BigEbass

Dontcha hate that kinda crap - just bought the 998 and paid 2K and it doesnt even have enough length of wire for the power - no biggie to lengthen, but cmon!! I definately will buy a RAM mount - I am not a very handy person to make a home-made type of job....

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_98611_250003004_250000000_250003000_250-3-4 Here is the 1.5" - For mainly calm waters it should suffice correct? Easier on my now much depleted fun budget!!!

That is cool - although I will need the ability to swivel really so I will keep looking for a good deal on a RAM mount. My reading so far on google serching other forums is simply first what size ball to buy - 1.5" vs. 2.5" - I fish pretty calm waters mainly with the only significant wave encounters being possibly someone's wake...so I think the 1.5" will do the job fine? But if I can find a 2.5" for a 40-60 bucks, I could live with that too - 94 bucks just seems like alot -I will however buy it if I must......

http://www.austinkayak.com/products/1356/RAM-Universal-Mount-RAM-B-111.html http://sporting-goods.pricegrabber.com/motors-engines/Universal-RAM-111-Mount-1-Ball-6-2-Plate/m63978694.html/search=Ram+Mount/st=product/sv=image Wonder if the 25 dollar one will do the job and hold it down securely - dont want to buy something "cheap" per se, but I dont want to get ripped either - any thoughts on these alternatives - has anybody used them?

dang - 100 more bucks - I was hoping for like 40 or 50 bucks - darn crooks

Troyce catching one, answering blackberry simultaneously - cmon, let it ring - I dont ever touch my phone on the water!!

Big bait, big fish....

Here a few of the pics for fun...

Went fishing today with my usual fishin buddy - we got 30 minutes up the road and he (well we I suppose) forgot his trolling motor for the Jon boat we were using - didnt get there till 10:30am - caught 5 each by 12:30 - I got 3 nice 2-3 lb'ers, Troyce got one nice one in that same range, and we caught 6 dinks. I am always amazed at the ferocity of these little bass - the bait was about half the length of the little guy - was he trying to eat it or just did it make him mad? And I saw for the first time someone answer their blackberry while fighting a 21/2 pounder....I dont even answer the phone when fishing After about 1pm - the wind and rain from the front that has been moving through kicked up a few notches - wind was CRAZY - we had moved to a pretty shallow small lake - max 7 feet, much of it is 3-5 feet - didnt get a bite their for the remaining 2 hours then fled. I like wind at times, it turns on my fishing, but is there a point where this is so much wind that it is just time for lock jaw? I figure in a really shallow body of water like that as well as the cold front and rain, it made things tough - any thoughts on such conditions? Wish we would have got there at 8am or 9am, probably would have caught 5-10 more fish than we had > maybe next time. Hope everyone has gotten out to fish this weekend, I wont be going tomorrow - got chores to do around the house :'(

I am fairly new to bass fishing and have not yet really done striper fishing - god that looks fun - smith lake nearby where I live has some good ones I hear - record in that lake is like 48 or something. I have caught 3 striper in the delaware bay once casting a swimbait at rocks along a lighthouse - we only had like 20 minuts of light left to try and I caught three - 8lb er and a couple 3-5 lbers - as soon as that bait came of of those rocks, they would slam the crap out of it!!! I gotta get to trying for striper soon man, you have inspired me

Its ok man - I forgive you - congratz on the big catches!! I keep hearing about this mop jig lately - I am gonna have to give it a whirl on my southern LM's

Going to start another thread on this, but looking now to buy a good RAM mount that is a good price - anybody know a good one for my unit?

I was thinking about it and Im sure that this tool will help me - particulary over time I imagine I will eventually have much of my local waters "mapped out" in my head. A friend who was skeptical of the purchase who does not fish told me to "call him when it puts more fish in the boat". So will I catch more fish or more quality fish, or be able to catch more consistently? I asked him the question - If I learn the structure of my waters faster and more thoroughly - I cannot see how that will not help my fishing? Or is will just be this really awesome screen to make me feel high tech But since I am now starting out to venture on my own, the GPS will be a huge benefit for me, just so I dont get lost - particularly on many bodies of water that I have rarely ever been on - particularly smith lake - its pretty big and has tons of "fingers" to it for me to get lost. The side imaging seems really sweet - cant wait to try it out - went fishing today with my neighbor, havent even installed it yet....played with it in sim mode only...

Hey everyone - I bought the 998 and a map chip last night. Was debating over the 798 vs. the 998 - obviously a price gap there - decided to go ahead and splurge and invest "big" - I am glad I did - I did not have a chance to touch it at all last night as I got home late, but I woke up at 4am this morning, couldnt sleep and started playing with in in sim. mode - it is so freakin sweet (well at least so far it looks sweet) All the various modes and split screens available - I am glad a splurged - although I am sure the 798 would have been really awesome too - no looking back now I will be postin more in the next 2 weeks with all of my experience with it so far.....

I will add that I especially like them because they are so versatile - I fish em shallow, deep, slow - my neighbor 3 weeks ago threw one out and got a huge bird's nest - he was picking at it for a couple minutes - there was abolutely no tension on the line - and all the sudden a fish was on - he was holding the rod/reel and I was pulling in the line - I swear that fish picked it up off the bottom...anyway, you can do a bunch with em - its a staple - and I absolutely keep on tied on if there if there are bass schooling or busting on shad!!

I caught my first 5+ lber just a few weeks ago on a bright orange red eye shad - then the next cast a 7....id say I am a fan - having said that, I use bill lewis, cotton's, and a couple others and have caught on em too pretty regularly.....I suspect its more about size of the trap and color than anything else

I have read Bill Siemantel's book and have seriously contemplating attempting this style of fishing in the next year or so - would require some serious gear changes obviously - the baits are pretty darn expensive - Not to hijack the thread, but a side quesion - is this style of big swimbaits and big tube baits and the like in my region of birmingham going to be effective - Bill stated in his book that frequently it is thought that it a western clear water tactic only, but he stated that it will work in the southeast too? Do many people really even committ to this style on here to even comment on it? I planned on reading more up on it this year and gearing up for trying it later if warranted...

Go big or go for numbers? Hmmm....I am a relative newB - been fishing the past 2 years under the wing of my more experienced neighbor who got me into this - we fish to catch whatever size, but I feel our tactics vary and many times I presume qualify as big bass tactics - we fish slow at times and faster other times. Which brings up my question. Is there one given way to catch the big ones? I just read a bassmaster article regarding their "lunker club" entries - huge majority were caught on plastics, primarily plastic worm - I recall reading an article by doug hannon some time ago in field and stream I believe stating that he has caugh a majority of his bass on a basic 7 inch texas rigged worm. But everbody seems to know big uns come from deep, shallow, on jigs, sb's, worms, traps, etc... I guess I get confused in reading all this stuff as a beginner cause Big bass are seemed to be caught by people via a number of tactics. Can I have my cake and eat it too I guess my question is to everyone (cause I am a newB) - we may need to define what exactly it means to "go for the big one" vs. "going for numbers". In my limited experience so far, if we find the fish in numbers and the quality isnt there, we alter the tactic (change to a worm, jig, or just something else). But I have never tried the only slow and only deep approach that I see some favor for even more consistent big catch rate. Bill Siemantel's book sort of touches on this issue as I recall - have only read it once and it was like a year ago for me - he seemed to think we should go for both size qty...he also stated in his book that he simply fishes good spots that should hold bass and probes the entire water column from topwater to shallow to deep - then establishes a "milk run" to get multiple big ones....that is what I am going for - probably will take a while though I suppose

That is a LONG CHUNK - I would say 9 conservative, but possibly 10 - photos are so tricky, but oh baby thats a big un!

Thats disappointing :'(

I practice catch and release for bass - we will on occassion keep some crappie or catch and keep a few trout as well on a rare occassion. Whatever will help improve the number and quality of bass in my body of water for better fishing I am for - which may include keeping certain size bass in some situations as I understand - bass fishing for me is all about catching!! Lets make the catching as good as possible for us all I say

Good points wayne, thats a great idea about 2 mounts....how much is a 2nd transducer? And have you had problems with the internal GPS unit?

I got no big beef with the stocked ponds deal. And I suppose while bass are bass are bass and they still have to be caught, that these ponds do not significantly represent the waters that most viewers are accessing. But I have learned key things form Bill's show I would say - he does instruct well and has the experience to back it up - the fish he catches are more for show and some substance as well, but it really aint the same. I frankly get tired of seeing him catch every single bass that is well over 3 pounds - it is just weird somehow to me - but I still watch him and particularly I listen to him - I think he gives good advice about presentation, bass habitat, equipment, etc....The fishing on these ponds just makes in my opinion for a fun backdrop for the fishing academia. In an ideal world he would have to go out on "a real lake" and figure out the fish and report back to us - but I am sure this is quite difficult for these guys - I am sure his advice on these shows are always sound advice for amateurs like myself - I dont let the bait monkey take me too far though with all of his lures etc..he uses on the show. I actually tune in more so now to other shows that are more what I see as "real life" fishing - lunkerville is always fun and includes good instructional pieces too. Roland martin kinda gets on my nerves for some reason, but he seems to fish more "realistic waters" in his show. I like to watch them all though from time to time - always something to pick up from these guys!! But the massive pig caught back to back to back is kinda funny to me - but I still love ya Bill

Wow, thanks for clearing that up - as I recall too there were 2 articles - one in Bassin and one is Bassmaster that alluded to all of this "concern" about possible restrictions on recreational fishing.....I guess someone took this pretty far. Although I suppose all of us weekend warriors should always be ready to fend off such....but I just cannot see them stopping many of us from fishing - it would be extremely politically unpopular!! And I agree that we should keep out all of these discussions from these sites because it always turns into a political food fight IMO.

hopefully the manual will offer good advice on proper installation as it relates to this? When you say "level" - do you mean level with the hull or more level with the water when moving at say 2-3 mph - the boat likely lifts up just a bit so I am guessing the transducer will point long ways downard slightly and laterally though it should be perfectly parallell to the hull I would think - hopefully the manual offers a good process. I havent really thought much about the trolling motor mount option - if it will work just as good in da back, then that will be fine with me - although on the rare occassion that I am on a trolling motor only pond there is this issue...but even then I could troll from the bow and watch the screen "well enough" perhaps - I will just need a second unit later