WIGuide

I usually just fish them straight.

Not custom, but I mainly use Terminators. They're hard to beat!

When I wacky rig them, they usually fall off before I change them. Texas rigged I'll change after I've trimmed it a few times. As far as colors go, I usually only change when the fish tell me to.

Man I can cast a square bill so far....I have to duck so that sucker doesn't wallop me in the back of the head after it makes a full revolution around the earth! I use a 12.5' super slinger rod mated with a moon shooter reel that has super-tuned bearings as well as a V8 engine to haul all that line in. Don't waste your time worrying about the actual measurement of your casting distance, just learn to put the bait where the fish are and you'll be good to go.

I haven't used the Dobyns or the Powells. I'm still too stuck on St. Croix. I love the feel as well as the craftsmanship of them. You wouldn't go wrong if you go the all St. Croix rout! I have a feeling if you do, you'll end up loving them as much as I do!

Just another thing to remember is that if the water running in that creek is mainly runoff, it's going to be warmer from that too. Runoff runs over already warmed ground and is generally really shallow so it is less resistant to temp change. Add into that the fact that it's chocolate colored and that's another thing that will make it warm up in the sun faster. I'm thinking the water temp in that creek is quite a bit warmer than the main river with giant ice cubes floating around in it.

If you're having problems remembering everything, go ahead and pick one technique. Read up on it, then go out and fish. When you get done come back and reread what you did before you went and things should become a little more clear. Continue focusing on that technique for a while and get good at it and find out what works for you. Although a lot of people struggle in learning the piles of information available these days, not many will forget personal experiences. If you can gain that personal experience and use that knowledge on future outings.

Don't worry about looking silly. I've been casting in the driveway throughout the winter! Also, if anyone stops and says anything, just tell them you've caught a pair of 7's in the last hour haha.

I always cram as many as I can into a space. Sure, it'd be great to have them all separated, but I've got way too many baits to do that with. With the size they make the tackle trays, there's way too much wasted space to put one bait in each even if you use the thinner ones. As far as worrying about if the baits will get scratched or hooks dulled, I don't. Crankbaits will get beat up more fishing than they do sitting and I can't say I've ever actually seen damage from them just being stored in tray.

Nice fish man! If you catch one that you want to know how big it is but don't have a scale or tape, clip a piece of line off your rod that's as long as the fish. Find the point of the fishes largest girth and with the same piece of line tie a small overhand knot at that mark. When you get home, measure the line and plug the numbers in this formula for bass. Weight = length2 x girth / 1200 It's not 100% accurate, but it's pretty darn close.

I have caught a whopping 0! The ice is finally breaking up in front of my house so it won't be long till I can get out there but technically can't start bass fishing until May 3rd.

You don't have to have a cranking rod. You can definitely get by without one. One tip I give you if you are fishing cranks on a faster action is to lighten your drag. You'll keep a lot more fish buttoned up that way. A moderate action rod is pretty much what defines a crankbait rod as a crankbait rod. Even though you may not think it's technique specific, you've got yourself a crankin stick there. haha

The DBS system was designed to give you the best of both worlds. Centrifugal breaks operate most effectively when the spool is moving at a high RPM which will be at your initial part of the cast. Magnetic brakes work more effectively at a lower spool RPM so they will feather the end of your cast better. The spool tension knob ( the one that on the handle side of the reel) puts pressure on the spool shaft adding or decreasing the resistance on the spool making it either easier to harder to spin. I own a handful of these DBS reels and I really like them. The dual brakes work very effectively.

Just fish it!

I'm pretty sure it'll still work on tilt steering. It goes behind the wheel and will tilt with it. I don't think there'd be pinching issues with the wire, but I can't say for sure. Your other options would be the one way2slow pointed out otherwise they make a trim switch for your other foot. http://www.thmarine.com/products/Outboard-Performance/Trim-Switches/Hot-Trim-Foot-Trim-Control

You need to look into the first few responses you got on here. Make sure it's charged, check you connections, make sure fluid level is full. If everything is good, take the batter back to Walmart and have them check it out. I had a very similar setup and I could run 6-8 hours on a 27 series. Yes there was a noticeable power drop by the end of the day, but it was basically like you dropped it down a speed.

You should give Ranger a call. They'll be able to let you know if there's anything you need to look out for when you do it.

While prefishing on the Mississippi for an early season tournament last year, I was rigging tackle when the phone rang. I answered and it was my dad who proceeded to talk my ear off. While he was talking I could see the sand bar that I was floating towards but it looked like there was plenty of water on top of it. Unfortunately, I misjudged. My boat stopped about 40 feet from the edge. I thought I could get my TM to drag it over because it didn't feel like I was hung up too bad. That turned into an epic fail. I jacked my motor up trimmed it up and cranked it over. I couldn't get it to budge and didn't want to risk dropping it down any and sucking up sand. I was on to my last resort...jumping in the water that was in the low 40's. After 3 trips in and out of the boat, my legs finally numbed enough I could stand to be in the water. I was able to lift up on my motor lifting the transom out of the sand enough that I could over come the resistance. Half an hour later I finally made it that 40 feet. Lucky for me it was in the mid 70's that day and sunny along with the fact that I have a smaller boat! lol

Pictures would be helpful for reference. When I mounted mine, I built a bracket for my charger and mounted the bracket partially on a removable plate that covers my pumps. That way I only had to drill one hole into the foam bank and also limiting chances of messing anything up.

If you are looking for just one bait, go with a senko style bait. I'd recommend a Yum Dinger.

I converted an older TV cart by putting doors on the front and added a shelf system to hold the 3700 sized boxes. There's space in the middle that I can keep some smaller boxes. I keep all my hard baits in tackle trays and organize them based on style of bait (example top water, jerk bait, square bill, medium diving crankbaits., etc., etc.) and have a few for my "go to" soft plastics. The rest of my plastics are stored in the original packaging in zip lock bags separated by style so I can easily find what I need. When summer comes, most of my boxes get moved to the boat but the baits I know I won't need will stay there. When I go fishing with someone else, I grab my trays and put them in my tackle bag. It holds 5 or so 3700 boxes as well as some smaller ones so I can carry what I need. I have two extra 3700 size boxes to use as day boxes. When I go to a lake I have a pretty good idea of current water conditions as well as what I'll need to take with so I can pull baits from multiple categories to aid in thinning everything down to fit in my tackle bag.

Different situations call for different colors, but my favorite is probably Booyah's Swamp Frog color.

Xcalibur XCS series are my hands down favorite. Rapala DT Fat 3's are also good as well as the Bomber Fat Free square bills.

There are quite a few differences between the largemouth and smallmouth, definitely worth buying both if you fish both.

The longer this post goes on, the more I question OP's ability to judge a fishes weight.