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Lil tough bassing with multiple fronts coming through today but found this pretty decent pickerel - such an epic bite.

Got 4 about this size

I'm real glad to have in the battle once again with you all. But like others, my fishing was brutally tough! I fished hard, but you can't make them eat. Especially these Florida fish that are known to shutdown in weather they don't like. Mornings in the upper 40s in October didn't go over well. Best I could do was this low 5. I'm not sure I can show you that bait though! Congratulations to those that made it. I hope to be back again next year!

I sure tried to pull something out today!! It got super windy and that’s when I found the bigger ones slippin!! Landed 5 fish today these were the better ones at 6-3 and 8-1 both ate the PB rat cranked subsurface. Now I just gotta find my way back in this thing for a 3rd year in a row!!

Was a great week of fishing and not working (took the week off) fished 3x and not much to show for it. fished a “trophy management lake” in CT for the first time, was a long haul but gorgeous scenery, landed 15-18 fish, biggest being a 3.13 on the 8th cast of the day thought it was going be an epic day. But another low 3 and heavy 2 lber were the best I could manage along with a bunch of tiny hungry aggressive fish. Fished this morning, super windy and leaves all over the surface made it tough to get a clean cast. happy to have been able to fish the battle this season, was a great time overall. I will say the scenery this time of year in NE is pretty epic! and at least I didn’t spell the code wrong.

About to launch and give it all I’ve got one more day! I logged 49 hours on the water between Friday and Monday, all at a new place I’d never been to before. Probably not ideal, but I knew the place had the quality I’m looking for. Had a damn blast, especially since they wanted to eat the crawler all day long! Caught some healthy 2-3 pounders but managed a 4-5, 4-6, 5-7 and a 6-6. I mean you can’t be mad at that…. Hoping to land a new PB today, would be the most epic day to do so!!

Fished really hard and enjoyed participating in my first battle. Found some numbers the last few days but unfortunately not the size. This one on the burrito line through was the biggest I got. Bite slowed down here in FL but I may go out tomorrow for one last try. Congratulations on those monster catches.

What a GRIND… Haven't fished this hard this many consecutive days probably ever… Wish I could say I’ve been banging on em, but bites have been VERY hard to come by… averaging 1-3 bites a day… Day Three I missed connections on some fish that absolutely would have had me in the running, but I didn’t fish as clean as I could have and blew it… ended up with a 2+,3+ and a 4.1 that evening on the last lake of the day. Yesterday morning scraped up a 21”er that didn’t even go 5 somehow(4.9) before having to cut the day short to go pick up the kiddo… Ended up sleeping an hour and a half last night before dragging myself out of bed to get back after it… Spent the first two hours crawling baits DEAD slow to no avail, so started changing up retrieves and got a massive swirl… within the hour had another 3ish immediately followed by a 6.7 that choked the Countdown Billrilla. Same length as yesterdays fish with over 2.5lbs more packed onto her frame… Gonna give it one final go this evening and possibly tonight. Regardless, it’s been a blast revisiting some old haunts and grinding my ass off… Always grateful to participate in the Battle! IMG_3800.mov

Algae sucks in socal. Suffered on the shoreline for a couple of days with no bites until i got this one on the boat. When I landed this girl, thought for sure it was a winner. But this is cutting it real close.

As I was heading back to school Monday I decided to stop at one of my best fall spots and see if the high water had brought in some Pike. I walked up and immediately saw baitfish everywhere but not much was chasing. It took a while, and a few missed strikes from small fish, but I got the strike I was looking for. This fish was sitting right at 30" and FAT. I kept casting around, hooking a giant fish shortly after. I am 99% sure it was just a foul hooked carp, but I did see an upper 30" Pike hunting later that night, that could've done the same to me. The fish made a run so fast I couldn't even think, ripping out locked down drag and immediately bending out the hook out. For my sanity, we will say it was a carp. A while later, after missing a few short strikes I landed this decent smallie, my first of the season on the big bait. I missed these guys, it seems like they are starting to fire up now in the colder temps. I stuck around until dusk hoping I could find a walleye to complete the trifecta, but no such luck. I did run into a little smallie blitz, catching 4 fish in 5 casts before they shut off. Nothing big, but it's all fun. Happy that I could find the time to get out in one of my favorite home spots and enjoy some beautiful fall weather and fishing!

Holy crap there’s been some studs caught!! Got married this past weekend and back at school this week so won’t be able to fish unfortunately!! Still stoked to be a part of this and see some dope catches!! Caught this one the day before the tourney started but doesn’t look like it would’ve done much anyway lol!

Went out with a buddy at a local lake full of tigers that I have had decent luck at before. We arrived and quickly found out there were both a kayak and boat bass tournament so the lake was swamped. We paddled over to one of my favorite spots and drifted with the wind. As we were drifting into the next spot one of the bass boats cut us off and caught a tiger. Very frustrating, but an often occurance at this lake. We kept fishing and decided to try a new spot for me. Within 10 or so casts I had a low 30s on the glide. This was probably the craziest tiger fight I've ever had with the fish jumping often, once even jumping clear over the front of the canoe. 20230916_135237.mp4 We kept fishing and I had one close to 40 show some interest in the 8" magdraft shortly after. This was the last interaction with tigers for the day, only catching a few small bass. I can't complain about catching a fish but man did we have to work hard for the lab rats today, probably paddled 3 or 4 miles total. Time to do it again tomorrow!

I fish in Maryland which isn’t really northeast but is in your neck of the woods. Up until this year I felt the same way as you and would throw the 250 here and there with sporadic success. This year I dedicated a lot of time from March-June to mostly throwing the 250 and a few other big baits, and things finally started to click. It resulted in more exciting moments and more heartbreak than any of my previous years of fishing. I landed a couple fish in the 5lb range, dumped a mid 6, dumped a giant tiger muskie, and had many opportunities at 5-7lb fish. One of the main factors was focusing on waters with either trout or gizzard shad as major forage. I have had very little success with getting bites or even follows on lakes lacking one of these two forage items. The second major factor was wind-every bite I had was in moderate to heavy wind. Sunny or overcast/rainy didn’t seem to matter. The areas were no secret-laydowns, rock piles, long points, all with immediate deep water access. It was a matter of hitting these spots at the right time and from the right angle in relation to the wind and so the fish can pin the bait. Third and final factor was commitment. On my best trip when conditions were ideal and fish were fired up, I got 5 bites, but most trips were a grind for one good opportunity type of deal. The important thing was not to downsize, and almost without fail, the opportunity would come.

Lots of lure washing today for me. One bite ended up being a 12” pickerel that ripped the tail of a 68 hudd, 6 hours on the water plus two hour round trip, on not that much sleep. Winds were 15-25mph today and water was 58-60, with some nice sideways rain. Try again tomorrow. least the fall colors are nice! be safe out there guys. When I got off the water today it was legit white caps and just getting snottier.

I finished the wood glides made from cedar. The clear coat came out amazing and the swims is killer. Can’t wait to catch ‘em with them.

9.5” with the tail, 5.6 oz Who knows how many hours I have into this bait at this point. Finally close to having it dialed. Silky and stable at slow/ medium pace and can get some distance on a long glide. Doesn’t blow out on a fast retrieve and handles rod inputs well. Leave it to me to build a trout profile bait with no trout anywhere near me (central Texas)… so I threw a gizzard-ish paint job on it. Need to spend some more time with the airbrush for sure. Swim video: you may have to manually change to 720p resolution if it defaults to 240p.