Troy85

Spinnerbait Jig T Rig Worm Dropshot Wacky Rigged Senko

Most of the small local tournaments around here only require a working live well, and coast guard required safety gear. You could start with local evening tournaments. They aren't always advertised much, I just found most of the ones in my area by checking out local public boat launches on my way home from work.

1. Never used 360 or side imaging up front. So I really can't say. I do have side imaging at the console and I really like it. 2. I think it depends a little on where/how you fish. I generally fish water less than 10ft deep, I don't do much video gaming fishing. So I have my more expensive unit with side scan at the console. I'll motor around certain areas scanning, and if they look good, I'll come back later and fish them after I've given it a little time to quiet down. 3. I have a 5" screen on the bow and I don't have any trouble seeing the screen, so I don't think you would have problems seeing a 7. Now I can't really use split screen up there, because that would be a little small. If I need to use my map to troll to waypoints, I have a ram mount on my 9' console unit, so I just spin that around and I can easily see it from up front.

I use them almost exclusively for TX rig. Every now and then I'll peg one and use it for as a weight for a swim bait, but I only do it if I manage to run out of weighted swim bait hooks.

A few weeks back. I was pulling my wife and her cousin on the tube and in the boat was me, my sister in law, her Boyfriend and my son. I had zero trouble getting up on plane and pulling them around.

I'm running a Yamaha 115, not the SHO. The 115 pushes that boat pretty good, and it has good hole shot. I never have trouble when I do go pleasure boating, such as pulling people around in a tube or water skis. As far as performance, solo I can get about 48ish top speed. If I'm bringing someone else along with all their gear, it will run about 45mph. The great thing about that 115 is it sips gas, if your looking for fuel economy. But, If I had been buying my boat brand new, I would probably upgrade to the 150, but then again I just like going as fast as possible. I've only ever had Yamahas, so I can't really say much about other brands. I will say that I don't plan on switching to another brand anytime soon.

I'm running an Xpress 18' with the hyperlift hull. I don't have any complaints about the ride or handling. I've never fished out of a glass boat, so I really can't compare. Compared to the alumacraft and g3 that I owned in the past, the difference in night and day. I like the 18', but I think the next Xpress I get will be the 19', so I can drop a 200 on the back.

You will be perfectly fine with 3/8". The general rule of thumb is 1/8" diameter per 9' of boat and 8' of rope per 1' anchoring depth. Adding some chain to the end also helps the anchor hold better. I have 3/8" on my 18' aluminum xpress and I've never had it even come close to breaking. I even once used it to tow a half sunken jetski back to the dock and it wasn't even close to breaking.

I really enjoy watching Elite Live events, but I almost never watch the weigh-in. Every now and then if I'm really bored I'll watch them weigh-in on the last day of the event, but even that is rare. Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets bored watching the weigh-in, I thought maybe I wasn't a true bass fan. LOL

BASS does go live. They have been doing live shows for Elite events for maybe that past 4-5 years I think. Actually, with the start of BPT, Bass goes Live on every day of the event, they used to just do Friday-Sunday, now they start live on Thursday. Also new this year, they offer a live feed with commentary, then another live feed that's just fishing, no announcers. I agree, while its fun to watch them catch a lot fish, some incentive to catch bigger fish would be nice. I can only watch them catch so many 1.5lb fish before I'm ready to move on to something else.

Being from Southeast LA, I get the exact same response for the saltwater guys. I grew up saltwater fishing, but now I prefer bass fishing. I usually go saltwater fishing probably 5-6 weekends out of the year, all the others are devoted to bass.

Most of the tidal waters I fish I change it up depending on tide and weather. But there a local navigational canal, that isn't tidally influenced and is pretty heavily fished. The only thing in this canal that seems to work consistently for me is a drop shot.

Are you home now making this post from the safety of your living room?

I find Senkos sink faster than all the other brands. The only time I use Senko brand, is when I'm throwing it wacky rigged. If I'm throwing weightless TX rigged, or If I attach a little spinner to the tail, I'll throw either Yum or Big Bite Baits.

I agree with @Boomstick. If you're on a budget go with the Veritas, its a very good rod for the price. I own 2 of them. If you want to go with the St. Croix, I'd definitely recommend upgrading the the Mojo, I'd skip the Bass X.

Always close by hand.

I was talking to a guy awhile back who had just made the BASS state team. He loved fishing crank baits, and had about a half dozen rods rigged with crank baits. He said he never spent more than $20 on a crank bait rod. He claimed sharp hooks were more important when it came to crank baits. If you used his logic, that would leave you $80 for a reel. Note: I have never been able to bring myself to try the $20 rod.

And on a slow day, this is one of the two scenarios when you are most likely to get bit. The other being when you are preoccupied with a work phone call.

Please refer to "So Yall want to learn Toledo Bend" for much much more information on this topic. There ya go Catt, added a critical piece of info to your post!

Just 2 weeks ago I had a guy do this to me and my brother. We had just started fishing this narrow canal, another boat arrives about 2 minutes later. He comes down off plane motors past us while we are trolling. He motored about 25 yards ahead, shut off his engine and started trolling the same shoreline we were trolling. Then to add to it, not 30 seconds later, another boat comes flying down the canal and doesn't start slowing down till he is almost even with my boat, so we got the full 2500rpm wave action from that guy. He claimed he didn't see us, but this canal is only about 40 yards wide, I guess he needs glasses. We didn't really say anything to either boat, I think my brother kind of sarcastically said "thanks" to the 2500 waker, but that was about it. It was an interesting way to start the day. P.S.- The guy that cut in front never caught any fish from what I could tell. So that made me feel better.

The only time I wade is fish is in the summer time on the beaches, trying to catch speckled trout. As far as any other time, no. Other than at beaches, the bottom is usually to muddy/soft to wade fish successfully, especially when freshwater fishing.

Facebook is a good place to check. You can do group searches for Bass groups in your area. Such as " Virginia Bass fishing". Join those groups and post questions about local clubs or tournaments. A lot of areas will do Evening tournaments in the spring and summer. Around here they are mostly on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, blastoff at 5pm. Could be different where you live, but around here most of the evening tournaments are open to anyone. A lot of guys that fish them are also in clubs. Its a good way to get acquainted with some of the club guys before committing.

I use it for most types of swim baits. If I'm not actively paying attention to my retrieve speed, I tend to reel to fast for a swim-bait if I'm using a higher speed reel. I use the 5.4 to kind of force me to slow down.

LOL! That guy who screams all the time. I took my wife and son out a couple weeks ago for an evening fish. I caught a dink and she said "Not a score able bass". I also had one hit the carpet and she gave me a fish landing violation.

I agree with the main power shutoff. My old boat had it, my newer one doesn't, but I will be installing one soon. This may sound silly, but my nephew comes by to visit and he loves to get in my boat. I don't mind, I have all the hatches locked and he can't get into them. There have a been a couple times that he has bumped into one of the toggle switches for my bilge pump or livewell pump. Its easy enough for me to turn it back off, but it would really suck if I didn't see him do it and my pumps just ran until they burned up or drained my cranking battery. I plan on putting my main power switch hidden up under the console, that way I can just flip everything off after I trailer.