@reelChris

It should be noted that the voltage readings on the screen of a fish finder with power wires that small in gauge are generally about half a volt low than if read at the battery with a meter. So, if your Garmin is showing 12.3 v on a fresh charged battery, that's normal, as it's probably 12.7-12.8 at the battery.

Last week I watched a school of juvenile bass, about 7" long that were suspended about 1' below the surface. They were so aggressive, they were coming up and biting my braided line floating on the surface.

Every time I try and run a spinner bait down a weed line I can either see on a graph or with my eyes, I cast out and end up in the weeds themselves. Then, I spend the rest of the cast tearing it out, reeling a little, getting caught in more weeds, tearing it out, reeling...etc. How do you find clear water between heavy weeds to run those things through?

Fished a tournament today. Had 3 in the livewell by 10 and 5 eventually for a total weight of 8lbs. All were caught in less than 4 feet of 74 degree water. With the new switch set to run the inlet pump for 1 minute on, 3 minutes off, all five were strongly kicking by weigh in and swam off when released.

Today I installed this timer switch for my live well. It worked as advertised during a sea test. Any fish I catch Sunday will give me a chance to test it in a tournament setting.

Here's what I've observed: 1) Bait selection is the least important part of dock fishing. That being said, soft plastics are better than hard baits, but color isn't super important. You're fishing the definition of a reaction bite. If you can get the bait under there, and bass are present, they'll bite as long as you don't make a giant commotion - e.g. I've never gotten a bite skipping a buzz toad under a dock. 2) Dock selection is the most important part of dock fishing. Wider docks in the shadows in at least 4-5 feet of water with some weeds around/under them are much more likely to hold quality fish than skinny, shallow docks over featureless bottom. 3) Although docks are good targets, skipping way under pontoon boats usually produces better for me. 4) If you feel bluegill bites or pick up a rock bass, the dock doesn't have any good bass under it. Maybe bass coexist with those other species in such small areas, but I've never seen it. Maximize your efficiency by reeling up at the first tic of a bluegill and find a better dock; and finally 5) Dock fishing is a numbers game. You're better off picking a lure you can reliably cast/skip where you want it and maximizing bites instead of trying to select for big fish.

Easily my favorite is a 6" roboworm in morning dawn. After that I like KVD dream shots in green pumpkin purple and in third place, watermelon seed zoom flukes. I'm not a fan of how delicate the dream shot and flukes are but they do produce. Am I the only one that can't get a bite on the maxscent flat worm even though the shape is basically the same as the dream shot??

Thanks all,. What I'm hearing is the ice isn't doing anything and find a way to freshen the water more often. I'll further investigate switch upgrades.

MN - I like the price but programming that thing seems really complicated, and it doesn't look the electronics are marine rated. I was looking at this one, which would entirely replace the current fill switch being as the first setting is continuous fill: https://www.amazon.com/Leisure-Lectronics-Selectable-Adjustable-Livewell/dp/B07PGMG14S/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=livewell+timer&qid=1659381353&sr=8-4 I'm just not sure how to wire it, but I might be overthinking it. It's possible the wires would just come off the original switch and go onto this one. Tennessee - As far as the freezer packs are concerned, they are relatively new and I have looked for leaks. Plus only one fish seems to die out of the group. The others are always lively and release no problem.

I'd agree except people with recirculating wells had no problems with the same temperature water on the same days. 15 gallons should be sufficient for five two pound fish, and certainly enough for 3.

Three times this season I had a bass die in a 15 gallon live well with a three position switch - Top = live well fill, Middle = Off, Bottom = Bilge pump on. All 3 times I used large freezer ice packs and live well additive but the big fish died each time. Twice there were 3 fish in the well, once there were five. The water was in the upper 70's each time. Throughout each day I ran the livewell fill at least once an hour so that it brought in new water and cycled out some of the old, and the most recent time I ran it every half hour for about 5 minutes but obviously, more needs to be done. Without a recirculate feature, I'd like to add a timer so that the filler runs every 3 or 5 minutes. Is there a way to either split the 3 position switch into two different switches - one for the well and one for the bilge pumps and add a timer for the live well fill or just insert a timer somewhere into the fill circuit?

They do: https://www.tackledirect.com/missile-baits-mbdb45-dstm-d-bomb.html

Instead of making your own mount, you can use this offset transducer mount: https://johnnyraysports.com/product/jr-2-transducer-bracket/ It bolts to the trolling motor shaft and then you simply screw the transducer bracket to the flat part so that it rides parallel to the trolling motor body

I'm interested in hearing more about the technique here. I've had poor results with stakeout poles.

Gluing the bait to the bottom of the jighead definitely makes things better. However, don't try and make a good thing better by trying to glue the body of the bait to the hook. It's nearly impossible, but what's easy is gluing your fingers to the bait and/or hook.

A GT-52 transducer will not fit between the skeg and the prop on smaller trolling motors. Is there an offset mount that would put it next to the trolling motor body to avoid this?

Using the formula above, and the dimensions of the smallest 2022 Bass Tracker, the Pro 170, (L 16' 8", W 6' 5") you get a rating of 125 hp for the hull: (2 x L x W) - 90 (2 x 16.67 x 6.42) - 90 214.04 - 90 = 124.04 Rounding up - 125hp So, is 90 hp too big? Not according to the formula, but the Coast Guard plate disagrees.

I once went to untangle a wacky worm that took a bad skip and wrapped around a dock line. The rod the worm was tied to had ended up stretched from the deck to gunnel. A small misstep and it was half as long. It wasn't expensive but it was my favorite spinning rod and I had caught a lot of fish with it. I tried to find another one but couldn't. It was probably for the best, though because I'll always remember it as better than it may have actually been.

Fenders are great for long term storage but take up a lot of room. Dock sticks are almost as good and take up very little room. Both work best if you tie up using spring lines to limit fore and aft movement. Dock stick:

I'm pretty sure newer Mac computers can run ios apps. Check the app store.

How did you find anything to order? It looks like basically everything is out of stock.

I've lost enough rod covers that I want them cheap enough that they're basically disposable. Usually you can get 10 for $20-25 on ebay.

I've been using braid with leaders for a while but I want to give straight fluorocarbon a try. I'm tired of braid stealing 25% of the depth of my cranks and I'd like to see if the number of bites I get goes up with straight flour. I have the following rods: 1) Fury 733; 2) Med Hvy Lew's cranking stick 7'2"; and 3) Medium heavy mojo bass. and the following fluoro line: 18 lb Sniper 180 yd spool 15 lb Lin 90 yds 12 lb Lin 90 yds 10 lb Sniper 180 yd I want to set up one rod for <12 foot cranks & jerkbaits, one for deep cranks (DT 14-22 and deep Berkley Dredgers) and one for general med heavy stuff like jigs, texas rigs and chatter baits. I don't think splitting a 90 yard spool onto two reels will make them useful for very long, so I'm thinking 12lb for the 733, 15 for the deep crank and 18 for the general med heavy. Does that make sense, or should the deep crank have 18 and the general rod 15? I fish around a lot of weeds and rocks but very rarely wood. I also hate breaking off crankbaits, which is why I used braid for so long.

I would try parking in deeper water facing the bank at the letter "P" in "WP012" on the first map and casting 4', 6' and 10' diving cranks so that they "swim" down the contour break lines towards deeper water without grinding the muck. I would then try slow retrieving a drop shot rigged creature bait like a small craw or a dream shot down the contour breaks in case they respond to a slower retrieve. If those technique didn't work there, I would try them at the contour breaks south and north of WP012. If you can find weeds in the deeper flats somewhere using sonar, you might try swimming a paddle tail swim bait over, through and around them.

New York seems to be a unique situation: "In New York, manmade boat basins and marinas are considered private property, and public access is left to the discretion of those controlling the land surrounding them. Some allow you to fish, others do not. To avoid any confusion, B.A.S.S. tournament officials posted all Oneida Lake marinas and boat basins off limits. The actual ruling falls under 'permitted fishing locations' and reads, 'Only that water open to ALL public fishing will be considered tournament waters.'" from: https://www.bassmaster.com/blog/whose-water-it-anyway More detail: https://rottenapplesbass.com/index.php/marina-rights-to-restrict-access/ Excerpt: Many will tell you that a marina “doesn’t own the water” and must allow fisherman and boaters “free access for fishing”. However, this is only true in certain situations. Determination is based on certain factors as spelled out in the New York State Supreme court’s decision in Douglaston Manor v. Bahrakis 1997 and current NYDEC OGC-9regulations.