Brew City Bass

Negative. Tubes are another soft plastic that takes a weighted jig hook, or you can even texas rig them. Give this video a watch and you'll understand

Get some tubes!

Pull the prop off, check the seals. My best guess is water intrusion causing a short or something of the sorts.

Totally! I just had no idea how good, a good trolling motor really was. Being my first boat and never been in anyone else's, I had nothing to compare it to and just figured that's how they were. Boy was I wrong. I'll never underpower another boat again with a trolling motor. And you're right about more hours than the outboard.... Most of my lakes are under 1,000 acres and as small as 79 acres... I basically run my motor for 5-10 minutes every time I go out.. And that's over the 8hours I am out every day. Only time it gets ran more is if it's a bad day for bass and I start trolling for Pike.

Depends on the angler. For me, I started out bank fishing for years and got pretty good at that. But I knew there were way more fish I couldn't even reach. I decided to buy a boat. It wasn't any "easier" fishing on a boat, but I worked my butt off to learn new skills and techniques and now I catch way more fish than I ever did on the shore. In the spring, bass are plenty on the shore at my lakes. Come summer, they almost all move deep. No reaching them from shore. Like all things, you have to put the work in to reap the reward though.

Want to be my life coach? Great motivational words

Thank's for clarifying on that. I didn't know those guys came from nothing! Good for them!

Have I done it? Yes. Was it smart? Probably not. Most lakes I fish are spring lakes and I can see the bottom clear as day in 20fow. I don't think it'd kill you in a pinch, but I'd be worried about run off from local farms or home owners lawn treatment.

So I have a 16ft glass bass boat. It's nothing special, it's old, but it's mine. When I got it 3 years ago it came with a 12v 55lb OLD minn kota autopilot. The one with the white head. Yeah, it was older than me. I was constantly getting blown off spots, burning through the battery by having it on 10 and going basically nowhere if there was any wind. As we all know, trolling motors are expensive so I just made do with what I had. Yesterday a like new Maxxum 65lb 24v came up on craigslist for $180 and I jumped on it and bought it. Took all day to rig it up 24v and finally got it good to go. The previous owner had the wiring in the boat all assbackwards and held together with electrical tape. What a nightmare it was redoing all of that, but it was worth it to have solid soldered connections and shrinkwrapped joints. I was super excited to see it was very windy today and had to go test it out. WOAH. This thing PULLS! I had absolutely no idea how big a difference 10lbs and the extra torque 24v would provide. Anything over the 30 setting was way to fast for fishing and it pulled me through the wind and laughed in it's face. If I am not careful it can toss me off the boat. Not to mention the mechanical steering and lift assist is phenomenal. It gave me a good reason to put the batteries up front and it weighted the boat so much better as well. All I can say is, best $180 I ever spent in my life. I know it's not the best trolling motor, but I am so impressed with I just can't help but share with you guys what a difference it makes having an appropriate trolling motor for your boat does for you. No more getting blown off spots. No more planning where I fish based on the wind. I can take this out on the biggest lakes in the windiest days now and not be remotely worried. Not to mention the battery life is insane now.

Expensive is a relative term here. Nobody is forced to spend more money than they can afford in bass fishing. There is no set dollar amount to get your foot in the door. $25 at walmart will get anyone into bass fishing. That's cheap as hell unless you're jobless and broke. I can afford middle of the line gear. $200 dollar rods and reels and my bass boat I paid $3,000 for may seem expensive to say a 16 year old kid who doesn't have a job and wants to start bass fishing, but it's fairly affordable for me to own that price range of gear. Then you have the people who make six figure salaries who can afford $500 rods and reels and a $40,000 bass boat. To me, that is EXPENSIVE and I'd go into debt to afford any of that stuff. That's why I afford the middle of the line gear. I can out fish my buddy who buys a new bass boat every 2 years and completely replaces his rod and reel arsenal every year. He can just afford nicer gear and rig. I am happy for him that he can do that, and I am happy he invites me to enjoy those items once in a while, but gear in no way makes the fisherman. Is there a stigma that if you don't own the best gear you're a lousy fisherman or won't catch as much fish as you would if you had expensive gear? I find that to be somewhat true, but only the douchebags act like that, and you will find that in EVERY hobby. I do find the big leagues to be "pay to play" though. Not really possible for someone like me to break into that on my budget and salary, even if I sold everything I owned and was a wayyyyy better angler.

Only one rule 1 - Don't get hit by the drunk boaters.

I generally wait for them to get within ear shot and I'll ask if they want me to go inside or out. 99% of the time they're like minded and either yield or ask me if I don't mind going around. Never an issue. My issue is with pontoons cutting between me and the shore.

Stunning pictures, beautiful fish!

I feel like every time I go out I learn something new or get better at a technique. I specifically feel this way when the fishing is tough. It makes me really focus on what I am doing. Some days I can go out and throw anything and get bit. Other days it's an absolute grind for 5 fish and that's when I notice how much I progressed.

I've had a herniated disc since senior year football in high school. L5 S1 herniation. I stretch before going out. I use a foam roller. It helps a bunch. I have my good days and bad days with pain, but it's always "tight". I find the roller loosens me up fairly well. Aspirin doesn't even begin to touch the pain and the hydrocodone the doctor has me on is worthless as well. I don't like being on any type of medication either so I just stick to stretching. My physical therapist has me do planks every night as well. The idea is to strengthen the muscles in the back so they don't get fatigued nearly as fast.

See, I find it easier to load / unload by myself. Usually a friend trying to be helpful just messes up something I have to fix. Last friend put the transom saver on wrong, put the boat tie downs on twisted (ripped one) and then he started hosing down the inside of the boat all while I was at the portajohn. DUDE, OUTSIDE ONLY! I can be loaded / unloaded in 3-5 minutes by myself and on the road if there isn't anyone taking out in front of me.

Isn't that weird? I've got people hitting me up weekly to go out in the boat, but they always flake last minute. I am more than happy to just go boating and chill with friends. For whatever reason it's like they didn't really mean it so when you're at the launch and text them they respond "Oh sorry, something came up!". That's happened to me three times this year. I don't even ask for gas money or anything. I am gonna be on the lake either way so I figure why not have someone along for a bit.

This was 3 years ago. I've pretty much went through all of them. I maybe have a pack of baby brush hogs left from that box. Was the best $5 I ever spent.

Safety is usually the last thing on my mind, stupidly, but I have a sense of security because every lake I fish is either 80 acres or under 1,000. Pretty tiny. If I'm doing some night fishing I always bring my .45 cal S&W because I feel vulnerable at the ramp. I also have a flair gun and air horn in the rod locket just in case I start going down. Even if I do, it's usually a 50 yard swim to shore.

A rep for Zoom plastics had a garage sale I stopped at and he sold me a 12"x12" box full of plastics for $5.

Well I just got back from the lake. Rough day for bass, great day for pike. At least I didn't get bored! Caught this fat 32" and a hand full of 25-30"ers. Biggest was a 35" I got to the boat and he did a shake and snapped the 12lb copoly as I had him in my hands. He inhaled the 5xd. I hope enjoys it because I only got to use it for 2 casts... Pike are getting expensive this year... Maybe I should bring the net next time....

Alright, you guys lit a fire under me. I'm heading off to the lake!

I agree about buddies. If I do bring a friend and they're not as hardcore as me, I tell them to meet me at the launch and I can drop them off whenever they want to leave. That way I don't get ticked when they inevitably say "I have a dinner to go to" when we've only been out for 2 hours.

Only 15% off this time though

Usually I try to find a buddy to come with, but I have an unconventional schedule (third shift) that allows me to fish pretty much every day of the week. So usually the people I ask are working 9-5 and can only come out on weekends. I hate going out on weekends because every lake is a zoo and it's just bad fishing on these tiny lakes while there is 10 ski boats doing laps 50 yards from your boat. That's if I can even find a parking spot. So most day's I fish alone. I've been finding it harder to get the motivation to go alone lately. I absolutely love fishing, dream about it all night and watch videos of the pros all day. But when I come home from work I just have a hard time getting out. It's like the gym. Once I get out, I am so glad I did and have a buncha fun, even alone. Do any of you mainly fish alone? Do you ever deal with this?