InfantryMP

Chatterbaits, and Wacky rigs are my go to for skipping docks. In the morning I will throw a spook, or a plopper around them as well.

They were also pumping water so there was a ton of current in there, and those bass gravitated to that current. Right place at the right time!

They definitely are not. I have been on the water with mine already, and It it takes a while to figure out casting vs seeing your bait on the Active Target. I could see my jig going up and down very well, when I could find it. My lipless however, I could not see until I was 15ft in front of the boat, but I think my casting was not accurate. It call comes down to point and cast in the same spot every time. These pro's Im sure have logged hundreds of hours with them already, and that is why they are good. I am actually surprised I have not see many of the pro's using the new Ghost 360.

Rob Newel mentioned the anglers saw like 47* temps and were very surprised it was still that cold.

I see a few red cranks being used today. That is going to be a tactic I will employ here on Sunday for my first tournament of the year.

It is not surprising to see Neal doing well already. He is an absolute hammer in all tournaments he fishes.

I have some pegboard in my garage, however typically I will get another 3700 box. For cranks for example, I will start organizing by color and depth if I get to the point I have so many. Then for a specific day, if I want to grab a couple from each, I can do that without bringing out so many 3700's on the boat.

I was at DSG once, and I saw Bass Bombs...it is like a bath bomb but for fish as an attractant. There are a ton of youtube videos about them. I wish they were still around so I could try them out, but I never bought in to the hype of them. I have never used anything besides dipping tails or appendages.

Mine is Aleve, or Tylenol, or something to help my back out after standing for 5 hours straight.

The only thing I do not like about MLF, is when it comes to the championship round and the weights are zero for everyone. You could barely slide in to the championship round, and still come in and have a decent day and win. The guys who had been slaying them all week, could have a couple off moments, and lose. I have never seen another competition where its the 4th quarter, or whatever, and the score is 0-0 starting out. Other than that, I love the MLF format, and the shows, I have no issue with any other show or format.

I tournament fish because of the little bit of competitiveness that comes with it. I am not able to do very athletic sports now, without risking injury etc, so I like the competitiveness that tournament fishing provides me. Additionally, I enjoy being outdoors, and the water is something I grew up around, and so it just fits with my personality.

Yea the availability is a huge thing. If you do not want to order a boat and wait, then it may smart to start looking now. It took me about 3 months to find a boat I was really comfortable with, and the crazy part was it was the last one. The dealer had two identical boats, just different color schemes. When I went to my appointment to check it out, the blue one was on the way out only leaving the one I bought left.

Yea I hear ya. I think I am decent with things, if I start it. I re-wired my old boat's trailer a couple years ago, and that was simple, but I did it from scratch. Trying to decipher other's work is half the battle I think.

Yea this photo may be deceiving. I took this upside down however, the wires were neatly tied together out of the way. There are ton there for sure as there are like 10 switches on my console from the factory. It may not look like it from the angle I took the photo, but it was super easy to get my wire I needed loose. I hate wiring, because I have caveman hands, and sometimes you have to be a bit more finesse with wires and connections. I also tend to clip more wires off then stripping them, again, caveman hands.

It is funny you mention this...The wiring I tied in to was probably a 10 gauge wire or maybe even 8. The fuse wiring was like 16 or 18. The Active Target wiring is also a 16 or 18 gauge wires. I was actually surprised that the wiring to that switch was so big. I am not sure what this means...lol

I thought about this, but my only concern was adding more connections that could fail over time. Since I am not that great with electrical stuff, I did not want to add connections, because if they did fail, it would be because of me. I think I am good now. The test light showed me which wire to connect to, so once I did that, and updated everything it seems to be working fine. I will not know for sure until I water test I guess, hopefully that will be in a few days or so.

Yea I tested the wires with a test light. The red/black is always hot when the boat is receiving power. The red is only hot when the "Sonar" switch is in the on position. I am going to go ahead and run the fuse in line with the switch just in case.

Hey guys! I am finally getting to wire my active target in, and I have a switch at my console for "Sonar". It sends power to my HDS lives. I want to utilize this switch also for my active target. In the image I uploaded, you will see a switch with a solid red wire, and a red/black wire. That is my Sonar switch. Which one of those should I hook to, for the power wire for my active target? Additionally, there is a provided 3amp fuse, do I need that, if my switches are already rand to the boats fuse box? (Sorry, I suck at wiring, and all the shops are months out for installs).

That is an awesome story! I wonder if that is the lake that Miliken fishing has been catching 12's all the time?

Congrats to DC. Glad to see a hometown guy win. The one thing about DC that needs to improve his consistency for sure. I know its tough to do, and I know I would fail horribly at it, but on that level consistency is key.

I am still a noob when it comes to drop shots. I need to get on that early this year. I my tournaments here are often times on crystal clear lakes full of smallmouth. This is a priority for me this year as well!

Believe it or not, I had a tough time with frogs. There are many variations between popping, walking etc. I could never get to a point I was comfortable using them, especially here in Indiana where locally I do not have a ton of floating vegetation like pads. I dedicated some time to it, and got a good walk with them, with the right equipment of course. Now I love throwing frogs, and won a local tournament late last year using a black Vega frog!

No, it looks like a fluke style bait maybe, It is hard to get a good look at it because it is small. Even harder now that the rain is coming down.

It dang near looks like a larger sized crappie plastic on a drop shot. I know he is Googan now, but I do not know what Googan bait that would be if it is Googan.

I just ordered a Duckett rod without ever holding it. I like Duckett rods, and I wanted to give it a try. I do not see anything wrong with it. If you do not like it when you get it, then return it for something different. My only local tackle store does not carry anything but the Wheeler series Duckett rods, so there was no way for me to hold one locally. However, I did hold the Wheeler series rods before I bought them. I have two of them.