WIGuide

Rod buckles are the best out there. A lot of the big box outdoor stores keep the parts in stock. If you can't find them and you need something fast, there are others out there such as rod saver. They will wear out much quicker but are cheap and easy to replace. Another option would be to find two small lagged I bolts and a bungy cord.

It might be worth it on those slow days! haha

I haven't had as great of success as some on here have with them. I lost a little faith in them when I lost a few in a tournament and then switched to a heavy wire ewg and started catching. I've been meaning to experiment and play around with them some more, but haven't gotten back to it yet.

Welcome to BR and back to fishing!

How a boat was cared for has a lot more weight than just age alone. Yes it's true that as they age there are things that can go wrong, and even possibly something that the owner doesn't know about or can't control. If a boat was cared for, it'll last a lot longer than one that wasn't. As a great example, up until last year I owned a 1986 Ranger. It was in better shape and had less issues than multiple boats in our club that were from the 2000's. I had my fair share of projects with it, but those were projects I chose to do like adding compartment lights. The only thing needed to be replaced were the aerator and bilge pump which were easy fixes. From my experiences the older boats that were cared for are pretty easily spotted. If you can find an older boat and it's in great shape, I'd rather buy that than a newer one that's been beaten to death. As far as aluminum vs fiberglass that's a personal decision. Aluminum is more forgiving if you have no clue what you're doing, If you've owned a boat before and can get it to the dock without smashing into it, or you don't fish shallow rock infested rivers, I'd go fiberglass, but that's just me.

There's a few around me, I'll have to check. In years past I've got some stupid good deals like what you're getting, but recently they must have wised up as nothing seems to get discounted more than about 25%. The ones by me don't have a great selection but between the 3 I can usually find something decent. Thanks for the post, I'll be headed to look tonight.

You can get the premier to work for you. Just make sure to loosen your drag up when throwing treble hook baits with it. It won't be perfect, but it should be able to handle everything you listed.

If I had to pick one brand I'd say Eagle Claw (Trokar). I've had great luck with them, they're wicked sharp and they stay that way, and I've only rolled 1 point. That was when I got a flippin hook wedged in between rocks and was trying to break my 50 lb braid when it rolled and bent the hook out slightly. That's good enough for me.

I think the triceps story is just a cover and he's really working on a secret bionic fishing arm to take his fishing game to the next level! haha In all seriousness though hope you heal up!

I use pretty much a straight retrieve with a swim jig. I might change the speed, or pop my rod tip a little to flare the skirt and give it more of an erratic action, but about 90% of the time I stick with the straight retrieve. There are times I'll also just reel it along and kill it next to a piece of cover and there's days they will absolutely kill it when you do. Another nice thing about them is despite being titled a swim jig you can also fish it the same way you would a regular jig. Sometimes if i'm fishing down a bank with one and I come up to a dock I'll skip it under there and just let it fall, hop it a few times, and once I pass the dock I go back to fishing it like I normally do.

Part of the deal might be that you're missing is that depending on the body of water the fish might not be grouped up in a spot. I'm not sure what the river you're fishing is like, but in the fall the bass migrate to their wintering areas, usually the deeper holes with slower current. The fish you're catching might just be the stragglers that are on their way, or they could be the ones leading the pack. It's also hard to tell you what else to try when I don't know what you're fishing. As the water cools down in the fall the signs of activity die off. It's hard to say what to fish for sure. If you don't have electronics to find the fish you best bet would be to burn water. It's somewhat of a challenge though because you're trying to move as fast as you can but still fish slow. Hopefully that helps a little.

So you eat seafood regularly and use a fuel conditioner...sounds like a good plan to me! haha Sorry man I know you meant seafoam, but they typo was too funny

ML/XF St. Croix hands down no contest.

That's an awesome deal! Nice work!

For soft plastics, I store mine by technique in boxes. I'll put a few of my favorite styles in a box and store the rest in ziplocks. For example, I dropshot a few different baits, so I'll get a thin tray and load it with a few colors of each. Those are my go-to baits, and get refilled as necessary. Now I also have ziplock freezer bag one of the big ones also full of dropshot baits. It's comprised of ones I don't use as often and also more packs of the ones in the box. That way if I'm going to a lake and I have my dropshot box, I have my bases covered. If it's a lake I know I'm going to be dropshotting a lot, I'll grab the ziplock bag too. That way I don't end up hauling around more tackle than what I have to for no reason.

Used to use them all the time fishing with my dad as a little kid. Loved opening up that package just for the smell alone.

Try a Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper on the back of a swim jig. It's about 1000 times better than the dead pig (cough cough) I mean Grass Pig.

Was out up here this weekend water temp in the 43 to 46 range. Didn't catch tons of fish, but I caught them on both a crankbait and jerkbait. Very slow retrieves with the crankbait, and fairly long pauses with the jerkbait. The lake I fish in the fall has too much cover for a blade bait unfortunately, but I've been tempted to buy one and try it off the edge of the flats I've been fishing. Most bites have been coming after coming in contact with cover and then letting the baits sit right there.

I've got an older BPS spinnerbait binder. It holds all the spinnerbaits I need and keeps them organized. Unfortunately they discontinued them, but I believe Browning still has their version.

If I have the choice, I'll stick to my Terminator's and Eco Pro Tungsten spinnerbaits, but I purchased a few of the walmart ones when they went on sale for $0.75 haha. I felt like tinkering and some different blades I wanted to try. I knew the skirt wouldn't last long, but planned on putting a quick skirt replacement on it when it fell off. Surprisingly enough it held up pretty well and I've actually caught a lot of fish on them. Definitely not as good as my normal spinnerbaits in terms of quality, but for the money they're pretty darn good! For a whole dollar a piece pull the trigger on a few if you need them and then save up to replace your collection.

Usually they'll give you a bulk discount.

Cool picture. The other thing you can do, is flip rocks over when you get there and match your bait to the color crawfish you see. As they go through the molting process they can change colors and don't always match the bottom.

Slo has some good points. You might be able to avoid insurance by making participants sign a waiver. You also need to figure out how you are going to score the tournament. With people fishing out of the vessels as well as from the bank, it's pretty hard to keep a 5 fish limit. You might be better off having a paper tournament where each fish brought in is measured and the measurement is either what gets recorded, or it's converted to the average lbs for a fish that size. It's possible you could go the way of total catches as well or make them take pictures of the fish on a digital scale. Best of luck to you, I hope you can get a club like that going.

There's a few lakes around here that have that issue. It's not even just the really small lakes, bass can overpopulate many bodies of water if not properly managed. Catch and release is a great thing, but keeping some small ones for dinner isn't as bad as many make it out to be here.

If it were me and I had to choose between those two motors I'd probably go with the XS. The extra weight hanging off the back for me just isn't worth it. Yes the 4 stroke is quieter and has a few nice options, but I've heard a lot of the hype about the Verado isn't what it's cracked up to be. I know a few guys who ran them on bass boats when they first came out, and they actually were slower and burned more gas than the 2 strokes. I'm sure you're basing you decision based on dealer, but I'd be looking hard at the Yamaha SHO if I were looking at getting a 4-stroke. Those are pretty beastly motors and haven't heard many negative reports at all.