Osprey39

I think I will look into getting some of those LED lights. Seems to be the best way to go but BPS didn't have the ones that fit my trailer. I'm wondering if I return the standard ones I ordered if they will refund my bonus points that I used to buy them.

I don't have any experience with the G3s but they look like nice boats. I have an aluminum and to be honest, it rides nicer than any fiberglass bass boat I've been in this side of a Ranger so I can recommend aluminum at least.

Here's an example of a bad pitch:

That is my biggest pet peeve about braid fishing soft baits > So does the fireline only come in black? I would rather have it in green if I could just so it blends better in the water IMO What is the claim to fame with the 5 strands? Rounder or stronger or something of that nature? I bought some of their Tracer line (alternates between green and bright yellow in approx. 1 foot increments) to use for my spinning rod. I like it so far. I attach a flourocarbon leader to it and it has worked great.

I've never heard of that brand but my only suggestion would be to see if they have website or contact them (if they're still around.)

Hmm, I have a couple that come to mind. The first I was fishing with my dad and my best friend at Caballo Lake here in New Mexico. We had been working a shoreline for quite some time with zero luck. I wanted to move but my dad was ever the gas miser and he didn't want to. We eventually came up to a small point that had some small dead bushes on it. I had put my rod down and I was sitting in the driver's seat drinking a soda while my buddy and my dad continued to fish. When we got to that point, they started catching fish. No size to them, but they caught about 5 in 15 minutes. I decided to get in on some of the action so I picked up my rod and pitched a jig into one of the bushes. My pitch missed the spot on the bush I was aiming for and I got a bit of a backlash which I started to pull out. My jig was laying over a limb, barely in the water. The water was dirty and didn't have much visibility. As I pulled some of the line out and it sunk into the water where I could no longer see it, I saw a gold flash near the bush. I figured I'd spooked a carp out of there. Then I saw the line start to move sideways and I knew it was a bass. I just took up the slack right over the backlash and set the hook. My rod bent and sure enough, I had a fish on. I started to pull it away from the tree and it was kind of like a dead weight. I reeled it up to the surface and this fish was huge by New Mexico standards but it was obviously on its last legs. It came up to the surface and it was just slowly beating it's tail on the water, unable to do much more than that. My dad flipped out. He's yelling at my buddy who had grabbed the net to be careful netting it. My buddy scoops it up and got it in the boat and that's when we noticed its left eye was dangling out of the socket. We all just stared at it for a minute in amazement. My dad had an old school Chatillion scale on the boat and we weighed it. The scale showed a little over 9lbs. We took it into the marina and weighed it on their scale which had more resolution and it came out at 9lbs even. That is still my biggest bass to date even though it didn't put up much of a fight. Now my other favorite was on Elephant Butte Lake. Again, I was fishing with my dad. The water was gin clear and you could see a lure way down deep. We were fishing near a cliff in about 20 feet of water and I was throwing a chrome and blue Rat-L-Trap. I was yoyoing it off the bottom and as I got it closer to the boat and pulled it off the bottom, I looked down and I could see the lure. I saw a big flash by the lure and the lure was gone. I set the hook and immediately the fish goes for the bottom. I managed to get it turned and out of the rocks and it started swimming around the boat. It made a couple of runs on me but I got it up to the boat and we netted it. I didn't weigh that one but I would have guessed it between 4 and 5 pounds. It was a pretty nice fish but the reason I mention it as a favorite is because even though that was about 18 years ago, I can still see that Trap way down in the water and that fish coming out and hammering it like it was yesterday. It's a really vivid memory for me.

Yeah, I Googled it and came up with what looks like a spook imitation, not a swimbait.

Bingo. There's a big difference between snaps and snap swivels. Snap swivels will kill bait action on certain baits like cranks. Snaps will not. I use snaps religiously on my crankbait rods because I like to experiment with different types/sizes/colors until I find one that is working that day. I have never had one break on me, knock on wood.

Yeah, I bought my PT190TX used from a dealer that resells boats he buys at auctions. It was in immaculate condition for a 3 year old boat but the only owner's manual he had was for the trolling motor. I figured that wasn't a big deal in the internet age so I got online. I found that I could get the Mercury manual no problem, just had to cough up $20 for them to send it to me. I couldn't find anything about the boat manual online so I picked up the phone and called Tracker. They told me something to the effect of "Oh, there really isn't a manual. It just has the warranty information in it." I was like, "OK then. Scratch that idea." Bottomline, I'm happy with the boat for the most part but I have to agree with Burleytog, how can you not have an owner's manual for a vehicle?

Yeah TrackerG, that's what I intend to do until my new light kit arrives. I may just keep doing that after I install the new ones too. Small price to pay to eliminate the headaches.

That's a pretty tough call. First of all, there's no hard line that distinguishes a lake from a pond. Furthermore, it's not likely that bass know or care whether they're living in a lake or pond. The difference between 'public water' and 'private water' is essentially a political boundary. The natural wildness of fish will not necessarily hinge on any political boundary. In some southeastern states, there are private waters that stock and fertilize on a regular basis. However, unless it's a "pay-lake", not many landowners will be motivated to foot the recurrent cost of chemicals and restocking (I once owned a small pond). Ironically, there are many public waters that receive excellent stewardship, and many private ponds that are merely neglected mud holes, and some of them are pay ponds. Roger I realized I didn't word that very well. What I mean is that there are certain differences between bass in a private pond/lake/other body of water and bass in a public body of water. First and foremost is fishing pressure. There is essentially none. I have heard countless stories over the years (the latest was just this last weekend) of guys that have gotten the opportunity to fish a private body of water and they talk about how you can catch a fish on nearly every cast. We all know that is not the case on public waters. Furthermore, odds are that the fish in private waters will not be removed from that water if they are caught thus giving them the opportunity to grow larger. The second major difference is access. If you have a pond with state record size fish in it, I have no opportunity to catch them because I likely can't fish there. If the water is not open to all anglers, why should the fish from that water be eligible for a record that is for all anglers? There's no logic in that. Personally, I don't fish for records so I can't say this really 'bothers' me. Nonetheless, that's the way I look at it.

Our Wal-marts don't have trailer lights. Most New Mexicans don't care whether or not their trailer lights work (if they even have trailer lights )

It's not a dumb question. I do not unplug them. While this is my first boat of my own, I've been around them most of my life (my dad has always had at least 2 boats for as long as I can remember) and I don't remember ever having to unplug them prior to backing in so that's why I don't.

Trust me on this one. Get the biggest motor (within the boat's rated maximum of course) that you can afford. A guy gave me some good advice when I told him I was considering a 115hp and my boat is rated for 135hp. He told me I can always back down the 135hp and go slower but when you hit the wall on the 115, that's it. What he said is totally true and in your case, you might be able to get by on that one lake with the 3.5hp but the day will come when you want to fish bigger water and you'll wish you had a bigger motor. Do yourself a favor and just buy it from the get go.

I have had a problem with my trailer lights since I got my boat. Inevitably, after 1 or 2 trips, the turn/brake light bulbs burn out. I spent a couple hours two weekends ago pulling the lights apart and getting new bulbs in them. First trip to the lake, bam, the bulbs are toast again. Now it's not hard for me to figure out what the problem is. The 'waterproof' inner housings are leaking. One of the bulbs had so much corrosion on it that I had to crush the bulb glass and use needle nose pliers to remove the terminal end. I just ordered a whole new set of lights from BPS but my question is this: Do these inner housings lose their watertight seal if you take them apart? I see there is a rubber gasket around the housing but it apparently is not enough to keep water out. Is this normal? This is my first boat so this is new to me. It doesn't seem to me that water that isn't under pressure should be able to get by that gasket but it obviously is.

Personally, I don't think fish caught from some private pond should be eligible for records. They aren't really 'wild'.

Just curious but how come you don't like Rat-L-Traps?

I use Rat-L-Traps almost exclusively. I have a few other brands but I've always had the best results with traps.

At the risk of coming off as ignorant, what do you mean by 'skin hook'?

I'm in! Always in for free tackle

What do you guys like to use? I really like to fish crankbaits but I've been told that in the lakes near me that crawdad patterns are much more effective. I know you can get crawdad pattern cranks but I only own a couple. Are they worth investing in?

I have the Pro Qualifier bibs and jacket w/liner and they are great. They are very warm. I actually wore them snowboarding. It was my first time snowboarding and I fell down a ton. I stayed warm and dry all day. The jacket and liner are both great for stopping the wind. I wear the jacket by itself if it's windy but not all that cold. I wear the liner by itself (it's a nice looking coat in its own right) if it's windy and cold. I wear both if it's really cold. I highly recommend them.

I grew up fishing for saltwater gamefish. To this day the size of a bass, no matter how big, does not get to me that much. I know what's a trophy and what isn't but to me, all bass look 'small'. Don't get me wrong, I love to catch them and the 9lb largemouth I caught is one of 4 fish I've ever had mounted in my lifetime but compared to a 50+ pound saltwater fish that would strip your average baitcast real clean of line in seconds, they are still 'small' ) If you want to learn to catch big fish on light line, I suggest you get yourself some hot lips bucktail jigs and go find a bait pod in central Florida. There's no better practice than that. i shuld just go out right? i will learn right? how do i learn if i dont know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know bud, it's not that tough really. When I was a kid, the only thing my dad told me was pump the rod towards you to pull the fish then reel down to take up the line you just pulled. Pump and reel. Pump and reel. The only other thing he ever told me was keep the line tight. With those two pieces of information plus a whole lot of time fishing, I figured out how to fight a fish. It's not rocket science. Honestly, I am not trying to sound like a snob here but bass are easy. I've seldom had a bass on that I didn't have in the boat inside of a minute, two tops. The first fish I caught in New Mexico was an 18lb striper on 8lb line that swam around the boat about 6 times. That was challenging edit: One other thing he told me that is kind of self explanatory: don't reel against the drag

I grew up fishing for saltwater gamefish. To this day the size of a bass, no matter how big, does not get to me that much. I know what's a trophy and what isn't but to me, all bass look 'small'. Don't get me wrong, I love to catch them and the 9lb largemouth I caught is one of 4 fish I've ever had mounted in my lifetime but compared to a 50+ pound saltwater fish that would strip your average baitcast real clean of line in seconds, they are still 'small' ) If you want to learn to catch big fish on light line, I suggest you get yourself some hot lips bucktail jigs and go find a bait pod in central Florida. There's no better practice than that.

What knot do you all use? I have always used a blood knot when splicing two pieces of line together but that knot doesn't seem to work too well when one of the pieces of line is braid. The polymer line wants to slide right through it. After re-tying the same knot 10 times last night, I started to think there had to be a better solution.