ChrisAW

When one of your storage boxes broke and you have to transfer all of them to a new one.. its not a bad thing when you can transfer 30 crankbaits in only 4 movements.

Wow, that was pretty rude. A simple conversation turned bad- why? I'd never used the foot control on such a small boat before that time. Believe me, its only happened once. Way to be, Mr. High and Mighty.

When it will almost roll the boat, yes, there is such a thing as too powerful

I wont disagree that the variable is better.

Sounds like most of you are trying to save money by using an underpowered motor for your boat. The general rule of thumb is 4 pounds of thrust to every foot of boat. This isn't really as necessary for smaller aluminum boats, but putting a 55 pounder on a 17+ foot bass boat isn't going to cut it. I bought a 45# Edge to put on the front of a friend of mines 12' fiberglass boat, and 5 was definitely too powerful but the bottom four speeds were more than useful. I hardly ever went into 3 or 4 unless I was just trying to get out of a spot or move somewhere else pretty quickly. I've been using the same motor for a 14" aluminum boat now for a little while and again, I have a use for all speeds and have absolutely ZERO problems using the number one speed setting while fishing or being able to fight winds on the higher settings. You need to match the motor to the boat.

Yep. I was a very unappreciated employee. They'd notice any little thing I may have done wrong, but never notice how much I actually went above and beyond. And I had a pretty large return customer base from myself alone, a customer base that followed me to Bass Pro. They had to hire two people to replace me, and from what I've heard from the guys that still work there, they're looking for another one just to keep up with all the work I did for them. I worked fishing, firearms, receiving, and maintenance. Seems counter-intuitive to be paying 3 people a combined 24.50 hourly wage than to just bump me up into double digits alone.

I'm glad I'm out of Gander. They have no interest in keeping knowledgeable, hard working employee's. They would rather be paying some kid with little to no experience in each section bottom dollar than let someone who knows the store inside and out and is worth a d**n when it comes to helping customers move up in pay scale. Might be different for some stores, but mine was ran by a bunch of golfers. Only one of the 8 or so managers and supervisors ACTUALLY hunted or fished. But that was probably why that store was the District Managers favorite, because the management did so well to keep money for the company.

If you look closer in the video, it looks like the Vendetta's are getting a bit of an update as well?

Ahh, I stand corrected

I do not believe you're supposed to fish it with a weight infront of it. That would limit the action it could produce. I could be wrong, but thats just my guess, I haven't used them yet.

I don't see what the big deal is with Shimano. I own two Citica's because I know they work, and its the only left handed reels I could get at a local store when I needed a couple new ones. Any time I ever picked up a Shimano, they feel clunky to me and aren't all that smooth at all. Funny I hear so much praise about them, and how the first thing many people do is change out the bearings. LOL. Kind of like Jeeps are great offroaders... once you add some Chevy or Ford one ton axles and a whole different drive train. I'm sure that will stir up the bee's nest but thats my true opinion. Everyone should take it as pure truth.

You have it backwards. He asked about ripping the claws off and just fishing it with the crazy legs. I have actually, I was fishing the crazy legs on a jig and both claws got ripped off, so I stuck it on a chatterbait and it was enticing bites that the regular little twin tail trailers didn't seem to be getting. Been tearing the claws off of pretty used up ones every since and keep them in another bag.

Most shakey head hooks aren't a very heavy wire, using straight braid to something like that is likely why you straighted it out. A leader is hardly going to help. And 15lb line? Thats still a good way to open up a couple hooks. Heck, I've bent open some flipping hooks on wood before with 15 pound flouro. Lighten up your tackle a bit for these finesse baits.

Are you using braid?

You don't have to be young! I was watching an FLW coverage of some college tournaments last year, there was a man who was no younger than 40 competing.

You aren't really supposed to just buzz them. They can be, but I've seen people do awesome with them working them just below the surface, like the dahlberg diving frog.

He does say Lake Austin in the description.

If he speared any of those bass in Texas, he has a lot of evidence of doing something illegal right there.

Good assumption. Read his book, you'll find out you're absolutely wrong. I find it funny so many people think he's putting on a show for the camera's and all that. He acted the same way long before he was ever a famous angler. As for his "over-reactions." I want anyone here talking down about how he reacts to the good and bad times he has, and think about something you're passionate about. Your children maybe? Did any fathers here every jump for joy and cheer when their son or daughter won at some big event? Or maybe something you invested a lot of time and money into completely failed, you didn't take out a little frustration on something nearby? If you haven't, then you're not human. I sense there are many hypocrites in the crowd, though. Those are the kind of emotions that Ike is showing because he has a lot of passion for fishing. Fishings not just something he just fell into doing because he's good at it. Its what he has always WANTED to do, and he worked his ass off to get it.

One trip out so far. It was about a 3 hour trip with my girlfriend and a friend of mine. I boated 5 fish, girlfriend got one little one, friend zero. They both gave up, and I ended up catching this 5.8lber.

I have snapped one rod on purpose, just like Mike did during that Texas Bass Challenge. Last year, a custom rod a friend gave it to me since he was heading into the military, and had also gave up fishing a few years before. It was a 6'6" M-F. I liked it a lot. It was very lightweight and was very comfortable. But it seems like no matter what I did, I could NOT land a fish with that rod. First trip out, I hooked up with about 15 fish, and only landed 8 out of those. I don't know what it was. The rod I was using before was the same power/action and I never had a problem getting fish in the boat with it. Maybe lost 5 out of a much larger number of jerkbait fish I caught last year on that combo. I fished it for a little while and got mad at it, and threw it in the closet at home after I that horrible trip. After it was in time out for a month, I got it back out. I fished a couple other presentations with it, but never got a hit with it. At one point, I tied a jerkbait on it again after a couple trips. I lost 4 small fish right off the bat, and I completely blew my cork after losing a high 3, or maybe 4 pound LM. I cracked it over the side of the boat and threw it in the floor. I really believe there was something supernaturally wrong with that rod. It didn't like me, or it was mad its owner gave it away or something. But I am glad to be rid of that one. Other than that, I do like to cuss at bad times on the water.

Or St Clair, or Saginaw Bay. Both are amazing smallie fisheries. But they are big, you'd best have someone take you that can put you on fish.

Went out today, second day after opening, with my girlfriend and a friend to the closest lake we could drop my boat in. We were there about an hour and I had pulled 5 fish in, ranging from 1.5 to 3 pounds. I was especially excited about that because I was catching them on my baits I've been making. One of them with my jig and craw trailer. So as the day went by, the bite stopped. They had both given up, and were sitting in the boat, fiddling with their phones, and cracking jokes about me. Well, after about an hour of that I switched to a green Jungle Jig with one of my own "Watermelon Candy" colored craws like the above on it. No more than 5 casts later, I got bit. And it was a hard hit too. I knew it was a good fish, and I swung for the fences. She put up a fight, and decided to head under the boat. She was heading for the trolling motor, and I wasn't ready for that. I was reaching for the net with one hand and rod in the other. I felt her go under so I tried to keep her from getting too far, but I must have resisted too hard cause my rod snapped. (It was abused, I wasn't really shocked by it) I was lucky, though. She surfaced on the other side just long enough to get her in the net. After I got my line out from under the boat, I looked up and both my fishing buddies were just yelling and cheering, wide eyed and trying to now turn on the camera on their phones. She came in at 5 and a half pounds.

Thats the one thing that I hate to see when I catch a fish. Not much else bothers me, but when I hook something I plan to let go in the eye, UGH. I feel like crap.

KVD works. You'll probably only really notice a difference with heavier lines, like 12lb+ flouro's and mono's. I use it constantly for my flouro and 15lb mono rods. It makes a huge difference, but I personally don't have a lot of problems with lighter lines as it is, so I quit using it on them so I can stretch this bottle out to be used on my baitcasters. More than likely, anyone who says they didn't notice a difference isn't using heavy lines, or flouro at all.