RHuff

Not only do they rattle and kick at the tail but they also roll side to side.... i got the 2.5 smallest ones to sample but when I get another pack I will definately go a size or two bigger..

Storm came out with a new swimbait called the 360 degree searchbait. Comes in three diff sizes. I picked up the 3.5 today in Chartruese at Cabelas.

I've always had my best success with Buzzbaits around any type of grass or weed beds.

Well I did the fill test yesterday. I jacked the trailer up as high as I could get it and ran water through the floor drain to fill up the bilge. I filled it up high enough on the back to pass all of the transom hull fittings and lower transom bolts for the motor to check those. All of those were great except I saw a little drip coming off the bottom on the right side directly under the transducer mount. When I took a closer look I found a tiny hairline crack about a half an inch long right in the weld seem of the transom and bottom. I dried it really good and added a small strip of jb weld over the seam to fill it in and cover it nicely across the margins. When I get home this evening from work I'm going to do the same test again to see if it sealed off the leak. Everything else looked great. None of the hoses nor the livewell appeared to be leaking. Glad I finally figured it out. I know the JB Weld won't last forever, and I will eventually have to get it filled in by a welder, but this at least get me through this year. I'm off work next week and I want to fish as much as I can over the next 14 or so days.

A big bass is the one who becomes the dominate fish in a very nutrient rich area. By nutrient I mean it has a great source of structure, cover, deep water, shallow water, and food source with relatively low fishing pressure. To sum - it's both a bad ass and smart.....

Well I put the boat back on the water for a few hours yesterday after applying that sealant to all of the hull fittings and to my surprise, still water in the bilge. I'm so frustrated. I guess I am gonna have to raise the nose of the trailer up as high as i can possibly get it and put a running hose over the drain the floor to fill up the bilge to see if its dripping out anywhere. It has to be either something on the hull (fittings or maybe even transom motor bolts) or a hose cracked somewhere.

Congrats man I got my first boat last year its a Triton Aluminum VT-17 Tournament Sport in White and I absolutely love it!

You can throw it and straight retrieve it like a spinnerbait, you can hop it like a jig, you can slow roll it over submerged grass like a squarebill, you can slowly drag it on the bottom like a jig, you can burn it like a double willow spinnerbait.... I've fished it all of these methods without success

I have a can of Marine Grease from O'Riley's Auto Parts that I use for my trailer bairings and prop that has worked really well. I'll add some of that to the threads on the plug the next time I go to see if it forms a better seal when plugging it in to the hull. I have the little plastic 1" plug that screws into the plastic casing with the rubber seal.

I think I may have possibly found the culprit but won't know for sure until I get it on the water again. I tried running water into the Livewell intake and nothing dripped into the bilge. I then filled my livewell up with water and pulled the plug to let it drain out to see if any hoses was leaking and I noticed that not only was water exiting the drain but it appeared to be seeping from under seal running down the back of the hull. The drain fitting seemed to be on tight and the hose was connected so I tightened it as tight as I could get it and I also added an extra layer of 3M 5200 Marine Sealant around the outside. Hopefully this will fix it. I haven't tried it but I sure as heck will. What did you use to grease it with?

Here is the bass I was referring to in the original post. Its not huge but a solid bass for WV right now the bite is still a few weeks out..

I have a feeling it is something very similiar.........

I always heard that was dangerous that it can damage the trailer..

Did you mean plug? If so, how do you do that? Will an actual drain plug fit it?

I caught bass on this exact same jig in January in Georgia so its worked in two different regions of the US so far..

Guys my boat has recently started taking on a little bit of water. I originally thought it was the drain plug leaking so I took it out and reinstalled it with flex seal. It appears to be sealed off, but when I took my boat out yesterday after fixing it, it is still taking on some water. After about 4 hours on the water I ran my bilge pump and it pumped out about 1 minute's worth of water. I'm positive the hull is fine as its a Triton Aluminum with no scratches or dings anywhere. I'm afraid it is a hose, possibly that leads from the intake off the back to the livewell. How do I check this to see? whats the easiest way to identify an aggravating thing like this? I love my boat and it fishes great I just hate the thought of it taking on even a drop of water. I've also been told not to worry that ALL boats take on water to some extent.

Mine are pretty generic but the only two scents I use is the Garlic/Chartreuse Dip for shaky head worm tails, creature baits when flipping to give more flash, and to add to the tips of trailers when on chartreuse spinner baits or chatterbaits.

Any time I get a short strike like that on a spinnerbait I always add a swimbait trailer. I find they usually go after that instead of the blades and results in better hook ups for me.

Thanks Glenn! Appreciate all of your hard work with this website!

I bought both a new cranking and trolling battery last year from O'Riley's Auto Parts. It was their house brand batteries. When my boat is parked I keep it plugged in at all times so my charger/tender keeps them fresh. They have been excellent batteries and I expect to get many more years out of them.

Fished all day yesterday with no bites except a little guy on a shadow rap shad jerkbait that wasn't much bigger than the lure. Fished shallow, fished deep, fished grass, fished timber, fished humps, fished dropoffs. I threw everything I could think of and just couldn't seem to get bit on anything. As a last resort I decided to tie on a casting jig with brown/green/red skirt and a rattle. Also added a matching brown rage tail chunk trailer. Found a nice protected pocket right off the main lake. Casted a long cast parallel to the mouth of the pocket about 10 yards off the shore and let it fall and then hopped it. Nothing. Casted it again right through the middle of the pocket and this time gave it a slow drag on the bottom. BOOM. Not a huge bass but a solid bass for WV for this time of year. 2.2lbs. She smoked that jig for all its worth. Great ending to a slow day.

They usually hit the top of the water next month. Fishing is great flipping the holes. By May though they fill in almost to a solid canopy. Then it's time to punch or make long casts parallel.

My boat has a drain plug casing that goes flush into the back of the hull. It screws in with a screw on each side. The drain plug then twist locks into it. When I took my boat out for first time this year this weekend, it had taken on a little bit of water. It looked like part of the seal had dry rotted. I took it out and sanded everything down and reapplied the drain plug case and all with flex seal. I know this isn't the original seal they use but it has worked well with other things so I figured it would work for this too. Just in case I need to reapply a new sealant, what is the best seal you guys have used when sealing up a drain plug?

Went Friday and brought my boat home from my father in law's garage. Loaded her up and left around 8am on Saturday morning to fish. Arrived and was launched on the water at around 9am. There were already 3 or 4 boats out (Plum is only about 200 acres). I have been keeping up with the COE website monitoring the water temps for all of the lakes listed on there for the last few weeks. Most of the lakes on there are in the 44-46 degree range. When I launched at Plum the water was at 49.6 at the ramp. I decided to head up to the Northern most end of the lake to see if the water on that end was warmer. It was nearly 51 degrees. With the sun out directly and no cloud cover I began with a jerkbait in hopes that the sun would bring some bass in shallow. No luck. I then went to a few main lake points to search for staging bass. I threw a red eye shad, crankbait, spinnerbait, and a jig. No fish yet. I then headed up a branch. Water hit 52 in the mouth. Threw the same 4 baits on the points nothing yet. Proceeded on up the branch. Bingo. Water hit 54 degrees and I caught a bass around one pound on a crankbait. As I went towards the end of the branch the water began to get colder back down towards 50 degrees where the creek runs in. I went back to the warmest water and threw that same crankbait along with several other baits with no bites. The one bass I caught felt like a wet noodle. In all it was a great day on the water. It's still too early. My best educated guess is that we are about two weeks out for the bite to begin on that lake. When the water hits about 55 on main lake and 60 at the branch it will be game on.

The Berkley Pittbull Squarebill in Red Craw was one of my better producing lures last season.