JHoss

I prefer organizing by brand and then by bait in the garage but by bait style in the boat. I use a pegboard for all the stuff I use semi-consistently and tubs for the stuff I've acquired over the years but am unlikely to use. Each column of the peg board has a designated brand and then each peg has a type of bait. I don't have the space to do a peg for each color so they all go on one. The stuff I don't expect to use anytime soon goes in gallon bags sorted by specific baits and then thrown in a tub and on the shelf to be ignored for another 5 years. In the boat I have zippered bags for each bait style; senkos, craws, finesse worms, flukes, etc.

I have the Fish Obsessed Dominator mount, which has a ton of adjustability. It's helped since I got it a couple months ago. I'm with you, I still prefer to fish with my eyes, but there's certain conditions where the ol eye balls just can't contend with perspective mode

I'd think a bullet weight and a couple bobber stops would do the trick in a pinch. I'd definitely put the fatter end down.

Most of my bass fishing info is consumed via podcast. I've heard the studies referenced multiple times- I know it was discussed on one of the Bass After Dark episodes featuring a couple biologist. I want to say it was Dr Mike Allen from UF who talked about it, but I can't guarantee that. If I come across the actual paper from the study, I'll pass it along.

Curado DC 7.4:1 Anything in the 6.8-7.5:1 range will work, though.

This is what I think of when I think about fishing fast. I'm gonna plan out a run of high percentage spots and fish each one for 15 minutes before I run to the next. I'll still usually start with fast moving baits but I'll incorporate slower stuff before I move to the next area. Part of fishing fast for me is having multiple fast and slow options on the deck at all times so I'm not wasting time retying.

I usually keep two flipping rods on the deck. I almost always start with a small craw style bait on a 1/4 ounce for one and a bigger bug or creature style on the other with 3/8. I'll swap baits on those until I find a combination of size/profile/action/fall rate they like for the day.

The Mann's Stretch series is a go to on the Mid Atlantic for trolling for everything from striper to bluefin tuna. I don't see why it wouldn't work on the left coast too.

One thing I like to do before heading to a new body of water is to use Fishbrain (free version) to see what the brim look like in that lake. One thing I like to do on the water that I haven't seen mentioned is cycling the profile of the baits I'm flipping or dragging. I'll fish a craw style soft plastic for 10 minutes, then switch to a worm for 10, then a creature style, etc until I find one producing more than others. It won't tell you for sure what they're keyed in on, but it can certainly point you in the right direction. On the most recent Bass After Dark Podcast, Dr Mike Allen said that in clearest lakes shad tend to make up about 20% of the forage biomass whereas they make up 80% of the forage biomass on more productive (aka dirtier, more nutrient rich) lakes. I've also heard biologists talk about studies that show how an increase in turbidity tends to lead to a temporary increase in the amount of crawfish and bottom-oriented bait like gobies being eaten over pelagic species like shad. Knowing those facts leads me to lean towards starting with a craw style bait on clear lakes or lakes that are experiencing a temporary increase in turbidity and a shad or baitfish style bait in lakes that are consistently dingier.

I used them for a spell. Had my best luck fishing them on a C Rig or Neko, but they aren't in the rotation any longer. Nothing wrong with them, just didn't have any more confidence in them over a finesse worm or senko with those techniques, so I stopped wasting the space/weight.

I don't really have an issue with clothes catching, but I do wonder if an archery arm guard or something similar would help you out?

I try to stay on top of the local conditions. I really start paying attention and thinking about how it will affect a particular lake, a week before a tournament or a few days before fun fishing.

I stay out as long as the wife will let me. Usually fish 2 tournaments a month that are about 8 hrs of time on the water but 12-13 hrs from the time I leave the house until I get home again. Then I try to sneak a 3 hour trip in on the weekends I don't have a tournament. For those, I just fish the river close to the house and try to get home by 9. If the wife's really been in a good mood lately, I'll push my luck and fish for 3-4 hours after work once a week.

I made some when I first started experimenting with them. The Geecrack version isn't too expensive- like $12-13 per 4 pack. I've had the same one on a hook for the last 3 or 4 trips so they hold up pretty well. If I had more free time, I'd probably make them myself, but I'm willing to pay the Geecrack price for now.

I tend to agree with @Pat Brown on most of his takes. Bass spawn over a much longer period than people give them credit for. In my experience here in VA, they tend to go in waves. We've got lakes that spawn from February through June every year. Once the main wave or two has passed, though, I tend to find small areas of the lake that have bed fish instead of them being everywhere.

I suspect that BASS has a set of parameters a location must meet; lake size, venue for weigh in, cell service for cameras, etc. If they have 20 places that meet those criteria this year, they pick the 9 that net them the most money.

They may go to a lot of the lakes regularly, but they don't fish Fork 9 times a year. The diversity is in watching them fish from Florida to Texas up to the Great Lakes. Most of the fisheries in each year's schedule are relatively different than the others. One thing I picked up on was that the revenue generated wasn't just from the Elites. But the Elites coming there and showing the world that it's a viable fishery is what generates that money. He mentioned other tournaments coming to town because of it- one was a 500 boat high school event. With 2 kids and a captain for each boat, not to mention potential family coming to support, that's a tremendous amount of revenue coming into your city that otherwise wouldn't have.

I had never considered using it to know temperature at depth. That will be useful. My first thought when I got it was that I'd finally be able to find the outboard I lost last summer and couldn't locate with scuba.

I'm not familiar with that particular rod, but I never go below 50lb on a frog. 50 is standard and 65 if I'm frogging around cypress. So for your application, I'd go 50 lb braid.

I bought a dozen packs of the Geecrack version (IDK why I always do this to myself). I've caught 1 fish on them so far. I still have confidence that I'll figure them out, but it hasn't happened yet. I've mostly been fishing them on a wacky hook with a nail weight to help it sink, but going to start using it on the drop shot more to see if that helps.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion. No event will every satisfy every fan of BASS. I enjoyed watching a grinder of a tournament. It was refreshing to see them fish a fishery that's closer to the ones I fish than a fishery like Fork that's 1000 times better than anything I've ever wet a line in. If I wanted to see the biggest fish being caught, I certainly wouldn't be watching people fish for bass... I wanted to see the best anglers in the world struggle to figure something out and that's exactly what we got here. For me, it's not about the lake. It's about the guys fishing. I want to watch the very best compete and figure it out. Even better if they're doing it on a fishery I can relate to. Is it cool watching a slugfest like Fork some times? Heck yeah. But I didn't learn much that translates to my fishing there. I learned a lot watching this one. I suspect it comes down to money, plain and simple. How do they get the most viewers so they can then charge advertisers max dollar. You don't get a wide viewership by showing the same thing on repeat. If they only went to lakes with smallmouth, they'd lose viewership from the largemouth guys. I don't ever recall BASS's mission statement being "To showcase the best lakes in the country." I suspect they'd need a whole different business model to do that.

I don't get seasick, but this is the only thing I've ever seen work for others who do. Definitely try to avoid focusing on something close to you inside the boat- I've seen more people get sick while tying a knot or rigging tackle than anything else. I wonder if the anti-car-sickness glasses would help? https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FHion-Sickness-Carsickness-Airsickness-Seasickness%2Fdp%2FB0BVYQCHJ7&psig=AOvVaw07nEC-7nvEabFmLnJmlA2S&ust=1747492390209000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjRxqFwoTCKCEts6aqI0DFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

More tackle is always the answer. And if that fails, a cooler of beer should do the trick!

Any thoughts on using it in saltwater?

Gonna go out on a limb here and say that's not the area where this one gets won.