Tennessee Boy

Well the last one in Knoxville was the best Classic ever in my very humble opinion. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that the parent company of B.A.S.S. is located in Knoxville

I can't remember my first fish but I know it was a catfish caught from my grandfather's pond. I guess I was around 2 years old. That would be around 57 years ago. I started lure fishing about 45 years ago mostly for bream and slowly shifted to preferring bass.

I enjoy watching both and my interest level usually has to do with what lake they are fishing. I think the MLF format is a little more entertaining. The B.A.S.S. format is a little better test of skill. That's an easy question. The pros go where the sponsorship dollars are.

The OP said "So when I get into an area I can think of 3 – 5 different things I can do." I'm sure that number has more than doubled after reading this thread. Here's my story. As a kid I fished creeks and got pretty good at it. When I bought my first boat I started fishing lakes. I read several magazines and bought a bunch of lures for lake fishing. I took what I had learned from the "expert" to the lake and didn't catch a thing my first few trips out on my new boat. I got discouraged so I ran my boat as far up in a creek as I could go and started creek fishing the way I had always done growing up. I started catching fish and enjoying my new boat. From there I just tweaked what I was doing, tried new thing and slowly figured it out. 32 years later I'm still learning and having fun. I think the key is to find one thing that works for you and master it. Other things will come over time. The most important thing is to have fun.

The chart states that the wire extension length is the distance from the battery to the trolling motor not double that distance. Here is the link to the chart which is easier to read. https://www.minnkotamotors.com/sites/minnkotamotors_site/files/min_productmanual_batt-wire-selct-gde1.pdf

Please Please Me Darkness on the Edge of Town Bridge Over Troubled Water

On the Ranger web site the Ultrex 80/US2/IP 45" BT is $2325. That exact trolling motor on the Minn Kota web site is $2499. If you order the boat with no trolling motor you get a $200 credit so the cost would be $2299 if you buy your own. $26 less. I don't think you're gonna find anyone that will install it for $26 so I would go with Ranger however there are many different versions of the Ultrex that Ranger doesn't offer. Doesn't look like Ranger offers iPilot link or the MEGA imaging options on the Ultrex. When I bought my Ranger RT 188 in 2018 I ordered the boat with no TM and had the dealer install the Ultrex I wanted. I think they charged me $100 to install it.

I've been using the Zoom Big Salty Chunk and the Small Salty Chunk for 25 years. I use them year round but more in the winter. I use a craw type trailer a little more in the summer.

Great fish. It doesn't get much better than a big winter smallmouth.

So... you guys always put back on the reel all of the part you take off?

My first boat was a Tracker. It served me very well but that was 30 years ago. My current boat is a Ranger RT188 and I'm happy with it. I fish regularly with a friend who has a new Tracker. I would consider both of the boats you are considering to be about equal. Ranger has the reputation as a premium brand thanks to Forest Woods. Forest is gone and I predict that Johnny Morris will change Ranger's reputation over time. I would go with the boat that fits your style the most in terms of storage, layout and accessories.

I know it's a growing problem. I saw something on the news a while back about how in the last 20 years the number of young men in their 20s that were not in school and not working had grown significantly. I knew of a similar situation and it turned out the kid was having anxiety issue. He was having panic attacks at work and wasn't telling anyone in the family. Anti anxiety drugs were the answer.

I really think you should give the skunks a percentage of your profits.

This is a spot that I bet @Chris Catignani fished in the 70s like I did. The photo is from the upstream side of this bridge. On the other side the water dropped about 18 inches when it flowed out of the pipes and was a smallmouth hotspot. I caught numerous smallmouth below this bridge every time I fished it. They were all small but I could have probably caught a hundred fish if I fished it all day. I usually fished it for a half hour and moved on to less productive but new water.

I agree. I think people enjoy balancing a rod and reel with no bait horizontally on their finger. It’s a way to compare one combo to another even if it’s irrelevant to actually using a rod for fishing.

I have a Solix 10 at the console and a Solix 15 up front. RAM makes a ball that mounts directly to the back of the Solix and this arrangement has worked well for me using the D size mounts.

I can’t speak for other brands but MinnKota TMs do not come with a GPS puck. The GPS is built into the TM. The puck is a heading sensor that connects via Bluetooth and can be mounted anywhere. Since it contains a compass it should be mounted away from anything that generates a magnetic field. It’s only used for the jog feature and to circle a point so it’s not critical to the operation of the TM. I have mine mounted under my console.

Yes Guntersville is fishable year round. In February I would steer you a little west to Pickwick. February is big smallmouth season there.

We got about 1/4 inch of snow here last night. Schools are closed. There is a car in a ditch not far from my house that was hit later by another car. Winter can be brutal around these parts.

Everyone should watch this before buying glasses.

Around here we call that a blizzard.

That I can understand. I think they make snow blowers for that purpose.

Why do people shovel snow?

First I’ll give you an honest answer. I have no idea. I’m not a Garmin user so I’m not familiar with what I’m looking at but it looks very strange. Now I’ll take a guess. The resolution of the lines on the object appear to be higher resolution than the screen which is impossible. The object is round. I’m guessing it’s a drop of water on the screen that is causing the optical effect of the lines in the image.

As I understand it, many years ago an animal rights organization tried a legal challenge against tournament fishing saying it was illegal gambling. They lost the case because the anglers were able to show that it was a contest of skill not chance or luck. So tournament fishing is not gambling in the legal sense.