Took a buddy with me from 1030am to 4pm and we caught a bunch. We fished Anchor, Finger, Wolf and all held good sandies and decided to leave the sandies at 2pm, as the sandy count got up to 100, to go hunt for bigs down south, targeting shallow structures near deep water. BAM! The plan worked. The bigs showed up good as you can see em on my SI pics. I caught total 9 bigs in two hours cuz they kept moving and i had to relocate about 20 yrds each time to stay on em. All bigs were caught on mepps #4 with 10# test, one was on a 1oz spoon. All sandies were caught on mepps #4. The bigs were 6# to 10# drag peeler beasts and I loved the fights!

I spent time coaching my buddy to catch a big on his 8ft heavy arse surf rod and 20# mono and he finally hooked a HUGE one at the end of the trip, but his drag was too loose and the fish peeling too much line so buddy adjusted his zebco drag and it locked up the drag and a loud POP on the line and buh bye lake record. LOL.

Good luck guys!

whoa nice!

I almost always use a very lightweight setup and have even more fun with those line peelers. 15 lb braid to 12 lb mono with a 1 oz spoon on a light rod. Pole bending fun!

SPT, when are you taking me for some of these Tawok Monsters!?!

Congrats!! Looks like a great day!

Solid post and fish. Good job.

great report

Great day out Todd👍

I picked up lots of good tips from fishing with many anglers. One is using light line for light lures like the mepps. For light line the weakest point most likely will be at the knot. So I learned the "noose knot" from DC himself after realizing DC can reel in a 12# hybrid on his 10# flour carbon line. The advantage of the noose knot is it "stretches" at the noose the more the pull. Other knots don't have stretch, or don't give so the knot will break.

All my bigs usually take me about 3 minutes (of fun) on light line and rods to bring em to the boat/net. Of course you have to let the drag work. It will require practice to gain confidence. You can definitely feel the lure and bite way better with light gears.

Let me know when you want to make the 3 hrs drive over. I don't handle the heat well in July or August but luckily we had rain Thursday so the temp got up to only 96f on Friday so it was a late game decision, coach Windbreaker

I also want to add the"noose knot" takes less than 5 seconds to tie. Maybe i can ask DC to make a video of it. I know some professional bass guys use the same knot for their flour carbon lines, but they double up the line. Also just like any none braid line, you need to retie after catching many, due to abrasions.

You make it look easy Todd see you soon

click on the link below

noose knot

Thanks, Steve but that's knot it This knot will work for ropes but not mono fishing line.

I put double quotes on the "noose knot" because the knot is similar to a "noose" but no one has a name for it. Let me ask mepps master DC to make a video of it. I might as well call it the Dennis' noosy knot

Awesome man, never seen such big fish on the SI!