zbass

If you think it would be fun, then it will be. Don,t get too worked up over it. You may psych yourself out before you get there. My first tourny didn't start great. Just bought a boat the year before in the fall, then joined a club. the very first tourny I planned to fish was 1.5 hrs from the house. Got all geeked up the night before, everything was ready. Didn't sleep the night before. Left early, got ready to start the boat to take it off the trailer, NO KEYS!!!!!! :'( Didn't have a spare either. Now it is a memory and we can laugh about it. At the time you could fry and egg on my head I was sooooo pis@#$@! It'll be good if you enjoy fishing and remeber that that is all it is. Just fishing.

I believe that mineral oil will turn soft plastics hard over time. Try veggy oil or even just spray some Bang or something in there.

Welcome to the forum!

They work but mainly for large crankbaits. I use mine for my trick worms and finesse worms.

shawn green, GO HAWKS!!!!

We need to hear of more people like that in the news more often.

Surley there was some alcohol involved somewhere and give the fins and snorkel back to your kids!

A lipless crankbait is deadly burned over the weeds and also can be counted down to fish at different depths. Chrome/blk or gold/blk are two of my favorites

I usually don't throw them until post spawn. The conventional wisdom says early and late in the day. That is very true. I'm not gonna tell you that they work in the middle of the day when it is bright and sunny. I'm not gonna tell you that they work when you work them as fast as you can with small pauses. I'm not gonna tell you that they work almost sitting still. point is, THEY WORK!

I use snaps on my hard baits in a practice situation or fun fishing. It is a quick easy way to change baits. I have not noticed a significant action lose though. But then again, I breath air and not water!

Welcome, new here myself. I understand about the family thing. Glad your back to it though.

Welcome, new here myself. I have fished the big O a few times. Great fishery. Good luck

Welcome, new here myself

Try a rubber bobber stopper. Works great and when the fish hit, the weight has the potential to slide up the line. Advantage you!

sent you a pm.

Spend my time making the next greatest bass lure out in my man cave. LOL

mike12345 hit it on the head as far as I'm concerned. If you look at it as a learning tool, it's well worth it. If you were in it to make money as a co then it's not. I have been a co and an observer. Yes, I would rather fish, but I learned a lot as an observer that has helped my game plan. If you treat them with respect, then that's what you get back. If they want to talk then talk. If not, bring an ipod. There are plenty of other tourny trails out there to make money at. You don't see bob riding with dale jr. do you. If it is truly a pro sport, then it needs to be truly a pro sport.

It's not the boat that catches the fish. As far as the size of your boat, I've had my 18.5' stratos/150 johnson in a few tournaments up there and did fine on both Erie and St Clair. You will be fine and it will be a great experience when you cash a check and the guy with the 21' goes home in the hole! ;D. Your partner for the day won't care if it was a jon boat if he/she brings in fish.

I have not used that model, but have used a camera quite a bit. There are a couple of things to remeber when using it. 1. Go at a very slow speed when you are looking for detail. 2. Size of fish is very relative. I never use mine to actually locate fish but to locate and become familar with structure and cover. Learning what is actually down there is great. You can also use it on a windless and currentless day to se exactly what your baits look like in the water. This helped me to fish certain baits differently. I do have a word of caution. It will eat a lot of time. Go into it knowing that and use the portion of the day for learning, not fishing. Also as far as how well can you see. The rule of thumb that I use is if you can see 6 feet down, you'll be doing good to se 3 feet out. That is relative to depth also. Hope that helps.

1. senko (you pick color) 2.7" power worm junebug 3. zara puppy shad color

Love the baby brush hog trigged. Great all around bait. Also have soft spot for the sweet beaver. Okay, quit it! you know what I mean! You can do a multitude of things with it. Can be a jig trailer, flipped behind heavy weight or weightless.

Okay, here is my 2 cents. you're looking at a good bait first off. I like those as well as the RC 1.5 and 2.5.Very similar. As far as colors go: Clear/sunny/lt stain American Shad Aurora black Ghost minnow Muddy/overcast/hvy stain Carmel apple Chartruese root beer Tablerock Shad For other shallow carnks you may look at the Luhr Jensen Speed trap. Great bait and you won't catch me without chrome/blk and red craw. Hope that helps.

hey BB hunter, "Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP" How many bronzebacks do you get doing that?

"Just can't to seem to feel sorry for the guys that get to fish right now without an ice auger in hand" ditto Zel

Another thing on the soft plastic frogs. You can let them sink after a miss. Used to throw a weightless flipin' tube as a frog and would have a greatly increased hook up ratio. The soft plastic frogs are the same way. There are days where they prefer one frog over the other and other days where flippin' is the way to go. You did what a lot of people, including myself, would have done.