Trek

I have a partner that him and I mostly fish by ourselves. I'm more of a flipper and he's more of an open water finesse type fisherman. We both own boats and both fish tournaments by ourselves. The only time I ever see him or talk to him is when we have a tournament together. But when we do it just works. We both respect each others skills and we listen to each other. We have fished hundreds of tournaments together and everyone of them we have fished as a team. If we're fishing a point he's on the trolling motor if we're fishing in tight then I am. We always position the boat so the guy in the front gets the best and sometimes the only cast. So my advice would be when fishing by yourself to focus on your skills and become better at them. Then when fishing with a partner use his skills with yours to become a good team.

I use it it too and it does help. Fluorocarbon can be a pain but you will feel more bites. I also take everything off and run the line behind the boat once in a while. That seems to help more then anything. I always do that with new line. It gets all the twists out of it.

I had a wife like that once. But only once.

It's called slowing down. Nothing wrong with it. When I was younger I fished club tournaments, Federation, Weekend Series and all the opens I could. It got to be to much and I found myself always chasing the prize. Then I realized that I hadn't fun fished in years. You know catfish, crappie or even blue gill. I was always pre fishing for bass. So now I fish a small local circuit with a buddy but I also take the grandkids out and we fish for blue gill. We giggle more then we fish. Plus I travel to Canada twice a year and fish for walleye and big pike. I had to slow down to realize what I was missing from the sport I loved.

I guess you need to keep going back the the fact that someone owns the property. Of course you need permission to fish it. Why should they have to clutter up their property with ugly signs ? This is the same as not locking your car or your home. It's still private property and it's a B&E if you enter them without permission. State owned property your taxes help pay for but private property is just that. Private.

Go to Do-it molds. They sell the GY senko mold. It is the exact senko you buy in the store. Put one of your senko's on their forum and the guys will tell you how to make it. If you use a lot of plastics in a year this will in the long run save you a ton of money and you'll never worry about running out. I make senko's for pennies. I even save my old ones and remelt them into new ones. And it keeps me busy in the winter.

That guy is a bait making stud. Check his stuff out. He's good. I believe he spells his last name Krew

I make all my plastics. And there are thousands of other guys that do too. In fact I make every lure I fish with except crank baits. It's very easy to do and color combos are endless. Like others have said color is over rated. The one thing he could have done is made it so it sinks faster or slower and that could make a difference.

I believe its the stores and the media that is causing all this. Here's an example. I wanted to buy a SIG P238 for my CC. Two gun shops told me good luck and if they could get it then it would cost some where around $1000. One private dealer said sure no problem it would take 6 months and cost $950. I thought oh bull I'm not paying that. Then I stopped at a place to get some fishing stuff one day and thought I'll go upstairs and ask. They must have had a dozen of them. Half hour later I was walking out the door with the gun and 100 rounds for less then $600. What a joke this gun thing has become. Fear has made their hobby cost them a ton of money. About a month ago I lost my pocket knife. So I went to this same store to find the Kershaw 1600. So the same store that sold me my gun cheap told me that the metals they make knifes out of doubled in cost and wanted $65 for the knife. Again I though oh bull I just paid $32 last year for it. So I came home and bought it online for $35 shipped free to my home. The sad thing is there were guys buying knifes like crazy when I was there. All of them believing the salesman and buying them before they went any higher.

Bought my first boat when I was 19. It wasn't much to fish out of so I sold it for a 1958 Starcraft rowboat with a Johnson 6hp motor. Fished out of that boat for 20 plus years. My kids and I spent a lot of time in that old boat. Since then it's been all bass boats. Now I'm 56 and have all my adult life owned a boat. I think as it should be.

Nothing like a Champion does. If you look at a Ranger in the water it sits pretty flat. When I bought mine in 2010 it was hard to get use to because running down the lake it feels like your going down hill. Your not but it's the design on how it feels. The trailer is a C channel but they also armor guard it so rocks won't chip it. It's not a cheap boat but they really do pay attention to detail on the whole package. If I was buying another boat I would make sure that what ever boat it was it had a motor on it that my service guy in my area works on. An example of that would be the new Yamaha's. It's an awesome motor but I would never own one because the nearest dealer is 1 1/2 hours away. That's a six hour drive to get it fixed if you figure you have to take it down then go pick it up later. I don't have time for that. If your local dealer is good at what he does then make a relationship with him. It will pay off in the long run.

IMO for flipping and shaky heads it's the only line to use. I can feel so much better with it and no stretch when you set the hook. This time of year we take long casts and fish 12 to 20 feet deep. I know I would be missing fish on mono. Also when my buddy and I go to Canada and fish walleyes with a jig and minnow. I have proved to him that FC will get you more fish. A lot of times that bite is so light you have to put your finger on the line to feel it. You never will with mono. I will say FC does have more memory but learn how to deal with it. Because what you gain from it is worth the pain. I spray KVD line conditioner on it and it does seem to help.

When I use to fished what I call draw tournaments as a boater the biggest thing I tried to do was break the tension. I would get non boaters show up that were so nervous that you knew they weren't going to be any help for the first couple of hours. So the morning of the tournament I would talk to them about other things then fishing to slow them down. Then when we got the boat in the water and was sitting there waiting to go i would always ask them what they did for a living. They would tell me then ask me what I did. I would always say I ran a call girl service out of Columbus Ohio. The responses to that I could write a book on. But it started our day off with a laugh and then we could just go fishing. So my point here is for boaters and non boaters is to find a way to break the ice so that both of you can relax and go fishing. Starting off your day all jacked up is only going to make you miss a fish or two that you wish you had at the end of the day.

The best big water boat I've ever had was Champion. Hands down took the waves on better. It was a great open water bass boat. But it was also the worse fishing boat I ever owned. A Champion sits in the water nose high and if your like me and like to flip that's not the ideal set up. Plus when in no wake areas I was always fighting the steering. The Ranger I now have sits flat in the water and has a track true haul. That boat is so much easyer to drive I couldn't even put them in the same class. Even when I'm on the trolling motor the Ranger's design keeps the boat straight and easy to handle. So for your best fishing boat I would say Ranger. A very close second would be Skeeter. They make a nice boat too but as a general rule the resale isn't as good. Another note here too. Ranger doesn't only make a nice boat their trailers are second to none. Nothing worse then having a nice boat and pulling it with a piece of crap trailer. Ask any Champion, Triton, Nitro, and Stratos owner how he likes his trailer. Mine is five years old and looks and sounds brand new. JMO

I'm 55 years old and I gave up club fishing years ago. To me they are a joke. Some of the guys think they are fishing for 10 grand. Now I have paired up with a buddy and pick and choose open tournaments in our area. Nothing I hate worse then to drive to a lake two or more hours away, fish all day in the sun and drive home tired. To me that's no fun, even if I win. Plus every club I use to be in had some sort of drama going on all the time. Now if we think we can win we get in them, BS with a few old friends when we get there and home by 4:30. Much better way to fish. As far as your aches and pains try yoga or stretching twice a day. Sounds dumb but my wife got me into that and it's helped me more then anything.

In my opinion go to Sams Club and buy a cheap deep cycle battery. It's only a 38 lb thrust and for what your doing any of them will be fine.

I pinch all my barbs down when I go to Canada to fish. A lot of times with pike I can just shake it when I get them to the boat and they swim off. I'm like you in I think I get a better hook set with no barb. And by not handling the fish as much it has to be better for them too. Plus where we go if you get a hook past the barb in you there is only one way to get it out.

I wear sandals made by Merrell. I love them. Great support and they are water proof. Water proof sounds dumb with sandals but a lot of time when I fish by myself I end up crawling out the front of the boat when loading and stepping into the water to go to the truck. My feet are dry in minutes. I don't jump from the boat to the dock anymore. Not cheep but a great sandal.

Wow is all I can say ! The last year of your payment you'll be paying $355 a month on a 10 to 11 year old truck.

After Dodge came out with the Sprinter Vans with the Mercedes diesel I wouldn't trust anything they did. What a piece of trash that thing is. It was a great idea and the motor runs good but everything else on the truck is junk. Even the bodies are rusting in three years. They sure did leave the door open for Nissan.

That will pull your boat. Just have to figure out if you can live without a truck. Trucks are handy. I wouldn't be willing to give mine up. I have friends that drive SUVs and I can see some advantages with them. My truck has a hard fold down cover that will lock but it's not as dry or secure as a SUV. But I can haul a load of mulch or brush better. It's all what you want.

I don't think it's the size of the engine as much as does the truck have the pull package in it. If your sticking to a less then 19 foot boat then any V8 will handle it. I don't think Chevy comes standard with that. The pull package will give you your hitch, light hook ups, transmission cooler and a little different gears in the rear end. And that I think you need.

I have two flipping rods that are carrot sticks. One is the gold and the other is a regular. I love them and they are my go to rods. I can't tell you for sure when I bought them but I would say 8 years ago or so. I have a tournament Sunday and want an extra flipping rod setup for the lake we are fishing and I had to look for my G Loomis. That's how long it's been since I've even had it in the boat. For me it's a nice rod.

It is the Xtool. I have it and it works good. The rest of their stuff is junk. When in a tournament I use a balance beam more then anything. The scales will give you the final weight at the end of the day. The only thing I care during the day is I keep the heaviest fish.

My buddy had a 2002 maybe a 2003 and they had a recall on the frame. He took it in and they put a whole new frame under it at no cost to him. And it was like ten years old. What other manufacture would do that ?