RobbyZ5001

I am currently in the same sitiuation. It is a LONG gradual process in my opinion. I am fishing with Penn State but also trying to get involved with local clubs so I can get more tournament experience. Don't go to college for the fishing trust me that is just a bad decision. Go for your education primarily and make fishing work in your offtime. My suggestion to what to do may not be the right one... but it's the one i'm taking. I am fishing with my college team we fished the National championship in texas at lewisville and we will be attending lake newton for the big ten championship and some local tournies here and there.. Along with the college team I am tyring to get involved with an active club to get CHEAP more tournament experience. Then maybe a few years down the line I will try to get into some BFL tournaments and local tournaments and so on. In my mind.. you just need to put your time in and work at it like everything else at life. Good luck and work hard!

Odd today i fished and i anchored about ten feet from someone and fished the brush pile. What a coinsidence.... Just kidding but on the real.. I just had a bass tournament today on a 72 acre lake with 9 boats and everything went well... suprisingly!

My topwater rod has a braid setup on it. What could I swap into that setup? Could I swap a crankbait on it? The lake I fish at home is FULL of alfewife shad that like to come to the surface when schools of bass and striper chase them so I usually keep a topwater rigged. The lake I am fishing this tournament in doesn't have that condition so I guess I could swap it. Also they just stocked trout in this lake i'm fishing.. will this force the bass to do some different movement or habits?

As the title states I have a bass fishing tournament tomorrow at 7:30-3:30. Right now I have 4 rigged rods crankbait, senko, jig, topwater. I was thinking about using my only other rod I have at college which is a 5'6 ultra light trout rod for a 4 inch berkley powerworm on a t-rig. I think I have 6 lb test on that reel right now but I have two spools one with 10 and one with 12. Should I just use what I have rigged now and swap in and out the trig and the senko? or should I hook that light rod up with bass gear? If you could help me out tonight yet that would be awesome! Thanks - Robby

You say stradic... What models? Or all of them?

How many of you keep fishing logs every trip and take notes? What logging program do you use? I have just been keeping "mental" notes but I think I would benifit from a logging system of some kind to put together patterns and so on. Also do any of you keep a folder full of lake maps with key points? Thanks - Robby

Fish will hold tighter to structure. You can fish plastics you can put rattle tubes in them I would put them toward the tai. I would use baits with a lot of noise and fish very slowly. Good luck!

The reason I am looking into quantum is there a local discount on the gear.

I'm looking to buy a couple Quantum reels, rods, and i'm wondering if anyone has experience with them. I am mainly looking at spinning reels such as catalyst, pti energy and so on. The rods I am completely clueless about. If you have any comments about quality and which one you would suggest please reply! Also I was wondering about cold weather gear. Any suggestions what to get? Thanks! -Robby

Last winter I did not run the gas out of the lines. I dont know if that is the problem or what, but everytime I take my boat out and throttle it up it chokes out. I can go slower and it will be fine, but once I throttle all the way up it just shuts down. I changed the gas in the gas tank. I tried another gas tank. I tried running it with the gas cap off. I don't know what it could be I took it to the boat mechanics in my area. Neither mechanic could find anything wrong with it. I dont know if they hooked it up to diagnostics or what they did. Any help would be appreciated thank you! -Robby

Right now I have a the following 6' Fish Eagle II casting graphite 10-17lb 1/4-3/4oz with a Pfluegar Trion reel 6' Okuma Solaris IM6 Graphite 4-12lb 1/8-1/2oz and a abu garcia 103 reel 6' berkley lightning with another abu garcia reel I know this is FAR from the best gear. I am in college and the spending is a little tight, but I am looking to buy a new setup to start assembling my basic setups. What would you suggest I use these 3 rods for? What would you suggest I pick up? I currently use the 6' lightning as a topwater setup, the Fisheagle II as a crank setup, and the okuma as a finesse setup. I'm looking at buying another spinning setup and looking at quantum spinning reels. Thanks- Robby

All my life I have been using spinning gear. This year I broke down and bought a Pflueger trion and a cabelas fish eagle II 6'. I am looking to upgrade my gear and go towards higher end gear. The thing is i'm not 100% comfortable with casting gear. I'm no where near as accurate as I need to be, I need a ton of practice yet with it. I just don't know if I should dump more money into a new casting set up if I can't really use it properly. I have been reading a lot on BR and it seems everyone uses casting over spinning, I was wondering why? Is it the drag system or feel? Any advice would be great! Thanks- Robby

I tried reading up on BFL's. I dont quite know if my general understanding is right. I would have to go as a non boater. As a non boater you get drawn as if it was a lottery. Also if I could somehow sign with a boater I would have a 100% chance of getting in the bfl tournaments. How to the fees work for the BFL? Does the BFL have a monthly charge? Is the fee for a non boater $100 at the events? What about the weekend angler what is the general outline how that works? Thanks -Robby

I am currently 20 years old and go to college at penn state university. I have been in love with fishing all my life. In the past 2 years it sort of struck me that I want to fish competitively. I fished my first competitive local tournament this summer on a local lake as a coangler (didn't perform). I am looking for advice from you tournament anglers out there that are doing it successfully and cashing pay checks. What do you reccomend I start doing? Should I take time and familiarize myself with the basic presentations such as cranks, worms, spinners, topwaters, jigs? Should I study maps, read, watch videos, get everything I can get my hands on about bass fishing? I don't want to worry about sponsers right now because at this point of time i'm not near good enough to worry about sponsers. Also I dont have my boat at college I have been fishing from shore at local spots. Small local spots 72 acres 150 acres etc. I know anytime you go fishing you learn something, but will fishing from shore really start making things click? I feel when i'm on my boat I have more freedom to find the fish and really try to figure them out. I'm not limited to the shoreline, I can fish the riprap, midlake flats, humps etc. Any advice is appreciated Thanks!