camman

Loading up the boat, buddy backs down and maybe put the trailer in a little deeper than normal. No biggy...I put the boat on, reach under secure the front strap and give him the signal. He slowly pulls out and the strap breaks with a loud rip/snap. No damage as just had to tie the strap and go but learned a good lesson in periodically checking your straps. Saw this when we were waiting to pull the boat out. There was this guy with a huge speedboat launching. He lines it up and hops in while his wife or girlfriends backs it down the last bit. Boat/trailer is in the water and he fires up the engine to back it down and its not moving. He tells her to back down a little further and still on the trailer. After a few minutes of trying, he has her pull up and the back straps are still on. He starts cussing her out that she should've taken it off and she's yelling back at him. He gets out removes it and they launch. She speeds out of there with the empty trailer drives through the parking lot and heads for the exit. We got our boat out, cleaned it up and took off and she was nowhere to be seen

I've had some good days catching spots that were suspended on top of submerged trees in probably 20 ft of water. I found as long as I was moving it slow, I'd feel the bump of the wood and just keep winding slowly and it usually wouldn't hang up. If I did hang up, I would use the trolling motor to get above it and pop it off. The biggest thing with the bait (at least for me), its a boring way to fish. I rather fish a jigging spoon or a crankbait over the same water as its a more active way to fish.

I would just toss a chicken leg in there, I never used a cage so I can’t compare with/with out. As for the best bait (chicken/bacon/fish) you really need to experiment and see which one they prefer. If you use bacon it’s raw and should go in the cage to make it easy

No need chicken is tough enough. People also use bacon which will need to go in the cage

Yup used that trap plenty of times and worked great. I would just throw a raw chicken leg in there and soak it overnight. My buddy would also use a can of cat food and just crack the lid a bit.

I launched once out of Oasis in Tracy and fished around the area and wasn’t anything special. I do launch out of Lazy M a lot as it’s only maybe 20 minutes from my house. Besides being close it’s where I like to launch to fish the Old River area. I’ve fished around the launch area and not much to talk about. I’ve never launched out of Rivers End so no clue how it is. I also like to launch out of Orwood though you want to either launch early in the summer or avoid as it get a large amount of pleasure boaters. I’ll either launch here or Lazy M to fish Disco Bay

thank you for posting this. I bought some from TW and completely forgot about them.

This is what I would do. If you had it for sale for awhile and all of a sudden got a lot of traction, take a few months off from fishing and sell it while the price is hot. My previous boat was something similar, I wasn't really looking to sell but got a great offer. Sold it and was boatless for a year or so before getting another one.

It really depends on how and where you fish. If you are fishing around wood/docks/structure, good luck on getting a fish of a lifetime out of there on 6lb test. Now if you are fishing more open water, certainly downsizing isn't an issue. I think you really need to match the type of line and lb rating to the conditions you are fishing. When I fished in Southern California I constantly used 6-8lb test for a variety of baits due to the heavy pressure and more of open structure. I've landed some big fish with a good drag and being patient. Once I moved to Northern California and began fishing heavier cover, I upped my line and now regularly fish 12-20lb test and usually braid.

Toss a few packs in the freezer now and pull them out in October....if they look/feel fine you should be good to go...if they feel weird you have you answer

Those are the main areas I fish as well, I usually launch out of Russo's and fish the areas. The one thing I've found is the tide really matters in the heat of the summer. If its high tide I find them in the mats and can punch them out. If its low tide I tend to move a lot till I find them. Where I usually can consistently find fish though they are usually small, are fishing the areas where you have the water movement in/out Franks/Little Franks/Mildred. Another spot to look are the docks/marina's just north of Franks. The other place I usually fish out of is Viera's. For whatever reason I can always find a good bite up there during the summer/fall time frame off the River/Sloughs

Sure, I settled on Phenix Rods and have both the Ultra MBX and M1 (fresh and inshore) series rods. These felt the best in my hands...again my opinion. They recently came out with a newer/updated M1 series rods and I don't like them one bit. So looks like I'll be staying with my current set for awhile. But as mentioned I have a bunch of odd rods that I just like the feel. - Old Crucial Drop Shot Rod - Old Zillion rod I use for heavier jigs (these were stiff rods) - Dobyns for crankbait rods - Original Carrot Stix 7'6"H which I absolutely love for throwing smaller swimbaits on - ALX for a frog rod - Couple old St Croix Premiers I use for trout

I'd second the option of buying enough to get a shirt if it works out. I have a couple Tatula HUK shirts that came free when I purchased reels a few years ago. I probably have 10 or so Tacklewarehouse shirts that are still new in package that I got through purchases with them over the years. Also if you have large fishing shows, I've gotten a number of free shirts from those over the years from the Fred Hall show in Southern California. These were just from wandering around and talking to some of the exhibitors.

I use the tungsten nail weights. I started off with using an old nail and found that I like the tungsten better with the smaller profile. I started using the Vike Pagoda weights and also have gotten some of Bass Pro Shop Brand ones years ago on clearance. They both have ridges which hold it in the worm. As I look back, I think I may have lost maybe a couple due to breaking the line on a fish. I've never had them fall off out of a worm or had the worm fly off the hook with them on.

IMO if you are looking to spend over $200 bucks on a rod or even over a $100 you really need to try them first. All the higher end rods, and even lower end ones, have a different feel and balance. What works for one person may not work for you. I've tried a lot of rods/brands/price points. It literally took me probably 5-7 years of ordering/trying different rods before I found a ones that I like. During that time, I owned rods from a lot of brands (G.Loomis, Shimano, Daiwa, Dobyns, Abu, St Croix, Kistler, Quantum, 13, ALX, Phenix, Powell, Halo, Falcon, Carrot, etc). For the most part I've settled on one brand (maybe 75% of the rods I own) but the other are a mix between different brands that made a rod that I like for specific technique.

I will usually tie up some baits/techniques the night before that are specific to how I'm planning to fish. I do have some rods that I may have tied up previously and didn't use which the bait will stay tied on. And other rods (like my Frog rod) probably will stayed on until I change out the frog which is pretty rare.

I fish them all year along on some bodies of water and have found more luck running weedlines in the summer than the typical baits. I think fish get use to seeing a spinnerbait/chatterbait over the weeded patches as that's what most guys throw in those scenarios. I'll go by with a squarebill and its something different and have also enticed them ripping it out of the grass. I'm fishing spots that probably are in the 3-8 foot depths so normally deep cranking doesn't apply out here. I know other lakes you can't buy a bite on a squarebill in the summer as all the fish head deep and can be cranked up with a DD22 type bait.

My oldest who is 7 either uses a Shimano Nexave 1000 or my Tatula 2500 on an older Abu Veritas or Shimano Compre rod. My youngest is 4 and uses a small zebco spincast on a small 4’6” rod. The Shimano Nexave use to be on clearance a few years ago and I picked up a couple of them for $20 each and they have actually held up with no issues.

Yes the newer Bagleys don’t hunt as well as the old ones. They are still ok for a reasonable priced balsa bait. The ones I like but they are pricey are the PH Custom baits. They hunt the best out of any newer bait I’ve tried.

I’ve used one before mainly for trolling. I found the one I had, don’t remember the brand, worked fine with mono over 15lbs but was inaccurate with braid due to the thinner diameter

I got a bunch of these years ago on clearance from TW...I think they were like 8 bucks each and picked up 6. They work great. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Flambeau_4510FB_Terminal_Tackle_File_with_Zerust/descpage-FL4510F.html

Back when I used Dobyns the 735 Glass was my rod I threw 1.5s On with no issue. Worked fine on th CA Delta

Sweet Beaver or my new favorites has been a Zoom Ol Monster

Assuming it comes with the mirage drive and the condition is like new its a good price. I've seen some around the same age but in decent condition go for around that price. As mentioned above, if you can, test drive it to see no leaks and functions normally

I’ve seen some modified trailers from Harbor Freight be used to haul/launch kayaks from which might work as well for that size of boat