TOXIC

Back in the day.....before Yamamoto refined their injection process, as pro-staff I was able to get "mistakes" or plastics that didn't pass the strict Yamamoto QC standards.....a little bleed of color where it shouldn't be......a little too much or not enough flake.....color not exactly right and a host of other reasons. I would get them in 100 count bulk bags. I caught more dang fish on the "mistakes" than you could imagine. One year I caught 5 citation fish (over 8lbs) on one color of "mistake". I have the remnants of an old bag of "mistakes" in a purple/red laminate that are tearing up the bass on the Potomac this year. When that bag is gone, there will be no more. I have greatly relaxed my pickiness on color as a result of fishing these cast offs.

I fish A LOT for crappie and use the same rod I use for dropshotting and other finesse techniques. The rods I use are either a CastAway Skeleton or a Quantum Smoke and they do double duty. I have never felt the need for a true "Ultra light" setup. 6lb mono on these setups have caught 4lb smallmouth and 1lb crappie.

When I had my Bass Hunter 2-man, there was no drain in the hull. It was basically a sealed shoebox type hull with 2 pontoon areas and a higher middle section, the inside floor had a drain the went between the pontoons. As the boat aged and got used...a lot.....the seal between the 2 halfs and the seal around the floor drain aged and cracked allowing water into the hull and the flotation foam. I went to the hardware store and bought a 2 inch expanding seal plug and drilled a hole in one of the pontoons as low as I could. About every 3rd trip, when I got home I would tip the boat up on its side with the drilled portion on the ground side and after sitting for a while I would tip it nose high and drain all of the water out of it. Worked great.

Science + Art + Natural Talent = Winning formula.

Ahhh yes, all the pieces of the puzzle. I have a saying......Fishing is like a 500 piece puzzle and whoever can put the most pieces together wins!! Or catches fish... I have a mental checklist of what I feel are the most important pieces of the puzzle I put together on the day I go out. For me, what happened last year or the conditions on any specific day 2 years ago rarely apply to what I am going to do today. BUT....If a journal can give you a reference point and help putting the puzzle together, then by all means use one. I know guys that have 20 years of journals.

Can't wait!!! It's a ways off for me but I get to mix in some pure, absolute fun fishing after the first frost and as an added bonus, I get to fill the freezer. Double added bonus is that my daughter will go when the Papermouth bite turns on.

Here's the problem with a "well kept" older boat. It's still an old boat. Time of year, location, maintenance, etc., all are considerations. Most who have spotless older boats put too much value in them. IF you like the boat and feel it is a fair price then buy it. I wouldn't be concerned about the motor other than to have it compression checked and a leakdown test performed. You are going to have the same concerns on any used boat, well kept or not. Cosmetic things can be fixed easy enough, graphs. TM and any additional add-ons will more than likely need to be updated anyway. Good luck.

The problem with using MLF as a model is that ALL score-able bass count the same. There's no benefit for big fish beyond the distinct possibility of not catching anything while targeting them. Too risky. Easier to put a bunch of smaller fish in the boat. Let's be clear, there's a distinct difference between "Kicker Fish" and a "Trophy Fish" there's always going to be a better class of fish mixed in with the schoolers that you will eventually catch weeding through the smaller fish. A trophy fish is a whole different animal.

SPRO Little John in whatever depth you need and any color you want as long as it's Cell Mate.

This is my truck, it has a short bed and a tonneau cover on it. My rods when I am fishing with someone else rest in the bed of the truck but they have to go corner to corner. I use my softsided tackle storage to set the reels on (on the tailgate side of the bed) and lay the tips of the rods to the front cab corner of the bed. Then I use a small towel that I keep in the bed and wrap the tips. I have never broken a tip or a guide.

Once the point is rolled, they are replaced by me. The act of sharpening is ok as long as it is just bringing back the point to a better degree of sharpness. If it rolled you are moving too much metal and it will be much more prone to rolling again or even breaking.

Gotcha....my experience is only in the glass bass boat world and the Tracker line from doing so many shows at BPS.

You are correct. Different plastics react differently. "Most" of them will scorch a hook due to the salt content and plastic formula.

The gap in carpet is left on the bottom of your bunks to allow the water to drain out and keep your bunk wood from prematurely rotting. Use either stainless staples or monel staples to secure the carpet to the bunks but not on the surface of the bunks.

You had a good run. Fish feeding habits change all season. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow or next week or next month.

Wouldn't you have to run long leads to get to your batteries? Most on-board chargers are installed in the bilge close to the batteries and where there is usually a space with a suitable strong mounting surface. Another reason for the bilge is that it is the area that takes the least pounding on the water.

In my guide service, I have taken out fishermen who want to do any number of things. Pattern water, catch numbers, learn the lake, catch a trophy just to name a few. If they want to catch a trophy there are some things I tell them up front. Time of year makes a difference. Current weather and lake conditions make a difference. Fishing ability makes a difference. Trophy hunting is an all or nothing experience because the schoolers don't swim with the big mammas. So I normally take the trophy hunters out for a few schooling fish just to get past the fact that the guide knows what he is doing and then move on to the hunt for big fish. Totally different fishing in different spots for different fish. I also tell them there's a good chance of blanking, it's just the law of averages. The pro's are usually set up for the best fishing on whatever body of water they are on to keep the catches big for the fan base. That's why the trail starts down south and moves north as the season advances. Put them on those same bodies of water in the "off peak" time frame and they would have more of a problem bringing in big sacks. Also remember they have experience on those bodies of water and more than likely or have sources letting them know where the quality fish are hanging out. Bottom line know your water and put together the fine points that up your chances of catching the bigger fish.

Since I store all of my terminal tackle in a 3600 Plano and restock as needed, I usually put all of my swapped out baits in one of the cup holders of my boat. Then at the end of the day, I separate all of the plastics from the hooks, cut off any remaining line and put them back into the Plano. For cranks, I put them back in their respective Plano's and fool with the old knots when I pull them out to reuse them. Thing to remember is to never leave plastics rigged on the hooks. They will rust them out PDQ. Also don't store plastics and hooks together. I'll usually hook Spinnerbaits in my carpet to let them dry before I put them up. I am finicky about my hooks, if one needs sharpening, I usually just replace it because once you sharpen it, it becomes weak and has more of a chance to lose the point with not much use.

Sage advice right there. If the front of the boat is flipping, I'm doing something completely different.

Made by Gamakatsu and add a lot more action to a wacky rig.

I'm in the no leader camp and have tried both. As for the fish seeing the line then how do you explain spinnerbaits with thick metal arms and A-Rigs with more wire than a telephone closet? I am a firm believer in confidence though and you should throw what you have confidence in.

Just got back from Wisconsin where the air temps were in the high 80's and water temps were 81-85 which is very abnormal. It was a tough week on the water!!

We have been going to St Clair every year for 15 years. Here are the boats that usually are there for our get together. Some have been upgraded over the years but in general...... 17 foot Champion with a 150 efi. 20 foot Ranger with a 250 21 foot Ranger with a 250 16 foot Tracker Deep v with a 90 20 foot Champion with a 250 Others who have fished with us: 20 foot BassCat with a 250 19 foot Ranger with a 200 18 foot NITRO with a 200 22 foot Ranger with a 300 The one thing they all have in common......Good drivers. We have been out in the goo and none of them was any better than the others with a good captain behind the wheel. The only boat ever not taken out was the Tracker.

The funny thing about being sponsored by Yamamoto is that I bought them by the case for the guide service at retail for a number of years. Then I got on their guide program which gave me a bit of a discount. I didn't get to the upper level of sponsorship for a number of years and only then by putting in a lot of extra hours doing a lot of extra work doing shows, appearances, seminars, writing articles, etc. Plastics is a pretty generic catagory of baits that most everyone uses. The differences between them are small I mean is there really a difference between all of the craw style baits other than what it takes to avoid copyright infringement? Shape of the claws, extra leg here or there, balls on the end of the legs, etc. Look at the number of Senko knock-offs there are out there. Other than the plastic formula, amount of added salt/scent/silica/flake/pigment they all are pretty much the same shape. In my personal opinion the original Senko still out performs all of the others and that's based on my using them as well as the others. I believe the difference is in the plastic formula which is only known to 3 people. Will the others catch fish.....absolutely. So it boils down to cost, personal preference and most of all confidence. Buy what you want but you better have confidence in what you buy otherwise you won't catch anything.

Yes, I am a big user of the Pro Senko in 5". I use it on shakey heads, dropshot and Ned rigs. I also use other baits for these presentations as well. Yamamoto does not make a true "floating" worm. I have never found that much of a difference between the floating and non floating but the Ned crowd will say that a Ned rig without a floating bait is just a shakeyhead. I disagree. The difference in the 2 is the mushroom head and the hook eye placement which gives the Ned a different action. I prefer the Pro Senko over the Kut Tail most of the time because I find the fish key in on and bite off the tails on the Kut Tails more often.