Ham

I have had a chance to use Falcon. It is doing all the right things so far. I am not 100% sure that it is a MH that pull a big Largemouth out of a logjam, but it is light and pleasant to fish. Throws well and keeps the fish pinned. I think it would handle jerkbaits and full size wacky rugged stuff well. I think it is a little to flexy for 3/4 oz Bait. Not Unhappy with the purchase., bu5 not sure that it checks all the boxes either.

Ham’s BassCat has been sorely neglected. I usually fish one way or the other every week, but I am so much more than ready. I spent some time in the Bass Cat this evening squaring the boat away. I replaced all three batteries this past weekend. Having said all that ; I’m going to be mostly tangled up for the next 30 days or so. We’ve had a weekend in St Louis planned for 6 months. And a weekend in the travel trailer the weekend after that. I think I’ll get one trip in before I head west to sample some OK water. I’ll get pretty Bull-centric after that. I’m going to be trying to put my Father in Law on some Crappie too. I’ll play on Bull until crowds and heat forces me away. I look forward to your trip reports.

N-E-D

It took me 2 fish to pick up on the pattern, but 4 fish in and he hasn’t figured it out yet

I appreciate their efforts, but he tools to accurately measure Smallmouth Bass populations are sorely lacking. Does anyone that fishes Table Rock believe that there are more Crappie than Smallies ?

Yeah David, but Toledo Bend is beautiful also. Do you know how many 10 lb bass were caught from TB last year? And that’s the ones that were officially documented. i would guess the number of true 7 lb and larger bass caught from Toledo Bend in a calandras year would be staggering. I love our lakes and I love the lakes that I grew up on. My first trip to Toledo Bend was 1972. The 10 hour trailer down to TB keeps it mostly safe from me these days.

It would be that simple IF there was only one user group. Different groups of fishermen want different things. The desires of one group shouldn’t outweigh the desires of another group. For every guy, that wants refs changed to help him catch 20 inch smallies there are are probably 3 guys that want an 8 inch minimum on SMB and a 20 fish limit. I don’t fish the rarified air of rivers that have Spots that are invasive. Please frame your “kill them all” arguments for Spotted Bass to areas where that has occurred. Spots are a nice addition to BSL, Beaver, TR, and Norfork. They can be anywhere I guess, but there seem to areas where you can pattern them and the Spots always seem like they will play a little bit even on the worst days. I hear Spots are tasty, I usually release mine. Look, if you can’t tell the shape of a bass filet from a Crappie filet or the difference in the texture of the meat or the taste differences btw the two ; I’m not sure I can help you. As an aside : I hear that all the time that ppl can mix White Bass and Crappie and cant tell the difference. Perhaps people appreciate the meal and are gracious enough not to complain, because surely ppl can tell the differences btw the two.

Rule #1, not everyone is a Winner.

I caught a pile of them last April up river. It was fun, but I did not consider ANY of them to be large enough to keep.

I don’t know how many guys were fishing , but with these generation levels that’s really darn impressive ! #Kudos i don’t like the higher water, but I think it leads to more Big Browns

I think the new regulations are working

I bought some orange/yellow one especially for crappie fishing on Big Cypress Bayou.

Does this help? Caught from shore because I only had a little while to fish.

Jonesing is a slang term for physical side effects from drug withdrawal

He had electric chicken for a while.

Air Streams appear to be a Bass Pro Shops exclusive. I don’t use my AirStreams for Ned rigs at all. It’s a little light and soft for that even with Nanofil. Straight up, I think it is the best trout jig rod you can get at that price break point.

Most likely those were deer hair Jigs Jeff, but you can do a lot Worse things than throwing a Zig Jig for cool / cold water smallmouth. Look at the price on “Bass” marabou Jigs on Tackle Warehouse. Zig Jigs are a bargain.

I never throw it without one so whatever success I have had is with a trailer.

Good Luck!

We got Lucky this time.

I’d pay to see him in the yellow shirt with black zig zag stripe.

John is starting to take on the reputation as being Charlie Brown-esque. It was cruelly ironic how Cutties and Browns evaded him this weekend.

I thought is was plainly evident. A 2 inch Western Mosquito Fish counts the same as a 20 inch Brown.

And they all count as one

I’m a little disappointed we didn’t figure out how to photograph it with an object near it to help with scale. I should have thrown the paddle in the water and eased the fish over near the paddle. It was truly a River Monster. Like 40 inches long. As long as my leg ( And I have long legs). That fish scared me because I thought it was s Brown Trout and after a few normal pulls, it smacked like 20-30 yards of line in a run. I was Happy we got to see it. I was Happy we got it boatside. I wish we had a Musky Cradle. Another Story for the Ages.