FLYING HIGH

@Eric 26 That is a piece of gold you have for this conversation. 🤩👍 I was looking for an old receipt or my old sales catalog and look, you have the exact piece. Off the top of my head I was initially thinking in that $10-$60 off range. @Brycecover I didn’t actually do the rod and reel trade in last year, I have some perfect setups right now for me. I was thinking about doing it this year for that Zillion but now probably the Tatula Elite. Depends on the new pricing and how my budget will look. I still go and buy plastics, under spins, jigs, frogs and just look around for a few hours. 😂

Yes, I definitely like using that event. That’s how I’ve purchased my reels and rods. I also strongly support the program that takes all trade ins and gives to young children to help encourage B.A.S.S. fishing for the youth. I actually got a pic with Mark Zona at one of those events a couple years ago. Super cool moment for me. I might be getting a little softer in my older age(51) but I definitely enjoy helping and supporting others in this B.A.S.S. fishing sport I love. 🤩

I definitely like that price better and I do see some of you all ordering through this site. Thank you! I think this answers my issue. I really want more casting distance because I am fishing from banks and shorelines and if the Tatula Elite is not much different from Zillions except for price and a little more fine tuned then I should go that route. Thanks! My first bait-caster ever is the Daiwa Tatula CT 7.1.1. I like that reel and currently have it on the St Croix Legend Bass Tournament 7’1 MHF. For me, that is my top setup that I have.

There goes my idea of trading up to a Zillion at the Cabela’s trade in event this upcoming year. Now, maybe I have to stick with the Daiwa Tatula Elite. I was on the fence about the Zillion because of cost, it is at $399. I’m a casual BASS angler so spending the money on the Zillion would be a luxury spend for me. I feel like I don’t necessarily need the Zillion but I want the Zillion. I’m trapped. 😂😂

So sorry to hear, especially this time of the year. I didn’t know him as well as a lot of others here but definitely enjoyed reading his posts and comments. So impressed with his PB’s when I first seen them listed. Unbelievable. Sending prayers to his family!!

That is awesome!! I have a lot of love for the BOSTON area. Especially downtown with the lobster rolls, clam chowder with the fresh bread bowl…….my BOSTON CELTICS and BOSTON REDSOX, clam and oyster fry’s. Not sure how the bass fishing is in the area but I will try it someday when I make it back out there. 😊 Thanks for sharing Jigfishin10!!!

Those look amazing!! How much they weigh?

So sorry to hear that Tom. Sending prayers your way. Staying in the positive lane is the best option. Enjoy the moments and time that’s left. It’s super easy to get negative and thinking bad thoughts. I know first hand. I have some of those moments and then have to reel myself back in, no pun intended 😂. I have cancer and I am currently going through the most powerful and aggressive CHEMO for my situation. Running a direct injection of liquid CHEMO for 3 straight days of the week. After the 3 days it usually takes me about a week or so to get close to being normal again with all the side effects I get. Super tired, no motivation and always sleeping. Currently on FMLA from work and I will need extended time to continue my radiation with CHEMO pill treatment when CHEMO is finished. I'm exhausted and emotions can be all over the place. My wife has been a rock. My thoughts and prayers are with you sir!! Thank you for sharing your story. It feels amazing to have more thoughts and prayers coming in, especially from people outside your inner circle! I’m happy to be a part of your BassResource family!!

That’s why I’m not trying mine. I’m going to mail mine out to the sponsor on this website, DVT. Other users here have already used DVT so I feel confident sending mine out for the simple maintenance. They seem pretty reputable so why not. 😊. At least give them a call and explain your situation, they could turn your mess back into perfection. I’m almost finished with my CHEMO treatments, currently not working so I will send mine out sometime in the beginning of next year. Otherwise I could give you a review on how amazing DVT was. I have faith in them based on other people’s experience.

Wow!! I’ll have to check it out. I would love to get some Berkeley Stunna’s at 4.50 ea vs 14.99 ea. My favorite jerkbait.

My very first bait caster was the Daiwa Tatula CT a couple years ago. Got a great deal on it at the BPS trade in event. That is what I used, to teach myself, how to use a bait caster. I don’t have any other Daiwa bait caster experiences but I absolutely love using that reel. I put it on my 7’1 St Croix Legend Bass Tournament rod. LBTC71MHF / 7'1" All-In At the next trade-in event, I am considering getting another Daiwa bait casting reel. I am considering the Daiwa Elite b/c of casting distance reviews b/c of spool size or Daiwa Zillion depending on the price after trade in. I want to use something with a great braking system and something I can easily send off for simple maintenance every other year or so. I am better now with the bait caster so I feel comfortable getting an upgraded reel.

I was just thinking about getting my 2 reels maintained. After looking at some videos along with the comments and pictures here in this thread, I’ve confirmed that I will be sending mine over to DVT. Called him the other day and got pricing. I think the time I would put in trying this, and the possibility of anger and extreme anxiety, cost is best option to send to DVT and have them returned ready to go. I am a firm believer in letting the pro’s do the job they do every day, every week of every year. I mean are you going to have a general surgeon who can do almost any surgery do your colon surgery or you want a colon specialist who does those surgeries exclusively. Just my opinion. I’m sending my reels out. 🤪 I give you all props for taking a chance on cleaning and greasing them. 👏

That’s a great last story of the year papajoe!! I enjoyed the read and congrats on giving it one more chance before leaving. Those were solid fish, I can picture them in my head. What a way to end your fishing season! Always love to hear some great impactful stories!! 🤩

Hello from northern Illinois!! Welcome to the Bass Resource family, happy to have ya!!

So I’m planning on fishing a muddy/stained river tomorrow and I have never caught a fish on the river. Always catch in ponds or small lakes. And NEVER caught a smallmouth. I’ve used spinnerbaits, chatter baits, multiple top waters, crank baits and senkos. Considering I am a bank fisherman and don’t have access to a lot of secret or hidden areas on the river, I’m usually close to a walking/bike path and consistent traffic flowing around. Just nothing to be proud of. I'm driving about 30 minutes away tomorrow to this easy, side of the road, river access point by a dam. I’m planning on picking up 2 dozen shiners to go along with my 5/0 circle hooks to hopefully increase my chances of scoring something, hopefully a smallmouth. Shiners are running $5.99/dozen so I thought I would try. 🤔 Any suggestions or recommendations for me. Thank you for any advice!!

Hello and welcome to the BASS fishing family!!

Thanks again to everyone who gave me a warm welcome!! Definitely appreciate it. If I disappear for a few days here and there, don’t worry, I’m not forgetting anything. My CHEMO schedule knocks me out for a few days every other week. I need to rest my eyes and my head and I’m kind of zoned out. 🤪. 👍

Congratulations!! Great catch!! That is a perfect example of WHY this website is such an asset for all of us in this B.A.S.S. fishing game we all love to play. 🤩

Hello everyone! Recently joined BR as a new member. My name is Mike and I am a 50 yo male. Started fishing in my mid teens w/a buddy and then lost interest and gear somehow. Did not have a prominent influence to keep the fishing interest strong either. Roughly 4-5 years ago I got a buddy of mine to play some tennis w/me throughout the summer in early mornings, 6:00am central time. We would play roughly 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on how fast I could beat him or vice versa. 🤪. He mentioned one day after our match that we should go fishing. Sounded fun. I had zero gear and he had everything including a pond in his neighborhood that is run and maintained by a HOA. So after the introduction to fishing again, I am now 100% back in the game. I ended up getting some gear and decided to go with made in USA rods. St Croix was the winner considering they are only 4 hours up the road and have some nice warranties. Also had some good reviews and rods felt great in stores. So now I am a loyal brand ambassador. A few rods is all I have because I am a bank/shore fisherman and need to keep all my gear minimal. I’ve been visiting BR site for at least those 4-5 years since I got back into fishing. I absolutely love this website! A lot of great info, respectful people and a lot of fishing knowledge that is shared. I may never meet any of you personally but I definitely feel like this is a large BASS fishing family. I am super happy to be a part of it and hope that someday, I might be able to pass a long some fishing knowledge to some of you!

Considering my time allotment, usually two maybe three hours for fishing at the most every so often, I’m using 3 to 4 lures with two poles. I’m fishing towards the shore on the left, middle of the pond off the middle and towards the shore on the right off a fishing dock. I’m fan fishing for 15 minutes on each lure. I love an all black hollow body frog first one of the day. By using this method, I rarely see a skunking. I appreciate the process much more than I used to. Now if I slide over to the local river for a small chance at catching anything, then skunk is my middle name. Never seem to even get a bite. 🤪

That was a great video A-Jay!!! I can’t believe the quality and quantity of stuff you have. Definitely makes me feel better that I see some of my products in your collection. Strike King and ZMAN plastics. Suffix 832 Advanced Superline on both my main reels, 1 spinning and 1 casting. Thank you for sharing with us, really enjoyed watching that!!

I definitely have my PB with a jerk bait. After watching Hank Cherry win the bass master classic, of course I went out and bought a few Berkeley STUNNA’s. I have the 110 that goes 6-10’ as a suspending jerkbait. I love them. PB on it. 🤩 And for me, when that LMB hit that STUNNA, it was soo hard, almost as good as a top water blowup. It hit on the pause, smoked it!! 😂

I’ve definitely never kept any type of a log. But I do try to keep certain areas like Bridge piling, small inlet off a river and those types of areas you guys have all talked about before as a key spot to go to. Believe it or not I have never caught a fish on the river. I currently live by the rock river here in northern Illinois and I am a bank fisherman and seem to be having struggles. I’ve gone multiple times throughout the day mid afternoon and used chatter baits with Zako trailers, whopper ploppers, spinner baits, and green pumpkin senkos. No luck. I’m also going to try the boat docks. My initial thought is I’m going to go early morning when there are no boats on the river. My wife is kind of leery of me going down to the river by myself because there’s some sketchy people at all times. I can’t seem to concentrate on fishing and turning around and watching my back all the time is the only issue when you go bank fishing on the river super early or late. But when I do get back down there, I’m thinking about buying two dozen shiners and just trying the live bait so I can at least get my first river fish or more. Shiners are like $9.99/dozen over here so I will sacrifice the cost for a few opportunities at the river.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve started a long 16 week chemo treatment plan. So my fishing has been a little taken back because of this. It’s every other week so on my off week of chemo I try to get out for a couple hours because I am still fatigued and can’t stay out very long. So over the last few weeks that I have been able to get out the fishing has been great. No personal best per se but solid 2+ pounders, nothing over 3. I remember one of the bass master pros mentioning that when he goes fishing if he doesn’t catch something on the first lure within the first 15 minutes, he switches to the next lure. I’ve started to put a timer on my phone and do the same thing and go through 3 to 4 lures and then back again from the start. I definitely love this analogy and I’ve been using it and I believe strongly it works great. I feel I’m not wasting time on one single lure for three or four hours like I used to. Seems like no skunks around then. 😂 So the last couple times I went out, I ended my days around 7-730 pm and the bass were hitting like every time I would cast back out after a catch. And I was using 2 poles. 1 with Texas rigged GP senko and the other wacky rigged GP senko. They were hitting so good I just couldn’t leave. My wife was mad because I forgot to leave living room lights on for dog and was late for dinner. I got selfish and couldn’t help myself. I rarely get a chance to get out because of chemo, so it is really enjoyable when I can. Also my new favorite lure to use is an under spin minnow jig with a single willow leaf blade with a keitech paddle tail trailer, so exciting and they love it. I don’t have a ton of cash to blow on multiple rods and reels so I picked a couple all in one rods that can throw multiple lures. 7’1. St Croix Bass Legend Tournament casting rod MH-F (All in one)with Daiwa Tatula CT 7.3:1 7’1 St Croix Victory spinning rod MH-F (Max Finesse) with Pflueger Patriarch 5.2:1 also have another backup rod 7’0 St Croix Triumph spinning rod M-F with Pflueger President I really enjoy my main rods exclusively. I am considering upgrading my Tatula CT at bass pro trade in event in spring but not sure what to get. Was thinking maybe a Tatula Elite or a Zillion. Definitely do not want to spend over $400 for that upgrade.

I absolutely love that idea of a small bass fishing competition between friends and family. That definitely gives some bragging rights around the holidays along with some new gear, gift ideas for gift exchanges. 😜