JHoss

A MD DNR biologist did a study on this year's results and presented at the Black Bass Symposium. Roughly half the time it helped catch more fish and half the time it didn't. Half the time it caught bigger fish and half the time it didn't. This is absolutely true and something I think a lot of people don't realize before they make that transition. You have to love figuring out the puzzle more than catching the fish. The bigger the water, the harder the puzzle usually.

I think this is the first thing I "learned" with my scope. I could compare how much life was in one area vs another relatively quickly and eliminate water quickly. But that's also very easily doable with traditional down or side imaging, so not like it gives some crazy advantage there. 100% agree. Then I got it and was humbled in a hurry.

Probably so. And his existing knowledge of where to find them would help tremendously. But, some well respected anglers out there in CA are reporting the fish getting wise to it in certain lakes. They say they either have to stay much farther away than usual or turn the beam off entirely.

I usually start with 8-12 rods on the deck with everything from a buzzbait to a drop shot. I'm picking up a different rod every 1-20 casts until I start to get it dialed. Once I have them figured out I may throw one bait the rest of the day with an occasional cast with something else to keep em honest.

I have a 14 ft boat with FFS (LVS32) but no SpotLock. I do believe upgrading the boat, FFS system, and adding SpotLock would help ME catch more. A bigger, better boat would allow me to travel further, get places faster, and handle worse weather. Yes, there would be times I'd catch less not being able to access some hard-to-reach water I like to fish, but overall I think the pros outweigh the cons. Upgrading the transducer and screens would enhance the skills I've already developed with it. Not drifting off a spot while I rerig or weigh fish would obviously help. I adamantly believe that FFS will NOT help someone catch more fish who has no experience with it. In fact, they'll catch fewer because they don't know what they're doing and will just get distracted by it. I've had it for a year and a half now and have used it every time I've fished. I can think of one day where I can honestly say I caught significantly more fish because of it- fishing in 2 ft of water, perspective mode allowed me to see fish swimming between cypress trees and cover more water not flipping every tree. More often than not, I hurt myself by getting distracted by something on the scope when I'm fishing traditionally, and 95 times out of 100 I just waste time messing with it. It doesn't help me catch more fish because I have not dedicated enough time to practicing with it. And by that I mean going out with no other objective than to practice scope/fishing for fish I see on scope. We see these pros who dominate with it, but forget they spent tens of thousands of hours practicing with it to get that good. It's like saying "I could remove someone's gallbladder if I had one of those fancy surgery robots" but never having gone to med school. Can scope help people catch more fish? 1000%, but not until they've done the work to master it. Honestly, if someone on here believes they'd just hop on a boat with scope and instantly be able to catch fish with it, come down and fish with me. I'll sit in the back while you use it as long as you don't mind the smug, "I was right" grin on my face.

I'm looking for the least pressured water I can find. Around here, the fish have been beat on for 7 months and seen more lures than the "Bait Monkey Support Group" thread on these forums. If you can find a section of the lake that's hard to access and most people avoid, you'll find fish that are a little more catchable than the rest of the population.

My preferred hook 90% of the time is a Mustad Grip Pin EWG. I use the standard ones any time I'm fishing it on a bait caster and the fine wire version any time I'm fishing it on a spinning rod. I think the fine wire penetrates more easily with spinning rods that tend to be lighter than casting. Granted I don't have the opportunity to punch thick mats or catch 12 pounders around here, but I've yet to straighten one out.

Back in the day, a guide friend of my dad's told me "there's no such thing as luck. Only skill, wit, and determination." While I don't believe luck has nothing to do with it, I think the top anglers make their own luck more often than not. There's a reason you see a lot of the same names at the top of tournament leaderboards again and again.

4 lbs is about what I was thinking.

Is nobody gonna point out that fish isn't anywhere close to sniffing 7 lbs??

I assume it's the same everywhere, but here on the coast the best time to buy is late fall/early winter and the worst is in the spring. Lots of boats on the market when the season is wrapping up and lots of demand for boats when we start getting into the next season. That's for used. My dad got a crazy deal on a boat 20 years ago when a local dealer was going out of business and sold everything that was left in an auction.

I've been rigging them the same way basically. I'll experiment with that retrieve next time I try them. It's similar to how I've fished them wacky/neko. I've heard that pulse of water when you move it is what triggers most bites. Probably just need some more time tossing it.

Where in the country are you? I've been trying to get the dice baits to work all summer and have only caught a handful of bass on them. For any of the BFS guys, does the drop shot create a bunch of line twist? I don't like casting a line-to-leader knot through casting rod guides, so I'd want to throw it on 10-12 lb straight fluoro.

Don't forget to account for the extra "give" in your hookset when they kayak moves a bit. I had a hard time getting used to that when I started kayak bassing. Reeling into them while setting the hook was the most effective for me.

I've probably got some lead 3/16's but will order some Tungstens to test out. I agree that shortening the weight line would help, but I wonder how far off the bottom a 4" line gets your bait when it's 30 yards out in 2 ft of water.

Maybe not side-by-side for all of them, but some. The ones that haven't been side-by-side tested, have gone through many rounds of experimentation. Let's talk plastic craws for instance. I've easily tested 30+ varieties from Yum to Megabass. I'll cycle through multiple varieties in a trip to try and settle on the best one. After doing that 10 or 20 times, I start to see a pattern that X model catches more or bigger fish than Y model 80% of the time. Once I've found that pattern, I'll remove the inferior ones from the rotation and focus on the 2 or 3 "best" ones come tournament time. For my standard "flapping craw" style, I started with things like Yum Christy Craws, Bandito Bugs Zoom Speed Craws. After a year or so of figuring it out, I settled on Zoom Z craws. Those got phased out by Rapala Cleanup Craws. At some point Rage Bugs got tested and became a confidence bait so they're still in the mix in certain situations. I'm currently testing MaxScent Crud Craws and they seem like they may have their own place in the rotation.

This is standard for me whenever I can. I probably just need more practice with the spinning gear to get better at it. This is something I've been considering. The only catch I see is when I'm fishing it in more open water and want to avoid the pendulum effect. You're probably right. I mostly do that for the versatility. I can go from fishing in 2 ft to hitting a brush pile in 20 feet without any re-rigging. Often times I'm forced to go to 1/4 to maintain good contact in the wind. But next time, I'll try going to down to 1/8 and see if I can get away with it. I'll almost always try that first. Sometimes I find they really want it suspend it, though.

Baits are the big ones for me. I'll gladly spend twice as much on one brand's version of a bait if I'm confident it will outperform another's.

I'll take my co in to get a snagged lure 95% of the time. The biggest thing I want my co to do is tell me immediately when they're hung so I don't get us even further away. I'm with @Logan S that not everything deserves to be recovered. The main reasons I won't go back for a lure is if it'll ruin a spot, we don't have the time (tournament is about to end and we need to get back NOW), if it will pose a risk to my equipment, or if they keep doing it. I've fished with a new co this year who is remarkably good at getting a weightless texas rigged senko hung up. It's usually because he forgets to check his hook point is buried before a cast. After I've reminded him a dozen times and he keeps getting stuck, I stop going back for all of them. Gotta teach him to pay attention somehow.

This is probably a dumb question, but does anyone have any weird tips to get a drop shot to hit the water more quietly. Specifically when fishing shallow cover like cypress and docks. I have some success slowing or stopping the cast like I do flipping a bait caster, but can't get anywhere near that consistency/accuracy with spinning gear. 90% of the time I'm throwing a finesse worm on a 1/0 EWG about 8-12" above a 1/4 ounce tungsten drop shot weight. I know I'm missing fish when I splash that thing right on their heads in 2 ft of water.

I think the DXB that A-Jay and I fish are technically composite rods as they claim to use a little graphite for reinforcement. It does behave like a glass rod IME. I throw it on straight fluoro without issues. Using the "reel set" that @WRB-2.0 mentioned must make up for the softness of the glass because I have better hooking/landing percentages on this rod than any other I've tried.

Agreed with Logan. Unless you're setting up a major tournament trail, I wouldn't expect to make anything. And if you do start trying to turn a profit, you're done fishing that trail due to the conflict of interest. Seen plenty of guys try to fish in a trail they run and there's always issues and drama with it.

If they aren't in direct contact with regular plastisol baits, there shouldn't be any melting issues. I do see them melt from much less heat than traditional plastisol baits.

This is also the exact rod I throw my chatters on. I believe I picked it up for $80 from TW after Christmas a few years ago. A bit heavier than I prefer, but it keeps em hooked.

This makes sense as birds are one of the top predators for bass. I think my first instinct would be to take cover any time a shadow passed over if I was worried about being an Osprey's lunch. Slightly unrelated but interesting tip. One of the top speckled trout guys in our area uses Ospreys to help locate monster trout. His logic is that if you see one hovering in one spot but not committing to the dive, it's probably looking at a fish that it deems too big to eat. In the winter time he catches big fish in shallow water doing this. I wonder if it would work for bass on beds too.