Goose52

Good on numbers (coming up on 200 bass so far this year) but no size - nothing bigger than 18" yet. The big difference for me this season was getting my canoe and getting off the bank. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1262097737/16#16 My catch rate increases by a factor of 3 or 4 when using the canoe as compared to fishing from the bank.

Used one last Sunday...will use one again tomorrow. I never use a net when fishing from the bank, but I nearly always use a net when fishing from the canoe - especially when treble hooks are involved. Like others have mentioned, I might swing a dink into the boat but fish from about a pound on up will usually come into the boat in the net. I do have a rubber net - much better than the old-style net material.

I take a couple of fruit bars and a couple snack-size boxes of raisins. I take some water but usually don't drink it unless it's really hot (no head in the canoe!). I spend as much as 6 to 8 hours in the canoe - if the bite is good, I'm usually too busy to think of eating. When the bite slows, then I grab the munchies...

Thanks ! Had it out again today - 24 bass and 1 redear/shellcracker. No bass bigger than 15" today though...

Thanks guys - it's working out pretty well. I've been getting a lot of attention on the lakes - no one has seen a canoe "pimped out" this much before It really is a modular system. While I will nearly always run it fully-rigged, I can decontent for smaller waters or shorter trips. I can just paddle the canoe or add the motor. I can run the outriggers for stability, or not (but will probably always run the outriggers). Both the sonar & transducer are mounted on the dashboard - if I don't need the sonar, I just leave the dashboard at home. It takes about 18-20 minutes from the time I pull up to a lake with the canoe on the roof of the car until I'm fully-rigged and ready to shove-off. Not a bad price to pay for this much capability...and I don't have a boat & trailer consuming a garage bay or driveway space. Next outing is Sunday morning...

Yea - I wanted my lure back so I had to land this guy ;D The other one that I had on for 13 minutes cost me my lure - drats! Looking at the photo again, I just realized that the girth of the TAIL of this fish is bigger than the girth of nearly all the bass that I catch ...

I have never seen anyone on the 11 lakes that I fish (4 to 204 acres) wear a PFD .... except me. As we discussed a while back in a PFD thread, even if you can swim, some of us are getting older and may not have the upper body strength to pull ourselves back in the boat. I live in a popular retirement location and most of the anglers in these lakes are in their 60s or older. Old angler+no PFD=bad news...

Good idea on the rod storage. Still, with only 11'6" to work with, I'm not sure I have a place to mount the rocket launcher! I'd prefer to have the rods in front of me so I can grab another rod quickly but the short canoe length just won't allow that. After looking at the options, I went with the 3-tube rod rack, mounted behind me on the outrigger bar, with the rods pointed directly to the rear at about 30deg from horizontal. This gets them just about as low as possible to keep them away from the backcast. I'm trying to remember to avoid casting directly forward so I don't risk hitting the rods behind me but I have ended up hitting the spare rods twice now, both times with a BC rod, and both times I ended up with "terminal" backlash (terminal as in you have to cut the line off). The downside to the rod location is some inconvenience in swapping rods - having to turn around and reach behind you. Also, I have to be careful turning around in narrow creek channels - the rods extend about 4-5 feet past the end of the canoe and will hang up in trees/brush if you're not careful. In some cases, I have to back up in the creek before I have room to do a 180. Otherwise, it's a good fishing machine - I've got everything I need in a small, easily transported and easily launched package. As you mentioned, a downside is lack of a foot-operated trolling motor. This thing floats like a cork and catches wind like a sail so if there is any wind, I just about have to anchor to work an area. Another downside is that while I "can" stand up in this canoe (with the outriggers) I'm NOT going to do that - as I get older, my balance just seems to be going away :-? I'm jazzed to finally get off the bank and on the water...

Me too. I have the 7'6"mh Crankin' Stick with a 5.2 ratio ProQualifier for deep cranks. I got the rod when it was on sale a few months ago for $59. It feels/works great on some test runs but it's still too early in the year for deep-cranking so I haven't given it a real work-out yet...

Took about 3 months of shopping and ordering but the canoe is just about done. I car-top it and all the gear fits in the trunk of the car. Trolling motor Outriggers HB 570 sonar and transducer bracket mounted on a "dashboard" 3-rod rack 2 Scotty rod holders Scotty anchor lock/mount Folding seat-back Forward mounted battery with a hard conduit for the 6ga power extension cables For better weight distribution, I sit in the "front" seat, facing aft. The trolling motor mounts to the bracket for the outriggers, as does the anchor system and the rod rack. The trolling motor battery is forward of where I sit. I put the outriggers behind me so I could have the 180 deg. arc in front of me clear of obstructions for casting and fighting/landing fish. Had it on the water fully-rigged about 7 times now. Best single-day score on one of my lakes was 22 bass, 2 brim, and 1 crappie. Fishing off the dam of that lake, I would have been lucky to get 3 or 4 bass. It's great to get off the bank 8-)

Thanks K_Mac. I guess one has to understand this ratio stuff since the PQ is available in a whopping 4 different ratios...

I own 5 of them and there are lots of other satisfied PQ owners on this board. Great reel, great value; at $79 - they're a steal ... If you search, there have been lots of discussions about the PQ.

It represents the ratio between one complete turn of the handle to the number of times that the spool turns. The spool on a 6.4 ratio reel would complete 6.4 revolutions for every one revolution of the handle. As Hammer4 said, the higher the ratio, the faster the retrieve. A more revealing number is the "IPT" or inches per turn (of the handle). Since spool diameters vary, not all reels with the same ratio will retrieve the same amount of line per handle turn. So, when reviewing reel specifications, the gear ratio can be a general guide but the IPT is the true indicator of retrieval speed. The choice of reel gear ratio depends on the types of baits and fishing technique that you intend to use. Nowadays, a 6.2-6.4 range ratio is sorta an all-purpose ratio. The newer 7.1-7.3 ratio reels are called "burners" as they enable the fastest retrieve. The lower ratios, say 4.7 to 5.4, give a somewhat better mechanical advantage than the higher ratios for baits like deep-diving cranks that have a lot of drag. Older BC reels often had ratios in the "3's" - considered by many today to be toooo slow! If you search on reel gear ratio you'll probably find lots more info on this topic, as well as people's preferences for which ratios to use for a particular technique/presentation.

Fishing from the bank I will have 4 in the car and will take two with me - one in my hand and one stuck in my belt behind my back. Fishing from the canoe - I will have 4, 5 max (don't have any more room!).

10lb mono on the 4 BC reels that I use most often - not much timber or salad in my waters. I have other BC reels with 8lb, 12lb, 17lb, and 65lb for specialized applications.

Since this thread came back I'll report that my 570 came back from HB and now works fine. Don't know for how long - hopefully a long time ... :-? Regarding the temperature reading, I stuck my transducer in a bucket of water warmed by the sun, then also placed a mercury thermometer in the bucket and used one of the 570 menu options to "calibrate" or adjust the 570 temp reading to match the mercury thermometer. FWIW ...

I have a 6' light power bc rod and a BPS ProLite bc reel and throw down to 1/6oz on 8lb mono (and I may try 6lb on this rig someday). Otherwise, IMO spinning gear is the way to go when you're under 1/4oz.

Crankin' - mostly lipless cranks...

It was a 'biggun' for sure! A week after this one, I hooked another that was probably bigger than this one. It just kept taking line...I could stop him once in a while but couldn't recover any line. I felt like I was holding a toy fishing rod - I just couldn't turn that fish around. After having the fish on for 13 minutes, and with 80 yards of line out (which I knew because I saw my uni-uni knot from my 75 yards of fresh front line to my older backing disappear into the water), he hooked around a rock and I lost him and my lure. It was fun while it lasted but I really wanted my lure back :-?.

X2

Date, Place, Qty, Catch (species), Rod/Reel, Bait, Line, Surface Water Temp, Notes I've seen much more detailed log sheets but the above is all I record...

On hitting artificials - I've had 4 hook-ups on these things in the past week. The one in the photo was foul-hooked in the tail. On another hook-up, the fish came out of the water and came unbottoned right away. Another was probably a big carp but never came up where I could see it and just pulled line out against the drag for about 10 seconds and then was gone. Just yesterday, I had another hook-up - the fish came out of the water, then went deep, then was gone. I have a feeling that I'm just snagging these things and not getting good hook-sets in their mouths. The little treble hooks on the lipless crank don't get much purchase on those big scales I'm thinking... Anyway, it's been exciting to just get the hook-ups even though I didn't land them all. Nothing like having a 30-40 pound fish jump a couple of feet out of the water to get your adrenalin going

Just this past Thursday, while fishing for bass with a lipless crank on 10 lb test, I had a hook-up on a BIG fish - it came out of the water twice and my heart about stopped. 35 minutes later I landed this 37.1 pound grass carp. I posted the full story of this fish in the "Other Fish Species" forum. It was a GREAT fish fight !

Great stuff - thanks. Bad news that he's not getting any endorsement deals or sponsorships...

Uni to uni (double uni). Works for same line, also works for braid to mono/flouro. Relatively easy to tie.