Nico

I definitely wonder where that harness went.... the next few years / months will be interesting, especially of anything shows up. Not right at all. Pretty sickening.... How would you know? This isn't an ironclad piece of investigative journalism by the Wall Street Journal. This is people who already didn't like Mark using the accusation as an opportunity to bash him on the internet. You aren't going to find much substance here, definitely not enough for you to start jacking up people you don't know. The internet is the worst place to hash out these types of disputes, for the reasons I just stated. At least the mods over at SwmbaitNation had the common sense to shut things down before their forum turned into a cesspool. Enough of the bashing. Fishing was good today! Swimbait fix is taken care of, but going back for more tomorrow anyway

Refer to my first sentence regarding pissing contests. It's late march. A nice storm is approaching. I'm loading up the boat with gear and heading out for a weekend of fishing. Have a great weekend everyone!

I have no interest in joining this pissing contest. But what I will say is that I've known Mark for a long time, and he's always been a great person who cares about his friends and the fishing industry. He has my respect.

Bandwagons are circling.

Chris is awesome. Fast shipping and bait is in perfect condition.

NorCal. Water temps are in the mid-upper 40s here right now, but at least it's still water Early afternoon really is consistent across lakes and times of year, though. Either the coldest part of the year (first few weeks of January) or the warmest (August?), in deep clear lakes or shallow muddy ones, that time of day is awesome. The worst time of day to be fishing? 9am-noon in my experience. Also, Don's just being humble again. I wish I knew half as much as he does about swimbait fishing the big NorCal lakes every time we're getting our asses kicked in tournaments up here

Top 5 swimbait fish all bit around 2-3 pm. Different lakes, different months, but same time of day. Right after the sun hits the water and right before it dips below the horizon is generally a good time as well. But the donkeys like to bite in the random afternoon hours for some reason.

+1 ++1 Sometimes, ok lots of times, the biggest fish in the lake would rather eat the normal gear than a swimbait. At times like those you have to decide what's more fun. Catching big fish or catching nothing on swimbaits. I personally love catching giant fish on regular gear, but it's up to you. That being said, you may also have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the swimbaits, and would have caught a 6lb spot had you been on his fish. If they're aggressive enough to hit a rip bait, there's probably a big fish around that would want to take a crack at a fast moving swimbait. And if they're going to take a crack at something, it's the perfect opportunity to run and gun as much big fish water as humanly possible. Watch a Butch Brown video, then do the exact opposite

And who REALLY cares what image some people have that 3:16 baits are popular for reasons that don't involve fish??? That is truely a hater comment. It is %$#@en made in america by Americans bait and company. Don't the wine bag cry baby's have anything else to snivel about? Your gonna split hairs over who fishes the baits vs who collects the baits? You should be ashamed of your self ! It's not hard enough to make a living in times like these as a swimbait company? Who's side are you on dude? Amazing! To the point. I can respect that. I should have known better than to contribute to a thread such as this.

Build quality and customer service are great, but since the fish don't care they don't factor much into my swimbait purchases. Maybe I'm alone on that one. Everyone has a different opinion about what makes a good or a bad swimbait. There's no right answer of course, other than whatever makes the buyer happy when they're out on the water. But my original point was that the comments in this thread are simply re-enforcing the image some people have that 316 baits are popular for reasons that don't involve fish. Also. I've fished Don's water. It ain't "easy" anymore

I posted a few photos with teener swimbait fish in the 2011 year in photos thread on not allowed. Too much fun with stripers, tournaments and regular fishing to make it a very productive swimbait year, though

Threads like these don't do much to improve the reputation of 3:16 swimbaits. The few haters (your label, not mine) out there say they are quality baits, but don't produce numbers or quality of fish as other swimbaits. When you read through this thread, stuff like the paint job, built quality and customer service are promoted above the catch rate, much to the bemused disbelief of the haters. Build quality and all is nice to have, but it shouldn't be the reason you're paying for a lure. You should buy it because it gets bit. Period. Just an observation, from someone who enjoys fishing 3:16 lures and has caught several DD fish on them.

NorCal. I don't have the right kind of time on the water to test hard baits, so count me out there. But soft baits... yes.

Easy... 10 inch triple trout. Readily available and a fish catching machine.

Finding new reasons to love this rod almost every month