Allaroundfishing

yes around shells it can be very frustrating so I can only imagine around those dang zebra mussels! I found I used to have issues feeling a c rig bite as well but I went to heavier weights and unless im fishing very shallow gravel I throw a 1oz lead bullet weight for my rig, doesnt get snagged as much as you would think either, and i throw it on a 7'6 medium heavy bass pro shops fish eagle rod so its definitely not that rod that makes the sensitivity

I was pointing out that the same people who will not throw a carolina rig offshore will throw a football jig in the same situation, its still a slow moving presentation same with a shakyhead or worm. The presentation is similar but for some reason its more or less acceptable to throw one of the other And that's what I don't get because most people I hear this from i fish the local weeknight and weekend derbs with, and I have buddies who are in the college series that either say what I mentioned above or hear it at the tournaments when talking at the ramps with other competitors.

I used to tie flies and crappie jigs and to get super technical about it, when you add hackle onto a super light fly or jig like that it can slow the fall rate in still water and in current it will actually help keep the bait more neutrally suspended, basically the hackles will help grab enough water that it wont slip down to the bottom as easy in the current and stay higher in the water column. This helps keeping from getting snagged as much! But yes the natural hairs and materials look so much better in colder water than any clumsy man made attempt at making something rubber look like a bug or minnow

Something Ive been thinking about recently is a phrase Ive heard often among friends and at ramps or in the parking lot at tournament. " Man the only thing I can get bit on is "X" but you aint gonna catch me throwin that" This seems to be something I hear alot about finesse techniques or slower techniques. Especially a carolina rig or splitshot rig, ned rig etc The biggest hypocrisy I see is people saying they cant stand to drag a carolina rig offshore but you look at their front deck and they got a shaky head and drop shot right beside their big worm and football jig.... so I just wonder what makes you decide that fishing slow one way is better than another and if the fish are biting a carolina rig better than a football jig why not make the adjustment to get more bites? This is something I hear people at my level of fishing clear up to pros stating "well I knew they'd win it flippin the grass but i wanted to catch em offshore" seems to me that if theyre biting something why would you not throw it... Perhaps im just too inquisitive but it genuinely stumps me as to why you wouldnt throw something you are getting bites on just because its not the way you want to fish. So whats your thoughts on this, are you like one of the anglers mentioned above or are you like me and let the fish decide.

Usually when people use floating worms they are talking about a zoom trick worm, there are several other worms that look nearly identical made by other brands but most use a zoom trick worm in the merthiolate color or bubblegum, white and yellow are some other popular colors. Im not too sure on the history of it but there used to be many companies that made floating worms or lizards, slug-o etc... As long as the worm youre throwing is a narrow body worm with a bit of a "bulb" on the tail it should produce the desired action.

My best guess is its more so the flash and just stark contrast of a white or white and chartreuse bait coming past them that excites them into biting, think of a pink or merthiolate worm in the spring, who knows why they go nuts over em but they sure do. and on another note years ago pros used to use bright white worms such as slug-gos and other brands that are now defunct and they would twitch those baits right under surface almost year round and catch fish so sometimes its just the curiosity or excitement that gets em to eat.

I throw a carolina rig a lot, year round and I am very comfortable with using it in many scenarios. The only thing you can do wrong is not throw it, for shorter leaders - 18-24 inches youre fine with a 7ft medium heavy rod with 14-17lbs mainline and a 12-14lb mono leader. I have found that a longer leader leads to more bites on my lake, I usually start at 36 inches and go up, in the summer a 5 foot leader is not uncommon for me, I use a 7'3 heavy with 16lb mainline and 14lb mono leader, 1oz weight is my go to but sometimes ill use a 3/4th if im not getting as many bites with the larger weight. I suggest starting out with a 24 inch leader when youre learning as you get lots of bites with it as well as its easier to cast and doesnt snag as much in shallower water, also until you get comfortable throwing one i would use a 1/2 or 3/4th weight

Yea I’ve captained 4 tournaments since I graduated and it’s so hard to sit in a seat for 7 hrs and keep your mouth shut but like you said rules are rules and if you’re gonna break em… Turn the dang go pro off!

That was my point though long winded and a rant the anglers who are out there to compete and get better don’t get much out of a tournament where they had little to no part in making the decisions for the day. I have no Ill will towards the anglers or boat captain I just feel as though rules were bent or broken in an attempt to help the anglers win

Yes every tournament trail I fished with a boat Captain was allowed to offer up options or give advice but not supposed to be the one making the decisions on where to fish or what to throw, in several instances he very clearly was telling them what to throw or getting them a different colored worm out or even tying on lures for them which is 100% against the rules, it’s more frustrating knowing that these kids are out there to compete and unknowingly their captain is giving them an advantage over others, obviously the execution is down to them and throughout the day they post fish that might have positioned them better but more so it’s shame on the boat captain because if they were to get in trouble it would be on the kids and not the captain I did participate in this tournament trail However I’m not sure if In the last two years they have changed the rules about what boat captains are allowed to do, there were several more instances where he was tying on baits for them or telling them what baits to throw where, which technically it’s not against the rules but the kids are supposed to be making their own decisions on the water. As for the captain tying on lures for the kids it’s definitely not allowed as the anglers are supposed to be able to make changes and adjustments themselves, the only exception is if the boat captain has to pick out a backlash or tie a knot the angler who he’s helping must sit in the boat and not fish. However in the video the captain was grabbing rods and retying while both kids are fishing. I fished high school for 2 years and I understand that stuff like this is going to happen and that most of the time the kids who won the local event 9 times outta 10 had a hired captain to take them out, it’s part of the sport but I sure wish the captains would take some accountability and do the ethical and responsible thing. It’s pretty clear however ethics and responsibility is a dying breed now

Im sitting at my desk tying up some jigs and as per usual just watching some Youtube in the background (fishing of course) and this particular video is a video of some highschool anglers who are fishing a tournament on one of my "home" lakes. As i'm listening to them talking while fishing the one angler mentions several times about practice fish which in even in high school circuits is allowed but there are some rules to it, each organization is different but from my recollection when I was fishing high school the Boat captain wasn't allowed to officially practice for the tournament without his anglers being with him. However as the video goes on one of the anglers says "so when you were practicing here is this one of the spots where you sent me the pics of the fish" and then several minutes later at a different spot he asks the boat captain "is this is the point you caught the big one off last week". So I would have to assume that the kids were not fishing with him while he practiced for the tournament. Obviously we all know what assuming makes you but with the language used its pretty indicative they were unable to practice with their boat captain. As i mentioned earlier I fished in highschool as well as a matter of fact the first time I ever bass fished was in 2017 when I was a sophomore in highschool, I practiced with my partner and boat captain for almost every tournament the weekend before if possible and if not possible we just showed up and fished, no skipping school or leaving classes early I just played the cards I was dealt. My whole point about this rant is that I feel its not only unfair to the kids who parents or boat captain cant afford or unable to take them to practice for a tournament but its also unfair to these young anglers. They obviously have a skilled boat captain who was able to put in the time and money into practicing and providing them the ability to fish but with that comes the fact that the kids just showed up and used what he told them and where he took them. Sure they could have learned from their day of fishing but at the end of the day their captain was telling them what to throw and where while also taking them to spots that he found, Obviously its 10x harder to try to get on the water while you're still in school but the fact that their tournament day was more of a guide trip and less of a learning experience for the kids involved through no fault of their own. Perhaps i'm just a little salty because I was regularly fishing these tournaments against kids who parents were local sticks who could take 2-3 days off to practice for their kids tournaments. Im just curious what others might think of this... oh and no practice didnt keep me from winning two state championships and a trip to the nattys

Had a question about being able to connect my garmin and lowrance units so i could share way points, my boat mechanic brought it up one time that there was a way to do it but i forgot what he said i needed. Im sure one of yall could point me in the right direction... if its even possible to do so! Any help is greatly appreciated!

Nc used to make tire reefs in their lakes for years, some local lakes have tire reefs that are legitimately 30 feet wide by 100 feet long, and 25+lb bags get caught out of them several times a year, whatever they might leech out certainly doesnt seem to keep the fish away Edit: the tires have been in the lake for approaching 40 years not legal in many places but most of my local lakes have tire reefs all thru them, some are 30+years old, fish love them.. especially big catfish in the winter and mid summer, bass love em too if theyre in the right places

hands down the best one ive read so far, thanks for the laughs?

That seemed to be the general consensus with my group of friends as well

This is a just for fun poll, asked this same questions to a group of my buddies and had a pretty unanimous vote. Just figured it would be a fun 24hr poll, Im curious on who you think would come out on top, obviously there are uncontrollable elements which make a poll like this tricky (line breaking, fish jumping off, etc.) but in a perfect scenario where both fisherman had "perfect" days who would you put your money on to find the quality and make the little tweaks necessary to win. I expect we could all behave like adults and not insult and throw names at one another... So im gonna ask that you keep comments about your opinion to yourself and not argue if someone posts their opinion I also realize that these are only two fisherman out of the hundreds of amazing fishermen in the sport, I chose these two as they are who I am most familiar, if you would like to see some more polls put some suggestions in the replys about face offs and we'll see what the most popular pair is.

So I had a quite the experience the other day, I was tying my boat up for weigh in at a tournament when another angler from a different boat fell out of his boat, he was a pretty hefty dude and I have a built in ladder in my triton so I helped him climb in my boat and sit down to catch his breath. When he was finally calm enough to get back up he stepped out of my boat and onto the dock, however when he did this he apparently by mistake stepped on the handle of my Nrx spinning rod which I wasnt aware of at the time and didnt find out about until around an hour later when putting my rods back in the locker. The handle didnt snap but in the part between the reel seat and the cork on the butt of the rod was squished and cracked, its not a terrible crack but if I squeeze it between my fingers I can get the graphite to move. My question is, is there a way to fix this and if there is I would like to know how to go about it, and if there is no fix for this could I possibly just put some quality epoxy to cover the cracks and "seal" them? I have made several phone calls to loomis and have got nothing but hold music or random disconnects so im about ready to cross their customer service off my list. Any help is much appreciated

So over the winter i had the same idea, took a rebel pop'r, in the 5/16th oz size and I placed a number 4 bladed treble on it, tried one on the back first and though the weight change wasn't that significant it made the bait sit almost vertical on top of the water so only the mouth was visible from the boat, didn't seem to have much if any effect (aka Couldnt get a bite). Then on the same popr I put the bladed treble on the front hook and put a mustad size 6 on the rear to much greater effect. Heres some observations I made about the placement on the front of the bait 1. the slight weight addition did seem to make the bait cast slightly easier on baitcasting tackle. 2. With more weight in the front I found that working it slow in a pop-pause-pop cadence and letting the bait settle after each pop was best 3. Loudest pops were when on a slack line you popped your rodtip down so that just at the end of the motion the line would come tight and make the bait move, if you moved slowly it produced a big bubble and "bloop" sound and if it was a faster pop it sounded almost identical to a bream coming and smacking the top of the water. 4. Got in my pool while having my younger brother work the bait under me, the most important thing I noticed was that tiny little blade never stopped moving, even when it was sitting on slack line it swung and spun around slightly but the flash it put off was very noticeable for the size of the blade. It was blue bird skies when we tried this and the only two parts of the chrome/blue colored Popr was the flash of the blade and the red mouth. So that gives you perspective on to how much that tiny blade stood out. 5. I tried modifying a Popr to get it to walk by sanding down the sides of the face of the bait as well as the bottom lip, this worked with replacement non bladed hooks but when I added bladed hooks to either the front or the back it added too much weight and on the "walking" retrieve it would dive under the water. NOTE... - I was using a 6'6 medium action baitcasting rod with 12lb biggame mono as my line, have not tried on braid to leader on on a spinning rod.

I know you already have had your question answered but in the future if you have any other questions about your boat your best bet is to look up your closest dealer and give them a call, with the whole white river marine group being a mess with the merging of ranger and triton customer service along with their other brands (and they just bought hatteras boats) its much easier to call your local dealer or even the power pro service center of the closest cabelas or bass pro. I've worked in the power pro center previously and we had lots of complaints over long wait times from corporate so we tell all of our customers even if they didnt buy the boat from us its just best to give their nearest boat dealer a call, whether its us or another service center its much less hassle than trying to hear back from corporate

Recently made a trip to Pennsylvania to see some family and friends and I found myself wandering through a bunch of tackle shops I used to visit before I had ever even used lures ( I grew up walleye and crappie fishing), I found all sorts of neat old baits that I happily bought up as I'm now addicted to bass fishing ?. I just have some questions about some of the lures I found that I cant seem to find much or any info on at all online, any help is greatly appreciated. The picture is of some baits called Class Tackle Wooden baits, couldnt find any info online but I do know they were made out of Fort Myers florida. I also found some Uncle josh Ripple wizard pork chunk baits, in tequilla sunrise and chartreuse silver fleck Also found were two discontinued rapala crankin raps, one is the CRR-10 aka a 10 foot diver in the color "shad", the other is a CRR-5 in the "hot olive" color a black/ greenish back with chart. sides and orange belly. Not sure if my last two are rare or even that unique but I found two old Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps in the old school plastic box package with the paper on the inside with the little paragraph about the bait and its design and whatnot, one of them is a silver with black around the eyes and the other is a very cool color that reminds me of the modern "fire craw" color, its orange body with a black back but has black dots and emerald green flake on the back and spread out on the sides, cant find a picture of it anywhere on the internet but I imagine its a good color or maybe even a sought after color. I would love to attach pictures of all the baits but even with taking 3 programming and ap coding classes in school I cant figure out how to work this dang picture Uploading system ? so I just have the pictures of the class baits

i have a 2007 tr-186 with a 150 optimax on it, I know the boat setups are slightly different and different year models but I am loving my triton, ive had her out on Lake Norman and we were in 3-4ft wind blown white caps and with careful running we were able to get to our spots safe and as dry as you can be in those kind of waters, she handles well and fishes two people with ease and ive had 3 people fishing in it just fine as well. I think you will love your triton and make sure to keep us updated once you get it!

This spring/summer I'm looking to head up to NW Pennsylvania to do some bass fishing, Im looking at mainly fishing Conneaut lake, possibly Pymatuning, and Wilhelm or woodcock if I could find a buddy with a boat that is 20hp or less. Ill also probably take my boat (18ft Triton with 150) up into Presque isle to do some smallie fishing. If anyone has any experience on those lakes that would be awesome, im just wondering if I try to have my trip earlier in the year and catch the prespawn phase or if I go later and try to hit the end of the spawn and post spawn. Any info or advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you for the input I have a few old old st Croix panfish rods (my great grandad got them some time in the 70s) I am partial to those rods for panfish and truly think they make a remarkable rod, I have yet to handle one of their bass specific spinning rods though. I was impressed by their baitcasters in the mojo line up though, I will certainly check them out. I have a friend who has the 702sf and it handled shaky heads nicely as I recall, I will have to look into it ?

I am currently in the market for a new spinning rod, i'm looking for a lighter rod as I already have a 7'2 med heavy spinning rod I use for my big shaky heads when i'm fishing deep and what not, I'm looking for a general rod I can throw everything from a dropshot to a ned rig and a small shaky head (1/8 to 1/4) I have been looking at the ducket micro magic pro, which ive heard both good and bad things about, ive also been looking at G.Loomis e6x spinning rods but im not sure I will really use this rod enough to drop 190 on it. Ive considered the falcon bucoo sr's and the Jason Christie signature series but I have no experience with those rods. I would like to keep the price below 160 if possible. Any and all suggestions are welcome! Thank you, Austin

Thank you to everyone who has responded, everyone’s input is much appreciated, like I said I have never been able to afford higher end tackle and I don’t really know what to expect with a more expensive rod, I’m really wanting something light and easy to handle but sensitivity is huge to me I’m sick of not having the sensitivity to detect subtle bites and I truly believe that my lower quality equipment has kept me from catching fish and has cost me money in my tournaments.