bassdocktor

I can give you some information about this but I'd wait for one of the guys that actually fishes these if you want more details. Alot of these tournaments are regular lengths. If you fish the CAST program with American Bass Anglers you are fishing in one of thier regular tournaments. As far as the schools it depends. Some schools like the ones in Illinois will compete against each other. There is a tournament for all of the big ten schools. Again there is the CAST program which kinda puts any college team againts each other. Also now there is the Smash Mouth series too. As far as the boat again that depends. CAST you can fish as a nonboater or they allow you to fish as a boater with a nonboater. Smash Mouth right now as I've been told you need a boat. Alot of the actual college teams/clubs go to local clubs to find boaters or they have some shore tournaments. I know the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has two boats that belong to the club they use for outing. Hope this helps. If you do a search for "college fishing" "Big Ten bass fishing" you should find some stuff also. I'm working on starting a club myself and thats one of the ways I've found alot of information. bassdocktor

Wow acstech that reminds me of exactly how my one english teacher would have put that. I can say I haven't heard a few of those words for a while. bassdocktor

KVD Swindle and Shaw

Hey thanks for the idea. I actually tried looking at that once. Bass fishing returned like 3 people and fishing returned alot more. Yeah I might have to try that. I really didn't consider that route for finding people. Thanks, bassdocktor

Hey guys I know most of you aren't in Chicago but I figured maybe some of you know some people that are. I trying to get together a bass club at the University of Illinois Chicago and need to generate some interst first. If anyone know some people that attend there and might be interested if you could give them my email it would be appreciated. I'm there for the next 5 and a half years so I'll really be able to see this project through. I'm off for the next month so I've got some time to work on this getting it all organized. As I said I know some of you guys are in college and might have some friend over at UIC so as I said if you could pass along my email that would be great. Thanks, bassdocktor

I belong to one other one. Its only for Chicago and I really only visit it if I wanna find out some local information. Also I understand what you guys mean about this being a more family orientated forum. I was just browsing around there today and wow its a good thing we have the moderators that we do. Thanks to all the moderators, bassdocktor

Hey I agree the 332c is a great unit. The color feature is really nice in the gps mode because it helps you keep eveything straight. The menus are pretty straight forward too. I haven't gotten any of the preloaded cards yet, but there may also be another type besides the Hot Spot one. bassdocktor

Low Budget I just mean in general. I'd really be happy with anything. The guys I would go with just wanna catch it if it swims, they really don't care what it is. Also I've never really heard of anyone ice fishing for bass, but that would be pretty cool if that would work. bassdocktor

Yeah they have a new one going up in Illinois too. Can't wait this one will only be about 30mins away from me instead of over an hour. bassdocktor

Wow that sounds like an awesome program. I've never heard of that before. Is it widely available or is it limited to just your local lake? bassdocktor

Yeah I just started this year. I pretty much keep the same info as Low Budget does. I found that even after a year it has been helpful. I usually do it at the end of the day so it really helps me remember what I did that day. Also it has made me more aware of what I'm doing and gives me ideas for the next time I go out. bassdocktor

I was just wondering what you guys thought about it. I'm considering going out with one of my friends this year. Still not sure if I really wanna go and just sit in the cold. I obviously know wait til safe ice but just wondering your thoughts about ice fishing. Thanks, bassdocktor

I've got the Lowrance 332c and I belive its the x51 on the bow. Even though the x51 maybe a basic unit I've found it to be quite nice although I still would like to replace it in the future. The 332c is very nice. Had a few problems at first because we got a bad unit, but once that was fixed its been great. bassdocktor

Yeah I really don't know what it is except like I said maybe the extra bouyancy of the 3x's. Plus the one advantage too is that they will stay on longer. If you loose one it isn't that bad given how cheap you can get them on sale. Usually when I skip the 3x's I've been using a red Eagle Claw in a #1 size. It's been working just fine for the zeros. The bargin bin is how I found them. bassdocktor

Seems to be the wacky rig for me too. However, I haven't spent enough time with either one really but I have notice when I get one texas rigged it always seems to be a little bit bigger. I've also noticed that if you use the strike king 3x zero it seems to skip the best. I've compared it to several other brands and it just seems to be the easiest to get to glide on the surface of the water. My guess is the extra buoyancy that the 3x's have. bassdocktor

I caught more keepers this year than ever before by using a texas rigged Zoom Trick Worms. Seemed to be the one thing that kept catching them all year long. I also found more success with pitching and flipping tubes this year than in the past. Also in general thanks to alot of reading I did especially here, I was able to find alot more fish and actually figure out what they were doing. Just an observation but I bought my first bass boat this year and it seemed that the fish got bigger just like the boat. Seems like a pretty big coincidence but hey maybe I should have gone with the 21' instead of the 18'6". bassdocktor

Two questions for you. First does your boat have a live well? Second where about are you in South West Michigan. Depending where you are I do know of 2 small stores that have tournaments. Either post the info or send me a pm. bassodcktor

Being in Chicago I guess just make some money shoveling snow. After that I'll find as many seminars and magazies as I can plus spend alot of time here. Only nice thing about winter is I have college to keep me occupied. But from the choices I'd go with shake. bassdocktor

I started fishing some small local tournaments about 7 years ago when I was 12 now I'm 19. Although it wasn't a club it had that type of feel to it. I was able to fish with my dad. Although on paper I was counted as a partener when it came time to get a check they would only give it to him until I turned 16 or 18. They also had a rule that atleast one partner was 18 I believe. It was great and I still fish in those tournamnets. Personally I can say it was great even though it wasn't a true club. I've made alot of friends and learned alot from those guys. Plus being that young you get to hear some pretty cool stories as guys talk about hunting trips that they went on. The only 2 down sides that come to mind are that sometimes you hear some kinda strange akward conversations. Sometimes they look at you alittle strange but that may have been our boat too. Overall it was a great a experience even tough it was a club in its true nature. Personally I'd say go for it. bassdocktor

I've actually done alot of reading on this topic. Some of what I've read has gone into the biology of the bass aswell. They seem to agree that scents like garlic, grape, and I think I've seen cherry are to mask as people have said negative scents. Obviously we all get various thing like gas on our hands and then lures which might make the bass look twice at a lure. Pretty easy to see why something no foffensive to teh fish like garlic comes into play. Salt content in these attractants is also intersting. They believe that the salt helps to simulate the taste of blood. It all seems to make sense if you ever read about the biology of the bass. Hope this makes some sense, bassdocktor

Yeah it is the midwest I'm right in Chicago. Yeah I was kinda thinking about trying the jerkbait idea because I agree it is lik ethe Classic. Thanks, bassdocktor

Looks like the last time to get the boat out will be this weekend. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to approach it. Air lately has been about 50. Not really sure about the water. River has alot of barges and some regular boats aswell. Generally the banks are pretty shallow with a steep drop. A decent amount of timber with most in about no more than 2ft. Middle of the river no more than 15ft. Some little marinas and bridges with cement posts and very little weeds in the water during the summer. Just wondering if anyone had some good ideas. Looks like maybe high 60's for the weekend. Thanks, bassdocktor

Didn't make any money but this was the first year that I got a check. So things are looking better already for next year.

It's my college that wants you to wait till the second semester.

No personally I wouldn't mind having 2 gps units either for those reasons. Right now I don't but I think it would be great. The ability to have everything linked is cool. The only thing is if one thing goes the rest could follow, if its like a regular computer network. It still seems like a great idea. bassdocktor