J Francho

60+ mph winds coming.

That boat seems a little overpriced.

My 18’ Xpress with. A 115 had a 25 gal tank. A full tank would last a month of a weeknight or two of fishing and tournaments every weekend, so long as I wasn’t running WOT constantly.

This has just gotten dumb, lol.

I use either a Helix 5 or 7 SI/DI with a YackAttack deployment arm for the TD.

You should be able to test drive before spending that much. Most places up here are on the water, or close to water.

Have you asked the dealer for a test drive?

How on earth can you arrive at a pattern before hitting the water? Unless your pattern is that the fish are wet. You have to catch multiple fish to establish or notice some pattern, and even then it's often just a dumb guess. How many times have you gotten back to the ramp, and some did just as well as you, or better, doing something COMPLETELY different.

Crestliner > Lowe > Tracker. I ran no less than a 24v 80 lb. on my 17' and 18' aluminum boats.

For the first time since I can remember, March was colder than February.

1/3 tensile strength is generally accepted. The rest is math. 17/3 ~ 6. 25/3 ~ 8. A gallon of water is a little more than 8 lbs. Tom's point is the math and physics says you're wrong, but if it's working for you, there's no reason not to continue. Personally, I do not think a short leader makes a difference. I use a brightly colored frog. If I can't see the frog, then it's in the bass's mouth, and I see no reason to hold back on the hook set. This has been 99.99999999% true for me. There was one tournament where I and my partner both witnessed bass grabbing our frogs by the legs skirts. This was very unusual behavior. We switch to Scum Frogs, which solved the issue.

Exactly. It's my opinion that a photograph is quite possibly the worst evidence you can present for documenting the size or weight of a catch. That's what verified witnesses are for. A photograph is a moment in time, to capture the excitement and the beauty of a lifetime catch. Go ahead and long arm it all you want.

This has to be one of the weirder ideas I've seen.

It's really as simple as 50# braid handles like 12# mono. No other practical reason. The rod isn't going to break, if the drag is set properly and sensibly.

LMAO...Mets win on opening day, again. They are 37/49 on opening day. Day 2 is another story....

First pitch...home run.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

John Franchot. jfrancho was my login for my old employer's network. First initial of first name, first 7 digits of last name. That's why the t is nipped off. If there was another jfrancho, I'd be jfranch2. I've used that login for just about everything. The Bass Resource software wouldn't allow you to have the same screen name as your log in, so I used "J Francho". What's funny, I now respond to "Jay Frank-O," in person even though that's not how my last name is pronounced. Don't get fancy, it's not French, just pronounce it the way it's written, using the most basic rules of English.

Would stay at Black's Camp every spring around mid April. Always fished the Moultrie Lake side, and a few of those swamps off the canal to Marion Lake. Man, stumps every where!

I use 10 or 12# Seaguar Tatsu.

I'm using very different rods for the baits you mention. 1. For squarebills and traps, I prefer a faster action, medium power rod. I'm looking to make short, accurate casts to cover items like wood, docks, and weeds. I want to be able to back off quickly If I hit something with a squarebill, or snap the rod sharply if a trap hits a weed. Slower or moderate action rods don't do this well. 2. Shallow, mid, deep, super deep all work great with a moderate taper rod. It's all in the way a bait deflects of bottom of other objects, and a slower action seems to be the best for that. 3. Spinnerbait? Complete 180° from this. They have a big, single hook, and you want at least a fast and prefereably an X-fast taper to quickly get into the power section of the rod to drive that hook home. Here's my typical list for these: 1. LTBC70MF 2. AVC70MM or AVC70MHM depending on the size of the bait 3. AVC68MXF Luckily, 1 and 3 do A LOT of other things well, so they aren't all that specialized.

I come up with the best ideas there!

Well, I was sitting on the can....

A jet ski actually hit me in my 22' bass boat, while not under way. It was just a scuff, but I chased him back to his cottage and had a word with his parents. He was not allowed back on the jet ski after that.