Tennessee Boy

I have a story to share on this topic........but it' just too painful.

Can't speak for Garmin but yes for Humminbird. https://www.humminbird.com/learn/mapping/autochart

A question I have pondered many times. I hope someone has the answer although I'm sure the correct answer depends on many different factors on any given day.

Some people just get crazy when they don't get enough fiber in their diet.

I would pay $1K for a rod/reel that would help me catch more fish but I'm absolutely convinced that I can catch just as many fish with a $250-$300 rig as I could with $1K rig.

My Humminbird Solix exports the GPS data as a GPX file. I think all of the newer Humminbird do as well. It is possible that Lowrance uses this format now. I know they did not use GPX on the Lowrence units I have owned in the past. A GPX file is a standard file format used by the GPS industry. There are MANY programs that will read, display, and edit the contents of these files including some that are free. I have used GPX Reader on a Mac. It simply displays the waypoints, paths and tracks and projects them onto Apple Maps and Satellite images. It allows me to review my day of fishing at my computer and I think it cost $2 but again there are MANY options with GPX files.

I waiting until Plano comes out with a steel lure safe that I can install on my boat. ?

I own a Ranger and I have to agree. Not that I have any major complaints but it's clearly not the same company that Forest Woods sold and I just don't have a good feeling about the JM purchase.

I'll cast my vote for replicas. Your looking for a good artist to do a good paint job. It doesn't really matter what he's painting. A replica will last longer and the fish can live on to be the subject of another larger replica someday.

Very nice fish

I think your question is mainly about co-angler etiquette. I think that depends a lot on the tournament and what each angler has on the line. If it's a big money pro tournament, I wouldn't expect they guy to waste a lot of time to save a $7 lure. However, if he's in last place and you're winning the co-angler division he needs to show some consideration for what's on the line for you. If it's a friendly club tournament, then I would expect the guy stop and do whatever he would do if his lure was snagged. Now if you're asking him to stop for three minutes every five minutes, you might need to change lures.

I love the sport of Bass Fishing. It's a sport. You can watch it on TV, you can read books about it, you can buy all the necessary stuff to participate in it yourself, and you can compete yourself at various levels. It's possible that I might enjoy drum fishing as much or even more but drum fishing is not a sport. There is no drumresource.com, and there are no drum tournaments that I'm aware of. It's kind of like golf. People have come up with variations on golf like playing with soccer balls. It might be fun but it's not real golf and when you switch to playing golf with a soccer ball you give up all the tradition, history, and all the industry support that real golf provides. Same with Bass Fishing. It's not Bass Fishing unless you are fishing for bass.

Around here, if it's a fish, there's about a 90% chance it's an Asian Carp.

Well I finally got through to Minn Kota. The guy was very helpful. He said he could only find two instances of this issue in their call database. He said engineering had suggested on a previous call that the mount might not be secured evenly to the boat. It might be either torqued or it could have a high spot that in preventing the locking mechanize from sliding smoothly. I think this is probably the issue. I had a dealer install the motor. They did not index the motor properly so I would not be surprised if they didn't messed something else up. So now I have to decide if I should take it back to the incompetent people who messed it up or do I just fix it myself. ?

Well I would have had to troll 3 hours to get cell phone coverage on the lake. I've been trying to call them all day and all I get is a busy signal. I'm sure I'll eventually get through. I'm really just wondering if anyone else has had this issue.

I was out this weekend for the 3rd time with my new Ultrex trolling motor. As the day went on, it got increasingly more difficult to get the motor to lock down when deployed. By the end of the day, I had to stand on it and jump a few times to get it to lock down. When the time came to pull it up and call it a day, the thing would not release to allow me to stow the motor. I'm a big guy and I did some serious pulling on the cable but it would not release. I tried every tool I had on the boat but could not get the latch to budge. I started trolling back to the marina and along the way found a guy on his dock that had access to some tools. Was finally able to get the latch to release with a crow bar. Anyone else had issues like this with the Ultrex or other Minn Kota trolling motors? I haven't had time to work on it since I got back but I'm hoping lubing all the parts will prevent this from happening again and I may start taking a crow bar with me on the boat.

I couldn't agree more. The manufacturers put a ton of money into these tournaments and they would throw a fit if they changed the HP limit. I wouldn't be surprised if they even raised the limit. The only thing that might change this is if a really bad accident happened. If a tournament boat hit a house boat and killed a bunch of people, there would be a backlash against tournaments in general.

I agree 150 is more than enough.

I agree. 20 years ago I bought 80% of my fishing stuff from BPS. Now they are my last resort. Expensive and poor selection. I hate to say it but increasingly I'm finding Amazon.com to be where I buy my fishing stuff. I was going to order a rod from Cabelas a few months ago, at checkout they said to expect deliver in 10 days. I cancelled the order ,went to amazon and got the same rod cheaper and in two days with free shipping.

Amen brother. I hope they don't ruin all the lakes. They are a major concern on the Tennessee River lakes. They eat the same plankton as the shad and if the shad go there will be A LOT fewer bass in the Tennessee River.

Thanks for starting the thread. Anything that gets people thinking deeper about their fishing is a successful thread. I enjoyed thinking about your question and reading everyone's responses. Now I've got to go reorganize my plastics by water color.

I think you will see a big difference between black and white. Maybe a little difference between white and chartreuse. No difference between black and blue. The color of the glitter in your plastic worm only matters if it makes you happy. Of course there may be times when these rules don't apply?

It's been 25 years since I fished a night tournament and I'm sure much has changed. I would just say don't trust your senses too much. You start telling yourself that light you're looking at is one you're expecting to see that's a half mile away when it's actually one you forgot about that's two miles away. Modern GPS with maps and heading sensors makes that stuff a lot easier.

Very nice! but now you're gonna need a bigger boat.