MichiganBass80

We (me and my dad) are guilty of not wearing one when running....until now. And depending on where we are fishing and the conditions we'll be wearing them when fishing as well. We had a bit of a mishap last year on St Clair while fishing...not running. I usually run the trolling motor, dad sits in back, I was getting a little sick because I didn't eat when i took my meds. Told him to go hop up front while I went in back and grabbed a snack. He had put his coffee mug up right next to the TM pedal, and I said he should move it because he was going to swing his foot around (he was sitting in a fold down seat) and knock it over. Well he picked it up and was leaning over towards the middle of the boat to put it down, and he was an inch or so off the seat, leaning, and a wave hit and he lost his balance, spun out of the seat went head first into the lake. On his way over he smacked his knee on the gunnel and his foot came up and smacked the seat hard enough to knock it off of the pedestal. With the current and wind, he was going one way and the boat was drifting the other way. He went under a couple times and struggled to stay afloat. I was able to BARELY grab his fingers tips, and i mean the very tips of his fingers, and pull him to the boat. By that time he was spent and couldn't pull himself up on the boat. There was a rock wall about 70-80 yards away so I hopped on the trolling motor and got him over to it so he could climb up and get back on the boat. I was shaking, he was cold and shaking. We called it a day. Got back to the ramp, loaded the boat and he then noticed his knee had about a softball size bump on it. luckily we had some ice he could put on it for the 1-1/2 hr drive home. A week later i noticed his foot and back of his leg were horribly bruised. Turned out he tore his achilles when he smacked the seat with his foot, he's having surgery on that in a few weeks. I ended up buying him an inflatable PFD for Christmas, and then ended up buying myself one. Will be wearing them every time we run and when conditions call for it (and especially out on St Clair).

I'm in! Just need to remember to make my picks for each event

The Dundee Cabela's here in Michigan has a pretty decent fishing section. This "outpost" store they put up in Saginaw is horrible though. I think the checkout lane area there is bigger than the fishing section. I'm glad Cabelas has the "check in-store availability" feature on their site or else I would have a lot of wasted trips. They are building another Cabela's near Lake St. Clair that is supposed to open sometime this year, it will be interesting to see their what their fishing department will be like since its so close to that lake.

Same here...

KVD and/or Zona smallmouth fishing right here in Michigan.

Dropshot (dreamshot, half shell, roboworm), spinnerbait, crankbait, tube, jerkbait

Im using this, a Flambeau 4510 Double Deep Half Tuff' Tainer for some of the soft plastics that I have. Mostly the stuff I'm not using a lot of. The stuff I want to get to quickly is in a couple regular plano boxes.

Soft plastic swimbaits, jigs, and pitching and flipping things like rodents or rage bugs

1. Not rely on the same old thing like throwing crankbaits, wacky rig, and dropshots. 2. Throw swimbaits (just ordered some rage Swimmers from Sieberts ), going to try them a ton a different ways, weighted hooks, underspins, swimjigs, etc. 3. Work on flipping/pitching with jigs and soft plastics. 4. Get better at dissecting a lake. I want to work on finding better spots based on conditions that day. There are a ton of lakes here in Michigan, we have plenty within an hour or so of us that we hit regularly, and every time we go out it feels like we just run straight to the same old spots and fish them without exploring anything else. 5. We have a tons of lakes here in Michigan so I want to get out and fish at least 2-3 lakes we have never fished. 6. Always a goal to catch a new PB both largemouth and smallmouth 7. Last, I need to fish more. The last couple years I don't feel like we got out a whole lot like we did the previous couple years.

I have a few of the bulk packs of Stik-O's, and a ton of GYCB Senkos. I prefer the Senkos but the Stik-O's are good. The baby bass is my go to when wacky rigged, and the only Senko color I use. The stik-o just doesn't fall the same and like HeavyDeluxe I get bit more with the Senko. The stick-o's are good, and since I have bulk packs in 3 different colors I'll use them..

B.A.S.S.-http://www.bassmaster.com/bassmaster-tournament-trail-schedule They really don't have to much info though for each event until its gets closer to that tournament, then it is in the header. At least thats how it is with the new site. The TV show for each event usually airs 2 weeks after. TV schedule http://www.bassmaster.com/tv-schedule MLF-They don't really have a schedule on their site for when the film each one. The show is usually on now and I THINK the Challenge cup usually comes on around April? Here is the TV schedule for the current cup http://www.majorleaguefishing.com/News_Details_No_Photo.aspx?id=2839 FLW-http://www.flwfishing.com Schedule is about half way down the screen. Not sure about the TV schedule

Legend Mercury Motorguide Lowrance PowerPole Chevy/GMC Rigid Industries GoPro Under Armour Oakley St. Croix Abu Garcia Seaguar Lazer Trokar Strike king

Thanks for the replies. I have been kicking around the idea of starting a club. The big thing is finding enough people to join. I have family (uncle and cousin) that fish, but when I bring up the idea of starting it they seem to do nothing but complain and come up with reasons NOT to do it (which really aren't valid reasons).

A tournament club. Nothing huge 5-6 tournaments a year, dues, monthly meetings...etc..

Started, or helped start a bass fishing club? What is the work that went into it? Was it worth the effort or in hind sight would you rather have just joined an existing club in the area? Is the club still going or has it ran its course and shut down?

I asked Karl (Extreme angler) on the pic he posted on Instagram, he said they would be introduced this summer at iCast.

I seen these on his Instagram. Very interesting. Any idea on when they will actually be released?

Well I guess I found my next purchase

They always air the shows a couple weeks after each tourney, It has been like that for a while. The last couple years I have enjoyed their live coverage. here is the link http://www.bassmaster.com/video/bassmaster-classic-live I usually have that, the live blog http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/tournaments/2016-geico-bassmaster-classic and basstrak http://www.bassmaster.com/basstrakk/tournaments/2016-geico-bassmaster-classic up. Although a lot of time basstrak isn't up to date.

Nope. Not even sure the last time I stepped foot in the closest "local" tackle shop. To far away and the few times I have been in there they were overpriced.

LM-Dropshot with a Strike King dreamshot in green pumpkin SM-A Spinnerbait made by a guy my uncle knows, they are called Gotcha Spinnerbaits.

Abu Garcia and St Croix

Same here...kinda. Have yet to use the KVD 8.0, just picked one up yesterday though, i'm sure i'll have more by the spring.

I wish I could just hibernate and wake up when the ice is off the lakes. I started learning how to play the guitar last winter to help pass the time. I'm still doing that. I also just bought an ATV (Polaris Sportsman 570), so I think I am going to spend some time riding that. Other than that, work, tackle inventory, re-spooling my reels, watching fishing shows on youtube and TV are going to have to do.

If I decide to throw a senko on there I'll rig wacky style. Other than that with a dreamshot or roboworm I'll nose hook them