JHoss

This is the most suprising thing of all from this "study". Circle hooks were designed to prevent hooking fish in the tongue or throat, but it seems like combining them with a hard bait has nullified that advantage. Makes sense when you think about how that bait has changed the pivot point of the hook. But my question now is, if you're hooking them in the tongue or throat anyway, why not just use a J Hook? I'd think it would increase the hook-up percentage on fish that swipe or nip at it and still be just as easy/safe to unhook as a circle hook.

There's a number of reasons, but I'd say #1 is because the vast majorities of waters that we fish are overpopulated with bass. An acre of water can only sustain a certain amount of life (a few hundred pounds and varies by latitude) and most waters don't have enough natural predators of adult bass to keep them in check. So unless someone is removing adult bass, the population will stunt and you'll find very few fish at or above relative weight. @Tennessee Boy is right that it doesn't take a lot of bass to restock the population each year. Studies have been done time and time again that show that systems with low bass densities can be repopulated in short order if conditions are right for the fry to reach adulthood.

Less hunt but more/sharper thump than the original mini max. I haven't thrown an EVO yet.

I bought a bunch and am not a fan. They don't hunt like the full size version.

Glad to hear this! I ordered one earlier this week and it should be here today. Hope to get it installed tomorrow and test it out Sunday.

8 lbs 1 oz on a white Slobberknocker on November 6, 2022. Safe to say she choked it. This was the cherry on top of an incredible 3 days while the wifey and kiddo were out of town. Took Friday afternoon off work and had the best day of speckled trout fishing of my life with 20+ fish at or over 20". Followed that up with opening day of deer season Saturday. And closed it out with a PB on Sunday morning before the family got home.

IF true, he's clearly shown a pattern here and BASS needs to take significant action. Last time, I jumped to conclusions and his support too quickly, so I'll withhold final judgment until we find out more Saturday with the poly. I'm just hoping BASS will be a bit more transparent this time around.

That is the K9 Pro 100, right? I fished a kayak team deal with a guy who was sponsored by them and said good things. He was a stick, but the only person I'd ever heard mention it. I guess I'll give it a try since it's already arrived.

Anybody have experience with this stuff? Omnia had a sale going so I bought a few spools, but now it's seeming like this is actually a copolymer marketed as fluoro. Debating if I return it or give it a shot.

I even struggled with the lack of speed on 1000 acre lakes. I tended to fish less productive water between spots so I didn't entirely give up that time between spots. I was getting 4.3-4.7 WOT with the Pursuit, but my logic was fishing my way there at 1.5 for 45 was more productive than 15 minutes of no fishing followed by 30 minutes fishing in the next spot that may or may not have fish.

That comment was half joking. I started bass and tournament fishing in a kayak. I'm very glad that I was able to dip my toes into the tournament scene without selling my firstborn, but I'm equally glad to be out of the kayak scene now. My first yak was an Ascend 12T that I later added a Striker and jerry-rigged hand control trolling motor and then a NuCanoe Pursuit with XI3 and all the bells and whistles except livescope. I will 100% agree that if you're going to stay with kayak fishing, buy once cry once. I'm just one of many guys that I used to kayak fish with that have sold their yaks and gone to Jon Boats. Part of that is purely the increased opportunities that a boat provides over a kayak, but honestly, the biggest reason was all the drama in kayak fishing. I thought it was just my local trail at first with bad rules and borderline cheating, but quickly realized it seems to be the national trails had their own share of issues. Shows/pages like KBN both highlight and exacerbate the issues. Having been in the Jon boat tournament scene for a couple years now, I can say that the local Jon Boat trails don't have near the same drama as the local kayak trails did. I bought my boat last year this time for right around $10k and didn't have to drop another dime on it. It was decked, EVA foamed, and rigged from the last guy and came with a 93sv at the helm and a 106sv w/ live at the bow. I really don't see how anyone could build out a kayak to that level without spending a comparable amount, and I can do 30mph and fish with friends if I want. That's my main point- if you're going to stay with kayaks, spend the money to get the right gear the first time. But if you're not 100% sure kayak fishing will always be the thing for you, maybe take your time and feel it out before you drop $5k on a hobie and another $5k on accessories.

So to sum it up: just skip the kayak and buy a boat? That's the gist of it right?

This is what I was wondering and wasn't seeing anything about it in the product descriptions. My buddy showed me one this past weekend that clicked into place, which seems like a convenient feature when making an adjustment on the boat.

@Fishingmickey Do you have one of these? Is it easy to adjust and obvious when things are lined up right? Just looking at it, I'm not sure how I would know when it was at the exact right angle when switching from perspective to forward and vice versa.

Ordered a bottle of the KVD stuff thanks to all the advice here. Guess I'll see what I've been missing. Found an old *** article about it and the author claimed 20% increase in casting distance... wouldn't that be great.

@TOXIC, is that a discontinued bait? Looks like it would be money, but I can't find them for sale anywhere.

I have always seen these conditioners and assumed they were just snake oil sold to fools, but maybe I'm the fool? Someone fill me. How does it work? Does it weaken the line over time? Does it have an odor fish could pick up on?

I don't think the sensei's have that flattened tail.

What is that bottom worm?

You're gonna get a different answer from everyone who weighs in. Here's mine. I like 10-15 lb braid to 8-15 lb leader, a 1-1/0 EWG or Cover Shot hook, and 1/8-1/4 ounce weight on a M or ML 6'9"-7' spinning rod. If I'm power shotting I switch to a 7'-7/4" M-MH F casting rod and run 17-20 lb fluoro, 1/0-2/0 EWG and 1/4-3/8 ounce weight. 95% of the time I'm dropshotting a finesse worm of some sort, though I'm starting to play around with dice baits.

It is extremely rare for me to fish a weighted wacky around here. The cost saving is not worth the space they'd take up to get used once a year.

What are y'all running for your LVS32 Transducers? I have a 0 degree offset that was on there when I bought the boat, but I can't get it level. It's always either pointing too far up or too far down. I'd like one that can be flipped to perspective mode quickly and easily on the boat. I've got an Fortrex if that matters.

On the flip side, you'll waste a lot of time fishing less effective worms. I started out with the dingers and the ochos when I first got into bass fishing. Thankfully, one day an old guy at work brought me a pack of Yamamoto's to try since he knew they were better. Fished a tournament that weekend and threw a Dinger around for 6+ hours without a bite. Switched to a Senko on the paddle back to the ramp and instantly started catching fish. I've never looked back. That's not to say I haven't experimented. But I can't find anything else that has the right shimmy and sink rate as a true Senko.

He's the worst cheater in bass fishing history, but only 3 people know exactly how he did it. From what I understand, the heads of FLW met with him at his last tournament and told him they knew he was cheating but they would never say anything if he would just leave and never fish again. I've heard speculation that he was using fish baskets of some sort. Would stock bass in them in practice. People have said his brother donned SCUBA gear and would hook fish to his jig when he casted in. Others say he just kept them in the basket and would flip his jig into that basket and pull them out.

Man, I thought I was the only one! Right arm is about an inch longer than the left. Really throws the tailor off any time I have to get fitted. Guess I'll add to the data since I'm here. 6'2" Swiss and Polish mostly