Tennessee Boy

I fish both and can't imagine giving up either one. I guess I'm a Bubbasissy.

I caught a 7 lb 2 oz catfish on my very first trip to Kentucky Lake when I was nine years old. Was using my trusty Zebco 202.

Personally, I see no evidence that Favorite is a real company. They appear to be just another marketing company selling rods designed and manufactured in China. I could be wrong and if I am it would help if they put more information on their website suggesting it's a real company. When I go to St Croix web site I see names and pictures of employees in Wisconsin that design and make their rods. I see that I can tour the factory if I like. I know St Croix is a real company. Until I see similar evidence from Favorite, I have no interest. I'm not saying the rods are bad. If I want rods from China I can just go online and order them. I don't need a marketing company in the middle taking a cut.

Until you get used to the feel, you will need to rely more on watching the bait and the line. Use a color that’s easy to see and watch your line closely when you can’t see the bait. When it’s falling on a slack line, you probably won’t feel a strike. There may just a slight twitch in the line. It very different from what you’re used to as a power fisherman.

I don't know German but I do know how to used Google translate. According to google it translates to "Multifile Knot". I checked the words "Multi" and "File" separately and they do not show a different German translation.

I think a little common sense will take care of all the issues around the ramp and weight in. I don’t think social distancing on the boat is possible. I got an email about a tournament that is being held in a few weeks where they gave guidelines for on the boat safely. For example, they required two nets so both anglers won’t touch the same one. I can’t imagine how you could fish with someone infected for eight hours without being exposed unless you both wore hazmat suits. If you select your own partner then you control your own risk. Draw tournaments are different. Personally, I’m not sure I would want to spend eight hours fishing with a twenty year old that works at Walmart.

I'm an older guy who was obsessed with bass fishing in college and I have been ever since. I think I can say with certainty that when you are my age (57), you will not worry about the money you wasted in college but you will cherish the memories of sharing a boat project with your grandfather. It's the money wasted after college that haunts most people my age. Spend any extra money you have on the boat if you enjoy working on it. Try to spend it wisely. DO NOT USE A CREDIT CARD TO FUND THE PROJECT!!! Fixing up the trailer will increase it's value a lot and all it should take is a lot of elbow grease and some paint. If it cost too much to fix the motor, just use a trolling motor for now. Don't over estimate the value of a boat in catching fish. Any boat will give you access to more water than you will have time to fish. Even people fishing out of $70,000 boats wish they had the latest electronics, trolling motor, etc. The quest for the perfect boat will NEVER end. If you want to be a good bass angler, focus on spending as much time on the water as possible. Most important thing, spend as much time as possible fishing with your grandfather.

I used a $20 charger for years until the boat monkey found out about it.

What a fish! That's what it's all about.

There are a lot of factors that determine how rough the water gets. I look at the predicted wind velocity and direction and then look at the map. The more distance the wind has to blow across the water, the bigger the waves. I fish winding river reservoirs so there's almost always sheltered places to fish if I launch in the right place. A 15MPH north wind on Kentucky lake can be very dangerous in places but just fine in other places. The hills of Tennessee provide a lot of sheltered locations. The biggest thing I worry about is being 10 miles from where I launched when a 12 MPH forecast turns into a 20 MPH wind. When the wind hits 25+, I might be able to find a safe place to fish but boat control and casting becomes so challenging that it's not worth the effort. I fish out of a Ranger RT188.

AMEN!!! Application specific rods are one fad that I've always found interesting. I'm sure it has sold a lot of rods. I remember in the early 90s after a club tournament, a bunch of us younger/poorer club members were gathered around one of the older/richer member's boat admiring all his stuff. He had about 10 identical combos. We all thought that was so cool. The thinking in those days was if all your rods were the same, you could put one down and pick another up without having to make any adjustments. If the current trend continues, we will need different rods to fish different color baits.

Those of you using the San Diego Jam knot please be advised. The San Diego Jam knot is a California knot and is known in the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm.

Humminbird recommends that you restore the factory default before upgrading. Did you do that? If not, that's the first thing I would try. If that doesn't work, I would get a memory card. You only have 1.4GB or 14GB of internal storage left. That should be enough but you can get a 32GB card for less than $10 so I would do that and download the update to the card to see if that helps. If it doesn't, you still have increased your storage which is worth $10 IMO. If none of the above works, then I would call tech support.

So when you click yes, does the unit just start up and work as normal except for the sonar?

I can live without restaurants, and toilet paper. College football is a different matter.

I appreciate the devotion it took to create your list and I appreciate you posting them here to start a discussion. That said, I totally disagree with the goal of fishing more baits. My goals were similar after I bought my first boat 30 years ago. I became familiar with almost every technique I read about in Bassmaster but I wasn't good at any of them. When I started focusing on mastering a few techniques, I started catching a lot more fish.

Rods are like pants. Rods have a suggested lure rating. Pants have a size. These numbers offer a good starting place but always try it and see how it fits you.

You can’t catch bass on Lizards anymore. Forget about it. It was a hot bait in the 90s but fish stopped hitting them in 2004. You can just throw your old lizards away or send them them to me and I will dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner. Now let’s move on to the next topic. ?

The opposite of pattern fishing? Yeah, I would agree with that. Now can we all agree on what pattern fishing is? ?

That's always been my understanding of the term "junk fishing". You pick a stretch of bank and start fishing it without worrying too much about how you fish it. It's what you do when you get back to the weight in site five minutes early, find a bank and fish for five minutes with whatever you have tied on. Also, it's the last resort after you've tried everything you can think of to catch a fish with no success.

Wow! Great day. Thanks for sharing.

Time on the water or time in the back yard. It’s time well spent. I don't know if there are any short cuts. No reel manufacturer will ever match the breaking performance of an “educated thumb”.

I like senkos but if I could only use one soft plastic, it would be a trickworm!

@Mobasser asked two good questions. 1) Why do some anglers catch bass consistently? This is the more interesting question. They have the necessary knowledge which is available to everyone but only a few take the time to acquire it. Also they have put in their time on the water which there is no substitute for. 2) Why do others seldom catch bass consistently or not at all? There are endless ways to not catch fish. Everyone does it differently. We've all taken people out that don't fish much. You take them to the spot, you tell them what to do, you catch fish to show them how it's done, and still they struggle. It's what I call "rod in hand skills" and I think people underestimate how important they are.

Nice looking fish. ?