WIGuide

You just catch one so big that there's no doubt!

Just curious as to where this factoid came from. A bass's velcro like teeth are not enough to cause your braid to break. If I had to guess, either what was hitting wasn't a bass, or your knot was at fault. Also, if you're using a leader with braid, the leader should be giving up first. Think of your line like a chain, the weakest link will always break first.

If you can afford to wait a bit, you can get a Pro Qualifier on sale. They're a heck of a reel for the money.

It's up to you. If you think they can see the braid, then try fluoro instead or tie on a fluoro leader. I know I've caught fish using 50# braid in water with 7-10 foot visibility.

Well think of a dual console boat. There are plenty of people who don't like the extra console because it cuts down on the room in the bottom of the boat, and there's not tons of room to get up to the front deck. Whether you feel that way or not, you can't deny there's less room. Now if you move them to the middle of the boat, you take the distance between the consoles in a normal dual console boat and divide it by two and that's the room you have to work with to get around the consoles. Also, due to engine controls and wires running to and from the console, there needs to be a small wall in between the driver and passenger. I was looking for pictures online to try to give a visual to go along with what I'm saying. I ran across pictures of Sterling's center console boat, which is the only one I've seen that keeps the driver on the right. It's actually the best design I've seen of a center console, but there are still issues. If you look at the picture I've included, if the passenger brings along rods to fish with, he would have to use the step on his side as a rod ramp. If he does, not only will he most likely have to fight with them as he slides out from behind the console, he'd have to be careful when stepping up to the back deck to not step on them if he goes up on his side. Otherwise he would have to try to step over the shifter, or go up on the front deck to go around around the console to use the step on the other side. I guess if you don't care you could step on the seat too, but that's less than ideal. If you were to custom design one, you could probably get creative and come up with a solution to some of this, but I've yet to see a design that flows as well as the standard side console designs.

Amazing fish! It stinks you didn't have a scale, but oh well. Just another reason to go catch one even bigger haha

I buck the trend a little bit here. I pretty much use a 7.1:1 for everything. I only have a few reels slower than that, and those are my older ones (exception of 1 that did not come in a faster retrieve). I feel that I don't have problems slowing down my retrieve, but you can only reel so fast with a slower retrieve. Get whatever you think will work for you.

Definitely not a sturgeon, I would say some sort of man made object of some sort that resembles a horse. Go back and check it out.

I let the fish determine if I need a trailer hook or not. If they're finicky and bumping at it or I start missing a few fish I'll throw a trailer hook on. In open water you can actually flip the trailer hook over and help to increase you chances.

Shad colored baits still work around here despite there being no shad population. Don't be afraid to throw them. As far as good colors in a swim jig go, I've done well on black/blue/purple, pb&j, white. It won't take all that long to build confidence in them. Just buy a few of them since northers are just as much attracted to them as a spinnerbait and that usually doesn't end well haha.

It's pretty clear from the responses that it's going to depend on the person. I had mine taken out at two times and my procedure must have went well. With the first ones I took pain meds for the rest of the day and didn't have another one after that. The second set I never even took one. I know of many others who held onto their pill bottles with the grip of death because they couldn't go without it. Hopefully yours goes well, and if it does you'll be back to fishing in no time!

My uncle used to have a Bayliner bass boat with the center consoles. And I never fished out of one, but when Nitro had theirs I got to walk around in one. They were both very cumbersome and not due to the height of the consoles, just from the placement.

It works, another technique that works well is fishing windy weed flats with a lipless crankbait but finesse it a little more. Instead of ripping it, just pull it and you can catch some good ones that way too. Not uncommon to catch them on spinnerbaits either.

Just curious as to how many have ever fished out of a center console bass boat before? Not meaning to bash, because maybe a custom design might work out better, but I've fished out one and been in another brands and the layout is cumbersome to say the least.

If there's a specific bait you're looking for, try calling the company and see if you can order in bulk from them.

You're worrying too much. As long as salt impregnated ones don't get wet you're good to go.

Welcome to the forums. It's really hard to tell from a picture as they can look bigger or smaller than what they are. I could give you examples if I wasn't at work. If I were to take a guess though I'd say about 18-19 inches give or take and in that 4 lb range.

Awesome catch A-jay. That is a monster northern, not only length wise, but it's a fatty! What a way to end a season! Even though with the success you've been having, are you sure you won't sqeek out a few more trips? haha

This last weekend, due to time constraints I didn't get out as much as I wanted. Still managed to hook into a 30"+ Northern, some walleyes, a few bass, and a crappie who seems to have found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time! The smallie came in at 19.5". Not a bad weekend at all, just makes me wonder how much better it could have been with more time.

Welcome to the forums! I'm sure the site has the info you need to finally hook into a bass!

Fluoro has been known to cause problems on spinning reels. If you're going to try it, I would recommend staying below 10 lb test.

The techniques you're using these for can mitigate the difference to a point. If you're using them all for moving baits it can be hard to tell a difference at times. However, if you throw on a jig or t-rig and drag it over some gravel you should notice a difference in feel. if you don't then there's really no need for you to buy any higher dollar rods, but after using them, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell a difference.

I've only fished out of a bay boat once before. My dad's friend bought one so we took it out fishing. It was a 21' Nitro if I remember correctly. Fishing three out of it was no good. There really wasn't a back deck and the front deck was small. The person fishing in the middle didn't have much room to move around the awkwardly large center console. Storage was very limited in that boat as well. I'm sure some are better, but it definitely wouldn't be my first choice for fishing multiple people if you're bass fishing.

I would agree a medium should suit you well, even though I prefer to throw lipless baits on my MH/F St. Croixs as the extra power helps to rip them out of the grass. If you're fishing them more in open water, a Medium will treat you just fine.

Howdy there neighbor! I wasn't out very long this last weekend, but water temps were in that 47-50 degree range. I was having success with the same baits that have been producing in recent weeks which have been crankbaits and jerkbaits. I've caught a few on other baits as well, but those have been the two most productive.