EmersonFish

Thanks for the update. It annoys me people ask about a potential purchase, get feedback, and then never let anyone know what they decided. Good to hear that it seems like a quality boat.

I think we can all agree that personal preference is never stronger than when it comes to food, and fish are food. I like them all, assuming they are prepared well. The size of the fish and ecosystem they live in can impact their quality. Oh, and I'll skip a trout now and then. But a nice fish shore lunch beats a restaurant bill every time.

I feel like I always use my "instincts and skills" to find fish, but I often use technology to locate the kind of structure my knowledge/experience tells me should be holding the fish according to the conditions. The finding of the fish is in the planning. I don't drive around aimlessly hoping to see bass of the graph then drop on them.

Nice smallie. I start typing, step away for a while, come back to post a reply, and you've already posted great pic, thanked everyone for their help, and probably did more work then I will do all day. I'm a slacker.

You likely nailed it. Make darn sure if you backlash your line, you pull line out until whatever is still on the spool is perfect, then make sure you put good tension on the line when you reel it back on to the spool (not putting enough tension on the line when you spool it in the first place is enough to cause line to overlap and become an issue). If you see a mess of line balled up, try and deal with it before you reel it through your guides, and make sure that wherever you are pulling line out is not damaging your line (don't pull out your line in the sticks or on a concrete boat ramp, then drag it through that stuff reeling it back in.)

Above the bait, at least 12". The the sinker itself has a swivel on it if you are using drop shot weights, but it only helps a little. A lot of people use braid as their main line, tie fluoro to a small swivel as their leader and tie their rig on it. It's personal preference. I'm at the point now where I just tie a fluoro leader to my braid main line with a line-to-line knot; no swivel or swivel hook. I just deal with the line twist. But it can be frustrating to people at first.

I use lighter braid. Prefer the "feel" of it on spinning gear as I tend to be using finesse baits, but that's a personal preference thing. As far as line capacity? Unless you are using an ultra-light, or are vertically fishing in some extremely deep water, 30# won't be an issue. Strength overkill? 15 and 20 pound braid probably qualifies for that 99% of the time as well, and since when is line being "too strong" a huge problem, particularly if you are using a leader? Line manageability? If anything, a larger diameter line would be less likely to be a pain in the neck, although casting distance will suffer, and your line-to-line knots will be a little thicker, which can be annoying if you have small diameter guides. I say see how you like working with it. Getting into the braid game is going to take a little trial and error. You can see by this one thread that everyone has their own preferences. If you end up not liking it on your spinning reel, you can put backing on a casting reel and use the 30# braid to top it off.

I went back to the link where I was informed about the Skeet rod sale and it now just says, "no matches". The sale was supposed to go until 10pm EST, but they either sold out (likely) or something else went wrong.

Dick's Sporting Goods also has those Skeet Reese rods on a one day sale today (online only), 2 for $60. I would make another thread, but someone probably already did, and now they'll be sold out by the time I do it. I know a lot of people don't love those, but $30 a piece is pretty darn good. Interesting that there are these deals popping up. I need to get some money on my credit card so I'm ready. I'd have bought that Lew's football jig rod for sure. Good for everybody who got in on them. What I really need is for a really good reel for flipping/pitching to go on sale for some ridiculously low price.

I'll skip the science. I can tell you "anecdotally" that I have caught plenty of fish on soft plastics and jigs, fishing cover in water with very little visibility. I'd guess they take advantage of the low visibility to ambush prey more easily, so let them ambush your bait. I fish fairly clear water most of the time, and when we do get a little muddy water, it can actually be an opportunity, rather than a bummer. Whatever their motivation, they seem to find a black/blue jig I can't see 12" under water just fine. In your case, they probably see better than you think. The coffee colored water you describe is different from really muddy water from a lot of runoff in the spring or fall. Even in truly muddy water, they'll find it. All I would avoid is a subtle, quiet, moving bait. Either fish tight to cover, or use moving baits that they can locate a little easier.

Like JFrancho said. It's nice to have a rod for flipping and pitching in tight quarters. Most of those rods now are much longer, and I understand why, but sometimes fishing around or under trees or other obstructions, those big long sticks can be cumbersome.

Assuming you are fishing shallow water relative to what you might fish the most prominent "drop shot technique" from a boat, your line will be at a relatively acute angle. The bait will still sit up just fine if you keep your line somewhat taut. Make sure you tie a good knot so that when you pull the line the hook wants to stand out straight, and use a good bait known for its drop shot qualities. When I'm fishing shallow, I make a point of keeping my tip up to make the angle of the line less acute than if I had my tip lower. That helps the bait look more natural. The bait might not sit out flag straight like it could if you are fishing vertically, but it doesn't have to. A little nose down look isn't a bad thing at all if your bait in close to the bottom. Another piece of advice I'd give is if you are drop-shotting from the bank and having success at a certain depth, work that depth as methodically as you can, and don't feel like you have to work the bait all the way back to you. But if you are going to be doing a lot of casting and reeling, consider adding a small but quality swivel above the rig. The reeling in of the rig causes a lot of line twist.

Depends on what is on the bottom, how far I have to cast (which changes the angle, meaning you'll need to set your bait higher to compensate for it), what the fish want, etc... When casting a DS, I try and keep my weight as close to the bait as I can get away with. It's just easier to work with. If I'm fishing off a steep bank or where there is a drop-off, I'll stretch it out. But there are too many variables to have a set length. The only thing is, from a bank, it's difficult to use the really long drops you can use when fishing vertically. If fish are up too high in the column, I might try something different, like a weightless wacky rig.

Great deal. All of my fishing related budget is tied up in cash right now for my vacation coming up, or I would definitely be ordering. Wishing I wouldn't have jumped the gun and ordered a much lesser rod for the same price a couple of weeks ago, but you never know when stuff like this will come up.

I do it a lot. Maybe too much. But when I fish a "drop shot rig" that way, I use a shakey head rod, and a slightly heavier wire mosquito hook, rather than a drop shot rod designed for that vertical finesse presentation with the very light wire hooks.

'Circuit Breaker' is great. They definitely leave you wanting more, and you have to wait quite a while to get it, if you watch them close to when the are released.

I believe the company line has been, when you drag a bait in that manner on the electric motor, you need to be reeling it in "however slowly." In other words, make some effort to appear to be working the lure back to the boat, not just dragging it along or using the boat alone to impart the action. Even that explanation leaves something to be desired. I know I've fished in the back of the boat where the guy in front was fishing much faster, and the boat ended up dragging my lure a short time, but I continued to "work" the bait while not necessarily "reeling" it the entire time. From the back, it's not always easy to tell when he's on or off the motor, so with the ambiguity of the rule, that could be tough. These were not tournament situations I speak of, just observations from fishing from the back. With some of these techniques becoming more popular, I think clarifying the rules might be in order.

I've liked pretty much everything I've tried from P-Line. I really like their fluorocarbon. Used the 'Fluoroclear' for years before I started using fluorocarbon. Would still be happy to use it for baits like fishballer06 mentioned. But I agree kingmotorboat; dollar-for-dollar, P-Line's fluoro can compete with anybody's.

Those 'Dredge Football Jigs' look sick. Heck of a price on tungsten anything, let alone a sweet jig with an Owner hook.

I put most of that stuff in the little zip-lock style bags they sell in the craft department at stores that are slightly smaller than the packaging a lot of the stuff comes in. I cut down the cardboard insert with the product info so it fits into the ziplock bag, and I carry all of that stuff in the tackle bag with the plastic baits or what ever it goes with. I usually try not to put more than what I might reasonable need in the baggy, and keep to rest somewhere else (usually original packaging). If I use a few hooks, for instance, I'll reload when I'm reorganizing my bag between trips.

Just remember that the 5 best win it. I see people who get too caught up on wanting to get a limit, and then target bigger fish to upgrade. This might be a good, "not look bad at the weigh-in" strategy, but it's not a "winning" one. I don't like the idea of wasting some of the best fishing time of the day just trying to get 5 "keepers." What usually happens is you spend more time than you planned getting those 5. If you start with a strategy to target winning fish from the beginning, you will get 5 in the process, if you ever had a chance of winning at all. As far as what those strategies are? There's too much I don't know about where and how you fish. I'll just say; do your research on the body of water you are fishing, how it typically fishes that time of year, etc...; get some maps and formulate a game-plan for how you are going to make efficient use of your practice time; pick Plan A, B, C, etc... (Preferably techniques you are somewhat proficient at. Tournament day is not time to learn a new one, even if it is what everyone claims is red hot that weekend), and go in with confidence.

I went with guys who have been around the block, seen plenty of deep clear water, and also had a relatively low percentage of ownership at the time I picked on BASS. A: Kevin VanDam (5.9% ownership) B: Mike McClelland (7.5%) C: Gary Klein (2.6%) D: Kevin Short (5.1%) E: Mozizo Shimizu (5.2%) VanDam is in a tough group, but at less than 6% ownership, he is a slam dunk. Shimizu is a bit of a flyer, but no one in Group E really caught my attention. I think Klein and Short have Top 20's in them, if they can maintain the energy.

Nice boat. Congrats. I'm a Tracker guy myself. For $150, you could probably find a Lowrance Elite 4. Decent little unit. Pretty user friendly if you don't have a lot of experience with electronics. Can probably get by with that size for a while on your boat, although you'll be looking to upgrade in the not so distant future. Resist the temptation to buy a unit that doesn't have color just because you can afford a slightly larger screen. You still won't be able to see it as well.

Just saw the video for the 2016 Tracker Pro Team 195 TXW. Sweet looking boat. Max 150hp, 8' 2" wide beam, 8' rod lockers, etc...

Normally I'd try to go for a couple wild cards to make it more interesting, but for some reason, this tournament has "chalk" written all over it, and I just went with the flow. A: Reese B: Ehrler C: B. Hite D: Browning E: Lintner