Champ188

Maybe they felt bad for you and were trying to install a new Minn Kota when something interrupted them. (Sorry, you floated that one up in the strike zone and I had to take a swing 😆😂).

Halfway there already and there isn't a one of us out there over 50 who would EVER have expected us to see $100,000 bass rigs.

This was many moons ago ... back in the early 90s when Donna and I first started dating. It was cold winter time. We got in my truck one day and when she reached under the passenger seat for something she'd dropped, she came out with a freeze-dried keeper crappie. I had been crappie fishing several weeks before with a buddy in his boat and had taken home a dozen or so to eat. Didn't have an ice chest with me so I put my half of the haul in a couple of Walmart sacks and laid them in the passenger floorboard, and obviously one got away. Like Quillback's hot dog, there was no odor, presumably because of the cold weather.

Go to Bass Boat Central and buy yourself a good used Ranger, preferably pre-Johnny. That should take care of your hole problem. 😆😂

BASS would give TV time to Palaniuk and Zaldain if they were next-to-last and dead last, respectively. They are their "pretty boys" for sure but both have had years to win something big and neither has delivered. Give me Chris Jones anyday. I have a close friend in Oklahoma who has known him for years and said he's the real deal ... heckuva shallow-water fisherman and a genuinely darn nice guy. Not saying that Palaniuk and Zaldain aren't nice guys but I am saying they get more than their allotment of camera time.

And on the subject of the Ultimate Match Fishing's unfortunate broadcast crew, Fishburne was one of the biggest hole poachers that ever fished BASS. I know that to be true from a number of guys who fished against that clown. Grandma would not have been proud if she'd known the rest of the story.

My favorite Uecker line ... he's sitting as far out in the CF bleachers as you can get and he's yelling at the home plate ump, "HE MISSED THE TAG!!!! HE MISSED THE TAG!!!!" 🤣

I think what Wrench is saying is we have no evidence yet that any of the new entries (Garmin or Lowrance) will hold up under years of use. And for what they cost, they better last more than the standard-issue TM's of the past. Speaking of which, my 8-year-old 36v Fortrex continues to work as well as it did new. Wish I had switched from MG to MK way sooner than I did.

Good info, Brian. Thank you.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Donna catches them consistently on several sizes of swimmers out of the back of the boat. Me, not so much. Fortunately for us SplitG2, we know other ways to catch em. 😁

Who is bed fishing? If you're talking about Bill, he isn't sight fishing for two reasons. First, he said he was catching them 12-18 feet deep. Smallmouth don't bed that deep. Second, Bill wouldn't intentionally bed fish during spawning season. He can catch them half a dozen different ways at any time of year and besides, he's smart enough to leave the bedders to their business for the future of the fishery.

Amen and amen.

Great info, Phillip. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, some of those guys out there have fished upward of 30 FLW events and only have $1,600 in career earnings ... and only $420 of that in 6 years as a boater ... average of $21 per event. Hmmmm.

BLASPHEMY!

Very much so.

Thinking about fishing a veterans benefit tournament the last weekend of May. Are you gonna be here wreaking havoc then? 😆😂

They're raiding your private stash, Jeff! Did you check to see if they have permits to be above the Shell Knob bridge? By the way, those permits can only be issued by Babler.

Preach it, brother! Gimme Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon and BPS Excel mono, and I am set. If tournament fishing, I MIGHT change my fluorocarbon to Trilene 100% carbon because it's the most sensitive line I've ever used. But it's expensive. Those three are all I need.

Tanks. lol

That's great news. Why in the world do organizers continue to hold big-bass events during the spawn? It doesn't take a biologist to figure out that when you take hundreds of fish off their spawning beds, you are hurting the fishery. It's not even an argument. One bass taken from a bed potentially kills hundreds of fry. Multiply that out and we wouldn't NEED supplemental stocking (which we aren't getting) if we would just let nature take care of itself without interrupting the spawn of the fish that at least some of us love dearly. Annual spawning season tournament rant over. We now return you to normally scheduled programming.

Vern, I'm with ya for sure on the traveling, palming and 3-second calls. All nonexistent these days.

Really nice afternoon and a great report. Congrats and thanks! Hard to beat the old species trifecta on Table Rock ... you were only a meanmouth away from the Table Rock Slam. You needed Quillback in the boat. That guy catches meanmouth like no one's business.

Great-looking boat. Welcome to the pre-Johnny Ranger family! Lots of other guys will poo-poo your boat, but ya know what? When all of that is said and done and it's time to go fishing, you have a big ol' safe and comfortable Ranger under you. There's a lot to be said for that kind of peace of mind.

That's why you NEVER catch one on your first cast. NEVER. It's my only superstition in the entire world. Oh, and always hole out on #18 when playing golf ... don't even take a 2-inch gimme. Again, hole out. BTW, there was a shiny new penny facing heads-up when I arrived at the golf course yesterday. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Dang thing wasn't worth a crap. Played terrible. Maybe I'm more superstitious than I think. Or just O/C. Or both.