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I would need better pictures with side pictures, mouth open, with the top and bottom fins extended. Bass color depends on what water they come out of. Swampy (tannic acid) bass are darker in color. Clear water bass (Table Rock Lake) will be much lighter in color.

I found some over glasses polarized sunglasses at Sam's that I like a lot. Polar Eyes. There were about $25.00.

10 minutes from a small lake (Lake Chehaw), 15 minutes from 3 different ramps on a river (Flint River), 20 minutes from a medium sized lake (Lake Blackshear), 1.5 hours from Lake Seminole.

I check my bilge several time during the year (I fish all year). Jack the front of the boat up as far as it will go, then turn a hose on and fill the back of the boat with water. To clean out that part of the boat, I add bleach or dawn. If the bilge pump is automatic, it will come on. If not, turn the bilge pump on and water should be pumped out. If nothing works, use a volt meter and see it the wire are hot. If not, trace back to the fuse.

When the day is slow, I will try almost anything. I have caught bass with a jig rigged drop shot. I do not believe there are rules, there are proven guidelines, for bass fishing. If what you are doing is not working, try something else. When I fish with 2 of my son's, we start out with 3 different lures. If someone start consistently catching fish, then 1 or 2 of us change. Use your imagination, if you are not catching fish, what have you got to loose.

I have success with spinners around and under docks.

Frog Toggs..............if it is cold, warmer stuff under the rain suit. Frog Toggs breath and the moisture passes through the rain gear. I hate when you get wetter under the rain gear.

IMHO, buzz baits anger bass. Throw a buzz bait to the same area more than once (2/3 + time). It is rare that I get a hit on the first cast. If it look like a bass should be there, it is worth several cast.

Mann's plastic worm, circa 1972/3 or Rebel broke back minnow. At that time I could afford a 5 pack of worms (2.00) and a Rebel (2.50). If you broke off with the rebel you went to get it. Fishing for bass with live bait (shiners) was a lot cheaper.

As kid, I spent a lot of time fishing strip pits around Central City, Kentucky. We did not fish for bass, we fished for catfish, bluegill, and perch. The strip pits I remember would be very hard to get a boat into. The pit access roads had been dynamited to prevent anyone from accessing the pit. Of course, this was in the last 50's, early 60's.

I clean my cork handles with denatured alcohol. It seems to get the PP Red off the cork. It also cuts the sweat stains.

I use shallow running crank baits in 3-4 feet of water with a rocky bottom (deep running ones would get hung in the rocks) or over grass with a lot of luck.

I use a trailer hook. Drastically increased hookups.

I will only fish in water.

I am a firm believer that catfish (except Flatheads) will eat anything including Ivory soap, liver, worms, squid, mullet gut, hotdogs, hearts, cut bait , gizzards, crankbaits and spinners. Flatheads like live bait.

I have an older Pro V 17, that I thought had a leak. I fixed a leaking livewell pump, but still had water sometimes. It turned out to be water/waves coming in from the bilge exit hole near the stern of the boat. Not a lot of water, just drove me crazy for a while.

In the last couple of years, I have caught a number of Gar (2.5' to 4') on the trailer hooks of spinners/Chatter baits. They may appear to be slow because they often just follow the lure. Slow the lure down and they slow down. Speed the lure up, and they speed up. South Georgia has more than it's share of Gar and Bowfin.

If you are using braid or mono, always pull out well past the the first overrun/backlash. Often time another one is below the first, especially with braid.

I fish with, for the most part, 4 4600 C3's and 2 REVO SX's. I went from 5500 C3's, to the 4600 because of the weight about 4 years ago. I like both styles, but the SX's are lighter. They cast the about the same distance. The drag is better on the SX and the SX does feel better in the hand. The SX's handle lighter lures better that the 4600's. The SX's are about double the price of the 4600's.

Wear and tear on the wrist. With long handled rods the stress is taken off the wrist and put on the forearm where the handle rest. It took me a while, long while, to use a long handled rod, but I replaced all my pistol grips with long handled ones.

My guess would be that the rod was on older fiberglass rod. The are/were as sensitive as a rock.

Agree, "If a rod is shortened from the tip, the action is slowed and the power goes up (in direct proportion to how much you shorten it) " My broke tip bass rods become pond catfish rods.

Disposable income is up to the individual. If you can afford it, why not. I prefer baitcaters, but I believe Shimano Calcutta® TE are just a little out of reach for me.

95 Degree + heat depend on where you are at the time. In Southwest Georgia (Fri 102, Sat 103, Sun 101, Mon 101) temperature is a relative term. I fish in the Flint River which has surface water Temps up to 88-92. On or near shoals, shallow swift water ,the temp drops for 88-92 to 79-83. In deeper water 6 to 20 feet, the temp may be 70-78. My sons and I have found that we do not change baits, just depths. Try the shallows in the AM and PM, then deeper water. Same baits, plastics, spinners, crankbaits, topwater. As with all other fishing, once you find them, the fun begins. When we fish together, we all use different lures. Once we find what the bass want, then, to each his own.

When you set a hook or get hung on a stump/limb bass, make a long cast, then pull some/a lot of line out, the reel back in. Every 2/3 times I go fishing, when I get home, I 'walk my line out'. I have a hook and swivel in a tree, I connect my line swivel to it and walk the line out about 75 yards, then reel back in. This seem to seat the line and I have less problem with braid (Power Pro/Suffix) embedding on the reel. I consider this just normal maintenance. Of course, 2 of my sons (26 and 37) think I go way overboard on normal maintenance.