JHoss

I've been loading my boat the night before for the last year and have yet to have any issues with the cold affecting the line. Granted, it's uncommon to get below freezing at night by the time I start fishing down here in VA. I think of all the photos I've seen of guys' front decks/rods frozen from fishing in the cold. If that doesn't mess up the line, I don't see how getting cold over night would.

I find it to make a reasonable difference in bottom-contact baits and some moving baits. I went from a 13 Fishing Fate to a St Croix Victory for my main flipping stick last year. I definitely noticed a dramatic increase in sensitivity and accuracy, which resulted in a lot more fish caught flipping. At one point late in the season, I went on a 3 tournament stretch where boated 95%+ of my fish on that one rod and one bait. I find moving baits to be less critical, but still nice to upgrade. I went from a budget 13 Fishing Defy cranking rod to a Carbonlite 2.0 cranking rod recently and find that there's a big difference in being able to feel what my crank is doing underwater. For topwaters, I'm good with a budget rod as long as it puts the bait where it should be and has the right power and action to drive the hook home and get the fish to the boat. I could care less about sensitivity since you can see them take it.

Dangit... you got me there. The real question is whether or not you buddy is tall enough to ride the roller coasters?

I know that the lure/pattern recommendations is from tournament data. They have a team that watches all the major tournaments and logs the type of lure, part of the lake, type of structure/cover, conditions etc that is then used in their algorithm for bait and pattern selection. Since they don't have that for all lakes, they'll extrapolate it for lakes without tournament history.

You're buddy doesn't look like Brandon Palaniuk.

I agree with this. Unfortunately, I don't find it feasible all the time. I'd rather be a little less stealth than miss a chance at a juicy laydown.

Made by Dex Organizers. I believe I read that they're retailing for $600 a piece... I'd be all over them if they weren't so expensive. https://dexorganizer.com/

Absolutely. See it all the time on Livescope. The trick is finding the right lure, color, or retrieve to turn that follow into a bite.

I run an 80lb Fortrex on my 1448. I usually start it at 20-30 and use momentary to move around. I will bump it up if I'm dealing with wind or current. And like others have mentioned, I'll run it wide open if I want to cross a channel or something without firing the big motor.

I look forward to seeing the different results. Thanks for continuing to update us.

This is when we need someone's agent to "accidentally" leak the evidence like they would in NFL or MLB.

I didn't fish or hunt from Jan 4th until March 15th this year because I had to get some major yard maintenance projects done before the tournament season started. I'll enjoy the routine yard mowings and maintenance for a couple months before I get sick of losing a couple hours every Sunday to it. On the plus side, I ordered a nice 30 ton log splitter today so getting through those log piles in the backyard shouldn't cut into my fishing as much.

I suspect they won't for fear of a lawsuit over slander or something. Honestly, he reminds me of a used car salesman.

I think they likely make little to no mention of it. Personally, I would like to see them put out everything they have from their investigations into the Okeechobee DQ and this current situation. To me, it seems like they let Scott put his spin on the Okeechobee deal and make himself out to be a victim. Balance the scales of justice by airing all his dirty laundry now.

I'm just thinking that back in the day without good side imaging, having the exact waypoints to a couple productive brush piles (that others likely wouldn't find) might've done more good than knowing that the last 5 local derbies were won in XYZ creek. Maybe it would take a someone a whole day to find, mark, and fish 10 good brush piles. Whereas now, with Live, if you know that it's going to go down in XYZ creek, you can go find 10 brush piles in an hour with Live. I agree that having outside info can hurt you as much as it can help you. Which is another reason accurate info about a section of a lake may be the best info you can get. You know it's got the right fish, now you can fish that area your way instead of trying to do what worked for someone else.

Second this. Can think of two specific instances where I watched someone lose thousands of dollars this way. One was on a small creek on the Coosa where a buddy broke multiple Megabass rods on an overhanging limb and got his kayak hung up in the current. The other was a guy who forgot they were all standing when he went under a bridge at first light. I almost broke a blade on my trolling motor chopping up his rods... it was still dark and being shortly after a shotgun start, everyone was too close together to have time to react and avoid his gear. In both instances I slid through those same spots in my Pursuit without any issue because my rods were stored horizontally.

Gotcha. So a good bit of experience but it was a decade ago? I only ask because you speak like someone who's very involved in tournaments, but your stance doesn't align with most tournament anglers these days (in my experience). I wonder if information like we're talking about here is more important nowadays than it was when you were competing. I'd imagine having good waypoints 10 years ago had more value than a good area nowadays where you can break it down quickly with Live. I'm very cautious of no-info rules even in local events. I had a buddy fish a lake that was in our off-limits period, and before I even talked to him about it, I read the rules thoroughly to make sure I wasn't breaking any. If I can do that in a $40 entry tournament with no polygraph or real way to get caught, why can't the guys making their living off this do the same?

A guy caught one off the pier itself yesterday. Was estimated 120-150 lbs but had to be cut loose due the pier not having its HMS permit. The kayak angler in question very likely could be getting a ticket here before long for not having an HMS permit.

IMO, the best solution is also not even remotely realistic. Get rid of regulations based on length and go to relative weight. If a fish is less than 90% its relative weight, harvest it. But then anglers would be required to have a ruler, scale, and the ability to do math.

Listening to Scott's IG statement, I took it as he thought the random fisherman who had given him the intel is the one who reported him. Regardless of who it was who reported, who cares if he was cheating? If KVD had fished tied up in the middle of lake Erie, I wouldn't care if it was John Cox or ET who reported it. @rangerjockey, not trying to start a fight, but I'm curious what the extent of your tournament experience is?

THIS 100% THIS. Knowing what section of a lake is the most productive is 90% of the battle. Why do we consistently see tournaments where 8 of the top 10 guys are in the same area/section of the lake? Because that section of the lake has the most fish or the largest fish. And in a few days of practice, there's no way to be 100% sure that you've found the right area. But a local hammer who's out there all the time can absolutely narrow it down for you. Maybe the bite window was closed or the fish were sucked to the bottom so they didn't show up on your graphs when you were there. You'd right it off and move on. Anybody who doesn't understand that, has probably never fished a tournament.

I didn't get to watch a ton of this coverage, but what I did watch was solid. The only thing MLF could take from BASS's coverage would be to copy their Livestream commercial format, where the coverage of the fishing is still there with no volume while the ads run with volume. Did anyone catch Connell jinx himself by saying he'd had a bite every cast for 10 minutes, then went on a 20-30 minute lull? As soon as those words came out of his mouth I thought he was likely regretting it.

How does intentionally breaking the rules and cheating correlate to allowing FFS? This is so wrong. And wouldn't be tolerated by most of the saltwater captains I know. Can't speak for bass guides as I don't know any, but I'd assume its the same. You're paying $2800 to go fishing, not steal the information that captain worked years to find. 100%. That statement screamed "I'M GUILTY AND DOING EVERYTHING I CAN TO SAVE FACE!' He may be being targeted, but I don't think it's by BASS. My understanding of this and the Okeechobee DQ is that other people reported him or threatened to report him if he didn't self-report. Maybe other anglers are finally fed up with his cheating ways that Hackney, Feider, and others have alluded to and are turning him in now that they think there's a chance something is done. I'm sure that independent polygrapher has no reason to err on the side of the guy who's paying him. I'd also love to know what kind of prep work Scott did to prepare for that poly. And it's a shame that he compromised both of their legacies by doing this. I'm relatively new to bass fishing (5 years) and while I absolutely knew who Roland was, I had no clue there was a history of him pushing the rules. And now that it's out that Roland was questionable and Scott's a cheater, Hilary will 100% have to deal with the rumors that she's a cheater too. But none of that is against the rules. Soliciting information is.

I'd probably spool one with 15 lb fluoro, one with 20 lb fluoro, one with 50-65 braid, and one with mono. The fluoro rods could be used as a second t-rig/jig rod or with baits like chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, or other single hook moving baits. The braid rod would be primarily for buzzbaits, but you might be able to throw a frog as well. The last one would be mono or another braid depending on what you usually fish. If you fish a lot of dense weeds, I'd go 40-50 lb braid for those single hook moving baits. If you don't fish a ton of cover, I'd go mono so you have a little bit more stretch if you wanted to throw cranks, spooks, traps, etc.

Power Pro has never let me down. I'm experimenting with the Revolve on a few rods, but majority of my braid line is still ol faithul Power Pro.