NathanW

I keep a pair of clear safety glasses in your boat for those low light or nighttime runs to keep the bugs out of your eyes. Also, always wear sun glasses/safety glasses while flipping/pitching heavy tungsten. I have had a very close call. Got the chills just thinking about it.

Citica.

I know what a joke right.

Absolutely. Having a young child at home and sick pregnant wife currently... Lets just say I had 110 days on the water in 2012 (no kids), only 44 days on the water last year (1 kid). This year I will be grateful to get 40 days.

I have the Revo Winch. And although I would not say that it is complete garbage I would go as far as saying I cannot stand it. Dialing it in to cast deep crank-baits is like a science experiment every time I change baits. Also the spool is waaaaaaaayyyyy deeper than it needs to be. Once it is dialed in it cast pretty well but my gosh. I am a lefty baitcaster so I do not have a lot to choose from in low speed reels. Otherwise I would go with the Shimano G.

good topic, lots of great responses. I have a couple... Pull your prop to check for fishing line as often as you can. Lower units are expensive, and if you have an older outboard like mine may take the entire spawn a prespawn to find one that fits. When connecting your batteries, triple check that your hots are on hots and your grounds are on grounds. Made this mistake after owning a boat for three years, very stupid but easier mistake to make when you have many wires and three+ batteries. Boat caught on fire while in the garage, entire electrical system burnt up, took me a month to take apart the boat, rewire and put back together. Very lucky I came out into the garage while it was burning up. A tip on this, if all your wires are black, like mine were, go ahead an put some red shrink tubing on the hots.

Ive drug in more 8-12 pound Carp on 4lbs-6lbs line than I can count. Usually by the tail. What a pain.

Braid all the way on spinning. Trust me you will never look back. 3'-6' of fluoro leader. I have one spinning setup with McCoys MEan Green that I use for light crankbaits. Some great braids for spinning reels are Berkly Nanofill (12lb test), Tuf Line Supercast, and of course Power Pro. If you go this route let me know, I have some knot advice for your leader. For baitcasters, I have noticed that with the more experience I get under my belt the more braid I am using. I still have my moments with braid on my casting gear where I get frustrated and feel like a complete novice. I would still say that only 30% of my Baitcasters are braid, the rest are fluoro. You need to consider type of fishing you will be doing. Google "Bassfishin Line Guide" This website does a pretty good job of telling you what to use what for. I dont follow it for everything but its a good place to start until you get a feel on what to use what for.

I have the Droid Motorolla Razr Max. The battery life is phenomenal. Its a big screen size. Its my company phone and I am not a big App guy, but it runs HD netflix beautifully so I can watch Arrested Development anytime I want. Had the Galaxy S2 but couldnt keep it charged, did fine unless you actually wanted to talk to people on the phone.

Power Bait... Rig it Carolina on 4lbs test with a baitholder hook, like size 8, use like a 16" inch leader and a 3/16 sinker. Just cast it out and let it sit. If you dont get a bite in like 5-10 minutes cast it out to a new spot. This is the best way to catch em from the bank day in and day out. Vibrex spinners work great and are more fun but Power Bait is a sure thing.

I agree with the second part and will add that for hard jerkbaits I want a rod that will really fling the bait out there. That rod doesnt fling light baits, I have the 6'10" ML/Fast Veritas and it doesnt fling light baits either.

What he said...

A trimmed up Buckeye Mop Jig in green pumpkin, with a Zoom big salty chunk trailer. Falls nice and slow.

This is the truth. Also helps to have a rod that's a little bit more flexible. Super excited that you are learning. Once you figure it out it will be worth it.

Right? I guess this should have been posted in the Deep Sea Bass Fishing Forum....

Its been a few years since Ive fished Either of those lines...Been fishing Berkly Trilene, Seagar Abasx and Seagar Red Label Fluros for the last couple seasons and havent looked back.

Brutal...

I fish three colors in this order. Chart Black Back, Chart Shad, Blue/Green Gizzard Shad. There not biting those than I switch to a silent stalker in Chart Shad. There not biting that I do something else. The last two seasons Ive tried to mix in a craw pattern, because craws are the primary forage in out lakes and we don't have shad, but Ill tell you they love those shad patterns around here.

I told myself the same thing earlier this week...I mean, I manage to delude myself into thinking it will work and it never does. But it might work this time!

I get a little sad when I inventory my soft plastics. So many of them I would love to use but don't have enough time to. And I am probably only sitting in the 150-200 bag range. Nice to hear that my problem is insignificant compared to a few of you.

If you are living up North and anxiously waiting for your season to start Ive got a question for you. How are you rigged up for your first early prespawn outing? I am shooting for the first/second week in April to realistically start catching limits, but my first days out will be mid March. Our spawn is usually first week in May for Smallies. Here is what I am thinking… Spinning Drop Shot Hair Jig 4” Senko split shot rig Rapala SR5 Casting Rapala SR7/LC slim shad Suspending Jerkbait Hallow Belly swimbait Fluorocarbon Jig/T-rig Medium Fluorocarbon Jig/T-rig MH Devil Horse - Mono (which will double as jerkbait rod if I am not suspending right on my Fluoro setup)

Out my backyard is the Columbia river and Yakima River which are both great smallmouth waters. But, I'll tell you right now that I drive an hour and a half out of my way to fish lakes during early pre spawn. I like a challenge but rivers can be beyond difficult to fish this time of year. The water is dirty, sometimes muddy and lots of current due to snow melt, the water stays colder longer. I am pretty confident that the Potomac's water is going to be dirty this time of year, I hope its not for your sake, but if it is I would not invest heavily on jerk-baits catching any fish. Spinnerbaits, dark jigs, DT6 in a red pattern, Wiggle Warts in a craw pattern, Red Eyed Shad in a red pattern. But stay positive and good luck!!

I don't do a lot of frogging but Ish likes the high speed reels for his frogging. I like high speed reels for anything jig or soft plastic.

Growing up I did a lot of trout fishing. I almost exclusively used Maxima or Trilene Mono in 4lbs test. Never had any issues and don't remember losing any fish to broken line. WIGuide said it though, you need to consider using a rod that's got some give. I have seen Jarrets show and I think he is nuts for fishing 2 or 4lbs test line for those big largemouth (: It must work because he got on tour in 2006 and made three checks. Not too shabby.

I have not. The only thing on my reels that were probably not repairable were the gears being unsmooth and noisy. The problems with the drag and cast control could have been repaired. I choose not to have them serviced and no longer have them. I have curado D's that are 8 years old, never been service, and still function better than a BPS PQ out of the box. I guess that is why I have higher standards. Nothing against the PQ because when you compare it at $80 to other reels in that price range it is far superior IMO.