evans_usmc69

In

Flew in on Wednesday night and got to fish Thursday Friday and some on Saturday(too hungover for Sunday). What a trip.....the fishing was way tougher than last time I went(spawn in April 2017) but just being on the delta is like fishing on Mars compared to where I live. It was a brutal bite as the tourney weights showed but I managed a decent one on the floater balam. Wouldn't of mattered if the fish was less than a pound, it absolutely crushed it close to the boat. Had a few other smacks and slaps, but didn't get any hooks in em. Sometimes you remember the fish, sometimes you remember the bite. I'll always remember the sound that fish made when it crushed the bait. Thanks again to Ceaser and his fam for letting me fish such an amazing fishery. I can't wait to get back out there again and try it again! Also, thanks to everyone at Toxic Day 2, such a crazy event. If I missed anyone at the event, I apologize, I was way too hungover to do much lol

Had a blast and met a ton of cool people. Can't thank Ceaser and his family enough for the accommodations. If you ever doubt how much work Ceaser puts into his work/this event/life.....just go hang with the guy for a day, he'll change your mind real fast.

Pretty sure they are mostly hybrids in this area where STE was filmed.

My toxic og wood rats

I can't comment too much on an 807, I have one, but it's an old school cork handle 807. It is nothing like any other dobyns I have, much faster tip and stiffer rod than my other dobyns and even the spiralites. It's more of a 2-6oz walking bait/soft bait jig hook rod for me and I usually pick it up over an 867 or spiralite for walking top waters or use it for braided top water stuff. I'm not sure if the newer 807s are the same style blank or not but I would never throw a deps 250 on it, just because I prefer a rod that bends much more than what it does to keep them pinned with the 250. I'd throw a deps 250 on my fury 806 before the 807 that I own, like I said, the one I have is just completely different to me than any other rod I own. I think if you are looking for that in between range, it would be hard to beat the mav 83. I typically throw a wnc, wade hoggs, and 8" rising son on it. I prefer the mav 86 or deps 867 for the deps 250, but the mav 83 will handle one fine if you have something bigger tied on your heavier rod and need to use the 83. The fish in the pic were all caught on toxics and 83 mav telescopic the first day I used it. I was mainly cranking a wnc down in shallow 50ish degree water and trying to make contact with whatever I could(think pre spawn crank bite but with a wnc). It was sensitive enough to detect when I made contact with the bottom and also handled the 7lber in the pic just fine. Hard to beat beat both the mavs and fury series for the price in my opinion.

Well said! Wish I could be there! If I'm going to Cali though, I'd have to cast at a tooooolie and talk myself into a toxic or 4 lol I'll never forget seeing the fish wake behind my toxics like a shark stalking it's prey, yet to see that again!!! Toxic day 2020 at La Costa: Toxics, Tacos, and Tequila for everyone!?!?!?!?!?!

I agree with Mossy, 806 fury can throw a bait like a deps 250 but its at the absolute max top end and it will possibly screw you over with a big fish. I've got the 83 mav telescopic and its legit. I prefer the 86 but 83 for that 3-7oz range is hard to beat for the price. If you're looking more for a deps 250 and up rod, I'd try to find a 867 in the post apocalyptic shipping hell world but the 86 maverick telescopic is legit for the price too. I like both but its hard for me to get too far away from a dobyns 867 for 2-9oz baits.

Congrats! Glad to finally see it won outside of Cali!

One thing I've learned from fishing docks that have seen a lot of swimbaits is: get away from them. Not too far, but cast around them and find a sweet spot. Fish will get conditioned to seeing baits swim down the side of a dock, especially if you're fishing the best dock on a lake. They will follow your bait, but won't commit. The sweet spot may be 5 ft in front of it or 50 ft to the right or left, but the best dock on the lake is going to still hold fish, they just won't eat there because it is targeted constantly. If you can find the sweet spot close to it, you're going to be able to get them to bite again and again because you are fishing water that is overlooked by most. I actually found this situation by accident, not only the first catch, but the second as well until I put the pieces together. My only guess is that the big ones are still attracted to the best dock, but they have learned that they cannot feed there and instead setup close by and feed.

In

So awesome to of been a part of this and see that it's still going almost 5 years later!!

In

This https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P64VaBlsnoE&feature=youtu.be

Hard to beat good times with a grate fran. Had a blast and can't wait to do it again. Also, I just realized something. When i grow up, i wanna be a swimsuit chucker. Sounds like the gratest job ever.

Got out of the marines in 2006 and my dad got me back addicted to fishing and following bassmasters. 2007 clear lake bass tourney where Steve Kennedy won got me throwing swimbaits and then Matt Peters made me commit to them when he made STE in my backyard.

Here's my take on glides, take it for what it's worth because I am definitely no Butch Brown. I try to mentally make a note to change my retrieve as much as possible until I figure out how the majority of the fish want the retrieve. No matter what bait you are throwing, learn it and learn it's limitations. If water is cold, I'm obviously gonna start out with a slow constant reel and then add slow long rod pumps to get the longest glide possible without making the bait appear too aggressive while also throwing in exaggerated pauses. With warmer water I'll reel faster and add in more aggressive left and right movements along with quicker pauses. I just keep changing it up until the fish show me what they want. I learned really fast that a glide bait is going to show you a ton of fish, but the biggest difference between a guy new to fishing a glide bait and someone that has experience is the ability to make the fish commit and bite. The theory I've developed after throwing these addictive baits for a few years is the T-Rex theory. Think of the t-rex from the first Jurassic Park movie. He doesn't really want the goat tied down(although he does eventually eat it lol) but what he really wants to do is chase. A dying prey isn't going to move slower when it sees a bass trying to eat it, just as anything else in nature. The instinct to survive is going to kick in and the prey is going to do it's best and use what energy it has to try and escape. So what i do to try and mimic this is to speed the bait up and/or make the bait more aggressive as soon as I see a fish near the bait. Within the first aggressive glides after seeing the fish, you're gonna know whether or not that fish is going to eat or not. Read the fish's body language. If it doesn't seem that interested after you speed it up, slow back down and see if you can get him interested again. However, if he does seem interested and he looks excited, the hard part is over, now you just have to make him bite. At this point the fish is going to start gliding with the bait or following while trying to position itself to eat the bait. You'll notice smaller fish usually try to position themselves to hit the head so that they can reposition the bait to go down head first while a larger fish usually don't care because they can swallow the bait however they please. What seems to work best for me is to speed the bait up until the fish gets close enough to strike and then I do a left right pause or a left right left right pause. And by pause i mean just split second to stop the bait right in front of their face and make them react. If no bite, repeat process. Don't hesitate to do this right at the boat. If you run out of room, just start figure 8ing the bait. If you practice the figure 8 at the boat, you'll notice with a deps that if you give it enough slack it will almost 180 by itself. Just give it slack until it hits that 180 area and then another twitch and it will go back the other way. I do the figure 8s by just twitching the rod, just make sure you have enough slack line out. If you have a fish that follows to the boat kinda low and not so close to the bait, I've became a firm believer that the fish may still bite. Be persistent and don't take the bait out of the water, you may still get him to react and bite. If I don't see the fish bite, I usually just set the hook like any normal reaction hook set. However, if I do see the fish bite, I just try to lean into the fish more than anything. I've missed too many fish trying to set the hook when I see them bite. With the pause in their face tactic like I mentioned above, you're gonna get a lot of fish on the back hook so always keep the net as close to you as possible or you're gonna dump a lot of fish(also learned this the hard way!!). No matter what glide you're using(and note most of this was wrote with a deps 250 in mind), nothing is going to beat time on the water and learning the bait. Learn the bait's limitations and practice manipulating the bait to how you want it to look in the water. If you're lucky enough to have clear water then hopefully what I've typed up will help you out.....If not, disregard because I have no clue how to make a fish bite in water that has little to no visibility. I went almost 7 months of fishing a deps 250 before I finally caught one. 7 months and probably hundreds of followers! I still don't catch all the ones I see and even miss some of the aggressive ones. You'll have fish tbone a bait and still somehow not get hooks or I've even seen them when they are really aggressive and just look like they forgot how to eat when its time to bite. Just keep casting and if you're lucky enough to fish a big glide bait on a body of water that has never seen them, you'll be in for a treat for sure. Btw, setups I'm using are og deps 250s wrapped and tuned by deefeesha or tuned by butch-spiralite mav 86 or dobyns 867 - Calcutta 401TE or Abu Garcia big shooter 60 - 30cxx.

30cxx and either Calcutta 401TE or Abu big shooter 60 lefty.

Just want everyone to know, me apologizing is when I throw my bait behind C's and tangle our ish all up lol we should of had at least one of those fish.

Not all hinkles are created equal. I have an older one that won't cut fast and blows out when sped up. I've caught very few fish on it because of this. However, my newer one doesn't blow out as easily and is more stable, also a much slower sink rate. I've caught plenty with it. The key to getting them to bite for me has been that stability and the ability to speed it up when a fish gets interested in it.

Hinkle for me. Mother is a good bait but all the maintenance of keeping it sealed keeps me away. IMO the hinkle can cut faster too therefore better able to trigger a follower. If money wasn't an issue, I'd be fishing them the same way you said, mother for colder Water, 40-49 and even up to 55ish, hinkle and deps from 50 degrees and higher. My older hinkle won't do it but my newer one I can fish fast by reeling and twitching it. Just gotta learn the limitations of the actual baits you have.

I firmly believe in the 2/3rds rule which is a largemouth can eat a meal 2/3rds the length of his body. So if you're throwing a 12" bait, minimum length that will eat it is 18", aka 3lbers on a Mother.....yep got video of that happening lol Stick to that and you'll be fine. Most important thing I feel is to match the bait size to your forage size.

If I had the money, I'd just buy the 867, hands down my favorite rod. Low on cash, fury 806. I like my old school cork handle 807, but it's easily replaced by the 867. The 807 I have is a faster action rod than the 806 and 867,if that's what you're looking for, but I agree with David, 867 is fine with a jig hook hudd too. I will use my 867 from a whopper plopper to a hinkle or mother and never had an issue.