spartyon8

I recently picked up my first "bass" boat, 1985 Skeeter Starfire 150 and am looking into another fish finder. I am only allowing $300 for this purchase but get really confused when comparing finders. Most of my fishing in shallow water near the banks. 1) I have a Piranhamax 170 that I used in my jon boat. I was thinking of putting this by the trolling motor and getting another one for the console. Thoughts? Would it be better to put the "nicer" unit up front? 2) How important is a GPS combo like the Hummingbird 581i? That seems to be in my price range but not too sure if it is losing something just to have GPS at that price point. I have searched endlessley only to be even more confused. Thanks for any help in advance.

Very small selection, but tons of baits!

Hit up DSG right now. They have a huge clearance sale going.

It is extremely crazy as to how high these prices continue to climb. I have a personal rule about never paying retail for anything. With that being said, check out DSG right now. They are clearancing about 60% of their fishing supply including Lucky Craft and a few other "higher priced" lures.

5/0 EGW for my tubes.

Switch it up by texas rigging your tubes and you will see an increase in production. Tube headed jigs never really took off as much as t-rigging the tubes.

I tried worm binders and they just managed to tick me off more than help. I found the easiest way was original bags inside of gallon ziplocs. I label them trailers, senkos, swimbaits, craws, tubes, etc. I put all of the bags into my old soft sided tackle bag. Of everything I have tried, I seem to have kept this method the longest.

I don't have a very fancy finder and, honestly, am not very good using a finder to find fish. I have my usual spots and somewhere in the vacinity of my "spot" I will land smallies. My uncle taught me to use the areas where faster moving water meets calm water, even the hidden areas, and that is when I anchor down. The fish finder, for me, doesn't do much when I am targeting smallies. A map of the lake showing springs or rivers is better.

Any place there is a rocky substrate and higher oxygen levels (i.e. submersed rivers/springs) seem to alway produce for me. I may not catch the biggest but I seem to catch quantity and most colorfully vibrant smallies in these places.

Just pulling your chain!

Great advice from someone who shed his for an avatar pic? Haha!

As a 3rd grade teacher myself, I decided to take my nephew (1st grader) out fishing this summer and we spent 8 hours on the lake. I made sure that he was catching fish. I forced him to get hands on with taking the hook out and putting his own crappie nibbles on. I threw his spincast reel in my locker and gave him my crappie spinning reel. Taught him for a few casts and he was all on his own. Just knowing what I do from inside of a classroom of youngsters, staying occupied is difficult but VERY rewarding. This concept is even used when I speak with parents. As long as I keep them in the loop or doing something with their children, all runs smoothly.

No...the cold Illinois winter has shut me down for a while.

I picked up 2 of those GM Vortex rods 2 weeks ago for $15 in store.

"There's a snake in my boat!"

I love my BassPro Extreme Qualifier 370. It has more than enough room that I always end up overloading. I would stay away from the blue softsided Plano bags from Walmart. I bought one to store my plastice and both seems ripped with less than a month of little use.

How about: BASSN