RHuff

I second this. I took my pedestal seats out completely as well as my center console seat out of my Triton. I love having the full deck to move around. I cut out and installed a recessed tray for my trolling motor so standing all day and running the motor is easy now. I also love not having the center seat so that there is now a step up onto the back deck. Makes it much easier to get into the livewell when getting all of those monster bass in and out ; )

Is the motor trying to turn over when you start it or is it not doing anything at all? Is it making a clicking sound? My past experience tells me that 1. Clicking but not starting means not enough power, check your connections/battery/starter 2. Doing nothing at all is electrical, check fuzes, connections, cables, batter 3. Turning over constantly but not starting is a fuel problem. It's not getting enough fuel. Check all fuel hoses, filters, connections, carb jets, etc. It has to be one of these three and that's a good start to diagnosing the problem. Once you get it to start and idle a bit then you can tune it and level it out.

My setup look like this: 1 heavy/fast with high speed reel for flipping/jigs/frogs with heavy braid 3 Med-Heavy/Fast for Cranking with 6.8/1 one with 20lb flouro and two with 14lb flouro 1 Med/Fast with 6.3/1 for Topwater and Jerkbaits with 12lb mono 1 Spinning with 10lb flouro for finesse I keep three rigged on each side of my casting deck. It covers everything I need and gives me plenty of room to move around without over crowding my front casting deck. Hope that helps.

Don’t give all of the secrets away.. j/k

Has anyone had any luck with the bigger sizes? Does that 5.5 catch bigger fish?? Also, I don’t see bull bream listed anywhere on tackle warehouse.

I’ve had beavers slap their tails on the water 10 ft from my boat in pitch dark... That’ll make you jump a time or two.

I had the drag as tight as I could get it and I could not pull it with my hand, but when the fish was locked down under the pads as I would pull back the spool was giving. I assumed it was the drag, but it very would could have just been braid slipping too.

You think it was the braid slipping rather than the 12lb drag slipping?? I assumed I needed a stronger drag.

Do you consider the pre-spawn transition to spawn to be a specific water temperature? For example, do you look for the first full moon after the water first hits 50 degrees? 55 degrees? 60 degrees?

Who cares what other people think. Rapala accepted my online application to join their field staff as a VIP member. I get discounts (up to 60% off in some cases) for all of rapala and their other brands (storm, terminator, vmc, sufix, etc.) for a much better price than what it would cost me in a retail store or tackle shop. In return, I have their decals on my boat and truck, and I try to wear either a hat or shirt/jersey with their logo in every tournament I fish. I feel like that is the least I could do as a way to stay thank you for accepting my application. Not only that, but I generally like their brands. They don't write me a check to wear their stuff, but I know why i do it. I feel like it's the least I could do. I could care less what other people think about my showing their brand. I like Biospawn's soft plastics so much that I emailed them and asked them if they minded if I display their logo on a jersey. In return, they not only gave me permission to do so they also mailed me free decals to display on my boat. As a thank you I told them I will not only proudly display their brand, but I will also promote them on my social media as much as I can. They don't write me a check for doing it, but I feel like I should as a thank you for the free decals as they certainly didn't have to do that. Don't get caught up in what other people think. Do what you feel is right and fish your way.

Old thread but definitely a current topic. I lost a couple of big fish last year in tournaments too on jigs that got me locked in the pads. One was when i pitched a jig beside a stump that was sticking out of a pad field. I let the jig fall vertical by the base of the stump and it hit it on the fall. I never could see the fish because I never got it up to the surface but it was strong. I held tension on the line and went into the pad field after him but when I got there the jig was locked around the pad stems and the fish was long gone. The only real solution is to get to the surface as soon as you set the hook. I am gonna switch from my MH to a H/F and 6.6:1 with 12lb drag Lew's to the newer Super Duty in 8.3:1 with 20 lb drag. I'm also gonna upgrade from 30lb braid to 65lb braid to see if that helps this year. I know for a fact one of those fish would have won me the tournament.

I’ve caught a lot of fish on the Bx Brat it’s good for numbers but haven’t really caught any size with it. One SB that I have caught solid bass on that hasn’t been mentioned is the Berkley SquareBull in Special Red Craw.

Instead of baits I would try to perfect techniques by bettering myself on when and how to use them. 1) Analyzing/Mapping an area 2) Search baits to catch active fish 3) Slowing down/Finessing to catch less active fish 4) Using the above to thoroughly fish an area Don’t get stuck on using one single technique for the duration of a trip all over the lake.

To win $$$ by doing something I enjoy doing

For you guys that has better experience at mapping, my first tournament of 2019 looks to be at the end of March at a lake I have never been on, so I'm trying to spend the next few weeks doing my homework on gaining as much knowledge as I can about this lake during the winter months. I was looking at a few historical images of google each of when the lake level was drawn way down about 10 years ago and I found a heck of a flat. As you can see the main channel runs next to it with a creek channel to each side. Did I just find the golden spawning ground for this body of water where the fat ones will be come March? I'm going to guess that water temp will be between 45-55 degrees depending on the weather we have for the rest of the winter. I am hoping that they won't be in full spawn yet. Here is a picture of the water at summer pool vs drawn down. The area is not on navionics, but it appears that the main river channel leading to the bend and past the bend runs around 18-20 feet deep. I've always read that deep water access, shallow water access, cover, and entry and exit channels are what mature bass look for. Can you guys tell me what you think about this area and if it seems as legit as it appears at first glance?

A 5lb smallmouth will outfight a 10lb largemouth

Rapala because they also produce storm, sufix, vmc, and terminator, which covers 80% of it for me..

Did you go “Boo” and scare him off?? J/K I bet that was a scary thing..

I clip a long rope to my cleat. Back the trailer in until the boat starts to float and rise up off the trailer. I grab the rope, unhook the winch and push the boat away. I walk down the dock and tie the boat off. Go park my truck and come back and start my boat and I get my gear organized out of the way without blocking the ramp while I get my electronics/gear ready.

They are a deadly bait around laydowns, grass, and lilly pads. You can pick off the aggressive bass lerking on the outside edges of the cover before moving on in to flip in the heart to get the inactive bass. I have found my best technique to be slow rolling them (keeping them up or reeling them just fast enough to clip the cover, such as right on top of a grass bed or letting lilly stems foul the blades, or a small twig on the outside of the laydown to cause a reaction strike). Keep your colors simple. I only carry three color variations. Clear Water = white, silver, glimmering blue with silver willow blades Muddy Water = Chartreuse/orange/white with gold willow blades Night/Low Light = Black with large colorado round blade (Midnight special). Try to bump the cover with the spinnerbait like a I said above to cause a flutter to the blades. You'll get a reaction bite by doing this by bass that aren't being overly aggressive. If there is no cover and your reeling in open water, try reeling it and pausing it a second before cranking it back up again. Think of a spinnerbait as nothing more than a swim jig with blades. Match your blade size to the size of the baitfish. After the fry have appeared a smaller willow blade my suite best. In the fall during the shad bite throw a little larger blades. My father taught me how to fish spinnerbaits. Growing up I may outnumber his catches three to one, but he would always catch the biggest bass of the day on a spinnerbait, and it drove me crazy.

I learned that the hard way. It melted away and the stuff hardened on top of my rage craws and ruined them. That was the last time I’ll probably buy any zman soft plastic other than the trd

X2. My favorite spinnerbait is the terminator double willow in silver shiner with a white zoom 5 inch swimming fluke swimbait as a trailer. It’s a big bass bait and when they strike it’s violent strikes. Had a 4lber hit it so hard this summer one evening that it bent the wire frame right up above the jig head on it.

Your welcome!

I just flip in a 3/8 oz terminator pro series jig with a craw trailer. They usually hit it as soon as it hits the water.

My favorite method is burning a spinnerbait parallel down the edge of the grass.