Troy85

55? I wish I could get over 50. I've got the Xpress h18 with 115 and I can only hit about 47-48 alone and 45-46 with a partner in the boat. Do you remember what prop you were running? If this is getting to off topic, PM me.

From my experience in the summer, bass usually relate to grass first, and then to wood if there isn't grass around. I always catch more flipping grass than flipping wood in the heat of the summer. If you can find some wood mixed in with the grass, that's a spot to pay extra attention to. I'm sure someone here will have a totally different experience, but this is just from my own observations.

Two? Man senkos are so fragile you can lose two if you open the bag to fast.

Lure loss is pretty common. It also seems like when it rains it pours, never just lose one. Seems like once you lose the first one on a trip, you lose several more throughout the day. Same goes with fish loss, you know how some days you can be not even paying attention and still land fish, other days it seems like no matter what you do the fish comes unhooked right before you get it in the boat.

Vegetation. I caught them Saturday fishing emergent grass edges with a spinner bait. I was fishing in 4' of water with a surface temp of 88 degrees.

Staying hydrated can be tough down here in the middle of summer. I try to keep up with drinking water/gatorade while on the boat, but when the first are biting, sometimes I lose track of time and water. I couple years back, it was the middle of summer. Against my advice, my buddy decided to "hydrate" with beer the night before. I don't think he will make that mistake again, when he wasn't laying across the back deck try to sleep, he was hanging his head over the back of the boat....."chumming" the water.

I gave most of them to my brother. He likes throwing all different kinds colors of soft plastics.

A 1' foot drop shouldn't be bad, especially putting the boat into the water. Pulling it out could me more of the challenge. You could launch it at your neighbors place, and if after launching it you think it would be too precarious to get it back out of the water from that spot, then you could a just use the public launch at the end of summer when you get it out the water. Don't have to put in and out in the same location. As far as getting out of the water at your neighbors place, even if that boat is a little heavy for you to pull onto the trailer, a come along would make short work of it.

I fish tidal waters, so I tend to spot fish depending on what the tide is doing rather than pattern fish. Only time I really pattern fish is on a slack tide. If the tide is moving then the first or second bite at a spot will generally tell me how active the fish are and what part of the water column they are in. Usually that information will transfer to other spots nearby, but not always.

I did purge a lot of plastics a couple months ago. I had colors that I had bought years ago and never even opened the bags. I got rid of most of them except for about 5 or so core colors that I use.

I had gone into restock mode for a while....then someone here taught me about tacklewarehouse.....that website should be illegal.

Thought I was the only one who did this. You are not alone Jim!

I'm just curious, at what clarity do you consider clear enough to need to use a leader? Water here stays stained a good part of the year, and I fish a lot of grass so I use straight braid just about year round. Sometimes in the late summer/fall, if all the rivers have stayed low all summer and water clarity gets to be about 3' or more, I'll tie on a leader.

I generally spend up to about $150 for the rod, and up to $200 for a reel for casting. I go cheaper on spinning gear, $70-100 for a reel and about $100 for the rod.

Glenn from Bassresource.com uses a swivel when he throws a weightless trick worm.

I recognize you from somewhere! ? I wasn't sure if you knew about these forums, I almost mentioned them to you other day on Instagram where you were making your Gunthersville posts. Anyway, welcome to the forums.

I generally run straight braid. Only time use a swivel is if I'm using something that is prone to line twists, such as a fluke. If you were worried about action but didn't want to mess with a leader or swivel, you could try tying your braid directly to your lure using a loop knot.

I've started learning to punch mats. Only done it on two trips so far, haven't caught anything yet, but I'm going to keep at it and see what happens.

I've used straight braid for years. Recently I spooled up a couple rods with Fluro just to see if it made a difference. I didn't notice any considerable difference between using straight braid vs fluro. I'm sure water clarity and vegetation plays a part. My water isn't generally clear(1' visibility is the norm, anything more is considered good), my assumption is that if the visible line does bother the fish, they may not have time to actually notice it with the water clarity that I have. Where I fish is also full of grass, fishing weedless baits in the summer is almost required, so I also assume that the bass don't notice my green braid with all the other green vegetation around. In lakes with very clear water they say it matters, I can't really say, never fished any.

I don't trim mine. I know a lot of guys who do though. As far as trailers, for a swim jig I usually just use a grub or something similar with a single tail, for a football jig I use brushhogs for the trailer.

https://webapp.navionics.com/ ^^^ Is where I got it from, its a Free webapp.

This map may help. Red X is the Dock. If possible, I'd move along that peninsula towards the bridge and fish the steep drop off.

I just use 3 strand Nylon rope. I use the same kind of rope for both my anchor and my dock line.

I use a lure called "Redfish Magic", its basically a beetlespin with a minnow instead of a beetle. I pull it over the tops of submerged grass or holes in the grass. Its works very well for me.

I remember this a lot when in college. My buddies would be like, we are going out tonight. I'd tell em, no thanks I'm getting up at 4am to go fishing. Waking up at 4am to go fishing is a much better time than sitting in some club, for me at least.