That's a good reply, and I wouldn't really argue with it. 4-6 pound fish don't raise my eyebrow, they're really common (I believe we've had a 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 fish weighed in every tournament our club has held this year) And the way you said it doesn't make it sound like I'm a fool with a Snoopy pole because I haven't caught one (here's looking at you, Beadle)

I'm not sure why everybody gets their doggone panties wadded up when I say "8 pound fish are highly unusual on the Coosa", but this is twice now that I've said it and folks have lost their everloving minds about it. My main point was consider how lucky you have to be, to be the THE PERSON who catches that 8 pound fish in a $10,000 ABT. It would be a really lucky day to go to Neely or Logan and catch an 8+ pounder, but it would be a REALLY lucky day to do it in the ABT or any other big-money derby. And while 20+ pounds has become much more common on the Coosa, still consider how infrequently you catch that size limit, and then how lucky you are to do so in a $10,000 ABT. THAT is all I'm saying!!!!!! I'm just blown away at the lucky odds people have.

If you can read between the lines, what you ought to take away from my position is that I do not believe skill is involved, it's 95% luck. Maybe that's where I differ from others, and maybe that's why folks are taking me to task about it. To hear Beadle put it, I'm "skilled" enough to catch 7-8+ pound fish each year on other lakes (including a 10# at Wedowee), and I'm skilled enough to catch 6-1/2 pound fish on the Coosa, but I'm not skilled enough to catch an 8 pound fish on the Coosa???????? Bullshux!!! It ain't about skill!!! It's simply the odds because that many fish of that size don't live there. It's loooooooong odds.

Here's something I thought about earlier that I wanted to point out... Remember a few years ago when Hunter & Canada were winning all these Coosa tournaments with huge bags of spots? Everybody basically ran them out of town because they thought they were cheating. Well here's what should surprise you-- that didn't seem crazy to me at all. THAT is what the Coosa is known for, and it wasn't that uncommon for us to go have 20+ pounds of spots below the dams (we were doing that before it was cool I guess you could say) We used to often put in on 77 right there at Ohatchee creek below Neely dam in the afternoons and it wasn't common to run up there and catch a couple of 5 pound spots. (But even that has become way less easy now) That's all those guys were guilty of--being the first fools to run an hour from Pell City to the Ohatchee dam to catch those huge spots. So it just blows my mind that people were that bent out of shape about two guys catching what (at that time) was plentiful on the Coosa, but apparently those same people think everybody always catches 8 pound largemouths on the Coosa.