Scott C

You'll get many answers on this one.....and they will probably all be different. but here is what i like.... In my experience, we have landed good size cat on liver, yes, but the biggest ones were always caught on live shad or shiners. Personally, I will rig up one of two ways.....I dont' know the technical names for them, so just bear with me: If I am drifting a channel or trying to find fish, i will tie a big sinker to the end of the line, and tie off 2 seperate trailer type lines about 3 feet and 6 feet up from the sinker. Then will rig one with liver, and the other with a nightcrawler. This covers a few depths and baits at the same time....helps locate for the day. If I'm bank fishing in current, ill do the same thing, but with only one trailer type line and use live bait, or liver. If I am just going live bait in calm waters, i will just put a fair size inline sinker up the line about 3 feet from a hook, and just go that way. Hooks I like: standard eagle claw 3/0 or 4/0 bait hook Line I like: recently discovered and loved how tough the Trilene XT is!! I have read this on another site, and from what I have experienced, The storm front part could actually have some validity. Though it does seem contrarty to other fishing tips... For locations try on flats or if there are none, something near deep water, or near a natural creek channel that was once there...if it exists.

Hey folks! I'm going to be looking at a boat tomorrow! YAY! Anyway, its a 1990 Fisher SV-18 (semi-vee) GT w\ a 90hp Merc. I was wondering if you guys know anything about this boat, or even the SV series in general? I can't find jack diddley squat on the internet about it.... Any good or bad things about it that I should be aware of? Any weaknesses that will need to be addressed? Thanks for any help!! Scott

thanks man!! I actually caught that guy, a 13, a coulple of 12's and around 10 more between 5-10 lbs on medium spinning gear. Pfleuger Trion and a BPS Extreme XPS rod w\ 12lb Trilene XT. I gotta tell ya...i was REALLY impressed with that XT. We were fishing at the base of a dam, and there was a lot of underwater concrete that the line got rubbed on a lot, and it held up really well! I retied every so often just in case, but it really did well considering the conditions!! My actual cat rig is a MH 7' Shimano rod and a South Bend Black beauty spinning reel (POS!). I got it because it was cheap....its soon being replaced by an Okuma SW spinning reel. I don't think I'm smart enough to run bait casting reel. ;D

sorry dude....really didn't mean to offend. :-[ FWIW, I don't keep fish...

give whole large shiners a try...they yield some good fish 17lb blue on shiner ->

...for striper, and we didn't catch a single one. DOH!! We were on Wilson Lake in northwestern alabama. I guess teh water level came up right before i got there (they lower the lake a few feet in the winter), and some old timer told us that the stripe and largemouth shutdown for a few days when the water comes up for the first time of the season. DOH!!! At least the blue's were still hitting pretty dang good. I think we caught about 35 total, and only about 5 were less than 5 lbs. we had 4 12pounders a 13 pounder, and i managed to haul in my new personal record! 17lbs! So not a total loss!

Holy elbow grease, batman!! My arms hurt just looking at that!

LOL...are you talking specifically about the lakes down there? Cause Evergreen is 10HP and Lake Bloomington (LITERALLY 5 miles away!) is 40hp! If not, you must be clairvoyant! ;D Thats actually what i see a lot of guys with here. 16' or so deep vee or mod-v with a 40 hp console steer and a 10hp kicker. So pretty much it sounds like there are some options for me if'n I end up with this 'glass boat, it'll just take a bit of creativity... Really do appreciate all the input, guys!

Excalibur and now Bomber Fat Free Shad series. Fat Free Fingerling or Shad for trolling Fat Free Guppy or Fry for casting in the shallows. all in Citrus Shad, White, or Shad. gonna give craw a shot for smallies. LOVE EM!

ah yeah...that makes sense.... so really...bottom line here...the trolling motor will get me there, it will just take me about 4 years to do it? ;D

hummmm......well its not terribly big...but not terribly small either. its around 900 acres. yeah, they let in bigger boats, they just can't lower the motor. if they see it in the water, you can get a ticket. though, i think they do let you load and unload with the main motor. Surfer, that seems a bit low to me...granted i am by far no expert!!! Me and my buddy use a 74 lb on his 18' Tracker Targa Deep Vee and get 3-3.4mph gps. does the hull type effect the top speed at all? it was only based on that that i was guessing 4-5. those transom mount motors do look pretty sweet.....I'm not sure i can swing that cost though. :-/

what color wiggles do you like? I have a ton of them, and my buddy buys and resells storm as well....gonna hit up the smallies this weekend after i have had my fill of stripers. (i promise, no wood plank for me!)

yeah, mabye so...but still...this is my dad's neighbor, not me, so I can't really say one way or the other. Just thought you would like to see some good smallies from Pickwick.

very good. sounds like i will just stick with the trolilng motor! thanks for all the input guys!

I'm not sure if they kept and cleaned them or not. Generally speaking Joe (the guy holding the two big ones...7 pounders) is a catch and release guy I think. I dunno about the other guy, though.

lol...no joke!! those things are crazy realistic!!!

welp....asside from using the live shad, this is what i have assembled for top/shallow striper....let me know your thoughts! 2 Pop-R, one white\black back, one blue phantom 1 Excalibur Popin Image 2 Excalibur Spittin Image, one large citrus, one small shad 2 Storm Shallo mac, firetiger and blue Mac 2 smithwick torpedo somthings..not sure what they are called 1 New Storm thunder dog 1 Heddon Super Spook, Blue Phantom 1 Excalibur Super Spook, white/shiney 3 Heddon Zara Spooks, Red/White sparkle 2 stick's...can't remember what they are. I t h ink a storm thunderstick and yozuri, maybe. 2 Baby Zara's, Blue/white and Frog. I would hope that i can get something out of that box!!!!!

'nother....

here's a lil bit to wet your whistle. ;D My folks live on Wilson (bluewater) and their neighbor caught these smallies not too long ago down on Pickwick. I guess you guys got a bunch of rain down there recently, so they were runnin water out of wilson dam a whole bunch. that was right at the time these fella's caught em. on a side note...any of you guys go to the hearing last night trying to squash the sewage treatment plant for Killen?

Hummm...well, its already got a newer 101# 36v minn kota, so that should probably do it, eh? How fast do you suppose that will get the boat moving? 4-5 mph? thats a good call about the fuel tank for the kicker. I hadn't thought of that!

Well, there is a guy on a snowmobile forum that I am also on that listed his boat for trade for a sled. So I am hoping that he will take my sled + cash for his boat. Its a 1988 Hydra-Sports DV200 FF w\ a 200HP Suzuki Exante It may not work out, but I SURE hope it will!!!!!

Ah yeah. Sorry, I should have been more clear. I have seen kickers on aluminum deep vee's plenty of times, but never on a 'glass boat that has a low profile like a bass boat does. Also, the aluminum that most of the walleye guys use is a bit more condusive to mounting a secondary motor. So what I'm wondering is, do the fiberglass bass boats have a way that you can easily mount a kicker on them, or is that pretty much stricktly for deep vee's?

Hi guys, I am hopefully working my way to getting a bass boat here soon, and was curious....is it possible to put a kicker motor on them?? there is one lake here that i love to fish that doesn't even allow for a motor bigger than 10HP to be put in the water. As the boat I'm looking at has a 200HP, that poses a bit of a problem for me. So does anybody know how to do that? Even better....does anybody have any pictures of one mounted??? I currently have a 9.8 HP Merc 110 that I would be hoping to use. Thanks!

My folks live in alabam now...does that count???! ;D They live on Wilson Lake(really, near teh mouth of bluewater creek)....nearest named town is Elgin Crossroads, though their address is Rogersville....I don't get it. gotta tell ya, I LOVE it down there!!! Actually leaving after work this friday to spend a long weekend fishing for striper! WOO!!

i dunno about that deal specifically...but they also have the XPS Extreme rods on sale for $60... beware though...the price may not be the same in store as online...but they will match it, you just have to go to the customer service desk to get it marked down.....