Eric Peterson

I am buying my first boat, and plan to fish BASS Opens or the FLW Costa series in the coming years. That being said is it unreasonable to fish those events out of a 18 foot boat? Will I be screwed if the wind blows? Thanks for the advice

I am buying my first bass boat in the next few months. I have never driven a bass boat but have ridden in alot of them. I am looking to seriously get into tournament fishing. I want a 20-21 foot boat to compete the best I can and to run big water easier but I think of getting a 18-19 due to cost and availability. I am taking a loan out and plan to have the boat at least 5 years. Will I be disappointed if I go smaller?

Really just looking for opinions on the possibility of a double digit largemouth swimming in WI. I personally believe theres a few lakes that have the potential for a fish that big.

I live in the Fox Cities but travel all over the state. When I pick out a lake I try to go to a lake with alot of fish and go on a windy day. Like to windy doesnt exist. Fish flats getting hammered with wind and they will be up there munching. I fish swim jigs, chatterbaits and spinnerbaits mostly.

What kind of structure do you swimbait guys target with your huddlestons? I just got my first huddleston and want to use it to its full potential. Rof 12

What do you do to find fish that will win you the tournament? From past tournaments on that body of water you know what it takes to win. X amount of pounds. But how do you try to make it happen?

Thanks for the replies, I haven't fished offshore a lot and I am just trying to find out if I should bother looking for schools or just fishing structural elements.

How many of you have had or not had experiences where bass are schooling in the northern states? I usually hear about the big southern reservoirs and offshore school fishing but not much around me. I am more targeting the smaller under 8000 acre lakes.

Absolutely 100% Snagproof Ish's Phat Frog. It is soft, good hooks, it walks with ease and my favorite, it's unsinkable. Literally. The hooks are in a seperate tube then the hollow body so there is nowhere for water to get in. At 9-10 bucks a frog it's everything I want.

I have Berkley one that was around 30. So far I have had no troubles

I recently came across one of the Snagproof bleeding frogs with attitude in my local clearance bin. I bought one because I was intrigued with the idea of having a Trailer hook on the back of the frog. My hook up ratio is considerably bad so I wanted to try it. I fished it though slop and it was surprisingly weedless. My hookup ratio went up greatly. I'm wondering how many others put trailer hooks on their frogs?

When I'm only catching small bass I just smile and keep on catching them. I have come to realize there are lakes with big fish in it, and there are lakes that just dont. I fish one lake exclusively and the biggest I've caught there was a 5 pounder last spring. I caught at least 300 under 16 inches there. So pretty much 1 of 300 is the big to small fish caught. So I go to New lake last week that is known for having giants in it. I caught 4 fish. 1 of them was a 4 pounder and my buddy lost almost a 6 at the side of the boat. Total 6 fish were boated. 2 fish were over 3 pounds. Not including pig that came off the hook that's a 1 to 3 ratio of big to small fish. Moral of the story is some lakes just don't have quality. Lake A has quantity but Lake B has quality. Its very rare (at least around me) that a lake has both.

I appreciate the responses. I disassembled it and I cleaned all the parts that engage the reel and its working better then ever now.

1. Texas Rigged Pit Boss 2. Frog 3. Jig n craw 4. Squarebill 5. Lipless

Thanks guys I'm going to try both.

I have a Quantam Matrix baitcasting reel. When I turn the handle after casting it just keeps spinning and the spool still free spools. In order to engage the reel again I need to manually push the button up. Anyone have the fix?

Well it's a mh 7 6. It's my frog rod. I like to set the hook to faster then I should. I've used my buddies that has more tip to it and it walks better and I hook up more. As for action I'm guessing between moderate and fast. It's awfully stiff

My rod has a really stiff tip and am looking for a way to make the tip more flexible. Is this even possible?

I know this is a ridiculous question but my frog rod has way to stiff of tip for me. Is there anywhere I can make the tip more flexible?

I have fished them some and only caught and broke off pike (quite frustrating cause swimbaits aren't cheap). I need to fish them more to completely decide if I can handle the lows of swimbait fishing lol

Lol it sounds like it might not be for me then

I want your opinion on fishing big swimbaits for bass in Wisconsin. Swimbaits between 6-8 inches. Huddlestons, glide baits, stuff like that. A big bass around here is a 5+. I have heard of up to a 9lbs being caught around me but it's obviously not common. I want to know weather you think it's worth fishing or not.

Thanks for the replys. The fish I was catching were like 1/2 mile into a canal. Would the females be staging in main lake or the canal?

Last spring I hooked into easily the biggest smallmouth of my life on a rattle trap river fishing. The hooks were junk but I was to lazy to change them. The fish jumped and the lure flew back at me... Breaks me heart to this day. My guess was it was around 6 pounds

Today I was on a new lake, We found males making beds in one specific spot in a canal, water was 57.5. About 8 ft in the middle of the canal. My question is where are the females when the males are making beds?