Leaderboard

Found a couple of eaters today. They wanted the citizen 6 today. 4 1/2 and a 4. Short fish built like footballs. Nice day on the water. Backgrounds kinda impressive too.

I love the “I don’t have this bait yet cause I just bought it but I want to see how much I can sell/trade it for before it’s even in my hands” I feel like “wimpy” when I see those post I’ll gladly sell/trade you a bait today for one that’s showing up next Tuesday

The worst is, “looking for any Pizz baits”. Now, I collect some baits so not hating on collectors. But if you’re looking for baits to fish, you shouldn’t be looking for “any” pizz or other brand. There’s a lot of people dying to get their hands on baits that aren’t going to help their catching situation. You can’t catch a fish on a glide to save your save, you drop $300 on a carp glide just because of the name, but you still can’t catch fish on it. Make bait selections based on what works for you, not what other people are buying. Bait makers and companies will fade in and out, others will come. It’s been going on for years and years. Two years ago toxic monks and wade’s were selling for $200 each and you had to beg someone to sell you one. The following year you practically had to beg someone to take them. They were both going for $90-$100 everywhere. All baits cycle through value and popularity.

I’m sure this is going to cause a stir with some people cause I can already see some of the answers but..... how many people actually fish their pizz baits??? I mean literally there is 10 plus a day on the black market for trade with other Pizz or pats and atleast 9 of them have never seen water. Why is no one fishing them if the hype is so great ? I used to have a few Pizz baits (god rest their souls now) before he got huge (8 years ago ish) and they were awesome baits then. Now this new stuff looks absolutely incredible and when people do fish them, they seem to really produce. It’s like why did you get it when you weren’t going to fish it ? And I already know there is going to be some answers like “it’s their money they can do what they want” or “people are allowed to collect them just like people collect shoes” and all that jazz and yes that’s very correct. It’s a free society and they are allowed to do whatever they want with their purchase. I’m just more curious as why hoard them up and not use them, when some of us really want to get their hands on a carp of some kind but can’t cause they are hoarded up. Again people can do what they want with them. I know that’s the going answer and I’m merely curious from all these people throwing these baits up and you can clearly see zero rash. Like did you even give it a shot ? And let’s not even get into the prices. Good lord, I’ve been on the search for a carp of his for a long time, and while I’ve spent my fair share of high prices on baits, the only purchase offers I’ve gotten have been like $300 for a bait that retails at like $150-$160. Again, I know it’s capitalism but jeez. I can’t bring myself to go for it at that price. And let’s not even get into the “waffles” for the baits. That’s a whole other world of stuff. Really just wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion on it or am I the only one who looks at the black market daily, sees a Pizz for Pizz trade, and instantly just goes “ugh”.

Purple and green are up now

The problem that I've encountered is 2 fold. 1. Most of the swimbaits cast like ish 2. The swim even worse in the current 1 piece glide bait style stick baits don't wash I've brought a couple swimbaits sometimes but I never find myself using them. Why ruin a $100 bait when a $25 bait does a better job. Sorry for the picture dump just reminiscing haha. Most fun you can have when its on. But canal fish don't count

Been trying to figure out the striper bite since i moved here. Some luck over the years but nothing really bigger than the 10lb schoolies. This year I had aztrouteater let me borrow his boat and goodies and told me "Quit being a "Not Allowed", and go catch a 20". Started getting into some smaller fish here and there to build my confidence and i got a good one last night. I know theres a lot of people who are sticking bigger fish more often but this was a big deal for me. I remember being 16 and thinking about how im going to own a deps 250 one day. Then here i am on a boat, with a nice setup, and a 250 just getting after it. Unreal. Didnt have a scale but she measured 36 in Leviathan XXH rod, Okuma komodo 400, keta bass deps 250 Sorry for the cheesy video, i was so pumped Thanks to all that have helped, you know who you are. 20201023_192739_1.mp4

After buying, trying, liking, hating, using and breaking rods all year, I have finally decided to take a stab at building my own rod. I will update this as I go, and it will probably take me a month or two to get the rod completed. I will post tons of photos and probably a video or three as I go along. A lot of the components will change as this progresses, as I learn what I like and what I don't like. Mistakes will be made and lessons will be learned. I will post all of them here. Hopefully my screw ups will help out future builders. I have 100% confidence that I can build a rod, I am meticulous, and the lack of attention to details on commercial rods is usually what left me unsatisfied. Please feel free to offer ANY advice you have. If you are a professional, a hobby builder or someone who just fishes, I will read every word you write. This is not your typical swimbait rod. On paper it's more like a musky rod, but its truly designed for salt water. In my local area, it will be my big striper rod. If covid lets up, we are hopefully going to spend a few weeks or a month in Florida, looking to catch some barracuda, snook and maybe even a tarpon. The rod will have big guides, most of the fishing I do involves a 40-60lb leader, and 100+ for musky. Anyway.... on to the parts. My biggest hurdle so far was finding a blank for this rod that could be shipped to me. 9 foot is my magic number. I've owned a bunch of them and its the length that I like. I have a 9' Megabass and its a fantastic rod, throws up to 3oz baits great. The rod has 2 major downfalls for me. First, the micro guides. Second, the 15" grip is too short (for me). I found American Tackle's Bushido Warrior. I called AT, and spoke with Alex, who happened to be a swimbait guy as well. We spoke for about 30 minutes, and he mentioned that the Warrior is a great blank, but felt that I would be happier with the Bushido BA (which is their "bad ass" blank) with 3k wrap. The BA blank is a bit more moderate, lighter, stronger and only $70 more. The biggest lures I throw are 3 1/8oz Arashi's so I opted for the 12-25lb rod, which has a 1-4oz lure rating, they also offer the blank in a 2-6oz and 3-8oz. I chose the 1-4oz, hoping that its accurately rated. Joe from HFF Custom Rods was who I was referred to as a dealer to place an order for the blank. $169.99 later, shipping included and I had a tracking number that my blank was shipped directly from AT. (More to come.....)

I’ll get a bait, to trade towards another bait. It is what it is. Just accept it and move on. Make some friends and then you don’t have to pay double for Certain baits. There’s plenty of fair prices for stuff, but some you gotta suck it up and give in.

Love my 86 baits

Add some chartreuse to my deps game!!! Excited to that baby wet..

Yes

Been looking for a river pike all year, finally got this decent one. Pretty short but fat. Smoked the storm 360GT 5.5"

The SUB Tournaments for the 2020-2021 schedule will follow the moon phases. The 2020-2021 schedule is as follows: November 13th - 19th December 11th - 17th January 8th - 14th February 5th -11th March 12th - 18th April 9th - 15th May 7th - 13th June 11th - 17th July 9th - 15th August 6th - 12th September 3rd - 9th Sept 17th - 23rd Battle for the Underground October 1st - 7th Wild card qualification: you must not be the winner of that months SUB tournament and meet one of the following conditions submit a bass over 10 lbs be within 8 oz of the winning submission maximum 1 wild card slot per month New rules for 2020-2021 season Entire fish must be pictured on a scale Image of fish on a measuring board must be included Rules may be changed at the administrative team's discretion

Had 2 good nights on some wake baits with buddy Neil. That pig pike sucked that moonlighter down like a big largemouth. When I reeled into her she dove down an I thought I had my 8lb bass. Well I can tell ya when I got my head lamp on an saw it was a pike i was heart broken. LoL. Any time you can get on wake fish it's a blast

This year has been a grind from the very beginning. That being said I have managed to fish with some great people, pin a few decent fish, and land my first meanmouth. Hoping the last part of the season gets the big girls feeding. Good luck out there everyone.

How often does illude do bait drops? I've been trying to find some for a while now with no luck! I check their Instagram all the time looking for dates or something but never see much. But then I'll see people with the new stuff they just dropped. And what do the prices for them look like as well

Thanks for the advise man

Nice man!

Thanks @merkexpress I checked out a few rods at my local shop this morning, a lot of them have guides set up similarly to what I was thinking. They all started with a 20 or 16, and all ended with 10's or 8's. So I am in the ball park.

I have finished the bait now it’s time for some foil and paint and then catch one. Going to try and get a swim test in today.It has a sink rate of a foot every 2 seconds which IMO is pretty good.

Pretty pumped to watch this unfold! I’ve built a good bit of rods! Good luck man! SIC guides will work just fine and that’s what I’ve used on a majority of my SWB builds! IMO the torzite is overkill with big baits! (Speaking from experience) PM me if you have any questions, I’ll try to help

I would have a collection of I could actually buy them lol, I have one and I fish it but like all my other swimbait I usually wind up but 3 extras of I love the lure can't help it I need back ups for the unthinkable scenarios like losing one

Good ones

Most of what Lendl makes now doesn’t even make it to a drop anymore. Occasionally he will post some stuff on his website but the demand is so high that it’s not often. Prices vary from bait to bait. Expect to roughly spend about $100 or more. He has a couple baits in the $75 range and the stiletto is $57.

Yea but he does any custom paint you want. Was more referring to 10 inch hudds as those are like 75~

Finally made it to the seven pound club today with this fall slug that clocked in at 7-0 and 21.75 inches, the girth on this fish was unreal, I couldn’t wrap my hand around her tail fully.

I do have one. Im building confidence up to throwing baits that size.

Completely different baits. Better is subjective.

@MA Frog Man spot Burner mine of my favorite and hated places all at the same time

Been working on some carving trying to make my gills more defined.I decide to try something I’ve never done before which was an eye lid and have started weighting it.

Congrats to @xpman05 for the win and @Bass_Killer777 for the teener, I am absolutely wiped after fishing for 5 days straight. Didn’t end up with much to show for it but it was a super fun experience. Rolled the dice and went for a little road trip while living out of my truck for a few days. I love the gamesmanship of keeping the 14-15 in your pocket until the last minute.

a) adjust and make the right call; b) persevere and get rewarded; c) get away with a mistake fighting a large fish; and d) best of all - set the hook and she says "nah.... I'll just stay right here!"

Latest small swimbait setup. LDC white label 79MH/Conquest DC200HG