powerman970

If you are getting 3 years out of a trolling motor battery, I need to talk to you. I generally replace trolling motor batteries about once a year. I fish about 3 days a week and always charge them as soon as I get home from the water. Interstate batteries have lasted the longest under these conditions and I did get 2 years out of one of them. It is possible that improper charging might have been a culprit with my cranking battery but I don't see how. In my experience, a cranking battery rarely needs charging since the charging system in the motor tends to keep it charged up. The only time I have had to hook a cranking battery to a charger is when I don't fish for a couple of weeks and that is rare. When I do, I usually just hook it up to a 2 amp trickle charge. I will also plug them in when I take the boat out of the garage the night before a trip if it is extremely cold outside to keep them heated up. If I am doing something wrong please let me know. This is what I have always done with good results until I bought Optimas. I am always open to suggestions and they are appreciated.

I will say this as delicately as possible...Optima batteries SUCK!!! I have not tried one for trolling motor needs but I have had 2 of them as cranking batteries and both have left me on the water. Before everyone jumps in, yes I take proper care of my batteries. I always check the charge before heading out and I keep them on a trickle charge between uses if it is more than 2-3 days between. The first Optima lasted about 4 months before crapping out. I returned it assuming I had gotten a bad battery and swapped it for another which lasted about 9 months. On the second go 'round they didn't want to honor the warranty because it was the second battery to go bad. I pitched a fit and Advance Auto Parts finally refunded my money to shut me up. I went right down the road and bought a $59 cranking battery for a temporary battery from O'Reilly's and it has been taking good care of me for a year and a half now. Hmmmmmmmm....Must have been crappy batteries. I hope Optima NEVER sells another battery and will take every opportunity to make sure everyone knows it.

Wow...I had heard that Lane had more weight.

Had to get all those commercials in.....Come on Russ!!!! I know KVD has it in the bag but there is still hope until they hit the scales.

Yeah, that's a good point. Of course, during winter this may be less important. When was the last T out of Beeswax, prior to the Classic? Nearly every weekend...Sometimes more than one. Tons of tournaments on Lay and most launch from Beeswax. I'll be there myself next month and again in June and both are going to be large tournaments then we have the Mark's Outdoors tournament which will be several hundred boats.

From all updates I have seen it looks like it will end up with KVD on top and Russ Lane 2nd when all is said and done.

I'll be on Bankhead (Warrior River) this weekend. We have a house up in Hurricane Creek. So I'll let you know what we did and how it worked. I have been slaying them up there this winter even with the cold temps. but it has been spotty at times. I have caught fish slow rolling spinnerbaits around main channel docks, crashing timber back in Walker County Shoals with crankbaits, pitching jigs up in Hurricane and have caught some fish that I have found chasing bait on lipless cranks. Head up towards Gorgas and get you some of that steam plant water if all else fails.

We have several pros right in my area. I live about 5 minutes from Aaron Martens and Kota Kiriyama. Randy Howell is about 15 minutes away and Gerald Swindle is fairly close as well. I think Swindle and Howell will both be at the local BPS which is also about 5 minutes from the house here but I'm still ticked because the sales are not what they have been in the past. Where are all those deals that I have been waiting on for the last 6 months?????? For a totally different reason, Bassnajar, but I have to agree that this SUCKS!!!!

I heard such good things about the Strike King 3X worms that I went out and bought a ton of them. I fished one day with them and then I gave them to my daughter to play with. She likes 'em....They stretch and snap back and I'm sure that if a 3 year old can't tear 'em up neither will the fish. Yep, they float. Yep, they are durable...They are also a pain in the butt to rig. Back to NetBait and Zoom for me. Strike King makes some awesome products but I think they overdid it on these things. How about some 2X or maybe even 1 1/2X....

H2O's from Academy Dude...If you don't have an Academy near you get with me. I ship them all over the U.S. and I don't overcharge like the guys on FleaBay. I mark 'em up $1 per bait and charge you shipping. I'll even send the receipt with your order. They are made by the same company that makes Lucky Crafts (or so I have been told) and they have some killer colors, VMC hooks and only cost around $3.50 a piece. Other than that I use Bandits and Normans more than anything else.

Thanks for the replies guys. The Tournament Keeper software has everything handled. Problem solved. Thanks Jevaris for the recommendation and to the rest of you who were willing to help.

I have not had good luck with overpriced Optimas. I have always found Interstate Batteries to last longer but recently bought a BPS deep cycle and have had no complaints with it either. Don't waste your money on Optima in my opinion.

What you have built is creative but I like my RAM mount. The ability to swivel is more important to me than the added height of the unit. If you don't need it to swivel, HOMERUN!!!

I live in Birmingham and will be there on Saturday for weigh-in. I'd like to be there more but I will be fishing myself that Thursday, Friday, Saturday morning and again on Sunday on Bankhead Lake just west of B'ham. I will be fishing with one of the members of my site and meeting several others at the classic I hope.

Thanks Jevaris...That is what I was looking for. I will download it today and hopefully that will solve the problem.

I am working on an Excel spreadsheet. The problem I am having is determining what percentage to pay each place. I appreciate the ideas guys and you have both suggested what I am already doing but maybe I was not clear enough in my original post. I need to determine the percentages to pay each place not the dollar amount. I am sure that there must be a simple formula for figuring payout percentages based on number of entries, entry amount and number of winners. Again, thanks for the ideas and they are both good ones but I need a chart or a formula to tell me what percent I should pay to 12th place if I have 134 boats.

That was actually how I started out Matt but I soon found out that the percentages were not whole numbers and some went out several decimal places. I found an online calculator for poker tournaments that has given me a pretty good guideline but it only goes to 10 places and we are expecting up to 150 boats so would payout 30 places. I was hoping for someone on here who has some experience as a tournament director to point me to some software or a calculator program that will figure each place if I put in the number of boats and the entry fee.

Alright guys. I am hosting a tournament to benefit St. Jude's and I am blowing my mind trying to establish payout percentages. 50% of all money raised will go to St. Jude's and the other 50% will go to payout for the tournament. We want to pay one in every five so 20% of the teams will get a check. How do I figure these payouts percentage wise. Any ideas?

The craze is from the fact that they work. My go to bait has been a finesse worm for years but I find myself reaching for a brush hog or a beaver much more often now. You just have to fish them enough to catch a few fish on them to build your confidence level in them. Nobody needs to talk you into fishing them, you said yourself that you have several bags so you apparently intended to fish them at some point. If you decide not to just send them to me and I'll make sure they get disposed of properly.

Definitely go with Tru-Tungsten weights. Xcalibur XT3 twitch baits. Norman Deep Middle N cranks. Spike-It chartreuse/garlic.

Cable vs. kite string... :-? LOL. End of debate. I will stay with XL for cranks. Although I am going to try 12# BPS XPS Fluoro this summer for deep crankin'. I fished mono exclusively for years then I went through a braid phase. I liked braid because it had no stretch and the sensitivity was excellent compared to mono. I did not like braid because it is very visible in the water, is tough on equipment and constantly bites into itself. Then a buddy of mine introduced me to XPS fluorocarbon. I love it!!! I fish fluoro for just about every application. I still like mono for topwater walking baits and I still use braid for rats and buzzbaits way back in the salad. I use 8-12# fluoro for all my cranking, 12# for soft plastics and 17# for jigs. No stretch and it's pretty invisible in the water...The best of both worlds. On the downside, it burns if you try to cinch a knot down too quickly or without wetting it first and I have found it tough to use on a spinning reel because it tends to have a mind of it's own. When you spool your reel, I have found that it helps to spray the line with KVD Line and Lure about every 10-15 turns of the reel handle and keep a bottle handy while you are fishing. It is worth the little bit of extra trouble.

I usually use dollar bills when trolling for strippers....Now stripers on the other hand can be a lot of fun too.

Personally, I tote a Ruger P89 which is a 9mm but they also produce a P90 which is a .45 caliber. They are inexpensive, reliable, and I like the way they fit my hand. Aftermarket grips are available but I am not a fan.

That was it...Thank you very much. I loved the buzz baits I got from him and will be needing more soon.

I can't believe that nobody has said anything about Kick'n Bass. It is great and all you have to do is put a few drops in a ziploc with some worms and marinate them a bit. I also like garlic Spike-It. I'm not crazy about the dye aspect of it but when I have one of those days where the fish are hitting quick and dropping the bait, a little Spike-it always makes them hold on long enough to get a good hook set.