Nitrofreak

If not a single care was given the fish would have been thrown in a bucket and laid in the sun for the trip or strung up and left to hang. Throwing a fish in a cooler is to me being a conciderate act, they are taking care of their catch by doing so, as long as it was packed with ice, which I saw no mention of, but either way it is still their decision to do it. We are not here to judge one another on the acts of what each of us do, we are here however to offer assistance to those who would like our opinions on other subjects that will help all of us grow and become better fishermen. Very well put !!!

First of all congrats !!! now where are the pics? As for the oil ALWAYS run what the manufacture suggests, do not compromise especially if it is still under a manufactures warranty. The quick kleen is both necessary and beneficial to your boat engines performance and durability, read the instructions and follow them to the T. Star Tron / Star Brite is also another really good product if you can't find the quick kleen. Good luck and be safe !!!

LOL !!! Na, thanx for the offer to help my hit rate, but I think something like that may attract the wrong kind of attention.

If you have access to google you can just type in "topo maps" and add your area and body of water. Nice post busy !!!!!

Well first of all congrats !!!! Thats some pretty good team work and thanx for sharing !!! Tom, I have to wonder, do you think it's the bass green fingernail polish your wife is wearing? HHmmm...ever concidered...NA forget it, just keep having fun you two and thanx again !!! Good luck and be safe !!!

While I agree with Rhino's post here another factor to concider is towing, yes, the torque is a key factor for the transom while in the water but the hanging weight becomes a factor while trailered, a lot of the weight is absorbed with any transom mounted outboard when the crutch support is used, but if it only has the lever type lock then the transom has to support almost the entire weight of the outboard as it is bouncing up and down the road, that can add stress to the transom. Unless there is damage to the transom, there should not be a problem with hanging a little extra weight off of it, find out the specs of the 150, the weight will vary a little between different makes of each engine and compare that to the current weight of the engine you wish to install.

Nice LOL !!! I prefer sky hooks and leave them in place until the tree begins to saturate and stand on it's own. I personally like 00's bucket trees, they are very effective and hard to get snagged on.

Get ready to spend a lot of time on the water. Finding topo maps just go to www.topomaps.com it's a pretty good one to start with, local areas will have detailed paper maps which are ones I like to use the most, they often have much more detailed information like, fish attractor locations etc...also you can ask if they have a guide for that body of water, they will be able to provide you with the most information on where a lot of things can be found for the body of water you are interested in. He/she will already have the expencive electronics and can show you some of the best structure and cover on the lake without having to shell out some big bucks right away, a guide will knock down at least half the time of you going out and doing it yourself, renting a boat for the day is already digging into the pocket, spend some of that money wisely and utilise a valuable resource. As far as exploring your body of water, yes, the c-rig is going to be one of your best friends, but the jig can also provide some really great information or feedback if you will as well. Once you find a good topo map you need to make sure you keep a log of what is in a particular area and mark that on the map or in a log book, yes I said a book, trust me the map is not going to hold all of the markings. Start small, go to areas and spend time with them, once you start to catch fish in an area look at the map closely, and keep this in your memory bank for when you visit other bodies of water, what works there will give you clues of how to break down other bodies of water as well. Hope that helps !! Good luck and be safe !!!

LMAO !!! You crack me up dude LOL, i'm with lund whats the story here.

No not yet Wayne, but thanx !!!

Thank you Keith Bassett for us for taking the time to teach us some very important highlites about the Elite series sonars. I have not seen these in my local stores, what are the price ranges for these two sonars? Has anyone purchaced one yet?

I think your going to need a bigger boat RW, from what I understand it's already like a floating tackle box lol. The baits look amazing, thanx for posting this !!!!

Cummmoooonnnn man really? so your saying mermaids don't exist either? shame on you !!! lol. Bass/Trout hybrid....hmmm what should we name it? an assrout, a bassout, basstro? lol. I would have loved to have seen the fish as well, good luck catching it again !!

I agree with the bass being deeper, the shallower bass need oxygen as other posts have stated, what you want to look for are wood, and plant life around the area that can provide that for them, the bite can/will still be tough and you must be methodical in your approach and very thorough when working your baits around areas such as these, it can be just a matter of inches that will or will not earn a strike. Just how deep is deep though, it depends on the body of water, some bodies are no deeper than 8 to 15' some are hundreds of feet deep, so for fishing a lake that offers over 100' depths, fishing in 30 to 40 feet of water is concidered to be fishing deep at least for me, and a place where I spend a lot of my time. Do the fish bite better at night? well I think there are a couple of different factors that will play a role with that question, one concideration would have to be public use of the body of water, how much traffic and how hard it is fished can play a major role in how you decide to fish and when you should fish, cooler temps, less stress all add up to better fishing opportunities, but the water you fish still has to be able to provide everything needed for the survival of the species, non of that changes much over a 24 hr period of time so let the fish tell you if it's better at night. Structure, bait fish, when we talk or ask about how deep we should be fishing during summer months are the 2 most important considerations in my opinion, along with other factors, like o2 levels etc... if you are getting skunked in the am keep working at it and find areas that offer good cover and stuff like stumps that can still help provide o2 to the area. Hope that helps a little. Good luck and be safe !!!

The only time I stop bass fishing in the summer and fish for something else is when I am reaching down in the bottom of an ice chest getting the coldest budweiser I can find.

As for gut feelings, well, not my home lake, I know what works throughout each season, it's just a matter of finding the fish I need to target if I have been away from the lake for a while. Do I rely solely on instinct ? there are times when I will let that come into play, a new body of water will play a large roll in that, but thats only after I have done all the homework I can and I pull up on a spot and it's totally different than what my homework yeilded. I will always go with the confidence stuff, but that does not always mean I will fish the confidence stuff first.

Since you say the water temps are showing you they are in the low 80's I assume you are fishing from a boat. I like the southern end of the map and would be fishing 15 to 20 feet deep where the contour lines tighten up. If you are fishing from a boat, I would use a more vertical presentation, I like the twin tail hoola grub.

For bank fishing you have to include time and patience, I like the area around the breast of the dam, fish will be in deeper water, but you will need to have access to a sonar to find what you are lookig for, so for me the next best thing is getting as close to the bottom as I can. For me a twin tail hoola grub, t-rigged is what I like to use, slow, small movements is the best way I have found to get these bass to strike on days when it's hard enough that you couldn't buy a bite.

If it's a quarry, then it's full of rock and gravel, I would fish those deeper pockets with a spoon. I have had some pretty good luck fishing a salt and pepper tube or a pumkin seed tube as well, me personally I like to use a drop shot with a robo worm when fishing shallow pockets like that. Good luck and be safe !!!

Welcome to the forum Matt, Nice job giving us as much info as you can, it would also help to give us some info as to where you are located. If your only option is daytime, I would suggest using a french fry, but I would have to agree with bb and wrb as well, get out there at night, the bass may be protecting their young still since you say it's overloaded with bluegill and the bass are in post spawn. You could use a carolina rig to look for structure, just like wrb stated, it does not take much for a bass to hold to some kind of structure, as little as a 12" drop will be all they may have but that is enough for them to hold or stage there. Good luck and be safe !!!

Looks to be a catfish, they are not normally known for starving however, unless of course they had swallowed something indijestable, looks to be fairly young and I can't really make out the gills were they in good shape?

I have 2 go to baits, the T-Riggged worm and the jig, both are the first 2 rods on the deck, dressed for success and ready to rock. Sorry, But everyone always ask's for ONE go to bait but when you have an arsenal you like to use, one just isn't good enough.

Thats a great video to watch !!! One more thing I will add when fishing a jig, it is VITAL that it maintains bottom contact, the most you ever want to lift a jig is a couple of inches, of course this is my opinion, but a jig is most effective when worked in a slow dragging motion or a motionless state. Popping a jig especially with a skirt is not near as effective as just slow motion movement, the skirt is there to flair out and create life-like movement while at rest.

NEWS FLASH !!! If it is painful to the touch it's already infected, GO SEE A DOCTOR...NOW !!!

I rarely if ever change baits in succession, understanding your conditions and knowing what the fish should be doing is key, hot temps just means you need to slow down, if your shore bound it's even tougher for you, it's these times when you need to visit the deeper pockets of water or structure change, even as little as a one foot drop in structure can hold some decent fishing. Slow down with your presentations if they aren't biting, a c-rigged salt and pepper fluke, or you could use a t-rig with a pegged weight and a fluke, from shore that was always deadly for me if you could find deeper pockets of water. We all have periods of time when the fish are doing their absolute best not to take our bait, a bait that we spend so much of our precious time and money picking out for them...selfish bass turds...lol. Good luck and be safe !!!