zachb34

That'll work fine you can make some setups to do it as well. I made one my junior year of high school on my shop class. A few pieces of scrap wood a carriage bolt and a nut cheap and effective. If anythung you can just run the line through your fingers to keep tension.

I used to own a basstender 11.3 and it remained stock besides the trolling motor, fish finder,etc. I did have a water tender 9.4 as well. I got it for free. Someone left it in an apartment when they moved and my neighbor who worked for the apartment complex passed it on to me. Anyway, I gave it a nice paint job, cut into the back to make storage and later down some carpeted plywood for a deck. I'll post pics if I can find some. I did separate my water tender since it already had no rub rail or anything to hold it together when I got it. Just be careful not to lose your foam flotation. You may even want to add foam. The two pieces will go back together, but can be tricky to fit if you leave them separate for a day or two. I ended up doing a lot of my wiring after I bought a new rub rail and put it back together. Its not too hard to fish the wires from back to front or front to back.

Where in florida? I think that should be a bug factor in what you fish for.

I'm not aware of any braid on the market that truly "sinks" besides lead core which is mainly used in salt water or deep water trolling applications. Suffix 832 is more neutral than a drinking line. It'll float on top of the water but once it gets below the surface it'll sink, possibly a little faster than most. If you do ever find a braid that sinks like fluorocarbon, let me know I've been searching for years. Typically, at a diameter like 15 pound it won't really have much floating resistance on your bait since it's so thin.

My guess would be the pitch of the prop is different and not moving the same amount of water. I also had an older minn kota just like yours except it was a 36# thrust model. I "upgraded" to a 50# prowler and it was about equal to that motor before it blew up on my 5th or 6th trip. I now have a 55# Endura C2, and it's way stronger than the rest of the motors even the similiar pound thrust prowler. You could have always sucked up some old fishing like in the prop as well. Another thing to check would be the depth you have the motor set and the angle as well. Try to get those as close to where your old motor was set as possible.

A lot of clubs and tournament trails have a horsepower minimum. I think most that I've looked up before required 25 horse power, or more. It also has to meet coast guard regulations so slapping a 25 on a 12 footer won't fly.

When I used to fish the banks primarily, I would pack 3-4 boxes of whatever sizes fit in my bag. One box I'd do half cranks and half jigs/ terminal tackle. And the other two would plastics with more specific terminal tackle for that technique in there in the original packages. As an example, if im throwing a Texas rig on the bottom it's mostly a big worm or big lizard. I'll pack a box with watermelon red or green pumpkin (sunny/clear water), some kind of red shad or plum (bright and easy to see) and then the old trusty solid black, that catches fish in clear water and dark water even night time. Then I'd pack a box of senkos and swimbaits together in the same box with a few confidence colors along with wacky hooks, weighted hooks worm hooks, etc. Those 3 baits are my confidence baits that I feel I can catch them any where, anytime, if they're in that spot. I think for the most part typical bass fisherman haven't mastered every technique and even the ones that have, don't use all of them within a particular season. Even when I'm on my boat and can bring about whatever I want if the fish are going to bite I should be able to get the job done on my limited tackle selection.

I had a friend when I played hockey who was a world class water skier (if that's even a word). In sure he wasn't going as fast as some of the bass boats do, and he managed to break his femur on impact. Supposedly that's one of the hardest bones to break in the human body. I'm sure swimming (if you're still awake) would be difficult in that type of pain.

I looked into then recently as well. Nearly all reviews online are from "prostaff" some even brag about graphite construction at the $120 price point. I did find some honest reviews on other, less popular, forums. The few non-prostaff reviews complain about the tolerances in the reels saying they're pretty loose. I've also heard they're nearly a clone of the *** reel. I have no experience with them and will wait for other guinea pigs to take the plunge before I buy them over anything else in their price range.

I've used the vendetta, I also still have 3 Veritas rods. I think the small jump in the line is more than justified. They retail at $100 bit if you're open to shopping online they're available at $80 new all day every day on ebay.

I like when my combo matches, bit in the end it doesn't always work out that way. I have a veracity paired with a chronarch ci4 amd it looks sharp. Also a curado E on a previous model loomis with the gold accents, I'm the sun. The blank it pretty close to matching the green. If you really care about matching, Hawg Tech will sell you some pieces that are anodized to match the accents of the rod. They also sell after market hook keepers on different colors you can help match the reel. I think a Veritas would look good with that reel it's white with a little silver, but no gold.

You won't be able to reinsert the insert. The fix is like said above to remove the entire guide and the footing of it and wrap a new one on. The ship I take mine to is price of guise (usually $2) plus $10 for labor.

I'm no expert or anything, but I never look at the line weight specs. I use all braid and unless that's talking about diameter I'm always way above.

My issue with DT baits I'd after they get smacked around a bit from fish some will start to take on water and suspend or sink, and lose some vibration. I'm guessing since these are balsa baits, that some new clear coat should fix it. I do like the looks of how beat up some are from catching fish though.

It's pretty common I actually hear it a lot just not on these forums. The small xrap slash baits do it to me all the time as well. I probably have a pile of 6 or so sitting around with cracked bills leaning water and some just broken off.

I have tr orgibal not 2.0 it's the 7' MH. I know it's supposed to be parabolic but it just doesn't throw the bigger baits as well and when retrieving a deep bait it's at about a 90° bend. If you're going to throw a 5xd, I'd opt for the bigger rod.

Non-stop for sure I walked around a boat that had it. Its just as silent as carpet and easy to clean.

Funny part is it was unlocked at all times including when my windows got slashed. Some people just don't respect your property. I ended up putting a note on my dash that read," its unlocked take the sub, don't slash my windows"

I'll say something slightly different in the sense that, for bottom contact baits get a more expensive rod and a decent reel. Moving baits get a nice reel and a lesser rod maybe $100 or possibly less on the rod.

I just saw you said $5,000 is the budget so I'd take out a full size glass boat or flats boat. Some mid 2000's tracker bass boats can be had for that. I bought my 1542 with a 15 HP mercury fourstroke for less than that price brand new. Go on Craigslist and wait for a nice Tracker Grizzly or similar modified V jon boats. They're pretty versatile and affordable. Not sure what your tow vehicle will be but, take that into consideration as well when buying.

Where in south Florida? Your budget will determine what you should get. I'm also in south florida, and fish just about every body of freshwater in my Tracker 1542 jon boat. Yes, I even take it to Okeechobee without an issue. Believe it or not the roughest water I go on is Lake Clarke. Its 99% surrounded by sea walls and the wakes from pleasure boaters just bounce back amd forth from side to side. They hardly ever dissipate on a busy day. Sure a bigger boat is nice but in South Florida we lack most of the big water they have up north. Its nice to get into some of the shallow water so my first piece of advice would say get an aluminum especially on a first boat. If your budget allows, and you want to do some inshore fishing as well try and find a nice flats boat. They work great for bass and will handle the intracoastal salt, okeechobee, canals, and smaller lakes perfectly.

Some people are scum bags period. I had a thousand dollar sound Staten in my soft top soft window jeep. One night at work someone slashed all the windows and didn't bother to steal a thing. You'll never stop a thief. If they want it they'll take it.

They never advertise their sales. Half the time the way to see if a good item is on sale you take it to ring up and it comes up as on sale.

Deffinetly one of the truck on my bucket list to own. I'm a heavily biased Mopar guy and currently drive a 2005 ram with a Hemi. Hopefully when my wallet allows for a new toy it'll be either a first gen cummins like this, or a Warlock.

I live on a canal myself and fish that the most because of its convenience. I can take a quick trip for 30 minutes or less and it's easy. I'm not in miami (West Palm Beach), but living on a canal has taught me a few things. First off if you're just fishing really quick it's probably worth it to cover as much as water as you can. For me before trees where trimmed, I could only fish about a 200 foot section from one side. It forced me to slow down a lot and within that small section, I've found some "hot spots" literally areas of about 5 square feet that hold fish consistently. If you plan on making that a typical spot for you to fish I'd cover some water some days amd then pick apart small sections at a time. That way you can learn those "hot spots" within the larger area. My hot spots tend to be better during prespawn and spawn phases because the main lake that's fed by these canals holds good fish that move into the smaller more protected waters to spawn. Also canals here are there mainly to drain and control the waters around them. Currently my canal has strong current and low water levels due to the anticipated hurricane coming our way. That puts bass in a typical ambush position. I'd try and pay attention to current in the canals you fish if possible. Fish can stack up at the ends where there's culverts or even a spillway.