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This is what I use every time I’m at a pond bass think I’m a tree get em every time!

Here's another bad pic of a good river fish. They're starting to wake up around here...she pulled like a tank.

Lefty Kreh passed away this week, and I feel like it's impossible to have an influence/inspiration thread without mentioning him. Not everyone on here is big on fly fishing, but Lefty did more to grow fly fishing and conservation in both freshwater and the salt than almost anyone. Also, even into his 90's, his casting instruction remained awesome and incredibly matter-of-fact. Listening to him catch people off guard by cursing like a sailor as a tiny old dude is also pretty hilarious.

One thing I keep reading that amazes me "see they are expensive " or "not at a Tracker price" Well order the Tracker with the same engine ( which you can not) and the same 24 volt trolling motor( which you can not) and a power pole( which they say "may void your warranty") and order that Tracker with the same level of electronics( oh I can not)! Instead I have to buy the standard boat and then upgrade to the accessories I wanted to begin with, BUT at my expense! After you have added the cost of these extra expenses to the original cost of that Tracker then compare the prices. I can order the Vexus without the more expensive G2 engine if I want and save money. I can choose what size jack plate I want, add power poles or Talons without "possibly voiding" my warranty. I can equip the rig with the accessories I want, if that is bigger electronics, or choose whatever trolling motor I want I can do it. So stop with the bull poopy ! The price is not far off an Express if you choose to order it with the same Yamaha motor, electronics, shallow water anchor etc. Yes! It is less than the Lund I sat in several weekends ago and yes it seems they did a better job on waterproofing the storage compartments. That is one complaint about many of the current competitors. Let's give the new guy in town a chance to get some owners and get their feed back. I remember when Phoenix first started making boats. The naysayers were pretty loud back then , even before there was a boat to sit in. It seems to me they did very well in a time when many established boat builders were going under and getting eaten up by one big guy! I have personally crawled all over a 618 Phoenix. I also test drove it on Dale Hollow. I came away highly impressed with the innovations, fit and finish and handling on the rig. I even got a really good deal on it. Only the uncertainty of my health stopped me from pulling the trigger. I for one will give Vexus a year to establish itself in the market and then go get a ride in one or two. But let's be fair! Compare equally equipped machines!

Got a few this evening with my G-daughter Mackayla. She got the first fish on a 4 inch red and green sparkle watermelon senko. I got a couple more about the same size on the Zoom fluke.

My early hero wasn't famous. My dad was my inspiration. He's been gone a long time and I've lived my life trying to make sure he was always proud of me.

My boat numbers came in, I think it looks good. It's in a shiny plastic sleeve right now.

Showing my age with this, but yes I do. Watched him with my dad. Like others here Bill Dance, Hank Parker, Roland Martin, but the guy who still inspires is the Legendary Rick Clunn. On the not at all famous side is of course my Dad, and my grandfather who passed when I was 6. Not many true memories of him, but plenty of Fishing stories from my dad who fished with him all the time. Keep a picture of him in my tackle box for luck.

I was reminded to add I fished a dozen tournaments with Lonnie Stanley, Terry Oldham, Jerry Dean, Shaw Grigsby, Ken Cook, Todd Faircloth, Bob Sealy, Ron/Rick Pierce, & Darren "Mad Man" Mooneyham. On a few occasions I met Gary Yamamoto, Ben Matsubu, & Takahiro Omori at the cafes and boat launches around Toledo Bend and Rayburn. What y'all will find is these guys are easy to approach & love to talk fishing as much as we do. Ben Matsubu & I talked for over an hour at the 6-Mile boat ramp. We even took a ride in his Legend bass boat!

Saturday Morning, cooking breakfast and watching the classic. Nothing better! ( except maybe fishing in it ?).

Tighten your spool tension knob and it won't wobble. This is normal

Here's mine 1965: Spend the entire summer working on my uncle's charter fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico and learned how to locate deep water structure. 1972: Started bass fishing seriously on Toledo Bend at my father-in-law's camp on White's Point in the mouth of Lowe's Creek. 1974: Joined two bass clubs whose members included John Torian, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden SR, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, & Zell Roland all guides at Toledo Bend's Pendleton Harbor Marina. Ray Scott would latter come up with the "The Hemphill Gang" moniker arguably the most successful group of professional bass anglers to ever emerge from one small region of the nation. 1976: Attended a seminar in Houston Texas that totally changed my outlook on bass fishing. The man putting on that seminar was Elwood L. " Buck" Perry, not only did I buy his books but I became a devout student of his teachings. I took what Buck taught about deep structure fishing and applied it to Toledo Bend. Not only did the quantity of bass I caught go up but so did quality.

Only the second trip with the boat this year, but everything running good. Needs a good cleaning when things warm up enough, though. Surface temps just 43 deg and change, but managed 7 bass in a little over 3 hours, so everything is good

Don't want to spam the forum with these videos, but I here are the latest:

A bad part about tourney fishing is practice . Fishing for fun you go out and catch as many as you can , practice you want to avoid that . I always wanted my cake and eat it too .

Hello, thank you all for contributing to this page. I have been reading it for quite a while and seems to me to be the best resource for the Heritage Boat. lots of positive conversation & tons of use full information, just when you think things are going to go south and get off topic it comes right back to what the page is about. I ordered my heritage back on 2/7 & got the phone call my boat will be in around last week of April or so. I currently own a 1985 Coleman Crawdad I did some custom work on added floor,decking front and rear and a dual battery setup with a fuse block to power lights bilge and so forth. great little boat I have owned since around probably 1993. I would say its past time for a upgrade and like so many of you seen the value Tracker has put into the Heritage package.

I always enjoyed shows that not only taught you something but entertained you. I always enjoyed Hank Parker early shows. Shaw Grigsby, Jimmy Huston, and early Roland Martin before all the constant product pushing. These guys were just funny as well as great fisherman. The early shows were so much better then the recent stuff.

Most of my fishing is done in 8' of gin clear water or less. I'm a huge believer in a stealthy approach. My clothing is background or sky colors, my chrome trolling motor shaft is wrapped, and I would never own a red, yellow or orange boat. If you watch many of the televised bass fishing events you will see that I am in the minority. Doug Hannon caught more than 400 bass over 10 pounds in his career in less than 3' of water. He wore camouflaged clothing and his small tin boat was also painted camo.

Biggest lesson learned! As soon as my entry fee hit the table all honey holes dried up! The hardest thing for most anglers getting into tournament fishing is being completely truthful with themselves as to their abilities. You have to know your strengths & accept your weaknesses! How well y'all game plan strengths & weaknesses will determine how successful the team will be. Y'all must fish as a team not two individuals out fishing! When done in unison both anglers can cover water quickly & thoroughly, which allows y'all a greater opportunity to establish patterns faster. One misconception is that to be successful you must be versatile, as in knowing every technique. While that is helpful it is not really necessary What you NEED to be versatile at is fishing your strengths in various weather & water conditions!

According to Basstrakk Combs first keeper weighed three ounces .

Go to Bassmaster.com and hit the bass Trakk button. Easy as that.

Smallies will be moving from deep water to shallow as the water warms. If you have underwater humps, rock, hard bottom to soft transition areas start looking for them there. They probably will suspend over those areas as they move shallower. 45 to 50 degrees is the magic time where the bite gets going for me. Once you hit 50 degrees the bite will be on until the spawning urges takes over around 60 degrees. Early prespawn finds the smallies moving shallow but they will pull back to deeper water with bait movement in deeper water. So you have to follow the bait most times to find the fish. Suspending bait balls will find the fish suspending & roaming as they feed up. If the bait only consists of bottom dwellers & crawfish the fish will be mostly on bottom or feeding down. If you have an incoming water supply like a creek or river which will be warmer than the lake water temps look shallow around that area. Then expand out from the area deeper until you find them. For clarification I would define deep as 20-40 feet & shallow as 6-15 feet. Often times the sweet spot is 15-20 based on water temps. Good luck out there.

Conditions were far from ideal today, but I'm home for spring break so I went for it anyway! Air temps started in the 30s and there was snow on the ground, but it did warm to low 50s by the end of the day. The main factor was the 15mph wind with 20+ gusts, and the fact that I was on an electric only lake. Things started off pretty slow, the water was 44-45 degrees all day, I was hoping for closer to 50. I decided to crank rip rap alllll day since that would be (in my opinion) the highest percentage way to get bit in cold stained water. I started off with a 7-9' Spro Little John, I caught one after about an hour of cranking and I didn't even feel the bite, it was a chunky largemouth about 3lbs. Since that fish bit so soft, I decided to throw a wiggle wart instead because from what I can gather, it is further down on the temperature scale for cold water cranks. That was a good decision! I ended up only landing 6 bass today, hooked 8. One largemouth on the little john, one spot on a football jig out deep, and 4 on the wiggle wart (3 lmb 1 spot). I had two fish come off on the wart, but in cold water when they are barely nipping at the bait, losing fish is just part of the game. They didn't feel big and I never saw them so that's my story and I'm sticking to it! My best 5 went 18.8lbs with a 6.08lb kicker! Makes perfect sense for early prespawn in cold water, not many bites but the few that do it are good ones. I hate to think about what I could have put together if the whole lake wasn't white capping today This fish is number 12 over 5lbs for me this year! The train has come off the rails and shows no sign of slowing down.

"Is this an ugly stik® which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A rod of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I cast."

Streaming live on the website today and tomorrow 8am-11am, Noon-3pm ET, weigh in at 3:50 https://www.bassmaster.com/video/bassmaster-classic-live-2018 Also, (estimated) stats in real time: https://www.bassmaster.com/basstrakk/tournaments/2018-geico-bassmaster-classic-presented-dicks-sporting-goods

Homer Circle had a campy wit that's never been duplicated. I always liked his reference that "the fish knew but weren't talking."

Gete Hibdon was my friend, mentor and my HERO. I'll miss him BAD.

Biggest thing is don’t worry about what others are doing. Fish your strengths during a tourney. Remember it’s always you against the fish, not the others in the tourney. You start focusing on them and you will suck. One thing i have realized over the years is when I fish alone, which I do a lot, is I always catch bigger and more fish then when I have someone in the boat with me. As soon as I get someone else in the boat questioning what I’m doing it’s no longer me against the fish. You are now focusing on them instead of what the fish are telling you.

Sold my other battery and a trolling motor last night using Craigslist. I bought a matching interstate battery. Now I can run the trolling motor on parallel or just keep this one as a spare/electronics. I also took the advice of Ratman and put my 2 gallon can in the boat. I am still looking for a larger gas tank. I might have to do some rearranging. Once I get the new tank. True, but if I was buying something to increase in value, it would never be a boat. My investment is in my enjoyment. There are other places to invest. Thing is, there will always be a fisherman looking to buy a boat. How much can you really lose in this boat? Compared to more expensive boats... This boat will be a good and easy sell at any point in it's life. When it hits it's lowest point, it will still be a great sell. At they time, with use, it very well be a money maker. A 30k boat in the same time frame will lose waaaaay more percentage wise... Same with fiberglass. At the end of the day, a real fisherman doesn't care cause the fish sure don't. Get out there and fish in what you have. No need to justify or put down another.

When I fly fished for bass the Dahlberg diver was my go to.

Definitely Hank parker and bill dance.

In post-frontal conditions just before sunset today, the Megabass Ito Vision 110 did the trick.

I went out today on my home lake, very little wind. Whew! Glad for calmer water after my last time out. I ended up with 3 fish, one large female, all on beds. I missed bringing 2 in. So, not bad for a few hours, that and I didn't get on the water until mid-morning. I used a wacky rigged worm and they seemed to be interested in it. Brad

4 today, this was the biggest, ~2.5lbs. T rigged junebug Yum Dinger. I was instructed to smile.

She likes to fish, but not to the point that I can't go alone or go with "the guys". And that seems to be an ideal balance

Mostly because we couldn't go fishing in the winter. Got really cold in SE Ohio this year - Muskingum river actually froze over for a while. Hasn't happened in a long time. Not much actual snow to speak of though. But today, I was supposed to go fishing with my brother up at AEP - why AEP you ask? You've read my numerous reports in the Fishing Reports section about our total lack of ability to catch fish there (or lack of ability to catch them anywhere, actually...). This is why. I'm the new owner of a 2006 Wrangler Rubicon! Now we can really wheel around at AEP and reach some ponds that were until now, unreachable for us! Brother had to end up going by himself though - my boss ended up having a funeral today and I had to cover the shift, which meant he went fishing in my Jeep and I took the Beamer to work. Suffice to say he was out there for a few hours and didn't catch anything - temp was hovering around freezing and it was windy out, but sky was clear and the sun was out. When he brought it home, there was some caked on mud that he kindly took down to the car wash and power sprayed off for me. lol Even vacuumed the interior! Looking to get out sometime soon and see if our luck is any better. Currently planning on hitting up Wolf Run on the 23rd as it's the day after they release rainbow trout - my brother and I are going with a coworker of mine and looking to start around 7am. See you folks around!

Ive got 4 in top 10 and Im still not ranked high in leaderboards....thats the problem with the classic. Need to basically pick 5 of the top 8 to win anything.

Don't know about now after the Global warming, but in the 80s and 90s 1st week of April was the norm, but every year is different, plus/minus 2 weeks wasn't unusual. Spent a lot of time in Superior, Toronto, White, Hunter, Mangaup, and a bunch of ponds up there, as well as some really good brookie streams. Go get 'um. Prospect Park, or Bailey pond can help with that PB. I'm in NYC a lot April-October, so I get my fix wherever I can up there.

This ^^^^ and also the funny guy Jimmy Houston.

1st Place Day 1 - Jason Christie with 20 lbs 14 oz

Steady work, but will they get any time to go fishing? I was a machinist, and when it got busy in the shop, I had some summers where my only memories are of working 70 hour weeks. The overtime money was great, and was part of the reason why I was able to retire at 60, but I will still regret the absent recreational opportunities for those lost summers.

Larry Dahlberg. His DVD series, 'Hunt for Big Fish', inspired me to want to fish internationally and to dream big. His adventures around the globe gives me daily motivation to work hard in my career to set me up for that freedom when I'm older. Taking care of my family is #1 daily motivation, but what I just mentioned is right behind! He has answered fishing-related questions directly for me in the past and is one of the most humble anglers around. Not only a skilled fishing tackle developer, but extremely versatile with a fly rod and bait-caster. The Whopper Plopper really made him famous, but I was an avid fan years before he went mainstream.

x2 I’ll just leave it there because he covered it much better than I can, great tips!

I switched to yellow power pro last year and love it. As others have said you can see the bite before you feel it. I use 15lb braid with a 10 lb floro leader around 6 feet or so. Highly recommended.

In my opinion Guido was one of the all time best! I fished the baby Guido bug a lot years ago, and caught some decent fish on this bait. I have a very few left. Wish they would make them again

This has came up before and I believe scratches didn't effect the imaging.

Rather than simply slapping on the same old stuff, I kicked it up a notch and went with a couple of products from 3D Lettering for the numbers & registration tag. Good so far. A-Jay https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SI7SX6A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PJBBFNG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The only prop tail jerkbait that I know of still in production is the Bagleys Bang O Lure . Mine is a Bomber . I have several new ones , that I stocked up on when they hit the clearance bins . My biggest 6 fish stringer ever was caught on one .

I talked about micro guides with a St Croix rep when I visited their factory this summer. He said there was a huge push for micro guides a few years ago, and a lot of companies, including them, started manufacturing rods with micro guides. But he said now they hear from a lot of people who want them to be removed because of leader issues and how quickly the tiny guides freeze when fishing in very cold weather. He basically said that micro guides were a fad, and even though they're still around, a lot of people don't prefer them. Personally, I've always seen G Loomis as a more traditional company that's slow to change its ways. So maybe they just out-waited the fad, and when they update their rods, I think they'll continue to use traditional guides simply because there's not really anything wrong with them, whereas micro-guides bring several more issues into play.

I may be wrong here, but one of the reasons to use micro guides is to keep the line closer to the blank which helps the overall sensitivity throughout the length of the rod. So maybe they feel the added benefit is to small to make a discernible difference in thier product. Or Not... Mike