Tpayneful

Muddy, I keep trying to click on the Cabelas catalog in my hands and nothing happens

I use the BPS lure retriever and have not lost a lure from a boat yet. I have gotten jigs, worms with Tru Tungsten weights and crankbaits back. The biggest obsticle to getting lures back lately has been old fishing line. Your bait can get hung up in old line and be a pain to get back. Braid will make it really difficult to get a lure back but once you get the chain or ring on the lure you will get it back.

"Significant other" as in girlfriend and not married. My wife was a lot more flexible before we got married....In more ways than one

Each Walmart stocks a different amount and selection of lures. I have 4 Walmarts in my area and each has a different size fishing department. Since that rumor is a year old I would say that that one didn't come true. I was in my Gander Mountain today and their was no sign of BPS ownership. They didn't have 8lb or 15lb Pline fluorocarbon, size 1 snaps or junebug baby brush hogs. Half of the stuff I planned on purchasing, they didn't have. If BPS had bought them, their shelves would have been stocked! I watched the Bassmaster classis last week and ESPN still owned it. Looks like 0-3 to me!

I waited an entire year and these things never happened!! Big Industry News!!! 02/28/07 at 5:19pm I have this info and am certain it is true!!! 1. Wal-Mart IS quitting the fishing/tackle business. 2.Johnny Morris of Bass Pro fame IS Buying Gander Mountain 3. Johnny Morris IS buying B.A.S.S. This is NOT internet babble but hard facts thru an indrustry insider. Unless I just missed it, I have not seen the Johnny Morris news on BassResource.com yet.

www.fishingclub.com just had a series called knot wars. They compared dry knots against each other on mono, fluoro and braid. The palomar knot actually won the contest. As long as you lubricate your knot before you cinch it down you will not have a problem.

Carp 7, It sounds like you described my boat

Their is an electric boat Bass Club in our area and some of those guys spend thousands of dollars on trolling motors to go .5MPH faster. If you get to 4 MPH with your trolling motor, you are doing great. If you get to 5 you are at the top of the class and if you get 6MPH you are the fastest. The difference between 4 and 6 is A LOT of $$$$$$

BPS catalog is WAY better than Cabelas! The reel description in Cabelas didn't even tell you how many bearings are in their house brand reels! How can I compare when their descriptions are a fraction of what you get in a BPS catalog?

I hope the fishing is as good when I get to Stick Marsh on the 15th! I have a whole week to fish it so I hope I have one day with half as much success!

Tell your partners about the problems that you have with the situation. If they don't give you fishing options from the back or concider your opinion, find new partners. My partner didn't concider me in the begining and I told I him what problems I had. He has also told me about the issues that he has had with me in the back of the boat. After about 6 years of fishing together in the front and back of his and my boat we work well together.

Use an arbor knot to tie the line to the reel. Here is a link to a site that has directions on how to tie the knot. http://www.activeangler.com/articles/how-to/articles/knots/arbor.asp Welcome to the site! This thread will be moved in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

I only start the motor out of the water with muffs and a hose if I am troubleshooting the motor at home. Other than that I wouldn't do it. My Evinrude repair manual has a note that you "SHOULD NEVER REV THE ENGINE" when you are running it with muffs on. A runaway condition can occur and destroy your motor. I keep my engine tuned up and use it way to often to have to check and see if it worked in the yard. From the end of March until November 1st my boat will be on the water once, twice or three times a week. With this activitiy level I usually don't have starting issues. If I did, I would use the trolling motor and fish before I went home.

Will this thread ever end?!?!?

Gary Yamamoto's Inside Line is now defunct. They printed their last issue in December and the infomation is now only available online. I think Bassin gives you more fishing information than Basssmaster but I get both.

This topic is going to get moved to the Tournament section soon The poles on the back of the boats are a retractible pole that can be extended to the lake bottom to hold the boat in one position. This is an aid in sight fishing for bedding largemouth bass.

Fisher, Can you take a picture and post it. We might be able to look at the picture and answer your question. Just a thought.

One easy way to answer trolling motor size questions is to go to www.minnkotamotors.com, click on products and Select-A-Motor. Answer the questions about your specific boat and it will tell you what pound thrust is correct for your boat.

Propellor selection is "Black Magic". Each and every boat performs a little bit different with each prop. At a minimum you need a prop that will get the boat on plane but not exceed the recommended maximum RPM. The rest of the selection revolves around the trade off of getting on plane vs top speed. Many times a guy will get a prop and then complain that the boat's top speed isn't what he wanted. Then he will change to a higher pitch prop and find that he doesn't like how long it takes to get on plane. Boat stores and prop dealers will tell you that there is never an exact answer to the question. You need a Tachometer and trial and error.

Muddy and Catt, You are right. I am probably just being grumpy today! This place is great. Cloudy weather with a high of 41 degrees is getting to me! Only 14 days until I leave for Florida and only 21 until I get to fish Stick Marsh! Need to stay positive!

I get a headache just looking at the General thread! With all the moved topics and threads that never end, I am going to probably skip it for a while. Anyone else feel this way?

crazy_larry, I posted a couple links to previous discussions on another thread titled what is the best trolling motor. You can see a lot of people's comments on the subject. I will say that I gave up defending the Power Drive a while ago but I do chime in with my opinion. Here is my opinion: Yes I would buy another Power Drive (version 2 now) or a Terrarova. I would get it with a transducer and temperature sensor. It is difficult to attach the tranducer cable and it gets caught quite often. This is because to stow or deploy uses the entire shaft and you can only secure the cable at the top and bottom. You have to leave a big loop of cable so that it can turn. I am going to drill a hole in the motor and run the cable up the shaft soon. A friend did it successfully and I am going to attempt it. I will take pictures and document it for anyone else that wants to try it. My lake doesn't have stumps or flooded timber to avoid. I have never come upon a scenario that the head turning speed was too slow and I hit unexpected objects. I haven't fished any lakes yet that required the manuverability of an Indy Car and I think the head speed is irrelevant. I would say that it takes about 10 seconds for the head to move 180 degrees. Most of the people that have trouble with the head speed are ones that started with cable steer. If you started using a Power Drive, you would probably hate a cable steer. I haven't had any manueverability issues on the Potomac River either. I can point my trolling motor in a direction, set the speed, flip the constant switch and just barely creep along. I can take my foot off the pad and fish. I can move my foot ocasionally and tweek the position to keep it on track. I cannot do the same thing as easily with a cable steer and with no recess. I have absolutely no problem holding my boat's position using the power drive in current or the wind. Maybe I am the only one on the planet that can do it but it isn't that difficult. I had to do a minor adjustment to allow the motor to deploy properly. Before I did the adjustment it was difficult. Now it is a peice of cake. They have improved the deployment on the Terrarova. The Power Drive footpad is different and it doesn't translate in anyway shape or form to a cable steer. I don't like cable steer without a recess panel. I feel off balance the entire time I am using one. 99% of the boaters out there start off using cable steer trolling motor. Probably 50% of the people that buy them are used to cable steer motors and don't like the differences. So I would guess that 1/2 of a percent of people like the Power Drive and 99.5% don't ;D I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter if I convince someone to buy or not to buy something that I like. This is just my opinion on the matter and I hope it helps you make a good decision.

My buddy has a Maxxum and the best part about that series is that it has infinite speed controll. The knob is numbered from 0-100 and you can set it anywhere in between. I cannot comment on Motorguide at all because I switched to Minnkota in 1994 and have never looked back ;D All of my friends have Minnkota motors too.

in4fishnak, This topic has been discussed quite a bit and you can find out about some of it by using the search function and searching for minnkota motorguide for the last year in the Bass Boat section. Here are a couple of links that I found that may give you helpful information: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1187965072/0 http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1195155298/5#5 Two things that I can say about trolling motors is that you will find people that will recommend both motorguide and minnkota. You will also find that most people use cable steer. Research all of the options and make an informed decision. I am sure that you will be happy with your choice. Also....WELCOME TO THE BOARD!

Surfer, My lake is only 211 acres so it doesn't take many boats to hit all of the community holes! Not all of mine are near prime hotspots. I saw Rick Clunn mention your suggestion on Bass Pros not too long ago. I have a topo map of the lake and have targeted steep dropoffs. The two that I put on flats were on migration routes devoid of cover. Depending on the time of year I have caught fish off of each one. Some are much better than others but this strategy has worked for me. The only consistant shoreline cover that my lake has is docks. The lake was cleared before it was flooded and it doesn't have much grass so we have to provide cover.