Bassn4fun

What size are the air springs? I want to add some to my rod locker, I was planning on getting ones rated at 60Nm, they look just like the ones you have on yours.

I was able to work on my boat some more over the last couple of days and was able to get the new lower floor (under the front casting platform cut carpeted and installed. I also reused the 3/4" marine grade plywood for the casting deck since it was in great shape, I carpeted it and have it sitting in place waiting for the lids to be carpeted. I cut the old floor pieces a the edges of the compartments so I can have 1/2" under the compartments and 3/4" on the main floor (This will also help if the main floor ever needs to be replaced in the future), I installed and plumbed the livewell and the main electrical compartments. Now I can finish installing and wiring the gauge cluster and switch panel. Here's a picture of the front deck carpeted and sitting in place. I'll attach a material list if anyone is interested in cost of the project or where I got some items from. Not sure why I can't post more than one picture at a time/day?

So I started this project a week ago and made really good headway. I found out that when Alumacraft made this boat the put the floor in then attached all the compartments to it, then riveted the compartments together. I needed to remove all of the compartments in order to get the flooring out, that was more challenging then I thought it would be since it was very difficult to get at some of the rivets. Once I got the flooring out I found that they used 1/2" plywood for the floor, I'm thinking about leaving the floor 1/2" for under the compartments and then go to 3/4" on the main floor to help stiffen it up. I did have to remove some of the foam but not very much, so I'll replace it with a good closed cell foam. I also have all the plumbing done and more of the wiring complete. Now it's time to start on the flooring so I can finish off the wiring.

Thanks for the advise, this will be the 4th boat I'll have remodeled. One trick that I learned after the first 2 boats for the wiring is to route everything through PVC conduit from front to back with tee's for drops where needed. This makes pulling new circuits really easy and replacing bad wiring if need be. I like the idea of the Weldwood contact cement I've always just used carpet glue and a trowel, so I'll be looking into that cement. Here's a couple of before pictures

Sorry I edited it I guess when you hit the tab key and the enter it posts the comment

I purchased this boat towards the end of Summer last year, finally thought this is a boat I can keep for quite a while. After using it some last fall and more this year, there were several things that bugged me. 1: There were times where I would get a little water in the boat, not much maybe half a gallon for fishing all day. This would happen some days and not others. 2: The covers for the switches would come off or over rotate 3: The was a small soft spot in the main flooring right where you step off the front deck I figured that most of these I could live with, and wouldn't have to remodel the boat, well about 3 weeks ago my son and I were out fishing and after half hour or so, he snagged his line in a tree, as I went to the back of the boat to help him I noticed water coming over the floor. I was able to get the boat on plain and head towards the access thinking my drain plug came out (I always keep a spare or two). When I reached the dock and jumped out the plug was still there, so I loaded up and headed home. Well long story short the hose on my livewell drain came off the fitting and that is what was filling my boat with water. After trying to reconnect it I found out that the wood under the livewell was rotted out. So now the remodel needs to happen. I'll post up pictures of the progress and notes, here's my plan right now, all new plumbing, wiring, flooring and a updated rod locker with storage tubes.

Here's what I've caught while using bass lures Pike - on about everything I use Muskie - spinnerbaits, bandit series 100 sunfish, crappies, perch, dogfish, bullhead, carp and my favorite a snapping turtle on a plastic worm it pulled like crazy

Because I like Bass fishing for fun = Bassn4fun

I spend last week up around the Hackensack area camping and fishing with my family. Since I had the kids with we only fished 2-3 hours each day. But we caught around 20-30 bass each day and one day we boated close to 50. There really wasn't a pattern, half of the fish were caught on a green pumpkin swim jig with a paddle tail trailer in 2-6' of water, and most of the others on a 3" tube and a 1/8oz jig head around docks all the way out to 20' of water on the weed edges. We didn't get into any really big fish but had one at 18" and 7-8 over 17".

Gimruis - yeah 20' was crazy close, I almost thought of casting my lure over his boat. But I didn't want to set a bad example to my son, so I just held up that bass nice and high so he could see it and just smiled and shrugged by shoulders.

I had an interesting day on the water with my son on Saturday. Our plan was to fish for bass, and we caught a few but when the large sunfish and crappies started following our worms back to the boat we switched gears and started bobber fishing with 1/16oz flu flu jigs with 1" gulp minnows. We were using the trolling motor to slowly slip along the shore and when we'd catch some we'd drop anchor and fish for a little bit then head down the shoreline again. This is where is gets interesting, we were catching nice sunfish and several nice crappies, we'd every once in a while catch a bass also, so we're sitting in this one spot next to a tree in the water when a guy fishing bass came around the point and started fishing 50 yards from us, not a big deal but he kept coming towards us until he was about 20 feet away, and looked over and was surprised how close he was to us, so he turned his trolling motor up and latterly circled around us not getting more then 30 feet away, until he could cast his topwater at the tree. Normally this wouldn't bother me but I thought it was very rude, but after he fished the tree with not a bite, I did have to laugh because I tossed my Flu Flu jig in there and pulled in a 17" bass while he was still right there. I just looked at him and smiled..... Sometimes Karma sucks

Good afternoon guys, first I want to say that this forum has an incredible amount of knowledge and I have used it a bunch to learn different techniques. So here's what I dealing with, the hook 7 was purchased in April last year by the previous owner of the boat. I bought the boat last fall and was able to use it several times and the graph worked great, now that I have installed the new software the screen has been freezing on me when I'm out fishing. Usually it happens after fishing for an hour or so and the screen will lock up for several minutes, it does this if I'm running across the lake at 30mph or if I'm just using the trolling motor. I'm mainly just running the graph and the maps (it has the insight pro 15 HD map chip) in split screen. I'm going to try to reinstall the new software, but not sure if that's going to fix it or not. It does have a 3 year extended warranty and was purchased through Mills Fleet Farm, so I might have to send it in. What are your thoughts? The battery is new and at 12.5-12.8volts

Made it out yesterday for a couple hours, ended up catching 6 bass and 3 northerns. I started off trying a green pumpkin vibrating jig, a swim jig with both a craw trailer and a paddle tail swimbait but nothing, so I switched over to a white/chartreuse spinnerbait with nickel blades and a paddle tail trailer and started catching them, all of the fish were caught on the spinnerbait in sparse lily pads in 2-3 feet of water. I did catch one bass that showed signs of being on a bed or making a bed, but the others didn't have a mark on them. The water temp was right around 60-63 degs.

Made it out Saturday with my wife and kids, ended up with 5 bass and a couple of slimmers. We had 1 bass at 18.5", 17", 15", 15" and a 13" all came on a white spinnerbait fished through lily pad fields (they were about 5-6" off the bottom). I couldn't get any on a worm, tube, grub (I didn't try a wacky rig sinko though) or a swim jig. There were a lot of bass up shallow swimming around I didn't see any beds on this lake but it has to be really close the water temp was around 62-65. I took Monday off to go fishing and ended the day with 14 bass and 3 northerns, all of the bass were between 13" and 17.5" and caught again on a white spinnerbait with a paddle tail trailer. I was fishing the same kind of structure, the thing that has me confused is that I had a couple really nice bass and a big northern shake off my spinnerbait, I didn't change rods or how I was setting the hook and the ones that I did catch were swallowing the spinnerbait ( I was using a trailer hook also). The rod I was using is a 7' MH Fast baitcaster with a 7.1:1 gear ratio reel with 12' Fluoro.

I'm guessing that you were Crappie fishing since bass doesn't open until this weekend. It seems that once the water hits 62 that's when I start to see them on beds around here. I was out fishing for sunfish before the cold front moved through and the water was 52-54 in the bays but after the front it dropped to 47-48 but I haven't been out since it warmed back up so not sure what the water temp is now. It's going to feel really nice to cast a lure bigger then 1/16oz again.

I'll be out with my wife and kids fishing for bass and northerns, then I might take Monday off so I can bass fish. What do you guys think will there be any on beds yet?

Hi from Minnesota, I mainly fish in the south western part of the state.

Brandon from Minnesota Do you keep track of each bass you catch? If so how many have you caught since you started keeping track?

You guys might not believe me but I actually caught the same smallmouth off a bed 7 times in one day. So here's how it went down my buddy and I were bed fishing smallies on a very clear lake, I tossed a 1" red and white tube to a bass on a bed, he bit got him unhooked and let him go. It immediately went back to the same bed, I thought what the heck see if I can hook him again and he bit again this happened 4 times in a row. After that we left for an hour or so and came back to the same bed and proceeded to catch him 3 more times in a row before we decided enough was enough and left. But it had me wondering if we hit it at just the right time when it was guarding fry and was very protective? The interesting thing is that I used the same lure every time.

Christie, Palaniuk, Powroznik, Browning and Biffle

I appreciate all of the great information on this forum and since there are people from all over I thought I'd post a question for you guys. My wife and I are planning a week long mid winter vacation (February or March) to either Florida or California, and are having a hard time deciding. Here's what we're wanting to do; sit on the beach, go bass fishing (would be awesome to have a chance at a bass over 7 pounds), maybe ocean fishing, visit a Zoo, or everglades (I've been to the San Diego zoo many years ago), be in a relaxed environment that isn't crowded (not into partying or anything like that (No spring breakers)). So lets hear it where would you go, when would you go and is there any must dos? Thanks Bassn4fun

I've had very good luck with the booyah boo jig, they're cheap and most walmarts sell them. Also the booyah pad crusher for frogs.

I'm going to throw this out there, what about having them use a 3" tube with a tube jig. Very easy to fish and when there is a bite usually the fish holds onto the bait for a while, allowing them to fell the bite and set the hook. You can hop it along the bottom or slowly reel it in and it's really weedless. This is what I'm going to have my 7 year old fish this year, also might try to have him use a split shot rig with a 4" curly tail worm. The thing I look at the most is what has the fewest number of hooks (so I don't get snagged) and a relatively easy bait to fish that bass really like.

I'm new to this site but I'm going to be getting the boat wet this weekend chasing crappies, it'll be nice to finally be able to cast in the boat again. I'm going to experiment with a drop shot this year and skipping docks with wacky worms and jigs.

Green pumpkin 3" tube Green Pure Poison bladed jig Drop shot with a 3" Berkley minnow Green Pumpkin swim jig with a green pumpkin craw trailer Black/Blue jig with a black paddle tail trailer