Champ188

Back in the 90s, BASS won several awards for the laser light show that accompanied their weigh-ins. If memory serves, this while Ray Scott was still in charge. Even an old stick-in-the-mud like me will admit that was pretty cool. But the light show was incorporated into the weigh-in and things rolled along at a decent clip, ending well inside 2 hours. I think we can all agree that someone at J.M. Associates (the production company owned by Jerry McKinnis) has taken things way too far. I'm with Bill on being proud as peaches for Casey Ashley. What a seemingly fine young man. But I would bet a crisp $100 bill that there are those with BASS who would much rather have seen one of the camera hogs (think Iaconelli) win because Ashley doesn't ham it up nearly enough to suit them. He's all about fishing and zero about putting on a big show. And he's a Christian. So when the new Elite Series season starts in a few weeks, rest assured the cameras will be focused on the boats of the same ones ... Iaconelli, Swindle, etc.

Dittol from me on Frank at Swing Oil (a variety of good stuff), Danger Close (great hair jigs) and Pour Dennis on shaky heads, who is also a contributor here.

You and your wife are welcome to come watch TV at our house anytime. We'd get along great, although sounds like we may need a new TV before the evening is over.

Maximum horsepower in many tournaments, including BASS and FLW Tour events, is 250 hp.

There's a big difference in fun-fishing a lake you've been on all your life and fishing for a career-defining world championship on a lake you know very little about. What little confidence you may may have in any area is very fragile and can evaporate fast when you go 30 minutes or so without a bite. So the smart ones cling to what they DO have unshakeable confidence in, which is their personal ability with certain techniques. At least then they know that when they do get around the fish, they'll be able to catch them instead of bouncing around from one technique to another and introducing another variable. At times, the best thing you can do is eliminate variables --- simplify, simplify, simplify.

It was for this reason that Donna and I stayed in Bella Vista today. Short trip on mostly dry roads to one of our local village lakes. Caught five on the Ned from 10 to 35 feet. Water temps 39-40 degrees. No stick bait bite at all.

Thanks, Phillip, but I was just being silly. It's a running joke on here that no matter how slow the fishing is, you can always find a mind-numbing discussion about pre-Rap Warts. LOL But I will admit that I didn't know that about why you sweep the rod. Good to know.

What does pre-Rap mean? I must have dozed off.

Not at all tired of hearing from you, Gary. Be sure and let us know how you like that setup. I have a feeling I know the answer already but will be nice to hear you confirm.

Yes, Ranger did make a Z series of boats a few years back that covered (I believe) the Z-19 thru Z-22. The new Z-21 Nitro is a completely different and unrelated critter.

Acknowledging that fishing (even the Classic) pales in comparison to life and death, it will be interesting tomorrow to see if the leaders can catch em again. If they can, considering the current 3-pound drop from third (18-8) to fourth (15-7), it may be a three-horse race come Sunday.

Look out, Walmart. Johnny's gunning to take over the world.

I remember covering the 1984 Classic in Pine Bluff when Clunn blew the field away with 75 pounds, 9 ounces while his father was on his deathbed. Clunn was visibly shaken, especially off camera and in press conferences. I remember him saying the place he could put it out of his mind was in the boat.

Glad I didn't have my coffee cup up to my mouth when I saw this. Clubhouse leader for funniest post of 2015. :XD: And about Mercer ... (yeah, here goes Champ again) ---- He just plain irritates the crap out of me and Donna both, especially when he starts with the sexual innuendos on stage (Look at THAT bulge!!!), etc. Then he gets stuck on phrases and says them over and over and over and over .... "Freak of nature" nearly did me in last year. And he needs to pull his dadgum hat brim up out of his eyes. OK, I'm done. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. P.S. Yes, I'm a hater. But I don't hate Mercer. I reserve my hate for ISIS terrorists who kill little kids with power drills (American Sniper reference), people who shoot police officers, etc.

Christie is a hammer. An absolute hammer. The guys over in NE Oklahoma are sure glad to see him gone from the local scene, although he's still known to show up at a winter jackpot or two. The guy just loves to fish and loves to win.

Good stuff, Alex, although I counted at half a dozen fish-landing violations. You are in timeout for 12 minutes at the beginning of your next trip.

Good suggestion, abk. The only problem with those Compre rods is they tend to break after a while about a foot down from the tip. That was no issue to me when they were swapping them out over the counter, no questions asked. Now that they're phasing that program out, I might be a little leary of buying one. Gary, I might also suggest that you consider the Falcon BuCoo, specifically their 6-10 MH/Fast, model number BCC-5-1610. Should work very well for what you're wanting to do. Duckett Fishing has a new Ghost series of rods that would fit right into your price range, too. I absolutely love their Micro Magic rods and own 5 or 6 of them but the Ghost series is pretty new, so I can't speak to their durability, etc. You'll find the right rod. Glad you like the Lew's reel. You made a good choice.

How Democratic of you!

I'm with you. I enjoy a nice wide-open run back to the ramp at day's end and doing that seems to alleviate carbon problems. But these guys that are hammer down 24/7, 365 --- including on 34-degree weekdays with freezing rain when they can't possibly be fishing a tournament --- are just comical to me. I'm like Alex ... I don't even run everywhere wide open in a tournament. Making a leisurely 3/4 throttle run between spots and visiting with my co-angler helps keep me relaxed and fishing a lot better than if I'm running and gunning and wired out of my mind.

mixer, you have just stumbled across a great way to accelerate the process of elimination in finding Table Rock bass. They don't live in any of my crappy old fishin' holes.

Blows my mind how some of these guys afford to fish the way they drive their boats. I wonder if maybe they saved a bunch of money by not buying a throttle assembly. All some of them need is an ignition switch since they run wide open at all times and under all circumstances. My biggest problem is keeping the carbon blown out of mine since I putter around at 3500-4000 most of the time.

Dang, this is turning into another looooooong winter.

Stone, you're a lucky guy to get a personal Wart lesson from Mr. Dave. Always enjoyed being around him at CPA derbies. Just envied the co-anglers who got to fish WITH him while I had to go out and fish AGAINST him.

Did someone say pro staff? Can we have another discussion about jerseys? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeze?

I wish every state and municipality in this nation provided full medical coverage for their police officers and firefighters. Seems shameful to me that they don't. I served 5 years in the Air Force during peacetime and now qualify for full VA health coverage for life. I choose to use private care, but the fact is that VA care is available. Shouldn't be any different for police and firefighters. They see a lot more "action" in a month's time than I ever did in my 5 years in the military.