SmokeRise1

I have a WaterQuest Basstender 11.3. It is big enough and stable enough for 2 (standing) and heavy enough so it doesn't get blown all over the lake like a Jon boat. Problems are it costs more than $400 and you need a trailer to launch it. Other than that it is the best fishing boat on my lake.

Bert & Ernie

I'm in again! PM on the way.

by "blade" do you mean "bill"? do you have a picture of it?

I haven't done it yet or seen it done, but a buddy told me about pretty cool idea that doesn't cost too much. You get 2 of those swimming pool noodles and mount them on the wall, one just above the floor and the other one up about 5 feet. The one mounted near the floor you drill 1 1/4 inch holes about 1 inch deep and 4 inches apart. This is where the butt ends of the rods slide in. Then in the noodle about 5 feet up you cut corresponding slits, directly above the holes you already drilled. This is where the tops of the rods slip in. It is probably easier to do the drilling and slit cutting before the noodles get mounted. I think the noodles are 5 feet long so you could get 14 rods in each with 2 inches left over on each end.

Jigs in black/blue or tubes in same color are usually great this time of year. Spinnerbaits and traps work well too as the weeds that gave you grief all summer should have died and opened the water column up some.

I'VE NEVER SEEN MORE _Asians_ IN MY LIFE UNTIL I WENT TO _San Francisco_.

The only meat I rinse off are those pork tenderloins that come in a vacuum package of 2. I just think there is some type of slime that they package them in to protect them and I want to get that slime off and the dry them with paper towels before marinating them or hitting them with a dry rub.

I'm going up to the Finger Lakes for the weekend and will be staying near Watkins Glen. I'll be fishing with a buddy who has a Ranger with downriggers. Anyone have experience fishing the south end of Seneca?

I ain't whistlin dixie, but the southern counties in NJ were south of the Mason Dixon Line in the 1860's.

I been using EWG hooks lately but I'm wondering if hook-up ratio will increase by switching to some other worm hook.

Turns out the connnector/plug and socket were bad. Due to excessive heat the plug started to melt a little and resulted in bad contacts on the prongs. I replaced the socket on the boat and the plug on the trolling motor yesterday. I will test it out this weekend.

I caught this cat while fishing in a night time bass tournament on Saturday. It was 5.11 and I got it on a black/purple flake SwimSenko.

That thing is so fast in knocked all of your lawn chairs over.

How do you all rig/fish them? I'll be fishing in a pretty shallow lake. Deepest parts are around 10 feet and most of is like 6 feet. I don't think I'll need much weight to get them down on the bottom, maybe 1/8th oz.

If you search this topic you will read a lot of suggestions for top-water baits for night fishing. In my opinion there is nothing better than a slow moving, noisy, black jitterbug. You can retrieve it really slow and it makes tons of noise and calls fish up an in from far away. Weedlines, brush, laydowns, open water. It doesn't matter. If the fish are there they will hit the jitterbug. Nitro makes a great point about safety. He probably means wearing a PFD, but I'll add to that. It may sound foolish but when I fish at night I wear safety glasses. Fish will hit the jitterbug when it lands in the water or follow it all the way to the boat before trying to smack it. A missed hookset 5 feet from the boat often results in a lure with 6 hooks flying back at you. Don't take chances. Protect your eyes.

Jab, The writing is pretty small, so no one but you will know you're using a smallmouth rod... ; )

Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'9" Med Xtra Fast. Rod is very light and comfortable to fish all day. Soft tip is perfect for top-water poppers or 'walk the dog' baits like spooks or spittn' image and sensative enough to feel everything that is happening to flukes and worms down deep. Plenty of backbone to set hooks and drag bass out of weeds and lily pads. Not to mention it is right in your wheelhouse in terms of price. Good luck.

Looks like I'll be buying some weedless wacky hooks on my way home tonight. I'll slide a nail weight in if they're not sinking fast enough. Thanks guys.

I have a few packs of these I plan to try out next week. Since the rings or ribs are so large I'm figuring a T-rig will be better than a wacky one. I also plan to fish it weightless in about 5-10 f.o.w. Anyone else use these and how well do you do with them?

I'll have to find a tester that will read 12v but this sounds like a good way to break down and isolate the cause of the problem. Thanks

49° in North Jersey when I got up this morning. Supposed to hit 90° on Thursday. Go figure.

I have a Minkota Traxis 55 that is about 2 years old. It is wired to a 2 prong connector that fits into a matching socket in the back of my boat. Lately the motor will not start all the time and sometimes cuts off while running. The only way to get it to work is to disconnect it and then reconnect it. Sometimes this works the first time. Other times I need to do the disconnect/reconnect thing 5-10-20 times before it starts working again. Has anyone else run into this issue? I'm trying to figure out if the problem is in the motor, the connector on the motor or the socket on the boat. Maybe the terminals need to be cleaned or the plug/socket need to be replaced. Any information or ideas will be greatly appreciated.

How much do you want to spend on a new rod? There are plenty out there that will work for you in this situation. Berkley Lightening Rod Shock is specifically designed for braid and will only run you like $50. I have one setup with 30lb PowerPro with a casting reel that I use with Rage Toads and Shads on pads all summer and it performs just fine.

I fished from 9-12 last night with a black jitterbug and caught bass in every spot I hit. Long casts along the shore and along weed lines with a slow steady gurgling retrive.