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Looks pretty cool. But I bet I could get an aluminum bass boat for less.

In most things outside of the scientific community, language is fluid. Words aren't chosen to limit confusion, but rather to push sales. And you'll make more sales by confirming to customers what they already want to believe than you will by teaching them complex new words and concepts. If you think that's bad, don't pick up guitar. It's bad enough that there are many terms that are coherent within the guitar community are completely at odds with their more scientific definitions. What's worse is you've got many examples of the same word taking on completely different meanings from different companies within the guitar world! Like what Fender calls "tremolo" most other brands call "vibrato" and vice-versa.

Yeah, that's usually what you have to do. Often, if you don't sign it, they'll ask you to come pick your boat up and take it somewhere else, where you'll likely have to sign the same waiver. But, as you said, that's what your insurance is for. And if your insurance company feels that that storage company should be held liable, they'll do all the court stuff and it'll be a lot easier on you.

I don't like to fish within shouting distance of anyone else. To me, if you can hear them, you can be scaring their fish away. So I always keep a healthy distance, as much as possible. Though I have noticed quite a few boaters that just don't care about others. Not all. Not even most. But still, quite a few. Whether I'm fishing from a bank or from my kayak, I've ran into more than my fair share who have no qualms about trying to crowd you out. And some that even put me in dangerous situations for no reason, other than they just didn't care. It's just the world we live in now, and it doesn't have anything to do with owning a boat. There's just an increasing number of people who can't see anything from anyone else's perspective but their own. To them, you're the problem, just because you exist for reasons other than to benefit them. Sad. But the best way to fight it is to be the example you wish others would follow.

Depth. Same as crankbaits. All I need to know is what box to pull out. From there, I can find what I'm looking for.

I'm sure most of us, if not all of us, will agree that casting accuracy is important. The reason why it doesn't get mentioned much is, what can you say about it? The answer to pretty much any "how can I cast more accurately" question is gonna be "practice more".

How to DIY something that works half as well and costs twice as much as a commonly available product.

I just plastic weld them. I grab a cheap soldering iron that I only use for plastics, and just trace along the edges. It'll instantly melt the plastic, and two seconds later, it'll act like it's all made from one piece of plastic. Don't use a good or powerful soldering iron for this. You'll ruin it for anything other than plastic. Just get a cheap one from Harbor Freight or whatever, and hang on to it. Once you figure out how to weld plastic, you'll find it indispensable.

No doubt. And personally, I'd be much happier with limits imposed on specific lakes. I know for a fact that the water quality, and the quality of the fish themselves, can shift to the extremes when moving from one lake to the next, even if they're just a few miles apart. Like at Draper, my local lake, they recommend you not eat more than two LMB per month! Yet, just a few miles away, there are several lakes without any such limits. Of course, these limitations are not posted anywhere on the lake, and they're pretty difficult to find online. So you almost have to know about it ahead of time to even think to look it up. You have to go to the OK DEQ website to find out which fish you can eat: https://www.deq.ok.gov/state-environmental-laboratory-services/environmental-public-health-information/healthy-fish-consumption-in-oklahoma/consumption-recommendations/ Yet all of the information on what size and how many fish you can CATCH, plus all of the other fishing regulations, licensing, and fishing reports is on the ODWC website: https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing Same thing with fish sizes. I know in most of lakes I fish near OKC, catching a fish above 16" is very rare. Less than 1 in 100. But if you drive another hour or so outside of town, away from all of the people, it's generally a lot more common. So whatever their reasoning behind this, I'm all for some regulation, as it's clearly needed in certain areas. I just wish they wouldn't apply it as a blanket rule across the entire state.

I'm betting the real reason for these limits is not to protect the fish populations, but rather to protect the people eating the fish from overexposure to toxic chemicals. The older and larger a fish gets, the more toxic chemicals it absorbs. And while some lakes are fairly safe, many in Oklahoma are very, very bad. My brother very briefly worked for the OK Dept. of Water Quality, and he has lots of horror stories about how if a water supply failed a test due to some toxic chemical, they were more likely to just remove that chemical from the list of dangerous chemicals than confront the company dumping those chemicals into the water. Or if they couldn't, they'd redefine a territory to take water samples from other sources to average them out, so the numbers wouldn't look so bad.

Braid to leader: FG or Double Uni if in a hurry. Braid: Fish N Fool Fluorocarbon and copoly: Berkely Braid knot Mono: Trilene knot or Fish N Fool Bonus knots: Non-Slip Loop knot for crankbaits sans snap, Palomar for snaps, Arbor knots for spools, snell knot if appropriate and double overhand to secure the weight on a drop shot.

Here's this photo of Kristine Fischer standing on the bow of her Hobbie. I can't help but think there's no way I could do that. Even if balance wasn't an issue, I'm positive it would cause that thing to nose dive and slide me off the front. There are some people out there with extraordinary balance. If you want to see something really crazy, check out Red Panda. She makes her living doing halftime performances at NBA games. I've been lucky enough to see her a few times. It's the only half time performance you'd rather miss part of the game to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKD_vR5NFb4

Did you swap out the hooks and forget about it? Otherwise, besides water temperature, other chemicals in the water can effect it's density and thus the buoyancy of your lure. Salt will especially make the water less dense. And water runoff can pick up all kinds of chemicals on its long journey to the lake, which in small amounts may not effect the fish, but might still effect the buoyancy of a lure that's just on the edge of suspension.

It's work. But I wouldn't consider it exercise. To me, exercise is something that gets your heart rate up. I generally fish smaller bodies of water with just a paddle. That can be a bit of exercise, but not good exercise, as I'm usually only paddling TO a spot. So I rarely get my heart rate up and keep it there for extended periods of time. And even those bursts of exercise aren't typically high energy. On larger bodies of water, I'll bring along my trolling motor. Now that sounds like it won't be much work, just sitting back and letting the motor do the work. But it's actually more work than you think. On the larger bodies of water, I have to deal with much stronger waves, which means I'm constantly readjusting my center of gravity. Plus the added weight of load in and load out. After 6-8 hours of fishing, it really wears me down. But I wouldn't consider that exercise, because only the loading raises my heart rate, and even then, not by much or for very long. Now, on a few occasions, I've been stuck in unexpected bad weather and had to paddle my way back against the wind and current. Fighting 40+mph headwinds and white caps is exercise by any definition.

I've got a wheel on my keel at the stern, and that whole assembly is replaceable. So that's not really an issue for me. But I do have tape on the bow of my keel because I'm always loading and unloading in strong winds on gravel or concrete, and it'll wear a hole through the bottom pretty quick if you don't do something. Most of our lakes are surrounded by dense forest, so typically the only access will be the boat launch. I use about three layers of Gorilla tape on the bow. It's waterproof. And while it doesn't last that long, I can get a half season out of it. Plus, it's something I already have on hand, and is easy to remove and replace.

I too haven't noticed a big difference with rattles in jigs. I think in dirtier water, you just have to cast better, to get it closer to the bass. They'll still bite a jig in muddy water. I usually focus more on color in dirty water than sound, with jigs anyway. Black and blue seems to work well. I feel like the tiny beads in glass tubes that you push into plastic trailers work better than big rattles. They're not as loud, but as someone else put it, they sound more like crayfish feet walking on rocks than big rattles. But maybe that's just been a coincidence or confirmation bias. If they do work better, it's not by a lot.

Used cat litter boxes. But not the kind that clumps and reduces the smell. You want it to stink. If the barn or garage smells like a cat den, they'll avoid it. Of course, then you've got a boat that smells like a used cat box. So there are tradeoffs to be had. But you won't kill the neighbors dog with it.

I try to keep the bait monkey in check, so I don't own a million lures. I do, however, take everything I own with me, every time I go out in my kayak. That all fits in a tackle bag that carries 7-3600 boxes, plus a few other pockets. I also bring six rods, which is as many as I can fit. My kayak is my only boat, so I'm not kayaking to be a minimalist. I'm kayaking to get off the bank, without getting divorced. I'll often bank fish on my lunch break at work. In that case, I'll just bring one rod and one, maybe two baits. That's my minimalist adventure.

I've owned a BPS Tourney Special. The blank is decent (for the money), but not extremely durable. And the line guides are terrible. I'd pass on that one. Really, the cheapest BPS rod I'd consider is the Fish Eagle. It's just slightly over your budget, but in my opinion, well worth the extra $10. Or wait until there's a sale.

Nah. They're pretty much the same. There's very little difference in diameter. I can't say why I chose 10#, other than since I new I was going to be using 6# leaders, 10# was plenty. I have another, similar rod set up for drop shots and such that uses 20# that I've fished Ned rigs on as well. I consider the fact that one has hi-viz yellow color and the other moss green color much more important than the difference between the pound test.

UV and ozone are what is gonna kill a trailer tire. So how much life they have left in them will likely have a lot to do with how much time they spent outside, exposed to the elements. Also, the quality of the tire will play a large role. Good quality tires have a lot of an anitozonant chemical mixed in with the rubber. This protects the tire from ozone and UV light. Poor quality tires won't have as much. So higher quality tires can last quite a bit longer than cheaper ones. So, they might be fine, and they might need to be replaced. The only way to know is to have a qualified tire specialist inspect them. Of course, these guys usually sell tires, so there is a conflict of interest. But at least you know if they say the tires are fine, you can probably trust them.

It depends on the lake. In the summer, you'll have vegetation and a thermocline, and that will effect where the fish hold up. In the winter, you usually don't have those, so it can change where the fish go. However, sometimes things align so that the good spots in deep water in the summer are also good in the winter. On the local lake I most frequent, they are not the same. In the summer, they'll all be at the same depth, right above the thermocline, all over the lake. Anywhere there's good structure and deep water access at that depth. In the winter, they'll almost always be near the dam because that's where the water is pumped in, and the water gets warmed up on it's way in (it travels about 100 miles through underground pipes to feed the reservoir). That's for the deep water bass. There are always some bass that hang out in the shallows all year long, so they don't count.

Remember, that's max diving depth that's listed. If you take a crankbait and reel it in with your rod tip high up in the air, it's won't dive nearly as deep. Probably anything that says it dives to around 3' could be kept at around 1' or so with your rod tip held up high on retrieve. If need be, you could pause it every once in a while to let it float back up and keep it shallow. Or try a floating jerk bait or wake bait. Also look at soft swimbaits and flukes with a weighted swimbait hook. They'll protect the hook from vegetation and can be retrieved at any depth.

10# hi-viz braid to about 10 feet of 6# fluoro leader. Several reasons for this. One, I don't like fluoro on spinning reels. Braid just casts better, in my opinion. Two, braid comes in bright colors, making it easier to see your line. Three, I get hung up a lot, and having such thin fluoro will stretch it out and weaken it. So it's nice to be able to cut off a large section of line often, without having to respool often, as once fluoro stretches, it doesn't shrink back. And four, fluoro sinks better and provides, in my opinion, better action on a light Ned rig. Plus, fluoro is less visible, though that's not usually a concern in the waters I fish. As for rods, a ML/F rod is all that really matters. I know sensitivity is important, but with a ML rod, even the cheaper ones tend to be sensitive enough for my needs. I use a Cabela's Fish Eagle for my Ned rig rod, and have no problems feeling what kind of bottom I'm on. ML is about as light as I'll go for bass fishing, just as a general rule. I don't really trust anything lighter.

You just need to experiment to find out what works. Keep in mind that with different hooks, lines, rods, distances (amount of line you have out), species of fish, size and age of the fish, and your technique, you'll need to adjust your hookset. Any one of those variables can change how much power you need to set the hook. I do think a lot of the guys on TV over exaggerate their hookset. But then again, they're probably thinking it's better to do too much than too little. Too heavy of a hookset, and you'll tear a hole in the fish's mouth. But it's still possible to reel them in with constant pressure, so long as they don't get a chance to throw the hook. Too light of a hookset, and it won't penetrate properly. And those are a lot harder to reel in without freeing the hook. Small, think hooks, will sometimes hook themselves without a hookset. Big, thick hooks sometimes need a ton of force to penetrate their mouths. Anything in between is somewhere between. At the end of the day, it just comes down to experience and losing enough fish in the past that you know what not to do.