Champ188

You guys have the right idea ... enjoy the company first and the fishing second. Then you'll never have a bad trip.

Well done, 196Champ. I went Tuesday and fished 8 hours for a dozen or so LM's and spots. I did have a couple of nice keeper LM's early that were pretty shallow. Otherwise, the rest came on football jig on long gravel points and a shaky head around some bigger docks. As others have reported lately, the prime depth range was 20-30 feet. Ready for more of the shad to move into the creeks and bring the bass with them. Yes, fall can be tough on all of us, but once we start getting consistently cool nights, there's always the chance of finding a big school of fish feeding on flats or points in the creeks. Not necessarily talking about visually schooling --- you will sometimes locate and catch them fast and furious on a mid-size crank bait. You guys who like to chunk the big swim baits (like Huddleston, the big SPRO's, etc.) should keep in mind that very soon, large gizzard shad will begin cruising the banks and the big LM's will follow. I find the midlake area best for this ... Fisher Creek, the Cows, Schooner Creek, White's Branch, etc. Not a deal where you're gonna get a lot of bites, but a good chance to catch a sho-nuff good ol' biggun. Get out there and get started on some fall fishing and good luck! You may have to grind a while to find some, but they are usually bunched up when you do find em.

Nice job under some very tough conditions. And thanks for the report.

Hey Bgctrading, you might give a thought to the Denali Lithium series. They have a 7-0 medium drop shot rod (spinning) that might be a really nice fit for a young man his age. Anything longer might be a challenge for him to handle at present. Just a thought. Retail is $199. You can look at them at denalirods.com.

Sprint, I guarantee you he fished his “B” water today. Mighta fished one “A” spot early but he’s kinda shifty like that!!

Good to know. Makes perfect sense why they'd eat such big lures. When I was guiding on Lake Ouachita years ago, we dropped live crawfish on brushpiles in 20-30 feet of water in late summer/fall for spots. Granted, spots there rarely reach 3 pounds, but you wanted what we called "gray crawfish" and 2 inches was getting close to too big. Different lake, different region. Except for sometimes keeping a conservative mess for the clients, we released our fish unharmed by using small circle hooks. Stuck em in the top of the mouth nearly 100% of the time ... as long as the clients would LISTEN and not jerk ... just start reeling when they felt pressure.

Yes, on forums, in text messages, and more, our electronic means of communication these days do leave a lot to be desired where delivery is concerned. Let me reiterate, I meant no offense whatsoever seeing that you were funning, as we called it when I was a kid. Onward, boys and girls!

Not aiming at you Hardhead unless you were serious about your post, but this mentality that every rule in the world infringes on someone's rights is pure crap. When you endanger my life ... whether it's by exposing me to COVID by not vaxing or not social distancing or by driving over the nighttime speed limit on the lake ... you've stepped over the line of "your rights" and square into the middle of MY rights.

Surge Shad or Whopper Plopper, there's no comparison to the way those brown fish attack them. I had one blow up on mine so hard a couple of years back that he beached himself momentarily on the dock that I reeled my Plopper very close to. Probably a 3-pound jaw.

That's awesome, Royal. I've never heard a bad word about Lonnie and your story is a fine tribute to his legacy as a classy guy.

It's a zoo out there day or night anymore. People must be making boat payments with their stimulus and extra unemployment checks. 😅

What kind of crap is that? Hey Wrench, when you send a repaired boat home with its owner, do you tell them: Good luck! But don't expect me to stand behind my work! I kinda doubt it since you've been in business quite a long time and seem to have a very solid reputation. What the heck is the matter with this country these days? No one seems to take responsibility for anything! I do understand we are talking about electronics and that warranties on both products and labor have to be limited. But to cart blanche declare they won't stand behind anything makes certain that I will NEVER use MRC for anything.

I do love to eat those Walters and I don't feel badly about it since they are supplementally stocked.

Before War Eagle came along, I threw the old Stanley Vibra-shaft nearly all the time. Caught tons of fish on them in all kinds of conditions. Didn't care for the wedge blade that came along later. Made the bait tend to roll.

Never use green pumpkin/copper on Table Rock. Total waste of time, money and energy. Can't believe you'd steer these fine folks wrong. 😆😂

That sure is a humpbacked Walter. Probably would be 2 inches longer if you straightened him out.

Gotta tell this one quickly on a buddy of mine. He was just starting to guide on Broken Bow and was taking an overflow trip for an established guide. His clients consisted of a husband, wife and young son. The veteran guide had told him, whatever you do, don't pull out a topwater. These clients are not experienced enough to even cast a topwater so keep them throwing a grub or shaky head. Well, what would happen but the fish would blow up schooling. So while the clients were busy catching them on grubs, the greenhorn guide couldn't stand it anymore and pulled out a Chug Bug and decided to slip in a couple of casts. Sure enough, he got a blowup on the first cast and jerked too soon. The lure comes flying back, hits Mom square in her very large left boobie and buries up. Two of the three barbs on the front hook gone outta sight. ER time, right? Heck no, they insisted on my young guide buddy extracting the bait himself while she gritted her teeth. The woman ends up half topless on the lake and in surgery in the middle of the boat. Long story short, he got the lure out and the trip continued. By the way, when my buddy balked at the woman taking off her shirt and fully exposing the affected boobie, the hubby said, :"Don't worry. You are far from the first person to see them." I doubt HE got to see them for a good while after that comment. 😆😂

Good grief, that sounds like they're rushing beta software out onto the market and then selling it at premium prices so the consumer can test it for them. R&D should work out the bugs in-house before putting stuff out on the market. Might be way off base but I don't think so.

An option available locally is the Strike King Rage Craw or the Googan Krackin Kraw. Both are bulky 4-inch models and will do the job as a big jig trailer.

Haven't heard that saying but it's a good one! Thanks for sharing.

Bill, I know that when I was covering the old Ray Scott days of BASS and traveling to the BASS Masters Classic every year, the anglers were limited to (I believe it was 6 rods/reels) and 10 pounds of tackle. Harold Sharp was tournament director back then (just before Dewey Kendrick) and each angler's tackle had to fit into a possum belly PLANO tackle box that was provided for them. There were two official practice days and on the second one, each angler had to bring his tackle box up onto the stage to be weighed. If he was over by even a smidge, Harold removed tackle (his choice of lures) until the box was at exactly 10 pounds. It was a fun deal. Mike may or may not remember those days. Can't recall when he fished his first Classic and the dang bassmaster.com website has a "join BASS" pop-up that blocks two-thirds of their screen and seemingly can't be ignored. On another nostalgic note, I see that Lonnie Stanley passed away Monday. Such a classy guy. Never got to fish with him but always enjoyed my time around him. Always had a smile plus one to give whoever he was talking with at the time. His jigs and spinnerbaits were top shelf and accounted for a lot of tournament wins for anglers worldwide.

I refuse to fish with more than about 4 rods on the deck. It just doesn't take that long to unsleeve one and pull it out of the rod box, or to resleeve one and put it up. I wear size 15 shoes. Nuff said. 😆 😂

You can bet that anything Randy keeps is legal ... i.e., he ain't no criminal. 😁 Just a darn good walleye fisherman.

You can order replacement guides online. Remove the old guide and all of its wrapping carefully with a pocket knife, mix a small amount of epoxy and position the new guide properly (you can use a little dab of epoxy to hold it in place). Then wrap the thread around the rod at the foot of the guide as many times as it takes to secure it and make it look like the other guides. You can spin the rod between your fingers while holding the thread spool with the other hand to speed this process. Once you've reached the right amount of wraps, cut the thread and seal it all the way around with epoxy. You're good to go the next day.

Well said, Nick ... like an actual journalist! We print journalists never had any real reason to dislike the TV guys, although we did call them "golden throats." 😆 But increasingly over the years, they cut their own throats by racing each other to be first on the air with a story, and in doing so, they discredited themselves with sensationalism and shoddy journalism. You are also right that the most disturbing part is how many consumers buy into that malarkey.