Hot Rod

Another line of logic says that the red is a trigger in bass not because of the prey but because of the flaring of the gills of other bass. When a bass flares it's gills to swallow a bait it flashes red, giving other bass an indication that a feeding opprotunity is present. The bass, being oppurtunistic and competitive with other bass, makes and instictive move for the bait. I can't remeber exactly which pro thought that had more to do with it than the bleeding bait theorey. I think that in difficult conditions with clear water, especially in techniques where the bass get a long look at the lure like drop shotting, the red hooks can be a disadvantage though.

Did you see the Ultimate match fishing with Kelly Jordan that was on a coulple of months ago? He was lights out with a big slab of a spoon probably about 2oz. He was throwing the thing a country mile out in open water to some deep structure and fishing it horizontally. It was the heat of summer. That was the first time I've seen that technique but it worked so well I'm committed to giving that a shot myself this year. He obliterated his competitor. He was using what looked like just a plain silver jigging spoon. He was heaving that thing out and his fish were smacking it far, far away from the boat. I think that distance from the fish gave him an advantage on some pressured fish.

I went through this years ago in OH with a trailer that was manufactured in the '60's so it didn't have an information plate on it. The DMV required that I take it to a certified scale and have it weighed without the boat. Then I had to submit the weigh slip with my registration paperwork. Places that have certified scales are truck stops, gravel quarries, landfills or any place else materials are traded on a truck load basis. They usually weigh your trailer for a small fee of about $5. Good luck

I sold a small aluminum boat last year here in PA for $600. When I signed it over to the new owner at the notary all his fees came out to be about $150 (trailer license, boat registration, title transfer, tax, notary fees). Ouch! I felt bad for the fellow having to spend that much just to purchase/use an "inexpensive" boat. Oh yes, don't forget insurance in case of an accident. If you are going to use it in a tournament most of them require proof of insurance. Another expense of course is fuel and oil. Not only the fuel for the boat but also the fuel to tow it to the lake. With gas above $3 it adds up if you are making a couple trips a week to the lake. Also the 2 stroke oil can cost over $30 per gallon depending on the manufacture recommendations. Thankfully most of today's outboards use oil very efficiently. Launch fees are another cost if you boat somewhere that requres a permit/fee to launch.

I bought one on the recommendation of a freind. When I got it home and took it out of the box of course the first thing I did was promply drop it on the ground from about 2' high. It fell on the reel handle. The thing was mangled and I barely dropped it. The handle flexes like it's made out of soft lead. I bent it right back into place. I have visions of this happening when there is a decent fish on the line. I haven't had it out on the water yet but I'm more than a little concerned about how it will hold up over the course of a season. I'm guessing it will last one year and then be spent.

You may want to check out the LowranceNet packages. They come with everything you need to put a 520 on the console and one on the bow. Plus they have all the networking lines so they can share the same GPS antenna and when you mark a wpt in one unit it is stored on the other unit too. The best part is that the package is less expensive that it would be to buy two individual units let alone the networking hardware. I've been thinking about upgrading to this too. If you don't want to permanently affix a gps antenna to your boat they have RAM mounts that hold the sonar/gps unit and the antenna as well. The antenna is tucked in right behind the unit on the mount. I think a saw the Network package in Cabela's Catalog.

I feel your pain Jenga. I couldn't afford a boat and a new truck either. So I had to tow my new 18.5' Strat with an old beat up 4 cyl Nissan with over 150K miles for the first year. I crossed my fingers and said a prayer everytime I started out for the lake with that rig. The only thing that gave me some feeling of well being was the fact that my boat's insurance policy included road side assistance at no extra cost. So I figured when my truck broke down at least I'd be able to get my boat to safety. Thank goodness I never needed it though. If I were you I'd stick with your truck. That Tarus won't have the rear end to tow that much and with front wheel drive getting up the ramp could be an issue. Good luck.

I don't like the Megaforce. The crankin' handle on it is very flimsy. It bends and distorts under little pressure. > I don't expect it to last long as part of my arsenal. It will probably wear out/break befor the end of this, its first, season. I haven't had any experience with the Code.

If the water is stained to muddy I go with 30lbs (or more) moss spider wire Stealth. In clearer water it's 20lb Vanish Transition. That is assuming I'm fishing heavy cover. If it's light cover, like thin weeds, then I'll go down to as low as 12 or 14lb Transition or 15 lbs YoZuri Hybrid.

I like the Bomber Fat Free Shad. Dives to about 18' and has a wide lip to help it bounce off cover. The Rapala DT's are great too for catching fish. But the durability on them is terrible. The lips crack off of them right where they join the lure after a couple hours of deep crankin'. I wish they lasted longer but I can't afford to buy something that is so short lived at that price. > I like the Norman DD22 too, but it is a little more effort to crank than the other two, which adds up after a long day of crankin'

A big bullfrog on a spinnerbait

NB Tennis shoes for support for long days on the water. In colder temps I wear heavy wool socks with a poly pro liner sock under them. They keep you feet warm and I figure if I'd fall in I can swim in them better than a pair of heavy boots. I tried the barefoot thing in the heat of summer once. Only problem is I'm a guy that always has at least a half dozen rods on the deck. It only takes one #2 treble in your big toe to make you keep your shoes on. No matter how hot it gets.

Well I'd have to agree. Two units are better than one. But i'd say the one at the console is more important to me. Not only for finding fish but for safe boating. Some of the lakes I fish are resevoirs with creek channels to navigate. If you get out of the channel very much it gets real shallow, real fast. That is bad for lower units and props which equals big repair bills. It also depends on what type of fishing you do too. For instance, If you mostly fish shallow you may not need one on the bow. If you fish deep structure you really need both. The one at the console to find the structure and the one at the bow to stay on it while casting. That being said, I can't imagine fishing without either one of them now.

I've have not had to use 4wd to get up a ramp, even a very steep one that I often use that was built to accomidate sailboats and their extra deep drafts/keels. I guess all the extra tongue weight keeps the rear tires from spinning. Though I have had the same experience with a light aluminum boat and a much heaver glass rig. Its nice to know the 4wd is there if you need it though.

I sold a 14' very similar to yours just last summer. Mine included a trailer similar to yours but it only had a 34# MK tolling motor (no outboard). It did include a lower end fish finder (Eagle Cuda). I sold it for $600, which was my asking price, to the 4th or 5th guy to look at it in about a two week period of time. I could have sold it sooner but everyone wanted to talk me down some. I probably had 20 more calls on it after it sold. Good luck!

If I'm stringin' a baitcaster I usually don't even take the spool out of the box except to run the line through the hole on the side of the box. Put the spool back in the box so that the tag end is out the hole. Then string it through your rod guides then on to the reel. Put the tip of the rod on the hole of line box and crank away 'till the reel is filled. It usually offers about the right amount of tension too. For larger bulk spools you can do the same thing if they a packaged in a canister. Like some of the Yo Zuri line is. For these I just drill a small hole in the side of the canister about 1/4" in diameter. Make sure there are no burs or sharp edges on the hole so it doesn't abraid the line.

It really depends on what type of lures, where you fish, the cover, the conditions, line test and how deep you fishing. You could be fishing a weightless fluke near the surface or punching mats with 2oz jig. Both work awesome under the right conditions. What type of fishing do you do?

Glass boat (or painted aluminum)+ Gravel = Bad :'( My boat is 2 years old, there is a huge difference between the traffic side of the boat and the curbside of the boat. The gel coat on the traffic side has quite a few large chips and nicks (that I know did not happen on the water so had to be while trailering). While the curbside is prestine as the day I bought it. I don't really even travel any gravel roads but theorize the difference is due to stones/debris comming from passing on-comming vehicles.

No problem. One thing I forgot to mention. Is to use some fine grit sandpaper and/or a fine file to smooth off any burs of the aluminum after you are finshed cutting/drilling. This will keep you from snagging or scratching items going in an out of the compartment. Make sure you round the exposed corners of the angle too for the same reason (you can leave the side that is attached to the lid compartment square). Also tin snips work great for doing the cutting portion of the fabrication.

You can save a bunch of money by making them yourself. and they will be custom sized to your particular compartment lid. Go to the hardware store and buy yourself a section of 1" aluminum 90 degree angle. An 8ft section is about $20 and will be enough to run the length of both rod boxes and the main compartment in a typical boat. Cut the aluminum to length for each compartment lid. Mark one inch increments along the center of one side of the angle. Then drill a 1/8" hole at each mark. (this is easier with a drill press but a hand drill works fine). Drill two or three holes in the other side of the angle. Then screw it in place into the underside of the compartment lid with stainless steel screws. You can hang hard baits right in the holes by the hooks. Or if you want to hang plastics, buy the wire clip shower curtain hooks (the kind they use to clip golf towels to a golf bag) to hang bags or other items. One work of caution. If you get too much weight in lures/bags attached to the lid it makes them heavy and may counter act the pneumatic lid lift assists that some boats are equiped with. So I pretty much only use them to keep my "go to" baits in or two dry baits out after I've fished them before putting them back into their storage box. It saves a lot of rusty hooks.

I had that same question for my boat dealer. He said that condensation inside the tank should not be a problem with the poly tanks fitted on most boats now days. It is only an issue with the older metal tanks. So the dealer just adds fuel stabalizer to whatever amount of fuel is in the tank. I had a quarter of tank when I put it away last fall after the dealer winterized it. Filled it up with fresh fuel in the spring and it never missed a beat after several months storage in an unheated garage.

I had a similar experience on a different lake (in central PA) on a black power bait lizard but T-rigged. They were killing that lizard, unfortunately I ran out and couldn't get the same response on anything else.

Unless I'm just running to my local lake where the launch is only 1 mile from my house I always take the seats out and stow them. That goes for anything else that might get loose in or on the boat. I don't need to give Murphy any more chances to ruin a fishin' trip. I leave that to the weather and the jet skiers ;D

My fav spinning rod for years was a "Limited Edition" Berkley rod that I paid about $45 for in the mid 90's. Too bad it was discontinued. :-[ I liked it better than some rods I've had that cost twice as much. It was so light and sensitive. Though the cork was the rod's weekness. It was thin and didn't hold up well. One of the rods of several I bought to try to replace it was a Fenwick Eagle GT. It is quickly becoming my fav spinning rod and I'll probably pick up a couple more of them in the future.

I like KVD's advice on this. He suggests building your rod/reel arsenal from one manufacture and from the same model line (ie buy all quantum tour edition rods with accurist reels or all fenwick HMG rods with shimano curado reels, etc) to the greatest extent possible. His reason is that you'll be more accurate in your presentations and casting if all your rigs have the same feel, not to mention how it will help you detect subtle bites due to the familiarity. It makes sense but then again you'll find that you may like the spinning rods from one line of rods or manufacture and you'll like baitcasters from another. Or you'll like one company's crankin' rods but not their flippin/pithchin rods. Unfortunately I can't afford to own 12 different Diawa Steez series rigs like a sponsored bass pro ;D So I fish a minagerie of much less expensive rods and reels. The Accurist is a good reel for the price. I prefer baitcasters for most of my bass fishing chores so I'd go fore the additional baitcaster over another spinning outfit in you position. (Unless you are fishing a lot of ultra clear water).