Champ188

Done

Don't forget that OA member Hughesy is a nationally known lure painter.

There's always someone faster. But again, until they start handing out boat-racing trophies, what counts is what's in the bag at weigh-in.

Before Chuck goes to bed, he checks his closet for Jason Christie.

Aside from familiarizing your eyes with everything, making a daytime run also allows you to draw yourself a GPS trail.

I'm one of those guys that catching bass matters. So I want myself, my lifetime fishing partner and others who may come aboard to be as safe and pampered as possible. Thus my decision to ride a Ranger Z119. I fish in pure comfort, as do my guests. With a 225 Opti and a tournament load, it runs 68-70 on GPS and I've yet to see a tin boat that can keep up on the rare occasions that I blow the carbon out of it. Not saying it's impossible, but it hasn't happened yet. Might run 1-2 mph slower coming back to the weigh-in with both livewells full of water and fish.

Sounds like you've done your homework and you're undoubtedly a skilled outdoorsman. Just don't want to read/hear any bad news about anyone, but especially our great members here. Get out there and enjoy.

Maybe quit buying those silly pre-Rap models and you won't be out a fortune when one breaks or gets lost. The best Wart fisherman on Beaver Lake --- he's won more boats and money there and beyond than most of us put together --- says the old ones aren't a bit better than the new original series. The only ones that suck are the ones made for a couple years right after Rapala took over Storm. The pre-Rap craze has unnecessarily cost a lot of people a lot of money, according to him. Incidentally, this guy isn't a tightwad. He will drop hundreds in a single visit to the tackle store.

You guys are way madder at those spoonbills than I've ever been at any fish to get out there and run that skinny, stumpy water at night. Hope you are exercising extreme care.

As Babler pointed out in anothe thread, you can't catch bass where they aren't.

Dang, Jerry. You're as outdated as me with my 3-year-old TaylorMade SLDR.

That bait can't possibly hunt. It has no eyes.

Makes a lot of sense.

Guess that sounded pretty harsh but just takes so much away from the challenge of figuring out what to do to put yourself in position to win. I will say that after the first year or so, the A-rig has NOT been a magic bullet. But in the hands of the right people, it will beat you time and time again unless you pick it up and sling it all day with the rest of them.

Some of these guys, McClelland included, are fishing to pay their mortgage, light bill and put groceries on the table. As long as hiring a guide is allowed by tournament rules, they are going to do just that if it will help them get a leg up on the competition. This is not playtime. Can't expect those who are "in to win" to stop short of giving themselves every advantage enjoyed by the guy in the boat next to them at takeoff. If anyone is at fault here for unsportsmanlike conduct, it's BASS for allowing it. McClelland is a standup Christian guy and a class act ... far from a LOSER.

Guess I'll add to the poor OP's confusion ... I throw Warts where I need a bait to get down to 4-8 feet. Like others, I own way too many. If I had to keep three non-custom colors, they would be: watermelon seed for off-colored water or dark days in clear water; brown craw for a versatile, all-around color; and the V-209 for late winter/very early spring when red hues produce best. A very, very close fourth would be phantom green. If I want/need to get a little deeper, I go to the Rock Crawler. Basic color needs for me there are phantom brown, phantom green and red craw. As for a rod/reel setup, I recently bought a Denali Kovert Lite series finesse jig rod (7-3 length, med power, fast action) that just rocks my world for either the WW or RK. I have it paired with a Cabela's Arachnid 6.3:1 reel (same as a Daiwa Tatula) and 10-pound P-Line CXX mono. Good luck with your search.

This is the kind of post and real-life activity that keeps me closely connected to OA. Thanks for your generosity Ketchup, and thanks to TFR for telling us about it. Love this place and the great people here.

Thank you for that, sir. We appreciate it and are happy you got to enjoy catching them.

A-rig has changed winter/early spring tournament fishing for the worse, in my opinion. There's really not much reason to throw anything else because that's how it's gonna be won until the water temps climb up around 60.

I'm staying out of this catch and release thing (no applause, please and thanks) but I AM curious as to which golf ball the fly fisherman dude prefers.

Ketchup, I've never been a member over there but maybe we should sign up at the same time and have a race to see who gets banned first. I imagine a lot of OA members would stack their money on me. LOL

"Get your butts back above the hard deck and return to base."

In my opinion, distance is your most important factor on big, clear lakes like The Rock. I'd rather throw downwind with a big distance advantage than into the wind because someone says every fish down there is facing into the wind.

Time to do some of that pilot s***.

I wonder if they are really scarce in the lower end or if they're just so spooky that it's super hard to catch them? Or maybe stained water is more to their liking and they actually are more numerous in the river arms. Whatever the case, Beaver Lake is the same way ... not a lot of crappie on the clear end but some really big ones. Far more numbers in the rivers.