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Senkos and all the other brands of straight tail sinking worms might look like "a plastic turd" as you said. However, looks can be deceiving. Once you get them in the water they have a very seductive shimmy on the fall. They don't have tons of action and don't have flapping appendages but they don't need to. It's a finesse technique that is lifelike. If you look at a dying baitfish, it often acts the same way, and we know that bass are opportunistic feeders. Keep an open mind and give them a try, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Falcon was bought out by Plano. They still make all the same boxes, they are just now called the Plano Elite organizers. If you are looking for boxes for terminal tackle, I'd suggest the Plano 3601 or 3701 depending on how much you've got. The elite terminal tackle box is good for beginners or if you carry limited terminal tackle, but in my case I found that I just carry too much for those to work well for me. I ended up getting two 3701's. One is for all my weights, and another is for my hooks. Also noteworthy, no matter what box you end up with unless it's one of the Flambeau boxes with the blue dividers, go ahead and buy the Flambeau Zerust rust inhibitors. They will help to save you from headaches and your paycheck from having to replace a bunch of unused hooks. I've already had that experience once, and that was enough for me.

Depends on how much I get back but I'm guessing it'll be a pretty good chunk lol

I think you need to take a trip to your nearest marine dealer, or sporting goods store and have a look at them. Don't go there planning on buying it that day, but rather just look. Ask someone in the fishing department to show them too you and explain the features. They'll show you a demo and explain what everything does. After, think about the kind of fishing you do, or want to do and decide then if the feature is necessary to your fishing style, or if you could see yourself using it to enhance your fishing. Personally, I think side scan is an amazing technology that I put to work just about every time I'm on the water, but to some they might find it as overkill, or may not understand it enough to use it. There's no sense to pay a large amount of money to get something you won't use, but only you can determine what you need.

You might also want to go into your options and turn you sensitivity up if it's not up already. It could be too low to pick that up. Also, because it's a single beam transducer, you'll have to be directly over the school because the beam is fairly narrow.

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think they will. I know you can with the HDS Touches, but those can be connected with an ethernet cable.

I've got mixed feelings about it. I don't own one, but I haven't seen any evidence that they work, but also have not seen any proof that they don't either.

Trokar EWG style hooks are hard to beat! Absolutely razor sharp and they stay that way too.

Up north here bluegills are a staple food for bass since most lakes up here don't have shad. They can be used just about anywhere, or anytime. Down there, you'd probably want to use them more around shallow cover than anything. Pre-spawn, and post spawn would also be great times to use them.

During the season, Everything is left in the boat except my electronics. They come off as soon as the boat is pulled out of the water. If I'm around a place where there's a possibility of anything getting stolen, I lock all my storages including my battery compartment. I've got a through hull fitting for my battery charger so I can keep my batteries charging without leaving the lid open. When I store my boat for the winter, everything comes out tough.

1. Yum Dingers 5" - black & blue 2. Big Bite Baits Rojas Fightin' Frog - Prime Rib 3. 3/8 oz Terminator T-1 - Sharp Chartreuse 4. Xcalibur XR-50 - Ghost 5. Xcalibur XCS 100 - Foxy Shad 6. Rapala DT 10 - Ike's Disco Shad 7. Booyah Pad Crasher - Swamp Frog 8. Berkley Bottom Hopper Jr.- Shady Watermelon Candy 9. Blakemore Road Runner- Orange head with a black and chartreuse turbo tail 10. Cotton Cordell Hot Spot- Rayburn Red I'm pretty confident that I could go anywhere in the nation and catch at least a few using just those 10

I really like the Xcalibur XCS series, they seem to be pretty solid all around. Also the Rapala DT Fat 3's are good as well.

They are built on the same blank material, but they have different guides. Also, the Premier has a full grip as stated where as the Mojo has the split. Also, the Premiers are built to be more of an all around rod, where the Mojo's are a technique specific rod, so they will have different actions based on what technique they are being made for. The cost difference is mainly due to the fact that the Premiers are made in the US, up in my neck of the woods, where as the Mojo's are built in Mexico.

Ranger outfits their boats with whatever engine is ordered. If you custom order a new boat you can get whatever motor you want on it regardless of what dealership you order it from. Dealers order boats to put in the showroom to sell, so those will usually have whatever motor that dealership sells on it. There's plenty of them out there with SHO's on them

When it comes to spinnerbaits there aren't many bad ones out there. For example I bought some of the super cheap walmart ones when they were on sale. I got them for $0.75 a piece and swapped some blades, so overall cost was about $1.10 per bait. I've absolutely torn them up with those. That being said though, I REALLY love my Terminators. They are a premium price, but they are a premium bait with the extra features that, to me, make them worth it. Their blade is designed to create more flash than others on the market. Their quick skirt system makes changing colors easy (you can use them on other spinnerbaits too). Instead of having to buy multiple spinnerbaits that are locked in as far as color goes, you can buy a few baits and some extra skirts and change in a matter of seconds. Another feature that I really like about Terminators, is the availability of the titanium wire on their T-1 models. No matter what a fish does to wreak havoc with your bait, you will spend 0 time tuning your bait. The wire always snaps back and your bait will run true. You can't beat that, especially in tournament situations where every second matters.

I think frog color like any other bait can actually matter, especially in open water. It's not as important when on top of a mat because the fish can't see it all too well, but if your fishing the holes, scattered grass, or open water I've seen it make a big difference.

I like these http://www.ecoprotungsten.com/eco-pro-pegs/ They are a little bit more expensive, but they get the job done, and as few as you go through, it really doesn't matter that they're a little more.

My favorite way to fish is however I can get the fish to bite at the time! Haha, if I had to pick a specific technique though, I'd have to say frogging. There's just something about a big ol'bass blowin' up on a frog that is just insanely addictive.

Congrats man, nice ride!

Trigger X is actually one of the Rapala Brands.

I tend to catch more largemouth topwater fishing, but when a smallmouth wants a topwater they absolutely smash it with a hatred only a smallie can have.

I always try to remove the hook if at all possible. If the fish is in question of surviving, I'll put it in the live well for a while to make sure it's ok. Here's a fish I caught that shows what can happen if the hook isn't removed. As you can see the hook didn't just rust away, and of course the lead head on the jig played into it too. However, the reason it couldn't pass the jig was because the hook was getting hung up on the inside of the fish. Lucky for this fish, I caught him so after a quick surgery with some needle nose pliers the blockage was cleared and hopefully he/she is still swimming!

I've got one of the medium diving crankbaits. It's got a good action to it and good hardware. It's really hard to tell if the sound and light up eyes really has lead to more fish catches though. On the positive side though, even after the batteries do die, you still have a solid bait to use.

I've tried a few now and have kind of settled on the VMC spinshots. I haven't noticed any real difference in action but have noticed a reduction in line twist using my spinning rod. I usually use anything from a #1 to a 2/0 with the standard style otherwise a 1/0 or 2/0 when I use the wide gap version. I'm looking forward to trying the new Trokar versions when they come out too!

I think as long as you use a leader you should be fine. Otherwise, if you want to skip that check out Berkley's Tracer Braid. It gives you the best of both worlds.