Pumpkin Lizard

Well unless Matt Wong can get back through the EQs then he likely won’t be in the elites next season. Carl Jocumsen at risk again for relegation.

He's head hunting.

The relegation battle is one of the most interesting things for me right now.

We kept one for a semester for a psychology class. More work than you realize. They make a tank dirty quickly. It’s been a while but the bass had great short term memory but not good long term memory. It adapted to captivity fairly quickly. I think it began to recognize those of us that fed it. It went back in the private pond that we caught it in. We noticed the same thing with how the food knew that the bass was in kill mode. Seems to be a fairly consistent phenomenon across the animal kingdom. If there was a such thing as a Pygmy largemouth that only grew to 4-5 inches it might cool enough to want to have an aquarium but the water changes are about as fun as dealing with a kitty litter box for me.

Scoping is not McKinney's only skill set though. They said they will have cameras on competitors until they are eliminated.

How funny would it be if the top two in AOY missed the cut?

Watching at lunch and Schlapper is catching them. This tournament will be a little like St. Clair in that it will come down to who can catch the biggest 4 lbrs.

Epic venue.

This will be a shallow water tournament, frogs and topwater on pads and mats will play a big role. This will be a fantastic event to watch on TV.

I’ve heard that with bladed jigs using a flat crayfish type trailer will also help you pull through without hanging up as much. Whoever says that these lures get through wood well is a d**n liar.

Yes. I like pintail trailers. The Crush City Freeloader works well for me.

Great tournament. Hope to see St. Clair worked into the rotation! Also I normally don’t bother with Facebook, but I took the time to read Ed Loughren’s account of what happened and he is a competitor with true integrity. He took responsibility for a mistake, and then bowed out because he was so far out of it that to keep competing he would just hurt his fellow competitors. Respect.

Paul Mueller in the Top 10. LFG!

Off the top of my head for the Elite Series that I can remember this season: St Johns: Swim Jig Okeechobee: Big Megabass Crankbait and Megabass Jerkbait called a Kanata Pasquatonk: Texas Rigged Bronco Bug Sabine: Buzzbait

I picked Taku. He's down but not out.

Subject to change: Taku Easton BP Dube Gustafson Bucket A was tough. It feels like a Taku win here.

The best thing about buzzbaits is that after you try them for a few minutes you will know pretty quick if it's going to work or not. When I am buzzbait fishing I usually keep a spinning rod with a wacky rig handy and I will throw it at the fish after a missed strike.

It's the only topwater that I have serious confidence in using.

Those pictures look great. What camera/phone is that?

And last year people complained that tournaments went back to back because of the possibility of bad weather. Like I said. Someone will always complain and you can never make everyone happy

I love this schedule. But of course you can never make everyone happy. I don't think Albemarle will fish the same as it did this year. I saw Milliken was crying about it because he doesn't like long runs there and he was also complaining about a week off between Champlain and the St. Lawrence. BASS will likely have a change in policy for FFS. No Florida on the schedule; well they had two events there this year and no events in Alabama. Florida's fisheries seem to be a hot mess right now so I don't think that's a bad call. But I bet they will be back in 2027.

Try the first part. Don't worry about trying the snap T.

Thanks. And to clarify I wasn't dismissing your advice. I'm a total streamer addict, I own hundreds of them and that's not counting the ones I tied. When I lived in SW Wisconsin I was trout fishing every day I could and when everyone was nymphing with pink squirrels I was tossing streamers. My only regret was not doing a few Musky trips up north.

Nymphing is by far the most effective way to catch trout particularly in the South Platte. But this is also true in any place that has trout. Most of their feeding is on subsurface nymphs. If you aren't catching them on nymphs then there are likely a few likely reasons. 1. Get down to where the fish are. Add weight to the leader until you feel it ticking the bottom. If you are getting hung up a bunch then take weight off. 2. Try to get a drag free drift. And mend your line. There are probably a million videos on Youtube that show how to mend. Make shorter casts, actually don't cast at all with nymph rig just use the water to load the rod and flip it upstream. Casting a nymph rig sucks and you will get more tangles. 3. Find a riffle somewhere and fish it. Riffle fish are less picky, particularly rainbow trout who are kind of dumb and won't pass up a meal. 4. I would bet that you are getting strikes on nymphs and you don't realize it. Set on any hesitation of your strike indicator. Streamers are my absolute favorite way to fish for trout but you won't get the numbers over the long run. But the strikes are exhilarating. It's like the fly fishing version of crankbaits or swimbaits. It's highly recommended that you learn to use your rod to animate the streamer instead of just stripping it in. Stripping works too but you won't get the same action.

If you can, hire a guide and tell them you just want to learn. Even if it's just a half day. You'll be in business in no time. Fly fishing so much easier than most people think. Catching trout on a fly rod in Wyoming of all places is super rewarding. If you have any more questions. Hit me up. Willing to help all I can.