martintheduck

Can it be pulled?... sure... but what Insanity said, might be stopping that's a problem. That truck is probably rated for 3000-3500lbs towing, so figure out the weight of the boat/trailer and go from there. Congrats on the boat buddy! I know it was SUCH an amazing feeling to finally get on my OWN REAL BOAT and catch some fish. It's such a luxury when you think about it. I definitely feel like a million bucks when ever I bring the boat out!

Just putting this out there for all you older folks - I only consider people old when they act old --- IE: Crabby, don't know how to joke around, and the like....

A few things... Bought my first REAL tourny boat... runs like a dream... best money I have ever spent on anything, period. Have learned all about boating, maintenance, safety, and had a ton of fun. Became pretty confident using my electronics. Marked fish, tossed out a bait, and caught the fish I marked. Became efficient at dropshotting FINALLY forced myself to learn deep diving crankbaits.... they quickly became my favorite presentation this year Nabbed my personal best fish - 6lb'er on a shakey head My goals this year are.... Become confident with hard jerkbaits Go fish some new lakes and get on the fish Use search baits, find fish, then use slower presentations.

Probably a pretty "beat-to-death" question.. but... what's your opinions on a good first bow? ---- "The _______ is to bow hunting, like the Remington 870 is to shotguns." Would be okay spending a bit more $ to buy something that will last a long time and will perform top notch. I don't have the time at the moment to jump in and do much research right now (between school and winter fishing) so I'm just trying to get a quick brief from y'all.

Got mine in the other day. Can't wait to get them in the water in a few months.

If everyone would just do what I wanted, the world would be such a better place

That second picture .. what a freakin' slob! Thanks for that Blue! There's huge plots of public land up here that's pretty much exclusively bow hunting deer. You do get the occasional dog runners and small game hunters looking for squirrels and rabbits. Sometimes if the rain starts coming in pretty regularly, the river will get high and flood the land out, but that is a rare occurrence. I'm just really interested in the bow aspect because I figure it will be more of a cat&mouse deal and it will open up a TON more public land for me to hunt. Most of the areas are rarely hunted for deer, except during the two day special rifle hunt.... and the special late season hunt on the waterfowl refuge. Also have some family friends with land up in North Missouri/Nebraska border. Never taken a yankee deer before and I figure it would be AWESOME. They tend to NOT rifle hunt up there.. That was some great information... thank you.

Frankly, I don't find it that exciting to shoot a deer from any type of distance --- sure, if I'm trying to fill the freezer, I have no problems with it, but I'm not trying to do that.... I crave a chase, a game of wits, and I think bow hunting might be just that. Any pointers from some salty veterans about getting into bow hunting? I'm sure there are plenty of articles on it, but I really just want to know what you fellas on BassResource.com have to say --- since you've been so helpful before! Thanks!

As a former co-angler, I'll tell you my final setup was a tackle bag just like that --- one box cranks, one box weights/clips/swivels, one box hooks, one box spinners and more cranks ---- then I had a second bag around the same size filled with soft plastics. It worked just fine. Usually brought 4 rods with me.

I imagine your water temps are similar to mine here in Louisiana at the moment... so... I'd be throwing a crankbait and soft/hard jerkbait around steep rocky banks with deep water close...aiming to be in 14ft water with a steep rock bank to the shore and fishing towards the shore 6/8 foot mark with soft/hard jerkbaits. Then throw some kind of weighted worms or shakey heads out to any deep water structure nearby. I'd go to dropshot some deeper rock piles. If you catch a devastating cold front right before the tourny, I'd be moving to some coves and such where you might start finding fish gorging on fresh-dead-shad. I've become a big fan of big, chunky rocks since the water temp is down. Bass around here seem to love the rocks. All the before mentioned is subject to change obviously based on wind and weather, but one tip that isn't going to change: Make longer casts since the water is clear.

Felix - how do those alien's handle rocky bottoms? Also - how does that "spring lock" work? --- do you just shove the nose of the worm on there?

Shakey Head's are my absolute favorite setup ever...period. I only use one type these days --- Picasso Shakedown's. They have a tiny flexible spring lock so you can use hand poured worms and larger machine worms too. Since the spring is flexible, you can get a nice flat presentation with the worms. Also has a forward facing 60-degree eye and it seems to have really good action because of it. Also - even on the 1/8oz and 1/16th oz heads, the hooks are SUPER strong. I mean S-T-R-O-N-G. Never had one bend on me even pulling in 5 lb's. I usually stick to the solid black color heads. Every month or so I'll order some reds, greens, and purples, but I usually lose those pretty quickly.

Good luck over on the Ouachita in West Monroe. It's always a really tough fish!

You're not going to find anything conclusive - everything related to the hydrowave is subjective. If I ever get $400 extra, I'll buy one. Buddy has one on his boat... when using it, I have noticed we get bites a lot closer to the boat. That's my only observation...

You must be using the wrong setup if you never catch on t-rig anything. A t-rig senko around stumps, laydowns, grass has ALWAYS produced a bite for me. My unlucky bait? I will NEVER... EVER... fish a lizard. NEVER! My luckiest bait/method? Dropshot - I've BARELY pulled some fish in the boat here recently... just LITTLE skin hooks. Lots of luck in dropshotting.

For templates - cardboard or some of that blue foam insulation...

As a daily bassresource user and a passionate chef --- I'd be on that forum every day. Heck, if y'all behave I might just give you my perfected Crawfish/Shrimp Etouffee recipe... or if you're REALLY good I might give you my from scratch red beans & rice recipe!... you'd have to be REALLY good to get that though.

Heros? Josh Homme, Sam Prekop, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery, Muddy, Joe Pass.... Taught myself to play after hurricane katrina in 2005. Fell in love with delay pedals, atmosphere, space, and minimalism. Recently I have fallen in love with desert rock/stoner rock because most of it is based off a really sexy "hook"... I actually have gotten evicted from a few places for playing music, but that all got solved when I bought a house recently and built a sound proof studio and started doing some home recording... Learned to play drums pretty well in the past 6 years or so too... Here's some of my favorites I've done... https://soundcloud.com/martintheduck/my-song-3 https://soundcloud.com/martintheduck/martinoriginal2 https://soundcloud.com/martintheduck/life-is-strange https://soundcloud.com/martintheduck/tuckinyourtoes Get's really annoying living in North Louisiana because everyone here plays country and stuff --- no like minded musicians to play with :\

God speed brotha'. God speed.

Gotta love that dude

It already sounds like you'd be an ideal tag-along fisherman in my book... gas money and bring hardly any gear? You get an A++ in my book. A few things I'll add (and I don't know if everyone buys into these ideas): - Don't question what spots we are fishing. If we are fishing a spot, it's for a reason -- If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it. - Try to joke around a little (on my boat at least). It gets kind of stressful being 100% serious. Can get kind of tense when it's totally quiet. - Be prepared for weather -- My buddy and I went out a few weeks ago after a cold front and it was 45 degrees -- he showed up wearing jeans and a hoodie. He was shivering cold all morning ESPECIALLY when we were running 60mph and he wasn't behind a console! Made me feel terrible for him all day. - DON'T YOU DARE BRING A BANANA ON MY FRIGGIN' BOAT!!!!! NOT EVEN BANANA BOAT SUNSCREEN!!!!

Thanks fellas... this is exactly the information I wanted!

This is the first season I'll be fishing winter. I've read everything I can on the topic and understand bait choice, presentations, and locations, but I still can't find a piece of information.... What kind of depths should I be looking in? Will they be held up in around 8-12 feet? Can I expect that as the day warms up they will come up to around 6 feet of water and be more willing to "chase" bait? I understand I should be fishing areas with shallow flats with deeper water nearby...that they will be suspended... but what should I be keying in on depth wise? Target the slopes, the flat deep water with structure, or flat shallow water with structure? The lakes in fishing are mostly 30 feet at the deepest (except a couple areas that drop to 40/50ft). Most areas I've had my eye on are 25 feet deep and run up to 6 feet. Water temp. is around 50 degrees. Any help is appreciated!