BigSkyBasser

I'm asking this from the perspective of a coangler looking for the best way to efficiently and professionally transport tackle to a boat before launch. Right now I have two bass pro shops tackle bags with Plano boxes to separate my terminal tackle as well as my hard baits and use bait binders for spinner baits. I also use a top compartment for storage of my packs of soft plastics. Usually this combined with a bag of lunch, rain gear, life jacket, and 3-5 rods makes for more than 1 trip which can be obnoxious from the boaters point of view and looks very nooby for me. Any tips from experienced boaters and coanglers?

I will lean as far as I can leaned on the outboard if I have to pee in order to not pee on the stern.

I was fishing a tournament to try and qualify for a spot on the state team. We were beating banks all day and decided to dip into this small bay which had a lot of great stumps I had fished before. Upon arrival my boater insisted I take the pedal on the trolling motor (which I have very little experience with still to this day.) I started off a bit jerky but got around and he caught three nice keepers right next to me . When we decided to head back out and run to another spot was when I happened to not see a giant boulder that I took the boat right over. Ended up wrecking his motor guide prop to all hell and bent the shaft back till it was almost touching the Hull. This guy was so nice and so glad I didn't punch a whole through his boat that he refused to let me replace it nor would he take my boat gas. Turned out that between that cove and our previous spot was enough for him to win the 2 day tournament and he won enough money to buy more than just a new trolling unit haha. Felt like such a moron though.

I based my picks off of previous FLW weigh-ins on Hartwell. Given it's February I picked a winning bag of 54 lbs 7 oz Yet reluctantly avoided adding Jacob Wheeler to my E slot. Have Andy Montgommery as the local favorite but I'm always hoping Aaron will crush it!

Favorite lure for river smallies will always be a lipless crank. Find one with a decent rattle and awesome action. They will ambush it from the rocks and tear that rod out of your hand!

Come to Montana and fish the Flathead river for some 5-6lbers. Also stop in ceour d'alene on the way for huge lake smallies. Never fished bass in Washington but want to.

Are they suspended in the water column or sitting on the bottom? I would throw a really heavy jig with a rattle and a strike king coffee tube (probably black with red flake) as the trailer. Fish it back really slow. The biggest problem with winter smallies is you will generally always have to cast a painfully large amount of times to get bit. This or maybe a buddy blade in either gold or silver depending on the lighting and visibility.

It's all about the rules and the boater's preference. Casually fishing and pre fishing may be different but usually you will be stuck in the back of the boat. Quick tip for back boating: If there's a seat, NEVER sit down! This is how the boater will get you comfortable and distract you from the bites so he can get his limit and cull easier with you there.

I'd try roboworms to find em but it's fun to experiment with different baits on droptshot. Especially baits that generally don't make the spotlight with this particular technique such as creature and lizard profiles. I have caught an insane amount of largemouth fishing baits you'd normally see T Rigged but instead I fished with a VMC swivel wide-gap hook and a sweet beaver rigged weedless. It gives the bait a completely different action and holds it at a spot in the water column that seems to get me more strikes than a Texas rig would. As far as lizards go I will always default straight to the Zman Lizardz, as these things are super buoyant and incredibly tough (7-8 fish average per bait.) Plus they have the best action I have ever seen in a soft plastic bait.

We have this dream spot where a dammed river creates these giants pools below the main outtake for the dam. You can sit there and vertical jig for an entire day and catch 50-60 fish ranging from 1-5 pounds. It's such a blast but eventually you leave to find more of a challenge. On a side note it's also the coolest swimming hole I've ever come across.

Yep we have the exact same boat haha. I almost bought the largest of the three but then decided against that so that I could also purchased my Revo S and upgraded Minn Kota. That is a great idea though with the carpet! I'm really curious as to whether the benches are compatible with any of the swivel mounted chairs they offer for the green frameless boats. Would love to have mine outfitted with those. So far the boat seems really cool, set it up in our living room for the first time yesterday and was impressed with how big it actually is. Glad I didn't go for the largest size considering it'll just be the girl friend and dog accompanying me. Also thinking about rigging a make shift depth finder system on there as well to really top off the performance, should be interesting. Thanks a lot for the feedback on these boats btw! There's plenty of reviews online but very few from bass fisherman so this was very reassuring. Will post some pictures with it as soon as the ice melts and some decent water is available to test it on.

I've noticed on ours too that you really have to over-inflate it to achieve the end results described in the manual as mine seems to be on the squishy side as well. I will definitely get that pump as we were looking for a nice electric pump. Has the material been holding up on yours as advertised?

We drop shot for river smallies during every phase of the bite. Granted the river we fish on is of formidable size and is a prize hyper-trophic habitat for the smallmouth as they are one of the primary predators in here. This makes finding them a lot easier, but during winter we still have to fish very slow and even then the bites are really tough to come-by because the water gets so cold. Using a braid with 12lb flouro leader and rigging my hook about 14 inches above a quarter ounce weight I'll slap on either a 4.5 inch sniper bolt or a bluegill roboworm wacky rigged.

I wondered if it would be overkill or not. I've heard that on some of the bigger frameless models that a gas motor as certain speeds will make the middle of the boat start to fold. Luckily I just have this boat equiped with a 55lb thrust Minn Kota endura. Also on the batter note, did you buy the service center for your battery or do you just let it sit by itself underneath the stern board? Also I have been struggling to decide which battery for this boat. Looking at all of the deep cycle marine batteries. Contemplating getting two that way I can have one freshly charged for the next day, giving the first one an entire day to recharge.

This rod definitely sits significantly lower on my must have list than it would if my favorite pro did not make it look like he was marketing towards the Walmart fishing audience. I'd be more likely to buy a Berkeley Cherrywood based purely on how aesththetically displeasing it is.

The only time I've ever done this is on my drop shot set up and I'll take the leader all the way back to my spool. This helps mainly for when you break off and have to re tie so even after 5 times you still have leader left. I also use flouro leader.

I've learned a lot on this thread.....but the thing that sticks out the most here is that RW really likes his Stellas haha. Wouldn't mind one or two myself if and when they land in my budget.

I was about to say the exact same thing. Fishing has become so technical and refined, allowing companies to engineer and develop technique specific gear. Same reason we don't use one golf club for the entire hole. Its most easily justified by tournament fisherman who usually respond with the whole efficiency speech, and in a lot of ways it makes sense. If you need to switch to a crank bait, why cut your line and re tie when you can just pick a specialized rod up off your boat deck and cast it?

I'm also currently in the market for a mid-range dropshot/shakeyhead rod. I've spent a lot of time looking at Fenwick rods as they make some very nice lighter rods that originate from walleye designs for bottom fishing. Particularly the elite tech bass series. Shimano also makes some nice rods that fit the descripton, most are just significantly more expensive that the price you quoted. Fished with a state team pro who fished only Shimano Cumara rods on his drop shot set ups and they out preformed any other rod I've fished with.

I've also found while learning that pitching with a caster is fairly easy to get the hang of and helps build confidence with thumbing the spool to control line tension. Also had significantly less backlashes while practicing flipping and pitching.

I want to try a reel that hasn't received a lot of attention and also I've already tried most newer products from other big names. Have yet to purchase a new reel from either Quantum or Pinnacle within the last 8 or 9 years. These were the too that landed within my current budget and fit the technique I'm trying to outfit myself for. Abu Garcia doesn't seem to make great spinning reels and I'm excited to see what either, or eventually both of these companies have brought to the table for spinning reels.

I'm also a beginner with bait casters. The biggest tips are to start with heavier lures and heavier line and progressively work your way down. I started with 17lb mono and throwing the biggest Pike spoons I had in my tackle box without the intent of really catching anything. Casting lighter lures is the most difficult part of a bait caster because most of them aside from the high end reels aren't built with throwing light lures in mind. However if you throw lighter flourocarbon (12lb) you can throw lighter lures easier but you are more likely to receive some brutal backlashes. The main idea is to take baby steps.

Yeah that's what I've always read is that in winter conditions you will catch less fish, but they will generally be considerably larger as they have to eat more frequently. Most pros and tournament fisherman recommend fishing incredibly slow and pitching on a single spot multiple times with a huge jig. We really can't fish winter bass here unless it's through the ice (which I have no interest in,) so I'm pretty jealous. I'd go back and see if you can find a pattern, which with smallies in mind is one of the hardest fish to get a consistent bit with unless you can find them schooling. From here it gets even trickier when you throw them in an ecosystem like a small river where there is current nearly everywhere. Really tough to assess these types of fisheries but it's inspiring to see somebody trying to tackle it! Keep posting your results!

This comparison/poll arises from my quest for a new drop shot and shakey-head set up. I already have the rod picked out as I am incredibly anxious to test the new Fenwick bass tech series. My biggest question is can the new Quantum reels live up to the quality of their older reels or should I buy the less expensive and supposedly more reliable Pinnacle Performa XT? I've fished with older reels from both companies, and back then Quantum's Kinetic reels out fished most other comparable spinning outfits at the time. Infact, my old kinetic would still be working fine had I known back then what I known now regarding reel maintenance. Sadly the clutch bearing is locked up on that reel and needed to be retired. Would love to hear about your experiences with both reels since most of the sites that sell them don't have adequate feedback from customers.

Well at least you were out on the water and learned something! What were the weather conditions like? Seems to me that river fishing is much easier to predict when It's a sunny day with a high pressure system moving over the area.