres ? It's his niche, from what I can gather his success is predicated on reaching places other anglers won't go to and uses a special boat to do so. I watched Randy's video on this subject, and imho felt just the opposite. If you are among the most Elite level anglers on the planet you shouldn't have to rely on uneducated fish in gray boundary areas. That's kind of the whole point of Elite level events, to catch fish on popular public bodies of water that us mere mortals will be impressed and entertained by. As Logan S said above it's easy to call Lisa, or the Open director....and I see or hear anglers doing it often on Bass live. Just my opinion on a very opinionated subject, I can see the argument for why people love his niche.

Couldn't find those guys lol, but Will's mom and wife were in front of us, and his buddies were sitting right beside us. Every angler should be so lucky to win his dream in front of so many friends and family. He handled it well until his dad came on the stage, and then kind of lost it, I would have been balling ?

Imagine going to a Matt Robertson victory party ?? This guy can't open his mouth without making me laugh, same with Swindle. Some of these guys could sell bubblegum in a lockjaw ward. I know they have to be affable, and friendly, but so many of these guys seem like your best buddy, or just one of the guys. They are dynamite on schooling fish, and Spotted Bass can resist them either. I think I'm going to start fishing them like a chatterbait around cover and see what happens.

Awesome stuff Pat, and I agree that it was the most exciting derby I've watched this year, but that's only 3 Opens, and 5 Elite events. The crowd went nuts when he won, somebody said the Live went dead for a second during it. It was a truly special scene, Will had a couple dozen people there for him, and most importantly his dad was there who is a local legend. He said it best, that trophy represents a lot of old hammers on Lay Lake. Love how Aaron Martens still played a roll in Will's win as well, it's amazing the baits that Aaron designed, or help refine that we're all currently fishing with. That ShakeyFish(scrounger head) by Davis Baits was created by Aaron and Will's dad back in the day, and it's what won him the derby to land him in the elites, and now it's what won him an Elite derby. That's so cool. Bought some last August, time to break them out again.

The amount of whacky worm fishing on the Elite level is wild, and the leader of the AOY race Brandon Cobb uses it about 90% seemingly. Christie caught a 9.4 one at Lay on Saturday. Traditionally power fishing has accounted for 60% of wins based on Jay Kumar's numbers, but I think the ever-growing fishing pressure is going to make finesse great again, which sucks for me lol.

He's playing on some other level I haven't discovered; his day job is ridiculously cool as well, the guy is charmed, I hate him ?

I stopped reading after #7.5 on a Pop-R, okay I lied and the shade of green in my face makes those Bass look pale in comparison. I'd like to ban this man until I post a fish over 10lbs......I simply can't take the jealously, when I grow up I better be just like this guy right here ?

The only other channel I watch everything from is Tactical Bassin. His recent stuff is mind blowing, monster bags, monster fish, show all in regards to live scoping techniques, and now he's showing all in the Open tourneys through his youtube channel. Be prepared to go down a rabbit hole, dude just loves to fish, he ditch fishes, and then wins the Open recently at Toledo Bend. I don't know much at this point in my foray back into the sport, but he's easily the most impressive angler I've seen. He just makes it all look so easy. He's part owner of 6th Sense, and that seems to be growing as his fame grows, so be aware he pimps the 6th Sense stuff lol.

Very true on the first part, nice thing about getting older. The pressure I imagine is what culls lots of otherwise elite level talent. I highly doubt I could do it for a year, much less a career. Imagine what Jason Christie is feeling right now, 2ft away from a 7lber an hour before weigh on the final day to win in the most incredible fashion. So many things could have happened where those three could have changed place, and if New wouldn't have had such a bad day 2 IIrc he'd have won. It's such a thrilling sport, I was very stupid for leaving it as a young adult, perhaps something in me knew I didn't have the stuff to be a professional angler and it hurt but it was the truth. At the end of day I can thank Ben Milliken for getting me back into this side of the game. I bumped into a guy I grew up fishing with that has kids now, and just yesterday they were at Wheeler practicing for a college tourney IIrc, anyways they saw Milliken out on the water, and said he looked like a mythical God out there in his hoodie ? Dude is just cool, and he's gonna bring a ton of new fans to the sport I imagine. Sure hope he makes the elite series. I wanna be an elite angler just to have Dave Mercer MC me, he's incredible. GAAAAAA GAAAAAAAAA GIANT BASS ?

Right on friend, and the older I get the more men I meet that feel the same way. As a kid and young adult I was the opposite, but middle age has been different. I need to remind myself and force myself out of my comfort zone more often, life is just too short. I agree 100% about BP, but he had a fantastic support system. Apparently, his family travels the whole time with him as they were talking about it on BASS Live, I watched his wife back the trailer down the ramp. If I hadn't heard him telling either his own cameraman or some other youtuber about the dead fish I'd have no clue. Still can't find anything about it on the internet. The crazy thing is that he did that through the gills surgery on numerous fish before today. Saw Bryan New have to take small bolt cutters and cut the top of the hook and then do the same procedure as well and didn't hear about that fish dying. I hope we get the longer version of this particular fish. I just caught the tail end of the conversation. Now I'm really considering driving up to Wheeler for the Open this weekend if Milliken makes the cut. ?

A quick google search found this place in CA with Bass for sale, I was just looking to see if anybody even was allowed to sell them. With CA nothing would shock me lol. Available Fish For Stocking | Willow Creek Fisheries (wcfisheries.com) If you want to stock Bass in an existing pond with other predator fish, you're gonna need way more than 6 fish, and they aren't going to be able to sex them. You really need to understand what's already in the pond, because the biomass per acre is everything when it comes to growing trophy fish of any kind. If it's got a bunch of cats and big bream, they'll hammer most of the fingerling Bass you stock in it. You basically only want X (amount of Bass) + Y (forage) = 100lbs of biomass per acre of pond....this becomes much trickier when starting with a pond that has an existing fish population. Many times people start fresh and do a fish kill, I'm not recommending that, but it's an option if you wanted a dedicated little Bass factory and the pond currently has a bunch of stuff you don't want in it.