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Was lucky enough to be able to test a 7” trout glide from Hoog Swimbaits and got a decent one to eat it on a cold windy post front NJ day. Paired with the new Nameless Custom Rods 711 H - def a sweet set up. IMG_0366.mov

I've been trying to break the state record in my homestate for seven years now. I know where I have a great shot to catch that fish and I know with FFS I could have a great shot at that fish, and easily break my PB in the process. That said, I'd never feel like I truly succeeded in my goal if buying the FFS is what finally made the difference. But even then I'm fishing against anglers in several thousand dollar boats with the FFS and the only reason they aren't catching those fish is because they haven't figured that lake out yet. I'd be proud as hell to succeed without it, but I'd feel awfully stupid to miss out on a giant fish for my pride. Run two livescope units on gimbals connected to two separate VR headsets with head tracking. That way you and your co-angler get a real time view of wherever you’re looking, don’t need to crane your neck downward to see, and both have access to the livescope visuals. As to whether or not bass will be able to adapt to this, I’ll just say that folks have been spotlighting deer since the invention of a portable light, and the deer haven’t gotten any smarter. Yet big bucks still turn up where the dirt road access is poor and the tree cover is good.

2 stops in the South around the spawn - both top tens were 100% scopers. It's not going to matter if the fish are shallow or deep or hiding under a dock...live sonar is going to put every single fish in play. Anyone who says "it's just a tool" is a tool. There hasn't been a tech paradigm shift like this, ever.

There's quite a few city ponds in the area that have bass and are stocked with trout, so there may be a few large fish scattered between them Pm'd, thanks man.

Thanksgiving weekend on 2 piece resin backwater blank swamp painted like a rat Last weekend, 3 piece I made out of pine

I throw the Cl8 crankin baby possum all the time, they actually bite it when nothing else works and based on the way they demolish it it flat out pisses them off triggering a strike. Ice Water 7lber smoked it slow rolling it up tight in early April. You really need to try a crank down rat, they get bit when the wake versions don't.

If anyone is looking for a way to install DRT knobs on there stock Reel Handle hit me I will point you in the right direction and it will only cost you 9 bucks if you own a drt knob and mk1 wheel hope this will help any one being priced gouged it's gotten way out of hand

Ill sign up

100%. It will be all the sweeter when you do finally catch her!

Placed an order yesterday for the Legit Design WSC68XXH-5 Big Bait Special from Amazon Japan. $261 shipped - they have a few left along with 2 other models of 5 piece casting rods and 2 of the 5 piece spinning rods. As a fellow bank beater, I'm excited to try this one out!

Its a great rod honestly, i own 2 originally bought for muskie fishing till i moved down south and now is my big bait rods, for the price they are unbeatable honestly, i throw mu hudds on one and wake baits, sometimes bigger glides on the other.

I think in ways it could actually help fisheries maybe in a few ways, one we are learning more about bass and other species way faster than ever before now because of it, and if wildlife management starts using it they can get more in depth studies on how fish are acting/reacting in the moment instead of tracking tags over long time periods. Those bass that are sitting out deep that are primarily targets with ffs will learn and adapt as they see more baits than ever before. But also it can hurt some populations in lakes that maybe have a lower population to begin with, I can see how that small percent of fish that die from the stress of being caught and everything could make a difference in overall populations since those fish had never been targeted before. Im still new to ffs, only owned one for a little over a month and i can see how much of a game changer it can be, i was finding bait balls and bass/crappie in areas i never would've seen before, but just because you can see them doesn't mean you can catch them lol, ive spent a fair amount of time casting at a fish and seeing my bait go right by without it even turning. As the spawn is coming around in most the country my actual fear is more that those fish that spawn a little deeper that maybe for the most part dont get targeted on their beds, now with perspective mode you can see them clearly so those fish will now be pulled off beds like never before which could also hurt them long run possibly. (And no, im not one of the anti-bed fishing guys, i still go out and target beds occasionally, just pointing out that those fish that you don't see in normal circumstances now can be seen and targeted off beds)

It is prob cuz they don't throw sbs much. I was pumped to meet Steve Kennedy at a sports show to discuss an elites torney he won with in Caly with a huddleston. He hardly remembered it. I think somebody just handed him one to use and he never threw it again. Weird.

What's funny is after typing message mentioning Jordan Lee above, I got a tiktok vid feed of Jordan Lee talking about the Lake Fork torney, and the role ffs unquestionably played in it. He stated what I now know having fished Champlain many times. With ffs, you can now target disbursed fish with accuracy. And if they want to eat like during an early pre-spawn scenario, it is a game changer. PS. I have fished Champlain during Memorial Day weekends many times. I found good fish in small pockets (almost spawning pairs) pre spawn and hadn't moved up in 20 feet of water. I could spot them with my traditional scans, but could never really target them well making random casts to the tiny area where I thought they were. The structure area was so small. So when I watched the Elites on Champlain on tv, it brought back memories of these fish I had scoped but had little chance of catching. With the ffs you can hit those spots with accuracy rather than wasting your time trying to get a bait to them.

@MurdaJ we need to go saltwater bass fishing with big baits

I’ll throw it when it looks like buzzbait/plopper time. On a clear lake that might mostly be lowlight conditions or rainy days. If it’s a shallow dirty lake could be all day when bites on. You need quality fish shallow and feeding. Close to heavy cover is ideal mainly because that’s where you will find quality bass shallow. Casting angles are same as I would throw a plopper or buzzbait. I’ll try and get close to a bank and make long casts or throw right over thickest wood I can. I’m typically using the spro50 btw.

Bucca baits burn well so do a few of the soft swimbaits like the raid 170 burns ice and true with great action

You can make your own grenade style weights pretty easily.

https://www.varivas.fishing/product/tg-grenade-sinker-qcs/

My legit design rod came in today, I got the Stand Out 66XH+. For now I’ve only casted into some grass, still iced out. I casted the DoubleH Mir (3.6oz) and it felt great, loaded up well and felt very powerful. The rod is rated to 4.5oz max, and I think I would confidently throw a 4oz bait on it. The posted action is moderate fast and I agree with that, it’s not so fast that I would feel banished to exclusively using mono, you can definitely put a nice bend into it. Went walking into the woods and the rod felt extremely maneuverable, way more than I expected. Downsizing 1.5 feet makes a huge difference. I’m excited to test out how much it helps casting/hooksetting in tight as well. Not too much more to say until I fish it, but something I appreciated out of the box was the bulbous rubber Fuji rod butt. This is a nice touch and way more durable than the cork butt on the deps sidewinders for example.

Yeah this is the exact problem I was trying to solve too! Excited for this ice to gtfo

I loved long rods and long handles since I started swimbaiting. Was mainly shore banging for 5+ yrs but damn, now I'm on a kayak, man....the long handles are now a hindrance a lot of times. Sucks because I feel like I dialed in my setups for all my different baits.

64 xxh legit design rod. Been my bank beater for 2 years now and love. Biggest catch has been 7 lbs and was a great fight. Only lost 2 fish I can remember with this rod.

Leviathan xxh can do it easily. I cant remember what I was throwing on mine the other day that was below the 6-16 oz rating but it did great.

Hangover

I've been ogling the Valkyrie VKC66XH that someone had mentioned in another thread. From what I hear it has a very parabolic load up for a short rod making it more suitable for fishing big hard baits. It also has similar stats to the short rod I use right now, the legit design WSC65XXH. I love that rod and I still contend that it's the most fun rod I own, but the rod is a bit on the fast side for a hard bait rod so I use soft mono to compensate for the action and a fast reel to pick up as much line as possible. You still get relatively poor hooksets outside of thirty meters and if you hook a fish at the end of a long cast the success rate of actually landing the fish is somewhat poor since the combination of short and fast action isn't a great mix for fighting fish. Thankfully most of the fishing I do with this rod is in the 5-10 meter range where the actual fight is pretty brief and you can just horse the fish to the net.

Shimano Bantam 168XH. Totally awesome rod. Have an Antares MD on it and fish everything from a TK to a Phoney Shad on it. Whoever came up with this rod should design a slightly heavier 7'3 rod for 2-8 oz baits. Same kind of design and bend.

Im a huge fan of the Toxic Sniper Swim by Irod. Never been big on Irods, but this rod is an exception.

With some help from a buddy