LunkercityVB

"blackmax" you should try and find what your motor actually requires to start, for instance if your motor requires 400 cold cranking amps and you put and 800cca in there its only going to pull 400, those other cranking amps are basically on standby until you are in extremely cold weather and it requires more juice to start them or your battery gets some age to it and doesnt operate at 100% anymore. Anyone that says get a deep cycle with a lot of cranking amps is def misinformed because deep cycle batteries do not have a large number of cold cranking amps. They are built for reserve capacity (run-time) not cranking, the newer AGM batteries that are most of the time triple the cost are the only batteries that are true deep-cycle and cranking in one. Theres a reason these big bass boat companies put 1 large cranking battery and 2-3 deep cycles in the new bass boats. Good luck!

Bass fishing is my thing but im a fisherman first and foremost. For me its not how long it takes me to reel in the fish or how hard they put up a fight but the thrill into fooling them to bite my lure. Some days are easier than others and some days i dont catch anything at all and im ok with that, its what keeps me coming back to try again. I've done all kinds of fishing and regularly switch it up throughtout the year but offshore fishing is usually making no effort trolling around all day looking for marlin or wahoo and once you get one on you could be one the reel for up to hours. And once ive caught a few im done for the day because im exhausted. Bass fishing for me is more fun because i spend all day hunting, pitching into cover with a jig or dancing a shakey head trying to entice a fish to get hungry. Thats what fishing is for me. River smallmouth put up a much stronger fight than the largemouth and the peacock bass puts up an even better fight than smallmouth. I save my money all year to spend a week in florida trying to catch peacocks and its the best fishing i get all year----tightlines

"fishinphilly" you gotta take advantage of those days when the weather warms up over 20+ degrees in a day (water temps 38-40) , I feel your pain man im in VA and its not much warmer here but ive been able to catch some good fish this winter on those days its sunny and warms up to 40-50 throwing a trap or jerkbait. Moreso the trap because its rained just about every other day here for the past month and everywhere you go the water is pretty muddy. They love that rattle and vibration coming off a 1/2-3/4 oz lipless crank. Other than that i spend my time on the forums or on tackle warehouse doing about the same thing you are doing. Good luck!!

Im gonna agree with the guys that say a braid thats as clear as flouro or mono, but anything that makes fishing easier would probaly take the fun out of it. We all love those days we go out and get on a school of giants that will bite anything we throw at them and can catch 50 in an hour but if we didnt have those days that were tough that took all day to get 1 bite i probaly wouldnt be into fishing. Its the challenge that keeps me interested, also why i spend thousands on tackle and gear.

Im going to be biased, Interstate Batteries has the best replacement marine batteries hands down. I say that for 1: we own a local distributorship in Va and have for almost 30 years but for 2: unlike a lot of people that post on particular products and not know how the product works all we do is batteries and its what we know and for a marine application there really isnt a better battery and it does have a lot to do with how you take care of them. Always check water levels before going out and voltage. Yes you have a 12 volt battery but no 12.0 volts is not fully charged and wouldnt recommend relying on that battery for the day if it doesnt read atleast 12.6 (6 cells, 2.1 volts per cell) especially if you just unhooked it from a charger. People automatically think (bad cell) everytime their battery stops working mostly because they take it to an auto parts store to be tested and thats what they say, not always the case. Keep in mind, these stores want to sell you a battery and if you dont know any better they will. Keeping a hydrometer handy to check the specific gravity of the cells is the only true way to determine a bad cell, not hooking it up to an electronic machine. Cranking batteries will always last much longer because in most boats they dont require the full amount of cold cranking amps the battery has, so even operating at 50% that battery might still be enough to start your engine years down the road. Deep cycle batteries are different, they dimenish little by little every year based on how many cycles are used. So if your trolling motor batteries get you through 10 hours of fishing in the wind the first year they will likely be less the following year and so on. To the guy that posted on warranty centers being more readily available with walmart and sears i would say that depends on where you are at. Interstate batteries have a nationwide warranty at any dealer that stocks that battery( and in most locations dont require you to have a receipt) and i live in an a pretty well populated area that has atleast 15 walmarts and 5-10 sears locations within a 30 min drive however our business probaly has 100+ marine locations and stores within that same radius that stocks our batteries (marine batteries) that could take care of a warranty for you. Good Luck and Tightlines!!

^^^^I agree with the previous post, its always good to see the younger generation excited about anything that has to do with fishing especially frog fishing although im not sure I understand what this post was all about. Maybe just someone that wanted to let everyone know what kinda gear hes working with? I know my son does the same thing to me and im usually the one buying the stuff for him. either way keep fishing and let the catching do the talking.

Get you a couple black and blue 3/8-1/2 oz football jigs and maybe the same in green pumpkin, match the trailers with the color jig and get something with a lot of movement. I fish jigs all year long and its definately the most versatile bait out there. Spinnerbaits i usually use something shad colored with one willow and one colorado blade (dont know why it just works for me) war eagle makes awesome spinnerbaits.

Wish I had the patience for this amount of editing, pretty sick work.

I have a 2002 160 with a Mercury 9.9 fourstroke...the bass trackers in general are super heavy for that motor but my motor runs perfect and gets me anywhere i need to go on the HP restricted lakes i live near. Great thing about those lakes are they hold the biggest fish haha...I dont have a tiller motor tho. The 160 was originally rated for a 40 and its steering wheel drive. Max speed with 2 guys and tackle is about 13mph. With full livewells youre looking at about 8-9. Good Luck

My Chronarchs and Curados feel the best in my hands and I can break them down and clean them so fast theyve always been my favorites, however last year someone turned me onto Lews and for the money they cant be beat. In some most cases I can buy 3 Lews for the price of 2 shimanos and in the last year ive bought 6 and ive never had a problem with any of them. The BB-1 is by far the best reel for the $.

A little late for this reply but if you are up for the travel, Florida is the fishing capital of the world for a reason. From north Florida to the great south Florida, they have some of the best opptunities to catch big bass around. I live here in Virginia Beach and some buddies and I take a trip to South Florida every year to catch big bass in Okeechobee and the Everglades and then take specific trips to Miami to catch Peacock Bass. Its by far the best fishing ive done and you can catch them in some of the same places you can catch giant Largemouth. Pound for pound they are the strongest bass we can catch here in the states and in my opinion the absolute coolest looking fish too. Just a thought, but a great place for largemouth and peacocks.

I order Boss Skirts from tackle and make my own with the Gambler Football heads. Its always cheaper going that route and i love jigs so the morer the merrier. Dirty Jigs also makes a great Jig

"hawg" like i said before...personal property is different. The property im referring to is usually city or state property and even in some cases shopping center ponds and in those cases there's not just a door to walk up to and ask. Most of the people that control the laws on these areas are city cops and the few that I've ran into are actually just curious to see if anyones catching fish in these ponds and never ask us to leave. Don't think for a secong im a disrepectful fisherman that gives other saints like yourself a bad name. If im asked to leave I'm always polite and leave, its kinda like speeding. Everyone does it, but if I get caught im not gonna act like its the officers fault, accept the ticket and move on.

Private property as in farmers pond or local home owners property i always stay away from unless i have permission, but for some reason here in VA every pond that says NO TRESSPASSING or NO FISHING usually has the biggest fish and I take my chances. Most of the time people dont really care, and 9/10 they are just gonna ask you to leave. I do have a friend that fishes a a local small lake here that brings a trashbag and cleans up trash for about a half hour before he fishes which seems like a great idea. --tightlines

^^^^tim is right, the outside color is just a coating, the green is actually an amber and the blue is a gray lense, you will notice a good difference from the P to the G. The Glass is the clearest you are gonna get but save your P's for everyday use. The G tends to be a little heavy. Check with Costa on the ones you have, they have a phenominal warranty.

its probaly a wider range say from 20-25 inches depends on the girth....those spawining girls can be short and super fat.