RichF

You're very welcome. Tournament fishing isn't for everyone. I actually fished my very first ABA as a non-boater when i was 16. It wasn't my best day and I didn't enter another one till about 7 years later. I've loved every minute of it since. Answer to your question: Most bass boats have a rod ramp next to your seat that usually has a strap to lock them down. Some guys will clear out a back compartment for you to store your bag. If not, you'll just have to keep it at your feet.

I've been fishing the ABA for seven yrs now (first four yrs as a non-boater, last three as a boater). It's a really good place to start tournament fishing. It's relatively cheap: $20 or $25 for membership, $70 entry fee, and a little extra to cover boat fuel/oil costs for your boater (which a lot of guys won't even accept). That's not a bad deal for 8hrs in a boat with the opportunity to earn some cash back. And eventually, you'll draw a boater who's really on 'em and you'll have a blast. One of our younger non-boaters drew a local Lake Ontario stick a couple yrs ago on Chaumont Bay and cracked some of the biggest smallies of his life! The worse part about ABA is non-boaters compete directly with boaters which can be tough for the guy in the back. To offset this, ABA has a rule that states the non-boater is guaranteed half the day fishing where he/she wants. Your boater isn't required to let you run the trolling motor but he is supposed to abide by that rule. From my experience, most boaters will ask their non-boater where they want to go but most non-boaters will just go along with whatever their boater does. It's very important to communicate with your boater. 99% of anglers will be more than willing to fish the water you want for your allotted time. My experiences as a non-boater are mostly positive. I've been with a few knuckleheads but only one really bad guy. He was a thorn in the entire division's side though. We have a bunch of really good guys in our club now, some of which I've become really close friends with. My dad fishes too and it's always a ton of fun competing against everyone. The competition can be pretty high on the water, but once we're done weighing in, we usually grab a bite/beer somewhere and talk about the day. Here's a few things I learned as a non-boater that will help ensure a smooth, enjoyable day: 1) Always arrive at the ramp early. I like to be there about 45 mins to an hr before the briefing and pairings. 2) Don't take a bunch of gear with you. This can be tricky because you won't know what or how you'll be fishing until you're paired the morning of. Six rods max and one medium sized bag/two small bags. You can always bring extra stuff and leave it in your vehicle once you and your boater decide on a game plan for the day. 3) A few key items to bring: cell phone AND watch, drinks & snacks, PFD, sunglasses, cull tags 4) Be clean and respectful. Don't step on seats. 5) Have the "net" discussion before either one of you hooks a fish. 6) Be positive. Communicate with your boater. Don't do anything you're not comfortable with. 7) Always offer to help with fuel costs. Like I said above, most guys, myself included, won't accept anything unless you want them to take you on a 20 mile run in the opposite direction they wanna fish. I've never had a boater ask me for more than $20 in an ABA tournament. 8) Don't get discouraged! Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me. Good luck!

I've never served but I'm gonna give a shout out to my Dad. He retired from the Army back in '98 after 20 years of service. He's a heck of a fisherman and taught me everything I know. Thanks Dad! And a special thanks to ALL of you as well!

This, this, and more this! As for the original post...maybe @Geebo, you're just a better fisherman than your friends. Maybe you're putting your baits in better places and working them with more precision. Maybe you're better at actually distinguishing strikes and setting the hook when it needs to be set. Or....(after re-reading your original post)...maybe you're just using the right baits! I don't see any indication that you and your friends are all using the same exact baits, differing only in color. The actual difference could be: you're using a black jig while friend A is using a watermelon senko and friend B is using a white spinnerbait. It sounds like you're catching them pretty good with what you're doing/using. As far as new suggestions, keep using the darker colors since you've gained confidence in them, just change up techniques. If you're throwing a lot of soft plastics, rotate between weightless, texas rigged w/ a weight, carolina rig, or swing/wobble head depending on the depth and cover. Go to the deep hole and drop shot or drag a big football jig down there. The possibilities are endless!

Let's make this simple guys....bass are going to bite whatever you throw as long as what you throw is placed close to them and they're hungry and/or ticked.

Aside from the two you mentioned, I use 4 in chigger craws and Zoom Super chunks. Either of those could have the "in between" action you're looking for. Not as much as a rage craw but more than a Zoom big salty chunk.

Welcome fellow Upstate New Yorker (I'm from even further upstate, the Watertown area)!

x2 St. Croix medium heavies will be too stout for cranks/treble hook baits. Like @ww2farmer suggested, the 7'1 M/F would be a pretty good choice for those techniques. I have the 6'8 M/XF spinning rod and it's perfect for what you want. I throw shakey heads, tubes, grubs, and on rare occasions, wacky rigs with it. They're really nice rods and the sensitivity is definitely there. St. Croix also has one of the best warranties in the biz so that's another factor to consider.

I bring apples and granola bars but usually won't eat until I'm in the truck heading home at the end of the day. I always have water in the boat and do my best to keep hydrated.

Tim's correct. Bass season doesn't open until the 3rd Saturday in June up there. By then, most of the bass should be done spawning but you're likely to still find a few smallmouth on beds in certain parts of the river.

I agree this is a good discussion. This is the kind of stuff that makes fishing so unique and so awesome! Everyone has so many different experiences on the water that lead them to so many different conclusions. There is always so much to talk about. There were times in the past when I'd question whether or not color mattered. Like I've mentioned before about jig fishing with my dad, sometimes he catches a few more, sometimes I do. I used to think that color could have been the reason because it was the only noticeable difference. After many years and countless outings together, I'd say we're about even in numbers and quality. That has lead me to the conclusion that the color of our jigs, in the waters we fish, don't matter. Your experiences led you to a different conclusion and that's great. You're having success on the water with baits/colors you've developed confidence in and that's what really matters. I think everyone here can at least agree to one thing...we'll never be able to get a true answer to this question. Both viewpoints are as right as they are wrong:)

Well if every other variable was accounted for (same line, exact same reel retrieve speed, same amount of casts in the same spots, exact weather conditions, time of year, time of day, etc, etc) between you both, then you could be right in your given situation. Sounds like you gave the other colors their fair shot. Maybe SC bass aren't quite as color blind as their NY cousins.

Your 7' mh carbonlite with the fast reel would be good for a number of techniques. I have a bunch and use them for small jigs (not finesse unless the hook is fairly stout), swim jigs, texas rigged soft plastics, small swimbaits on lead heads, and spinnerbaits/buzzbaits (not so much now since I've switched to heavy glass for this). I'm using a bunch of different lines for all these as well. You can definitely get away with throwing frogs on a mh if the cover you're fishing isn't too gnarly. I fish frogs a lot and use a 7'3 H that has a nice soft tip that really helps with skipping and walking. Your crank setup is a solid, all purpose choice. The slower reel will allow you to toss deeper baits with relative ease and you can still toss just about any other crank (like squarebills) with it. Like previously stated, your St. Croix can give you a lot of options. Though I rarely use medium action rods anymore, I've tossed jerkbaits, lipless cranks, small spinnerbaits, weightless plastics, and topwaters with them in the past. For drop shotting with small, nose hooked baits, I prefer more of a medium light action over a medium. I'll bump up to a heavier power if I'm fishing it with the bait texas rigged around some cover though. Along with your future, lighter spinning outfit and additional mh casting rig, I'd highly recommend a 7'3 to 7'6 heavy casting rod with 7+:1 gear ratio reel.

That's a big one right there for sure! HAHA! You're absolutely right. My father and I fish have fished so many times together and have dealt with all those same variables you mentioned with mixed results. Sometimes he catches 20 flippin a black/blue jig on 50lb braid and I catch 17 flippin a green pumpkin jig on 20lb flouro. Did he get more bites bc the bass wanted black/blue or bc his line was different? I don't think so. I bet he just happen to accidentally toss his jig in front of a few more fish.

I've been outdone by partners with different baits, never different colors of the same bait. When the bass are biting, they're biting. Maybe they're just color blind in NY:)

Def not 100% loyal to 1 brand but I do like to stick to only a few, but that's mainly because I'm anal and like my stuff to match.

"Matching the hatch" for bass seems kinda silly to me. So what if my 6XD is painted to look very similar to a threadfin shad...its fat profile, huge plastic lip, and weird wobble don't really match the bait it's attempting to mimic and these attributes would likely be more "noticeable" to the fish. I think it's more of a confidence thing than a color thing. I choose very few colors when I fish. Those colors are chosen because I like the way they look in the water, not because I think the fish can see them better. If I have confidence in a bait, I use it more, which means I catch more with it. I've seen way too many bass eat way too many dumb things to think they care that much about color, but there's also no harm in thinking they do. Whatever gives you the most confidence will ultimately get you the most bites!

Andy Montgomery quality right there!

I have some terminator flipping jigs that have the wire trailer keepers. Gotta say, I'm not a big fan because of the problem you're having. When I thread on a trailer, I squeeze the plastic bait on the sides while pulling outward (opposite direction of hook point) slightly as I slide it up the hook shank. It puts enough room between the wire point and the inside of the trailer so it doesn't slice it from the start. It works for me, however, once a fish pulls on the trailer, the downward force will slice it. You can try putting a little super glue at the top of the trailer. That should keep it from pulling down after every bite and/or hook set. I retract my statement...I don't think the wire on your jig is the same as what I'm thinking.

Just do like my dad and only throw a 3/4 oz. lol

@Team9nine Thanks for all the MLF background info. I knew very little about how it got started so I appreciate the info. Even though I complain about all the small fish caught during competition, I still like what MLF is doing and hope they keep expanding.

This actually makes a lot of sense and is probably the reason I feel the way I do about the MLF format. 99.9% of the time I'm fishing for larger fish so that's what I identify with more.

This was from the end of August. My biggest Largemouth of 2016 was caught on day one of the two day tourney (6lb on the 3/4 oz jig). I did the write up well after the event and just never posted. The tourney timeout post was from a July 2016 event. My recaps are always a little/lot late. I need to work on that lol.

I'm always late posting stuff... I had one heck of a fun weekend during the ABA division 4, two-day championship at the end of August. Although I didn’t seal the deal with a win, I was more than happy with my 2nd place finish given the tournament location and my lack of knowledge there. I always get a tad intimidated fishing events on Lake Ontario since I’m running a little Bass Tracker Pro Team 170. It’s no secret what kind of smallmouth live in the main lake and knowing that my rig doesn’t allow me to take advantage of them is a tough pill to swallow right outta the gate. The good thing is, we normally launch out of the smaller, protected bays which are all loaded with largemouth, so I get to fish comfortably in pretty productive waters. The only downside is that there are very few 20+ pound bags of largemouth to be had which is what you’d need to compete with the anglers fishing the main lake for brown ones. And of course, there are always a few guys that make Brandon Palaniuk-esque runs around the big lake to find’em. This event was no different. The winner made an 80 mile round trip run to hammer out 41.13 pounds of brownies for 1st place. My hat’s off to him for that commitment and execution! So why am I ecstatic with a runner up finish? Well, I actually made a competition out of it and gave him a scare…with largemouth! Not to mention, it was at a place I had only fished once prior to this event. What was even crazier is that I was actually around the fish to win had I executed 100%. My two-day weight went 38.72lbs which included a 6 pounder that took lunker honors. Day 1: What I found in my single practice day a few weeks prior to the tournament had me confident I could catch 14 – 16lbs a day. Great largemouth weights given our location but certainly not enough to compete against the main lake smallmouth. It was ok though. I knew I could have fun catching my favorite colored fish the way I like to catch them inside the bay. I went to a small grass bed I found in practice and started flipping around with my heavy jig. It didn’t take too long before the bites started coming. Nothing big, but three 2.5 pounders in three consecutive casts is pretty cool. In about an hour I had a limit weighing roughly 12 or 13lbs. A decent start with plenty of time to hunt for a 4+ kicker. I fished a few other spots without much luck, then I made the decision…I remember seeing two smaller bays on either side of the one we were in while checking out the old google maps before the tournament. I told myself I should at least try one of them out because the main bay fished pretty small, even for 12 boats. The problem though, was that the bays could only be accessed by running out into the main lake. They weren’t far at all, maybe less land ¾ of a mile but that could still be iffy in my Tin Can. The wind wasn’t blowing hard so I made the decision to get away from the crowd and check one out. All I can say is that I was darn lucky to have a small boat. The channel getting in was way more narrow that I thought it would be. But I got in…and man what a spot. The bay was completely different structurally (grass, clarity, etc) but it was home to a bunch of big ones. In the next three hours I put just over 20lbs in the boat. Needless to say, I knew where I was going on day 2. Day 2: The wind shifted the next day which made the short ride over to the bay nice and easy. Of course that meant it was pounding directly into my best area. I didn’t think it would affect the bite but it definitely made fishing it so much more difficult. I managed only 2 bites, both good ones, in my key area early in the morning. I was thinking I may have caught too many the first day and that they didn’t replenish overnight. I decided to try an adjacent bank that I didn’t touch the day before. The fish were holding on the steep rocky ledges just off the bank and I began picking them off with a football jig. It was another slugfest as I put 18.5 in the boat and jumped one off in the 4-5 pound range. Over the two days of fishing I boated around 50 largemouth including three over 5 pounds! Gear and Techniques: I caught most of my fish flipping a ¾ oz and ½ oz jig on a 7’6 heavy action flipping stick, 7.3:1 gear reel, and 20lb fluorocarbon around grass and isolated wood. I mixed in a heavy football jig to catch them off the rock ledges, throwing it on a 7’3 medium heavy rod, 6.4:1 gear reel, and 16lb fluorocarbon. I also caught a couple fish on a frog and 4 inch finesse worm on a drop shot. Here's a few standouts.

Thanks for the heads up!