a better boat.  Burley and I had a club tourny on Guntersville yesterday and today.  As you can tell we aren't fishing today.    We got into Scottsboro on Thurday and pre-fished and found a pattern we were gonna use on Friday and today.   One big problem we got to the ramp yesterday morning and the weather had turned to garbage.  Wind and rain, rain isn't a problem but the wind kept us off of our pattern and pretty much in my small BassTraker Pro17 kept us off almost all paterns we tried.   We were out for about 2.5 hours and couldn't do much at all that little 40 lb. trolling motor did all it could and we still got blew all over the place.  Headed up into North Sauty and as soon as we crossed the 279 bridge I couldn't even get the boat to plane in those 1'-2' waves so we had to turn around and head back to calmer water.   We got so frustrated and weren't able to get anywhere to fish and the weather report for today wasn't any better and the winds are double what they were yesterday we just decided to leave and come on back to Virginia and beat the snow that was expected here and started this morning (got about 2" so far).

Burley has all the pics and I am sure he will be posting them later.  All in all it was a decent trip we just couldn't do anything with what we had to work with, better to be safe than sorry with the big boat handicap we have.  

just keep in mind, bigger boats cost a LOT more to operate. I dunno'..... maybe you have a lot more money than I do (which wouldn't be hard) but I can "barely" afford to fish all of my days off, in a 14 ft aluminum, with a 25hp motor ! Granted, its my truck that uses most of the gas, but it's only a 4 cylinder Toyota. If I had a big, heavy fiberglass bass boat, then I'd need a bigger truck too ! (at the very least, a stronger, newer one).

Of course I really prefer a smaller, lighter boat anyway {my little 14ft'er is my "dream" trophy bass boat}. What I want is "bigger bass" :-)

Anyway, if you can afford to operate a big, heavy, high-per bass boat, and still fish a LOT, more power to you. Just don't get yourself caught up in the hype and glamour of a big, pretty, fast, bass boat, and then find that you can't afford to fish with it.

Peace,

Fish

PS, Gas will likely hit $4 a gallon before the year is over.... and maybe more than $5 a gallon within the next few !

I have the same boat as you, and two things that make a huge difference are a bigger trolling motor and a drift sock. I ripped thew 37 pound thrust off as soon as I got it and went up to 65, now I want a 101. Even in the big windy bowls we have up here, I can go anywhere and not worry.

It's not so much drifting, but on such a big wide open lake the wind makes big waves that a small boat like ours can't handle when you need to make a run across the lake to the spot you want to fish.

Fish Chris, I can't afford the better boat either. That's why I got what I do it just isn't condusive to tournament fishing on the big bodies of water like that when the weather turns bad.

I too have experienced the limitations of the Tracker. Even with 54#s of thrust I have a hard time controling the boat once the wind kicks up.  Sorry about you tournament  

Better luck on your next tournament.

Better luck on your next tournament.

The next lake is only 29 000 acres.  

***.....I'm gonna be in Texas in July. Got relatives in the Dallas area actually Sanger/Denton. Come on up and we will hit Ray Roberts or Lewisville together.

Still cheaper than drag racing. Closest 1/4 mile track is in NH (120 miles...2hrs) and it takes me a tank up, and a tank back in the Mustang. That's why the car has been sitting in the garage for the last two years.....sucks.

just keep in mind, bigger boats cost a LOT more to operate. I dunno'..... maybe you have a lot more money than I do (which wouldn't be hard) but I can "barely" afford to fish all of my days off, in a 14 ft aluminum, with a 25hp motor ! Granted, its my truck that uses most of the gas, but it's only a 4 cylinder Toyota. If I had a big, heavy fiberglass bass boat, then I'd need a bigger truck too ! (at the very least, a stronger, newer one).

Of course I really prefer a smaller, lighter boat anyway {my little 14ft'er is my "dream" trophy bass boat}. What I want is "bigger bass" :-)

Anyway, if you can afford to operate a big, heavy, high-per bass boat, and still fish a LOT, more power to you. Just don't get yourself caught up in the hype and glamour of a big, pretty, fast, bass boat, and then find that you can't afford to fish with it.

Peace,

Fish

PS, Gas will likely hit $4 a gallon before the year is over.... and maybe more than $5 a gallon within the next few !

Very well put chris.  Some of these guys with tourney boats are spending $200 to just fill up their boats.  THat would absolutely kill me.  I'm happy with my 88 nissan 4 banger and my 16ft fiberglass with a 35hp.  Even this setup is still costing me about $80 a trip including entrance.  When gas hits $4 it's going to kill me!!!!  

The bummer about a small boat is that you can always get a 101 trolling motor, but you can't increase how it handles those 3-4 swells.  It can get scary at times.