Troy85

Oh yeah, redfish and trout both enjoy eating up spinner baits. Actually, my spinner bait of choice for tidal bass fishing is the "Red Fish Magic" made by Strike King. Strike King also makes "Speckled trout magic" which bass, trout and redfish will all willingly eat. Haha! I usually try to go on vacation during Mardi Gras, but I'll see what i can do!

I use them all the time. If I'm fishing a river or lake I use a double willow leaf blade bait with a skirt. If I'm fishing tidal marsh, I tend to do better using a single Colorado blade with a plastic minnow.

While it would be about 7 hours out of your way. I've always thought it would be awesome to fish Thousand Islands.

I 2nd this. The above is normal luck, then there is dumb luck. Dumb luck is when you take your buddy bass fishing for the first time ever, and he catches a 7 pounder on his third cast. Dumber luck is after you see it jump the first time and realize its a nice fish and start freaking out, your buddy then starts dancing and singing on the bow of the boat(the fish is still in the water mind you, and jumping around like its in a watery bounce house). Dumbest luck is when you somehow still land the fish after all his foolishness and the hook literally falls out of the fishes mouth as soon as it gets in the net.

I'm going to have to read this over and over. In Mid March I'll be going to Pickwick for 3 days, I've never fished for smallies before. Thanks for all this info.

That's probably more accurate. ?

You sure about that? Sometimes I feel like they can, and then they do things to make you question your sanity.

What do you consider big? 15', 18', 20+'? There are plenty of aluminum boat options that would probably work for you the types of water you fish. G3, Xpress, Alumacraft, Alweld, etc. Also, are you looking to only buy new, or would you consider used?

I prefer the biggest 5 as well. MLF is fun to watch though because there is a lot of action, I watch it every Monday night when it airs on WFN. I do wish they would raise the size/weight requirements from time to time, even if it was for just for some of the elimination rounds. I'd think electronics manufactures would prefer the 5 biggest as well, current MLF rules promote a lot of bank beating instead of taking the time to find bigger fish offshore with electronics. I'm pretty excited to see how they setup the live streaming for the upcoming Bass Pro Tour.

I use them quite often, they are good TX rigged or used as a jig trailer. I use either Watermelon seed, junebug or black with red flakes.

I wouldn't worry about wasting someones time. If you get paired with a good angler who likes to teach, you can learn a lot faster from them than you can just reading articles and fishing by yourself. If you get paired with a bad angler, you can learn what not to do.

LOL! It is funny to see them get so excited. When they hook up and and are like "OMG ITS A MONSTER!" 1 pound 12 ounces. I'm used to watching the elites, where they don't break a smile unless the fish is over 4 or 5 pounds. The new show airing Saturday, I'm guessing that's the Cup events filmed last year correct? I know there is a BPT tournament at the end of January, I'm pretty sure that one will be live streamed.

I throw June Bug most of the time. The only time I throw BB is when river fishing.

This may come in handy. https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/calculator-sizing-a-battery-to-a-load.html I looked up the specs, your unit draws 1.2amps. I plugged the following into the calculator above, 1.2 amps at 5 hour(fishing trip length), would require a 18ah battery to not drop below the 50% discharge level. This is not taking into account cranking the engine, only running your fish finder.

Also, keep a copy with you at all times. Sometimes even the agents make mistakes. I have a life time license. Few years back I was running crab nets, and I had an agent stop me for a license check. He told me that my license didn't cover crab nets and he was about to write me a ticket. I pulled out my regs book and showed him that crab nets were covered under my lifetime license. He then apologized and went on his way. In the end, the ticket would have gotten thrown out because I was clearly not in violation, but going to court to get all that done would have been more of a hassle.

Pro: Not as bulky as a traditional vest. Con: More maintenance than traditional vest. I think they recommend replacing the Co2 cylinder and sealing rings yearly. While its rare I have read of a few instances where they fail to inflate.

Thats a one in a million shot, you couldn't do that again if you tried. haha. Did your life flash before your eyes when you realized it was your crankbait making that horrible sound?

Few months back I stepped on of my brothers rods. I replaced it with the Okuma EVX, he likes the Okuma way better than the rod that I broke. He's told me on several occasions that he's happy that I broke the old one.

In the summer when the grass gets really thick, I'll dropshot the holes and edges of the grass with 30lb straight braid. I think around a lot of vegetation, the bass don't really notice the green braid along side all the grass. In the winter when the grass dies off, I use 8lb fluro.

I prefer Lowrance. I think Humminbird makes a good product, I just prefer the menu layout of Lowrance units.

Personally, If everything seems to be in good shape and the motor had routine maintenance, I don't think 500 hours should be a deal breaker. I've run a couple 2 strokes to near 1000 hours, ended up selling them for a larger outboard, never had to to major repairs to them. A few fishing buddies and a guide I know have run their engines over 1000 hours without major issues. Also, according to my google search, the average gasoline boat engine runs 1500 hours before need major repairs.

Haha. I just couldn't help myself. As far as the trolling motor mount. I've always had them made out of aluminum and its never given me any problems. If you do end up using wood, I'd paint the plywood until you get the boat under some shelter. The sun is rough on carpet when its beating down on it day in and day out.

But if you spook the fish, you don't have to worry about bent hooks! Just think of the money you could save! ?

A long shot, but maybe a cast able sonar would possibly work. I say a long shot because any debris on the bottom could easily be mistaken for your rocket. https://www.lowrance.com/lowrance/type/castables/list/ You could probably just tie the string on and throw it out there by hand.

I use EverStart Marine for my cranking and Interstate Deep cycle for my two trolling batteries. I used to use Exide for trolling, but I could never get more than 2 years out them. When my Exides started getting weak again about 6 months ago, I decided to try Interstate.