Sunshine---

I am flying a buddy down for the weekend as we had planned nothing but 4 days of fishing and wonder how this storm will impact fishing over Friday/Sat/Sunday..... Any thoughts???

Have a buddy coming in to town this week and we have never been to the Stick Marsh. I am picking up my "boat" this week which is a pond prowler with a trolling motor. Would you guys suggest not taking it to the stick marsh or if I do, I would assume just hitting some areas close to shore and the boat ramp would be the best idea. Let me know if I should not make the trip and just stick to the local lake and spend 4 days there instead of spending a day driving to the stick marsh only to find out we can't do a whole lot in the small boat...

I have an FJ Cruiser so I am not sure I could fit it on top. If it fits, I could get it up there although it would not be much fun getting that over my head. My situation is this, I would drop some money on a good bass boat but I anticipate this situation. A year or so from now, I am going to go inshore fishing in saltwater with a buddy or something and I am going to get hooked on that as well. I'd hate to drop 10K on a bass boat and then not be able to double it up in salt. So do I go with a fresh/salt boat and just spend the money now knowing that day may come or do I just get a jon boat and deck it out until that day I get into saltwater as well. I'd prefer to just spend 1-2K and get something I can depend on. Doesn't need to cover a lot of ground, I just need to be able to drop it in a lake and get after it. You guys point me in the right direction and that is what I will do. I can either listen to the guy at the store tell me what I need or I can listen to all of you guys. You guys tell me what to get and I will go get it. I have a buddy coming in to town on the 21st and I told him we are going to spend 3 days straight fishing and we will be doing so from a boat, not a canoe... I will call it the bass resource forum boat and you all are more than welcome to fish in it with me if you get to Pasco County Florida. Need the boat, trolling motor, possible trailer, battery for motor, and whatever else you guys can think of. So far based on what I am hearing is I need somewhere between a 9-12 footer. I have heard pond prowler mentioned a few times so is that the one??? You guys tell me...

The crazy thing is he just rolled over and layed there. No fight at all. Or maybe I was so jacked up it all happened in slow motion. It was seriously different from anything I have ever boated before.

Yeah I hear ya. The sad part is I will probably spend the next many decades of my life and never catch what I just pulled in the boat a few hours ago. Oh well. Life is good...

Assuming the girth is twice (or at least twice now I think about it) the height then it calculates as a 12+. The guy on the boat ramp swore it was a definite 10+ based on the marks I had. It was a HUGE fish and if that sucker wasn't over 10, I just can't imagine a bass that is 10+. Well all I know is I caught somewhere between a 7 and 12 and it was quite the memory. I wasn't about to spend 20 minutes to paddle ashore to weight the sucker while he layed in the bottom of the canoe and died so hopefully we will meet again!!!

I put him on top of my tacklebox and measured his "height" and from the top of him to the bottom was 10-10.5. Are you saying the girth to enter is times 2????

Just found this. Man, this site covers all the bases. Also cross referenced some of the pictures on the message boards and probably does check in around 7 pounds. I can't even imagine boating a true 10 pounder. http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html

Until about an hour ago I had never caught a big fish. Caught tons of bass in my lifetime growing up on lakes but never pulled in anything over 5 pounds. So a few months back I finally started fishing again and have been on a mission ever since to catch the big one. Well it finally happened... Been dropping a canoe in a lake by my house about 3 dozen times over the past few months trying to locate this big guy. Caught some great fish so far out of there and seen some good ones moving but just hadn't been able to land one. So today about 3:30 I decide to head out. Hot as heck but figured may as well fish from 3:30 till dark. First part of the day was windy as heck and that isn't much fun in a canoe so I hit the backside of this lake where you can only reach with a canoe. It was much calmer back there and very heavy cover. Tons of lilly pads. So I park the canoe up in the thick stuff and throw to the open spots and then move to the nest open spot "parking" the canoe up in the thick stuff. Threw out a watermelon trick worm with a chaurtreuse tail and noticed a big fish come out of the water (his back end). I wasn't even sure what it was because it was a very slow movement. I feel a decent tug and give it a yank. It felt very heavy and knew he was a good one but there was NO fight at all. I was in extreme heavy cover and my first thought was "there is no way I am going to boat this sucker" because he was sure to get caught up or buried. Well NO fight at all and just rolled over a bit. As I pulled him in I still wasn't sure what it was until he showed me that bucket mouth and it was BIG!!!! I grabbed the net, almost fell in the d**n water, and got him in the canoe. I was FREAKING OUT. Keep in mind, I had never caught a big fish and I am looking at what was surely a 10+. Now here is where it gets good. I am about 20 minutes from the boatramp in the middle of about 1000 feet of heavy cover and lilly pads. In a canoe. My digital camera which lives in my tackle box was..... taken by my wife to see her friend in Missouri. Great. I am sitting here with my trophy bass and knew I was going to be throwing him right back in the water without a picture..... I tried to string him and paddle back in but there was no way I could pull him through what I had to paddle. I held him one last time, said "son of a %^%" and tossed the big guy back in. I took measurements all over the place and wanted to throw them at you guys for a guess on the weight. I did not have a tape measure so I place him on top of my tackle box which he was much longer than. I moved the tackle box over to where his mouth was on one end and his tail touched the side of the boat. I also measured him out on the paddle. I also marked his top to bottom. 25 INCHES LONG 10 1/2 INCHES TOP TO BOTTOM The guy on the boat ramp who runs it said he was definitely over 10 and those who I have talked to in the last hour say the same. Did I finally land my big one???? d**n it felt good. Been waiting for that a long time....

Thanks guys. Some helpful advice no doubt. Would something like this below be sufficient for the time being?? http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131689 I figured for 1,000 I could throw a trolling motor on this and it would be OK for two guys. If you guys think it is too small let me know and I will continue to look around. Also, should I make an hour trip to a Bass Pro Shop to see what they have in stock or something or what. Seriously, thanks for the help.

Didn't know if I should post here or what but I was looking for some advice from you guys on a small boat purchase. I have checked out a few of the sporting good websites and I am in the market for a new small boat. I have found some (without motor) for under 1,000 and wondered if any of you had any advice on some of the dos and donts when it comes to making a first boat purchase. My goal is to have a small 2 man boat that I can bass fish comfortably out of. Do not need to cover a lot of ground and would be satisfied with a trolling motor only. Any thoughts on what I must include to look for when shopping??

Pasco County here. Just north of Tampa. Born and raised in Tampa though.

Next tournament they have out here I will set up my folding chair on the 12th greenside bunker with my rod holder buried in the sand. I'll sit there and run a shiner all day and have a cooler of beer by my feet. "Excuse me sir, do you my removing your ball from my cooler?" Imagine what that would look like from the Par 3 tee box??

Good question. The one I fish luckily has a big portion of the pond that is not on the course and has a few vacant lots that allow access to this portion of the pond. Then as sun goes down and golfers are gone, I can reach the other parts of it. The other side of the argument is this. Those golfers have a lot of nerve incroaching on our fishing grounds. Next time I see them up on the green and I am fishing close by I will look over at them and say "you guys mind keeping it down over there? Trying to catch some fish here" ;D How do you think they would play out?

The funny part about the "sometimes you go to go get them" basically means as I have the fish on the line, the canoe is being pulled towards the fish. Canoe fishing alone is not much fun. When I have a buddy in the boat, one of us would paddle towards the fish once a big one got on but on night in particular I lost a few good size fish just not being able to move them out of cover.