RHuff

Wow.. Makes you wonder if their boats on the market are even the same boats that the elites use

Why is that?

Anyone have a Nitro z18? Was looking at maybe trading in my 2007 Aluminum Triton 50HP on a new Nitro z18 175 Pro XS.. Anyone own these? Thoughts?

I am getting a good hookset. It’s when I try to muscle them out of the cover. I typically flip with a Rage Bug or D-Bomb..

You may wanna post a picture of what your talking about...

Been on a real good flipping bite lately. I’ve been finding good fish anywhere there is a stump, laydown, or beaver hut inside a lilly pad field. My set up is a Heavy/Fast flipping rod with a 8.3:1 Lew’s SuperDuty on 65lb braid with a Trokar 4/0 Flipping Hook snelled. Equipment isn’t the problem. The fisherman is the problem. Every time I flip into or at the edge of the wood I feel the classic “tick, tick, thump” bite. I set the hook and feel the fish pull then BAM. I’m log jammed on the wood and it’s game over. I can reel the boat to the hook and the hook is usually stuck on a limb or wrapped around the log with the fish nowhere to be found. How do you guys go about getting these fish in? I’m not brave enough to give them any slack in this situation. Is that where my mistake is being made?

I have never caught a bass on a Senko. I’ve thrown it Texas Rigged, Wacky Rigged, and Weightless. Notta.

I fish out of a 2007 Triton Aluminum with a 50HP. I can run 30mph with two people, full tank of gas, and all of our gear. It's great for just a pleasure day out fishing. I started tournament fishing with a local group doing evening tournaments on a small lake. The boat fit me perfect for that. I had some success and decided to up my game and fish a state tournament trail. Me and another guy out of 120 boats are the only two fishing out of Aluminum and under 150HP. Draw number is now irrelevant. I also get beat to death pretty good during blast off as the bigger glass boats just beat the water to death. My best advice to you is to really look at the situation your in and what you want your boat for in the future. There are two sides to my story - 1) I bought my boat, barely used and garage kept, outright for $5200 so I OWN it with no payments. It's easy to store and easy to tow. Two people can fish out of it comfortably. I know my boat, I can handle it, and can fish it pretty much anywhere that I want. I can take my boat in 5 feet of water or less with the trolling motor raised up. Overall, it is relatively inexpensive to run and maintain. 2) I get blown around in the wind. I get beat to death while running in large tournaments It gets cramped with three people fishing out of it It takes me a long time to make big runs at only 30mph. It gets too dangerous on big water in rough conditions. You really gotta just decide what you want in your boat and what you want to use it for and pick what fits your needs best. To me, I see more pros than cons out of my boat and I will probably keep it for a long, long time. For me and my family, it fits my needs. I can fish occasional tournaments with no issues. If I were to pursue tournament fishing any harder, I would probably trade it in for something bigger. To me, it doesn't make any sense to go into debt over a newer, bigger boat when I don't really need to.

I like my floating Terminators from Wal-Mart for $11.99

Your right lol

Either Deeper water or tight to cover

Every big bass I’ve hooked, say 4lbs+ (Big for WV) wants to go straight to the bottom

I just go. If there are people around I try to get a reasonable distance away from them and turn my back. Nobody really looks to see what's going anyways...

unplug it, wait 10 seconds, and plug it back in

All manufacturers do that. Nitro is the king of it...

Been a slow start for me in WV too. Have had about the worst start to my tournament season that I could have possibly imagined. Just gotta keep grinding and keep fishing man. It'll bust open eventully. Never had a year yet that I never caught fish.

I have small roller guides on my Triton trailer and I always back the trailer down and complete submerge the bunks to wet them and then pull the trailer out right to where I can see the tip of the guides sticking out of the water. This puts me at the proper depth each time. I always sorta let the boat coast in and align itself up and then like others said I trim the motor up and use the throttle to run the bow up to the roller by the winch. Then I hook my strap and safety chain and crank it up tight and lock it. Hasn't failed me yet.

Oh man... Days after Rumors that MLF bought out FLW too.

Ahh. The way you described last weekend I thought maybe you fished TOD at Sutton and was fishing Summersville this weekend too.

Are you fishing Summersville on Saturday?

The store that is referencing is called PC Outdoors located in Hinton, WV. Good group of folks. Tell them you are out of town visiting and they will treat you right. Very up-to-date with the Greenbrier and New Rivers and well as Bluestone Lake.

I got one through Lew's from a new reel I bought at the spring classic sale. I don't think it was a BPS promo but more of a Lew's promo. I took 10 weeks for it to come in due to back-order. Me thinks me will wear it proudly in my next upcoming tourny tourny.

I scrapped my go big or go home 2 hours after blast off. After that I began just trying to buy a bite. I threw squarebills, jerkbaits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, alabama rig with no success so then I backed off and slowed down and fished the ned rig and drop shot for the rest of the day with no success. Took one on the chin and decided to call it a day and begin preparing for our next tourny.

Well my go big or go home got me to go home lol. Tourny #1 was TOUGH. 71 boats and 35 did not weigh in a fish. Lake was still at winter draw down around 80 feet. 49-52 degree water and it was blue bird skies with 30mph+ winds... 12lbs won it. Our next tourny is in two weeks on a different lake that is on fire right now with smallmouth.

Interesting to think about....