TommyBass

Nice ride man... I always liked the looks of the center consoles. I like that color scheme as well.

-Your fishing a good worm... but I think that color is terrible. Try red shad or grape shad and it should help. Try throwing weightless occaisionally or use a 1/16th oz weight, unless its windy, then you'll have to go bigger. -Might also try fishing a black and blue jig, and possibly tip the trailer with some chartruese if its really muddy. -Single colorado blade spinnerbait... black or white/chart. -Some type of high vibration shallow crankbait in like a firetiger color... something like a Manns baby 1-, and Shhhhhhhhhhh but one of my most secret all time bass lures in ponds is a jointed Rapala. Get one around 4 or 5" long and just work it slow. -Topwater if your feeling crazy.

yes... I agree.... I think. Do you mean 10 fish per person or 10 fish per boat? Alot of boats (especially some of the smaller ones in club tournaments) are not setup for keeping that many fish alive. Many of the larger bass boats should be able to, same thing as angler and coangler tourneys. If your relying on a cooler with a couple bubblers then definately no. I would want something around 40 gallons or so with high intake gph and high recirculation gph capabilities. But to make a long rant short... a smaller scale tournament if fishing as teams should only have a 5 fish limit... its just easier that way... keep it simple and safer for the fish.

If you plan on using it alot and want good detail... you'll want a little larger screen.. probably around a 5 inch at least. Especially if you will ever view it from very far away. Color is a very nice option, but I would choose larger screen and resolution before color. Any reason for a portable? Most permanent units can be made portable fairly easy if necessary. All in all, of those you listed, I would go with the 565.

bassmaster6... both motorguide and minnkota should have their qualified service centers listed on their websites. You can search for the once closest to you.

I feel ya man.... having a boat but not "having" it really makes you itch to fish. My boat was halfway destroyed by a deer in early apriil and I still do not have it back... talk about fish itch. Turkey season was a nice crutch but now Im getting antsy. BTW... nice boat... I had an 2003 Triton once about the same size... good boat.

I've never kept a spare on my boat or anything. I do have a couple of stern mount hand motors I could possibly use, but wouldn't replace my bow mount enough to matter. I actually won a tournament two years ago when my trolling motor fried in the first 10 minutes. I don't think its that big of deal... I just anchored on main lake points and carolina rigged : ) I would say if your motor fries its just bad luck... deal with it that day then get it fixed asap. I highly recommend ensuring a breaker or fuse is inline on your system.. and be sure to carry extra fuses if the latter.

Definately interfering... although he may not be the brightest apple in the bunch and he could claim ignorance. There is obviously plenty of nice gravel area he could prep on off to the side of the boat ramp. No reason for leaving the boat right there. I could see possibly if the ramp was the only water access and the sides were really grown up or something, but even then he should have all his ducks in a row before putting it in the water. Then your only required wait time should be the time it takes him to park his truck and walk back.

I like the layout of the boat... very unique and gives it some personality. I also love that burnt orange fleck color... very cool. Looks to be in great shape! And that trolling motor is strait up old school!

I love that lake... my family has boated there for years. I have tried fishing it several times and only did marginal. Im not used to a lake that size with water that clear. Mid summer i fished a boat dock and caught a limit in probably 15 casts, for some reason they were schooled there. Other than that I have fished a few deepr brush piles and did good, along with some main lake points... but like I said thats summer. I have snorkeled around there quite often and found several giant bass swimming around the cliffs and ledges around the Jordan area. If I were fishing your tournament I would have been up there in the creek arms with those boys... stained water is much easier to fish in my eyes, plus probably warmer than the main lake clear water.

welcome! search around the site man... there are tons of articles and informative threads about just this. Water temperature and pressure will matter more than air temperature. I would imagine in Kansas it is just now starting to get to be good but im not sure, I dont live close to there. Try fishing shallow slow with texas rigged worms and creatures, or possibly shallow cranks and spinnerbaits. If no luck, slow down and back off to points etc and try that.

As other said... only in a tourney. I don't see much point in it for daily use. Takes up too much room. Unless your knowlingly going after huge bass, catfish, stripers etc... then I'll let it come along.

Dumb question... what is 5200?? If its an adhesive I recommend a break up solution such as goo-gone or one of those spray industrial type. Just make sure they dont hurt your coating first. Work that stuff in conjuction with a steady applied heat from a hair dryer and use some type of rubber scraper, like youd use in the kitchen. I havn't found an adhesive that I can't take off with that approach. If 5200 is not an adhesive... sorry for the waste of time.

Need to know a little more man... like what kind of boat are you talking about? If its just a jon boat, you can always drill a larger hole that what is present, just make sure you don't go through the hull. If its something really complicated I suppose you could always hook another bilge system into the front.

I know the stuff you speak of. It turns the water an aqua blue color, kind of pretty but it actually decreases the visibility in clearer waters. Theory behind using it in most cases is it cuts down on penetrable sunlight, therefore decreasing weed growth. Put it in my pond years ago and it didn't effect the fish much. Once my severe weed problem left I quit using it and the fishing has been the same throughout. IF you did have some weeds and they are dying off, its possible the fish have moved out a little deeper. Since the visiblity has changed, try something different colored than you usually use, or maybe with some major vibration. Odds are the fish are still there (unless they are stupid and added way tooo much killing them). Just have to change your tactics some.

eeekkk..... depends on how much your handheld costs I suppose. One thats very expensive I wouldn't rely on any type of temporary holder, especially if you plan on using it very often. If you have a boat that goes any speed what so ever and you fish semi-rough waters I would think a big jolt could knock that off there. Nice thing about the ram mounts (saying you mounted it with screws) is you can pretty much put any of their attachments off of the same base mount, so if you ever want to take it out you could replace it with a fish finder etc. Just my 0.02

Hmmm interesting thought. Probably true that there is a tide in smaller bodies of water but I would wonder if its even enough to analytically measure... let alone be detected by and adhered by a bass and or baitfish.

Never have owned one but I hear they fish very well and are setup good.. and from what I can tell they last a long time. A 25 horse on a 17 footer seems a little under powered. If you are making this a long term investment you would do yourself a favor to get a little bigger motor, but the 4 stroke is nice. I would want at least a 40 or 50 on that thing if you fish waters of any size.

What does it do to the fish when it is layed on it's side like that? (I don't want to sound ignorant, but I'm just curious) Its not as big of a deal as most people make it out to be. Do you not think that a slime coat is sloughed off when a bass races through a bed of hydrilla after a shad or when it blasts up through sticks to go after a frog? What about that spawning female? You better tell her to quit nesting because shes rubbing her slime coat off on the bottom. What about the thick grass and lillypad flippers that drag their fish across the surface of the weeds? Fish replenish their slime coat very quickly... thats the job of cells that produce it. Sure... you want to avoid doing anything unnecessarily damaging to the fish, but dont get ridiculous. As long as your not sitting there rubbing it back and forth through the grass and trying to get every last bit off with a butter knife... the fish will be OK.

I have a 55lb stern mount MK but not sure if it is the edge. Mine is a limited edition camo duck version of something, just can't remember the model. I would say its around 5 years old. However it is 12V and I can do a full days fishing quite easily on my 10ft Pelican plastic boat. Has alot of power. Im sure the one you are looking at would be somewhat equivelant. Only issue I had with mine is the lower unit developed a leak and ruined some of my wiring. Had to replace the entire shaft and part of the lower unit but its in working order now.

Id love to help you man... bad thing is if you look back through my threads I recently posted a story about how my boat got whiped out by a deer.... long story short I am still without a boat myself. Otherwise I would try to help you out. I really can't think of anybody else off hand either... but if I do I'll let you know. Good Luck!

Depends..... fishing I usually go with BPS... they are definately geared more toward fishing than cabelas... as says their name. Cabelas usually has just as good or better hunting stuff. Sometimes one will have something the other won't both ways. Both have great customer service and will basically take back anything you don't want or didn't like. If I had to stick with one or the other for the rest of my life it would be BPS over Cabelas... but I use both.

Personally I think flipping is extremely over rated and a waste of time. It imposes several limitations the "cast" and I believe hookups can be harder, especially if bit when the lure just breaks the water. This leaves you with a fish on your line and 5 ft of slack near your reel that your holding onto with your hand. One good positive for it is that it is usally extremely silent, but honestly if your that close you can just stick a 7 ft rod our and hit your button, letting it fall slow as you want. Im sure there may be a few useful situations, but I havn't found them yet. Pitching on the other hand I believe is a very crucial casting technique with many advantages. Its my primary way of casting to a shore, that or a roll cast. Both of which are fairly quiet entries and accurate. Main thing is just do what fits you best. Don't worry about trying to look or be cool just to flip or whatever. All that matters is results.

I have owned both MG and MK both digital and not. Cable steer are going to be a little faster turning but not enough to matter for me. I can't think of a scenario where lightning fast turning is going to help you that much unless your driving a sailboat around. Digital is easier on your feet, the pedals are about half as thick, although I havnt liked the powerdrive pedals. I dont like the push buttons for turning and they have had problems with the slide speed adjust. I recently got a new terrova with the traditional rocker foot pedal that is digital and like it alot (also more than half as thick as a cable steer style pedal). Another thing about the digital MKs is that you have almost unlimited degrees of movement (great for reversing). Cable steers are limited to like 360-400 degrees and your standing like a capt. morgan ballarina to reverse your boat. Not so on digital. Prior to the terrova I owned a MG digital steer and it worked amazingly well too. I would have kept it except for a deer whiped it out of service. As said, steering was a bit slower but who cares... if you let it get to that point, the first time is shame on the trolling motor, the second time is shame on you Digital also offers much greater advantages with abilities such as remote steering and autopilot. You do have more things to go wrong on digital and you'll probably have your lemons, but thats what a warranty is for. Just my 0.02

Any of you have any experience with putting down flooring or matts on a jon boat? Im don't want any carpet so I have been looking at something like rubber or foam matting than can be easily removed if necessary. I dont want to add a bunch of weight really, and this foam stuff I am considering seems light and dosnt absorb hardly any water. Let me know if you have installed or had any experiences with something of the sort! By the way my boat is an 1860. http://styx-river.com/neomats.htm http://www.rubbercal.com/Coin_Grip.html