Hot Rod

Really good article in last months Bass Times about this. A Mart says he never uses it, Hack says its all he ever uses for anything. A lot of it is personal preference and how careful you are when you tie a given knot. I like a palomar fine with braid or mono but not floro carbon. With FC I use a uni-knot more specificly a double uni (not to be confused with a uni to uni). To tie a double uni you double the line thru the hook eye like you start a palomar but then you tie it the rest like a uni. Then you trim the tag end and loop after tightening. It is incredibly strong! I believe there is an instructional video of it on YouTube.

I like the larger ones. Caught quite a few fish on them in/around grass. They are in my top three "trap" baits.

#2 Mustad KVD Elite triple-grip trebles work for me! They are much stronger than the original Mustad triple grips.

Looks good but only way to be certain is show it to the fish, they'll let ya know

I usually prefish from before daylight until dark the two days prior to the tournament. Two long days on the water and two short nights and you can sack out anywhere the eve before the event, even in a tent in a campground with people hooting and hollering all night

I fished the Bass weekend events before I had my own boat. (in fact my avatar is me at a BASS weekend event on the Potomac as a non-boater.) I had a great experience. It wasn't always pleasant but it was always an "experience", ha Just kidding (sort of). All the boaters I had were O.K. Some had more skills than others but you usually learn something from all of them. Sometimes what to do, other times what not to do. It helped me a lot though with fishing skills and boating skills! I will tell you that it is best to hook up with a boater and register together so you are guaranteed entry at the event. I missed out on the post season one year because I didn't have a guaranteed entry for the last event and I was in the top 20. Not all the boaters that registered showed up at the pre tournament meeting so I couldn't fish, which ruined my season standing and my hopes of moving on to the regional. Good luck

X2 Check the tournament rules for the event you are fishing. They may detail culling procedures then again they may not. But you should never have more in your boat than the daily limit allowed by law just as ww2 said. So check the state regs as well. The "pros" weigh or balance to cull all the time if the fish are close they just don't always show it in the final footage. When there are thousands of dollars on the line every once counts! Some weigh and record as they catch each fish, others wait until they have a limit to size 'em up. Generally I don't weigh mine until after I have a limit. Then I'll cull out the dinks as I go. I don't want to wast time weighing/recording fish until I have a limit in the boat.

Welcome! Tie a palomar knot for the drop shot but leave a longer tag end than usual, I prefer about it to be about 8-12" of tag end. Its best when starting to tie the knot to run the loop starting from the hook point side of the eye out towards the other side. This will help the hook point ride up. You can also facilitate that by passing the tag end back through the hook point side after you tie the knot. Then you can put on what ever weight you like. I prefer a regular old split shot for most applications as they are cheap and slide off if it gets hung up. I like 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz depending on depth. But for starters use the heavier weight till you get the feel. As far as the fluke goes. I fish mine mostly without weight. Sometimes I'll wrap a bit of solder around the hook shaft to give it a bit faster sink rate if I think it needs to run deeper. I also prefer a baitcaster whenever I can use it because you don't get as much line twist, especially important with a fluke. But with the smaller flukes rig weightless you have to use a spinning rod. For that reason I'll often use a ball swivel and about a 12" leader to help with line twist. You can change the size of the swivel to change sink rate as well. Hope that helps

Key is line attached. I've used the chain type and the extending pole type and both work just fine. If you put that one on your line and still cant free the lure, what then? Break the line and lose both lure and retriever? Don't know what these cost, but the heaviest dipsey sinker you can find and a cheap snap probably cost alot less and would do the same thing. JMHO. Never had that come up in three years. Its 100%, so far. I use that same type. I did loose one of them once about 4 years ago because it became entangled in whatever had my lure which, if I remember correctly, was a section of chain link fence that had washed into the tributary I was fishing. I use an old zebco pistol grip with the rod cut off with an old baitcaster strung up with the retriever and line. Makes things more simple. But I want to try using the automatic dog leash retractor for mine I saw in Bassmaster mag last month. That way you get one handed operation by just pushing the button when you want to take up slack after the retrieval process.

I have Fortrexx with recessed control. I added the recess about two years ago. It is much more comfortable to fish all day with the recess control than without it. That said, the Fortrxx is amazing. If I had to choose b/n either the Fortrxx or the recess I'd choose the Fortrexx. Not sure what the deck design is for that boat but the recess installation was relatively easy in my glass boat. Before you buy the recess get the demension on line and then measure the deck to make sure it will have clearance around it from gunnels, bow, wiring/electronics, capartments and also look under the deck to be certain you have enough clearance depth,width, length and you won't have to cut any structural supports to facilitate the recess. As long as you only have to cut the decking itself you should be o.k. other wise I wouldn't risk it or take it to a dealer.

My "do-it-all" line is P line Floroclear 12 lbs especially if you are new to a baitcaster. Also good are Yozuri Hybrid Soft or Trilene XL as they both handle great and perform well. My fav line is Seagur Invisx. But probably not the best for spinnerbaits though awesome for worm fishing.

I apply the KISS method too as I only have one tackle box. It just happens that that tackle box is 18 1/2 feet long and I have to pull it around with a full size truck! ;D Joking aside, I probably only buy/try two new baits per year on average though I will often try different colors, sizes, or styles of a bait I already have confidence in. I figured I either needed to keep my bait buying to a minimum or I was going to need to buy a house with more strorage Now I only try something when I hear something good about it from fellow anglers mostly.

I guess that depends on how high ones standards are and how one defines "honeys" ;D But seriously, hope you enjoy the boat! Remember when purchasing the boat to save enough $ for the fuel/oil/maintenance not to mention some cash to throw at the dreaded "bait monkey".

It also seems that Nitro has grown as KVD has. It would seem that the Nitro brand, at least in the upper end models had improved its quality over the last few years. Though I can't say as I've never owned a Nitro. Just going from what I visually see/here. Quantum is a good product. Sure some of the cheaper models are real POS but the upper-end stuff is great quality/value. And that is what KVD would be using in tournaments.

It is has much to do with specific heat which is the heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance one degree centigrade. Water has a much higher specific heat than air so it resists changes in temperature more than the atmospheric air. Also the water is insulated from below by the ground. (Which has an even higher specific heat and holds an even more stable temp than water.) Therefore the surface of the lake is going to have the quickest fluctuations in temperature and the deepest water the slowest (everything else being equal). Remember that reading they are giving you in the articles is surface temp. It can be quite different even 10 or 20 feet deep.

The presence of shad does not make fishing easier per say. It does provide a great forage base for bass. So shad can positively impact the number and size of bass in the population. At times trying to find/catch bass in a lake with a high shad population can be much more difficult than one without shad because they most often relate to deep water and roam more than other bait fish. So the bass follow them. Granted if you can locate shad you almost always locate bass but you still have to figure out how to catch bass that are often very deep and or suspending and not relating to any cover/structure. To me that is the most difficult bass fishing technique with the steepest learning curve. The best way to learn about crayfish is from personal observation because they vary so greatly from one lake to the next and season to season. Walk along the shore and turn over rocks in shallow water and study crayfish habits/habitats/size/color (which changes season to season). You can find a lot of research/information though through academic institutions if you "Google" it.

Oh I do feel blessed and fortunate to be able to fish tournaments. I probably won't be fishing more than a few local events if gas goes up to $5 this summer like some "experts" forecast. I was fortunate enough to cash enough tourny checks in '10 to cover entry fees and most of my expenses. I'd be thrilled if I could repeat that in '11!!!! But I'm not counting on it by a long shot. I was hoping to do one local series and one regional series (like BFL or ABA). That was probably just wishful thinking anyway due to associated expense vs. my budget and not wanting to get a divorce ;D

Dang! Don't ya just hate it when you want to fish two series and there are events from both schedule on the same day or weekend? > Just looking over the 2011 schedules and of the 5 or so tournament series I was interested in there seems to be a scheduling conflict with all of them! Ughh. Looks like I'll be fishing one full series and fishing an event or two from a few others.

I friend of mine makes his own. He buys the alligator clips then uses a spent .243 casing. Then he pours lead into the casing and puts the clip in it to solidify and hold the clip in place. Then you can put a length of shrink tube over it to keep it from scratching stuff up or harming the fish. I've had one in my boat for 2 years but haven't caught a fish yet that has needed it so I can't say how well it works.

If you are going solely off sensitivity at that price from my limited experience I'd say BPS Carbonlites. I have falcon lowriders and Cara's too. For sensitivity the Carbonlites are closer to the Cara's JMHO.

Born free! Taxed to death!!! >

Jay Yelas' book was very inspirational to me. And there were some great bass fishing insights in that book as well KVD's two books are good too and I like Shaw Grigsby's book.

I tried a left-handed baitcaster in order to save time and bites by not switching hands after each cast but didn't like having the rod in my right hand even though I'm right handed. Even though that is how I fish spinning gear. So I took the time to learn how to pitch/flip/cast left handed. It is amazing how many more presentations I can make. As a bonus it does help alleviate tendonitis/soarness by using both hands to cast instead of just one over a long tournament/practice :)weekend.

Another aspect is that you could be limiting your ability to locate active fish. In many situations you can cover water quicker and be more effective with an active bait (i.e. "search bait"). Once you figure them out you can often go back with a slower presentation and catch additional fish. This is especially important when fish are on structure in summer and also can be in the fall too.

I love to hear that whirring sound. It is one of those noises that I associate with the bliss that is bass fishing. And "yes" I use Quantums. And "no" they are not in need of lubrication. I found that the noise is somewhat dependent on how the mag brake is set. More brake = more whir. So its loudest when throwing big top waters/cranks/spinnerbaits in the wind for me cause that's when I use the mag brake. On a related note, for some reason that sound always reminds me of the "shwwwa" sound at the begining of that '90s song by Ini Kamoze; "Here comes the hot stepper". So then I'm launchin' baits and singing that goofy song in my head all day on the water