Champ188

Bo has to be catching them. Just sayin.

Only thing about live bait is the risk of killing the fish. They tend to really inhale it.

Thank you, Johnny. We are just in absolute awe of how much you do for the sport of fishing. Wonder how many of OUR fish you'll be plopping into your Springfield store aquarium this week?

Hopefully you sprung for a spare to carry with you 😁 … pun intended.

The key to these fall turnover fish is to cover tons of water --- BUT you have to be as stealthy as possible. Babler is right about that blade. I throw one that is quite a bit different than others do and I work my tail off for half a dozen bites. The thing is, they are 95% LM keepers. If I get lucky and get a big bite, great. If not, 10 pounds a day is a guaranteed check this time of year.

I catch em with holes in their mouths all the time. 😎

I picked mine up at the store yesterday … gotta do some tweaking and it will be on its way. Like Seth, sorry for the delay. It'll be there soon.

I'm tempted to think it was one of those busloads of our friends from south of the border.

Saber-toothed Ozarkian muskies. 😀

Bring on those 40-degree nights.

Looks great!

Very nice one, indeed! Those big ones are liable to be anywhere this time of year.

The guy that won the BFL event on Table Rock out of my boat was one of those guys. Slipped down to the dock while I was waiting on my check, got his stuff out of the boat and never bothered to say thanks for helping me win, kiss my elbow or anything. Then he had the audacity to call me a month later and ask for advice on another lake. 😆

Exactly right, in my opinion. I never wanted and seldom took any money but I silently expected at least an offer. As you said, common courtesy. I’ve had careless co’s rip seats, spill beverages and even damage engine cowlings without even offering to pay for what they tore up. This is part of the reason for the present popularity of solo pro events. On the other hand, I enjoyed practically every co that I ever fished with over the years. I helped quite a few of them make a check, as Bill will attest. Had one win the BFL event on TR just a few years ago. But not every boater is like that and there are more than a few who have more money than fishing ability and probably won’t get you within a country mile of a decent fish all day. Others drive their boats with wanton disregard for the lives of everyone on the lake, especially their co-angler. Can’t recommend it as worthwhile.

What exactly are you saying there, QB? Huh? Do you not think big fish bite the blade? You draggers are all alike. 😆

Me too, RB. But a few manage to hammer em every time out. Better sticks than me, obviously.

Couldn’t prove that by some of the posts here.

Hey abk, I've known you long enough to assure Tim that you meant no ill. But let me tell you this … I've had Tim do some work for me that included me telling him specifically what I wanted in a couple of jerk bait custom colors and he nailed it. Better yet, his paint jobs are finished out to perfection and as hard as I've tried not to, I've banged those jerk baits on rocks and docks without getting so much as a scratch on them. Very durable. Sure, $100 in paint work is enough to make anyone quiver a bit. But in my mind, that's all the more reason to use Tim. Just my 2 cents worth.

Donna and I fished a full 8-hour day Saturday, launching at Cow and fishing down as far as Jake's Branch and up as far as Schooner. Bill is right … this is not an easy bite to get on and it has to do with being on the right spot than anything else. Guides make their living fishing, and the great ones like Bill have dozens of these pinpoint areas in the middle of nowhere that it would take the rest of us ages to find. If you ever wonder why he's so free with information on here … other than that he's just a really nice guy … part of the reason is that the rest of us couldn't find his fish and set up on them right if we had the GPS coordinates for every spot he fishes. So back to our trip Saturday … Donna and I tried HARD for hours to make this big jig bite work out in 25-40 feet of water. Late in the afternoon, all we had to show for it was half a dozen brown fish, of which two were line burner keepers. So as I'm driven to do, we decided to close the day by moving up shallow. Ended up finding a pretty decent bite on a jig, spinnerbait and crank bait … nothing huge but a mixture of SM, K's and LM. Certainly, the wind and dark skies helped but with nighttime lows in the 50s on the horizon, we are about to see a good shallow bite develop. I'm ready. 😎

Well said, Tim. I don’t know why anyone would want to use another painter.

Beautiful LM Steve. Hope you guys had a grand time.

Family and good fall fishin … doesn't get much better.

I know plenty of pros who can't catch them at the rate and regularity that Bo does.

I'd probably bet something north of $20 but south of $100 that they won't even be around in 2020. Just my opinion. Nothing more.

Thanks, brother Bill. I'm coming out of hibernation this weekend with one of the best jig draggers on the lake by my side. Hope to get in on some of this action. Like David, will post regardless. One option you guys might consider for a big trailer is a full-sized Zoom Brush Hog with about 1.5 inches pinched off the top end. I had a co-angler school me on this once in an early fall CPA derby.