Snakehead Whisperer

One other thing that I think is important to mention is that a large percentage of your target demographic own small boats and motors because they can't afford a larger boat and new motor. I've always wondered who bought these small gas outboards when new, because it sure wasn't me. Used outboards are a tremendous deal, if you know how to buy one. When I owned my jon boat with 25hp Merc, I did so because it was the best I could afford at the time. I bought the motor used for $400 in like new condition. I doubt you can compete with that pricing. Even if this motor is real, I'm guessing you're going to find a lot more customers in the yacht tender market than the aluminum bass rig market.

Was hoping you'd post this one. That catfish you graphed was awesome too.

You can make one pretty easily if you have a 3/16" flat head screwdriver and a grinder/dremel.

I usually trailer my boat with the electronics on it. I remove them when I get home at the end of the day. I will store them in the vehicle if it's raining hard or if there's snowy/dirt roads along the way. My boat came with one of the newer Garmin units on the bow. The quick release mount is really one of the better designs I've seen, and the rubber cable caps are nice too.

Steve, Those older Bottom Line units are built like tanks. If you find one in working condition it will most likely continue to do so for many years to come. While seeing between the tube and shore is cool, I can't express enough the advancements made in traditional 2D sonar in the last 10 years. I use Humminbirds on my boat, but if I were going with one of the lower price models the Lowrance seems like a better value. I did have a PiranhaMAX 150 on my old jon boat, and it was a good fish finder. Once I got it dialed in it was very accurate, albeit in grayscale. My guess is that you will most likely not see as many fish between the tube and the shore as you'd expect. A reliable 2D sonar will reveal new water that was previously a crap shoot to fish, with pinpoint accuracy. Once learning to use it, your son will be able to eliminate unproductive water and fish the other direction (away from the bank.) Just a thought. If it were me, I'd probably get one of the Lowrance Elite-4 units and a small deep cycle 12v lantern battery for it (should run all day with ease.) I sent you a PM with a link to a really good unit at a really good price. -Andrew

Welcome to the site. Check craigslist or some other classifieds for a used unit. I just replaced the SI transducer for my Humminbird and it was $150 alone. The Humminbird PiranhaMAX and Lowrance Elite-4 series both have units within your price range, and some are pretty feature rich. Some unsolicited advice. Get the largest screen you can afford (large as in actual size and screen resolution,) and get a color unit. GPS is also really nice to have. These things are worth more to me than my side imaging. I have side imaging on my boat and I don't use it nearly as much as one might imagine, same with the down imaging. It's nice for when I'm idling around and trying to survey a large area, but relatively useless when I'm fishing. Typically when I fish I will use 2D sonar and GPS/map. edit: The Side Finders do not have true side imaging. They do however have the capability to see between your boat and the shore. It is not displayed the same way as a SI fishfinder though. You can probably find them used pretty easily. They were originally manufactured by "Bottom Line" which was acquired by Humminbird, and searching for a Bottom Line model will probably broaden your results. Having sonar might not be too important if you're just beating the bank, but it could open up new waters that your son doesn't currently fish (e.g. offshore structure, points, etc.)

I've never used that motor, nor do I know anybody who has. The fact that it's rated at 1/2hp leads me to believe that it would reach 275ft/lbs of torque, but I find that very hard to believe. I read the ad and it says "up to 3mph." My bow mount MK will do that. If you're looking to build a serious reservoir rig, you may want to check into golf cart motors/batteries. I am not very familiar with the conversion for these set ups, but I'm sure you can find a lot of information online. I've seen these rigs on some of the lakes I fish, and they can move. Not sure of speeds, but they looked to be doing over 12mph, maybe 15. As far as I've heard, you can build these for relatively little money if you do your homework.

Congrats on the first boat. This will open up a whole new world to you. Be safe out there and be sure to where a life jacket.

Enjoy it while you can. The second 18 years will go by a lot faster than the first 18.

Count me in!

Welcome to the site Rbm18. That depends almost entirely on what body of water you're fishing. Deep water is a completely relative thing, however. In my neck of the woods deep is 50-80 feet, but in some places will be 10 or less. Fish will usually be on mud flats, rocks or vertical cover in the winter; but once again, it depends on the body of water you're fishing and the available structure and forage there. Bass will often suspend in winter too, especially if they're actively feeding on schooling baitfish. As a general rule of thumb, the clearer the water the deeper the fish. But there are many exceptions to this and no one size fits all answer to the question.

Depends on where you are. Here in DC I have been throwing blade baits, dropshot with a 4" cross tail shad or Gulp minnow, and jerkbaits. It's rare that I put down the blade bait, however. Water temps are still in the mid to high 50's, but fish are definitely in a late fall/early winter mood and behaving more as if they normally would in mid November when the water temps are usually in the 40's. They are also holding in the typical winter locations.

This rings true all year round.

Looks like you found a good spot to put that gear to the test. Haven't been chasing the trout much this year. I'll get back into it when it gets really cold, I suppose.

Nice work. Were you fishing the Gunpowder? And as for eye rolling... I grew up in northern California where we have some pretty epic fly fishing for trout, steelhead and salmon. After living out here for years I can say that Maryland trout are spooky, to say the least. If you can catch them here, you can catch them anywhere.

This thread has some good info on building a boat alarm on the cheap. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/164601-swapped-out-boat-alarm/

I think he meant to over winter. If so, that's more of a northern thing (like Canada.) Not sure about Indiana, but in my area they stay put for the most part and find areas with slack current, access to food, hard bottom, deeper water and easy access to shallower areas. Find good and steep vertical break lines in slow moving water and you'll probably find lethargic winter smallmouth. If you're talking in general terms, there are many studies that have been conducted with tagged fish. Smallmouth typically enjoy a wider range of movement within a body of water than largemouth, but both typically stay close to home. There are many exceptions that have been noted in tagging studies. Trout will often spend most of their lives within a very small area with the exception of the spawn. Muskies will often cruise miles of river. There's no definitive answer for any species, but there is a lot of information out there if you're interested.

I'm guessing that most readers today wouldn't be able to do a lap in either car (standard transmission.)

You must have been doing a lot of cruising that day to not notice that. I did this earlier in the year. I also left an auto-inflate PFD on the floor of the boat while parking the truck that day. Came back to the ramp and saw the boat was flooding. Hurry up and put the plug in, start bilge pump running and then I hear "pshht." Bright yellow pool toy on the floor of my boat now. Costly mistake considering I had just re-armed the life jacket a month earlier.

One other point is that your reel will have a lot to do with sensitivity. For instance if you're fishing finesse baits on your St. Croix rod with a crunchy/sticking reel, the reel will make more vibration than your bait will. The reel needs to be smooth, not necessarily expensive, but well oiled and clean.

I have a white McKee craft and it's a never ending battle to keep it clean. Sponging it down every time you pull it from the water helps tremendously.

Saltwater Gulp works fine in freshwater. There is also a freshwater Gulp product. The ones that seem to excel for me are the minnows, leeches and grubs.

I catch a bunch in the winter on blade baits. The blue catfish on the Potomac are pretty aggressive, so I catch them on pretty much all bass lures. The ones with the highest catfish ratio for me are: -drop shot -jigs -Carolina rig -bottom ticking crank baits I also second what Bluebasser86 said about Gulp... they love that stuff.

Like Tom said... it's not the car, it's the driver. With that said, the St. Croix Premier is a higher end rod; you need to know how to utilize it in order to get any benefit over and Ugly Stik (other than weight, that is.) It's on you to determine what your needs are, and then to live within your means. What I believe is more important than the brand/blank of rod, is that you use the appropriate size/power/action for the technique that you're fishing. The flea market section of this site is usually full of deals on higher end gear that will make the initial purchase less painful on your finances. You mention that you get the same results no matter if you use cheaper rods or your Premier. If that's because they feel the same to you, then perhaps you should work on your feel. There is a difference between your Premier and the cheaper rods, but until you can feel the difference it's not going to help you to have the higher end gear. The only thing I'd be afraid of is buying a bunch of low end gear and growing out of it, then buying high end gear to replace it. You're never going to grow out of that Premier. What Premier rod do you have? Maybe we can suggest the techniques you should use it for based on this.

In my experience, it seems like the deeper that I catch walleye the weaker they fight.