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Oh yeah, still got it. 1957 Cherokee that my papaw gave to my mother. She gave it to me since she has no interest in boat ownership, although she said she did “wake surf” behind it on a sheet of plywood as a kid, pulled by a 7.5 hp Johnson seahorse here it is back in the late 1980s And here it is around 2021 with a fresh transom

In the early 1950's I had only my Dad's small wooden jon boat, with oars. I would stalk the sloughs and strip mines with a cane pole and night crawlers, also a 20 gauge for ducks and squirrels. Fast forward to real life and I wade fished for smallmouth until retirement. Immediately upon retirement and a 600 mile move, I bought an upscale river boat for trout fishing and a Triton 18' bass boat with a 150hp for the lake. I still have the river boat, but the Triton has been replaced with a Vexus VX21 equipped with all the extras. I still miss the old wooden jon boat, wade fishing, and the memories.

Back in the late 80’s, a friend took me out on his 16’ tin boat on a couple of fishing trips. I didn’t like having to stay home because he wasn’t available to go fishing. I went to a boat show that winter and put money down on a 16’ aluminum boat with a console. I don’t even remember what brand it was. We were about to leave the show and was walking past a Ranger dealers display. I told my wife if I could afford it, I really wanted a Ranger. While I was admiring the boat in front of me, I saw the price was only $500 more than the boat I put money down on. I went back, got my money back from the first dealer then ordered a 1988 Ranger Fisherman. 17’ with an 80hp Mercury. 37 years later that Ranger is still in my garage. I’ve towed it to 10 states and Canada, it’s had 2 engines, 4 trolling motors, 8 depth finders. I’ve caught more smallmouth and largemouth than I could ever count and every other kind of fish that swims in Midwest fresh water.

I used my grandparents canoe and fished any where I could drag that thing.

My first was a 14 foot aluminum semi V powered by a 2 hp Johnson motor. I bought a 2 speed Pflueger elec motor and fished from it hard.

Well my boy's BB game got canceled Saturday, so a buddy and I went to the power plant lake to try to find a few. The wind was way stronger than it was supposed to be, with white caps rolling most of the day on the main lake, and the 18* air temp at the ramp didn't feel good with the 15-20mph wind. Plus there was probably 20 groups of duck hunters scattered around the small lake, it sounded like a war zone out there. The bite was slow, my buddy only had 1 fish all day, I got on them a little better but it was still a grind, all of them were on slow moving baits. I caught a majority of them off a shallow point that has a creek channel swing on the end of it and lots of rocks and a few stumps scattered around it. It's a normal spot for me in the winter that is usually productive. This day the south wind was pushing the warm water from the outlet straight into it, which is a big deal on power plant lakes. I could see the gulls diving from across the lake, so I knew there was bait there. What was confusing to me, was it looked like there was a bunch of big logs on the bottom that had never been there on my sidescan. Well I was dragging my Ned rig through about 3' of water when one of those "logs", thumped my bait. I thought it was going to be a drum from the initial bite, but the hookset was so solid, and then it was just and unstoppable force as it headed out for deeper water. I tried to stay spotlocked, but I knew there was several stumps and actual logs, I was afraid it would get me wrapped and be gone, so I had to follow it. I was only armed with a 7' ML spinning rod with a 2000 size reel, 10lb Seguar Tactx to an 8lb Seaguar Grand Max leader tied to a homemade 1/16oz Ned head with a #2 hook, but we played Tug-O-War for over 20 minutes before the monster finally surfaced. I've never tried to put someone like that into the kayak, it wasn't easy. I got her head in the net and struggled for a minute or two, almost flipped the kayak towards her lifting over the side and then to the other side once we both slide back into the kayak. I've seen a lot of big catfish, I've never seen a fish like this one. My 50lb scale wasn't nearly big enough. I've caught several 50lb class fish, I've never struggled to lift one like I did with this fish. My gut says 70-75lbs, but I'll never know for sure.

Here in GA. a few days ago we got some snow. Look at this snow covered hay bale.😁 Thought I was gonna have to put the Deere in 4 wheel drive, but it eased through the 1/82 of an inch snow.

A Ranger canoe out of NH, early 90’s, they only make 1 model so selection was easy.

1st fishing boat was our family 14’ wooden row boat with 7 1/2 hp Martin OB at Big Bear lake in the 50’s. My 1st glass bass boat was Astroglass w/65 hp Mercury in 1968. My 14’ Lund aluminum boat was the 1st bass boat w/ 9 hp Evinrude, added swivel seats, Shakespeare TM in the bow and Lowrance Fish Lo K Tor flasher and 55 Coleman cooler w/ aeration livewell in 1960. Tom

sears 12 foot semi vee with 7.5 hp engine. Put a motorguide bow TM on it. Also a green box lowrance flasher. Fished for several years over north and east Texas. Lots of fish caught in that boat. Car topped .

Before tournaments outlawed trolling it was the primary technique for anglers to catch bass on plugs(diving crank baits). I use trolling as a method to teach new bass anglers how to learn what diving crank baits feel like when a bass strikes or is hitting something like the bottom and how deep the lure actually dives. Good technique fishing new lakes and covering lots of water in the strike zone. So yes I troll at times for bass mostly trout in fresh water. Tom PS, strolling is trolling with the trolling motor😎 Tom

First boat was a 12’ Jon boat. Matched it up with my friends 12’ Jon boat. We took 2x4’s and C clamped them together around 3’ apart and would drift down the Juniata river with a cooler tied down on the 2x4’s with our food and drinks. We thought we were big shots like our homemade pontoon. Thing was stable as all heck.

I got my first and current boat about 12 years ago. Was in my early twenties, obsessed with fishing, but so tired of being stuck on the bank. Somebody local was selling a little boat and trolling motor for like $400 bucks, and I had the truck to haul it, so I jumped on that immediately. One of my best decisions I’ve made.

It was a 12' Sears Ted Williams jon boat and it nearly killed me several times, as I launched it on far bigger water, like Lake Superior, than was sensible. It went to Canada many times too, as well as Ohio farm ponds and when our suburban street flooded, I launched it on that too and rowed up and down the block. I was 13 or thereabouts.

None of this is true on any sort of scale. It may have happened once and been inflated by the internet, but I have been buying rods on Amazon for a decade and never had a broken one. Or any problems with reels purchased there.

If you order from an Amazon seller you are not ordering from amazon although it may be shipped from Amazon. Always check a product you are considering buying to see if it is sold by Amazon or an Amazon seller. If it is a seller, be sure to check their rating.

Fishing from a pedal kayak, I almost always troll when I'm moving spots if I'm fishing a lake. I've got some nice bass over seemingly featureless spots while trolling.

These are great stories! Picked up this 1960 Rich Line and 1972 Mercury 20hp two stroke in 2000. Paid $600 for boat, motor, and trailer from a local guy when we were living in Kirksville, Missouri. Boat and motor were his Dad's...trailer was virtually brand new. I installed plywood casting decks, seats, bilge pump, and the front Minn Kota cable steer 40lb trolling motor. Found a Bottomline Fishin Buddy. Great first boat! Did some major work in 2021 with framing, decking, storage, fuse box, lights, Garmin Echomap up front, and a Garmin striker in the back. Also replaced the transom that was original to the boat(!). Fun project!! The old Merc could push me in that boat to 20 MPH on a good, calm day : ) Fun boat, caught lots of fish. Sold it in 2023 when I upgraded to the Lund.

It's heartwarming to read these posts. Simple, cheap, uncomplicated ways of getting on the water. My first boat was a 15' Alumacraft canoe that I cartopped on my 66 Mustang. I've been through many boats since then, Terry, Hydrasports, Ranger, Triton, etc. At age 70 I went back to simple, cheap, and uncomplicated and couldn't be happier.

In 1990 at 15 years old I bought an extremely used 13' Gheenoe for $20. The first thing I did was fiberglass repair the entire keel, as it leak from being drug across a billion rocks. I powered it with a 15 year old 165lb one stroke one blade prop, Me and a paddle.

I purchased my first boat from a friend that was OCD about his stuff. My girls were about 11 and 6 at the time and I'd set folding chairs over the center bench seat so the whole family could go fishing. I had that boat for 25yrs. until I began fishing tournaments. With no kill switch, I couldn't use it for that. I ended up buying a used bass boat that had more wrong with it that what actually worked. I ended up trading it in for a Tracker in '04. I've taken it from Minnesota to as far south as Georgia on some beautiful lakes and on some lakes I had no business being on in a small aluminum boat. As long as she floats, I'll never buy another.

Great Googly Moogly!!!

fish tacos

Ours was car-topped too. We actually had two Sears boats, one with a Sears 3 HP and the other with a Sears 7.5 HP. We had the flasher too, but rarely used it. Hey, I'm living your childhood!

14' Ouachita flat bottom jon with a 7 1/2 Evinrude Fleetwin. Trolling motor was a 2 1/2' wooden paddle & a 14' pushpole.

My first boat was a 12’ 16# styrofoam canoe. I bought it to float the creeks that beside our farms. It cost $39.

I have purchased 3 Zillions and a Tatula 200 and all were new unused and shipped very fast.

Might work in a bog that's 12 ft wide. But I would never make it to my next spot before dark. A-Jay

No Issues at all with reels. My friend was in your situation. They told him not to return the Okuma SBX swimbait rod he bought since the top guide was broken and sent him a new one. He gave me the rod with the broken guide and I replaced the broken guide with a new factory guide and ended up with a freebie.

I've ordered 8 or 10 reels from Amazon and haven't had any problems.

Y'all ever heard of spoonplugging? Buck taught a lot more than what structure is & how fish relate to it. He taught how to fish it effectively with depth control, speed control, & other factors. I'm maybe the only one here that still believes those things are still applicable to every technique. Crankbaits are a subject rarely addressed here in spite of how effective they are.

My first boat was a 12’ Coleman Crawdad. Bought a used $25.00 trailer and replaced everything on it. Brother in law gave me a 1969 Johnson 9.9 and I got a used Minn Kota t/m at a yard sale. Great boat and I would give most anything to have it back.

Heck, yeah! I have caught many four-pound lmb trolling a loon-colored Whopper Plopper in the dark and I owe them all to Dwight. Before Dwight suggested it, I had never considered the possibility, much less the effectiveness of trolling a surface lure. I troll when I'm paddling to wherever I'm going. That way, I'm fishing all the time. And it is so exciting when a big girl smacks my Whopper Plopper and my rod bends so much with the weight of the bass and the forward motion of the canoe that I think it's going to break. No hook-setting needed! In the day, I troll spinnerbaits and underspins when I'm on the move. Once, I caught two on two rods at the same time. You can troll spinnerbaits at night too. Here's a bass caught this way:

Yes I'm a closet troller. Trolling is not boring when it produces trophy fish of any game fish species. It is more effective than casting when presenting a bait at a prescribed depth. Successful trolling is a learned skill which helps you with all fishing endeavors. Heck you can even troll top water baits successfully. Just ask Katie aka @Swamp Girl I like to drift fish for smallies with jerk baits. I can target specific depths from 8-25 feet with ease. When the wind doesn't work I use the trolling motor to maintain a specific speed between .5 mph up to 1 mph or so. Throw in a few stops for good measure. Lots of times you will get bit when stopped. I always troll or drift with the wind at my back so it pushes the boat forward imparting extra action to the bait from the surge. When you are casting to a specific spot why not troll to the next spot when your ready to move. Having a bait in the water consistently catches more fish. And when your tired from casting or slinging heavy baits like A-rigs or musky sized baits or deep diving crank baits that wear you out just troll. Trolling is an art and a science for me.

Actually, I DON'T want it. I swim in that pond too! 👀

What he meant to say is “yall will score nine for two weeks”

I had a Coleman scanoe with a trolling motor for about 3 years. Than in 2019 I bought a tracker 160. In October of 23 I bought my current boat. other than ice fishing I don’t enjoy fishing from the bank. I hate not having the freedom. I hate not being able to have all the gear I want. I also can’t take my first mate Doggie.

1972 Terry Basser with an Evenrude 60 hp and a Shakespeare 17 lb thrust hand control trolling motor. I did a rebuild of the front deck and gunnels. I reinforced it to accommodate a 45 lb MinnKota, repainted the top cap, new seats and carpet. That has been the starter boat for more guys than I recall. Sadly it sits in the middle of an acre of blackberry briars. I have many wonderful memories in that boat.

Trolling for bass requires a developed skill to keep the boat in the same depth while varying speed to produce strikes. For example the life zone depth is 12’ you need to follow the 14’ contour line doing a lazy S pattern crossing over the 12’ line back to 14’ while the structure is constantly changing. You are going along a fairly straight shoreline approaching a point what do you do? If you go straight the depth will get too shallow and snag the lures! You change direction going an out deeper so the lures continue along the 12-14’ depth. This often requires going straight away from the point while looking for bass or bait dragging the trolling lures through the fish. If you catch bass work the point before continuing along the opposite side of the point then continuing following the contour depth. This takes skill and keeping on top of where you are going. Boring catching bass…hardly! Tom

My best producers are tequila sunrise and margarita mutilator

Andy Reid is arguably the best coach in NFL history and coming out of a bye week has lost only a handful of games. KC will roll through the Texans, Lions will trounce the Commies, Eagles will beat whover they face but I prefer the Vikings matchup and the Bills will beat the Ravens much more easily than people think. Washington looks like they found their QB of the future but time will tell as the secon year is really when you see what a QB is gonna be. Lions look poised to have a long run and so do the bills but those d**n Chiefs are just that good...

I have never done it for bass. Other species yes.

I got my first boat around 8 years ago. It was a Landau 18ft mod v customized for bow fishing. It had a mercury 50hp 2stroke. The wiring harness caught fire and put the motor out of commission. I got out of bow fishing sold that boat and bought my first and current bass boat. It’s a 98 Triton Tr 17 with a 90 hp Evinrude. It’s been a great boat although I’ve had to do quite a bit of motor maintenance but what can you expect from something with god knows how many hours on it.

I just received an order of 11 custom jigs from Johnny C's California Reservoir Lures. Great jigs. I really like their attention to detail with matching painted heads and weed guards.

Springing off the question/thread about the lures that catch 80% of your bass, what lures do you intend to use more in 2025 and why? At the end of 2024, I started scoring with big walking baits and big Deps Sakamata Shad flukes. I'd had little success with walking baits and flukes prior to the fall of 2024, so I want to continue using them to see if they work as well in the spring as they did in the fall. I also want to use jerkbaits more because they're hard flukes and also because so many of you have reported catching big bass with them, especially in the spring. So, as I've grown comfy and confident twitching a fluke and walking baits, I hope to continue twitching with a jerkbait.

I’d have to say blacktip sharks for saltwater, one of my favorites. I got into shark fishing years ago and soon joined forces with NOAA Apex Predator Program. Over the years, I developed techniques along with the right gear to catch sharks on topwater poppers, all on foot off our local beaches. Sorta turning the tagging process into a wild thrill ride! The gear has to be light enough to work a popper yet strong enough to handle extremely large and heavy fish. Nothing like it in the world, seeing a 150lb 6 plus foot shark dive bomb the lure close up and then shoot for the moon over and over back flipping the entire length of the ocean, pulling 400 yards of heavy drag. Psycho blacktip in action. One wild ride! I’ve always called largemouth bass “the sharks of freshwater” with some of them big everglades mamas giving me the same sorta thrill nailing a top water plug!

@DinkDonkey30 my time fishing says you're onto something. I fish Michiana mostly, and until a few years ago never knew how effective a bigger profile can be. Throwing big baits isn't a cure all, but it definitely revolutionized my catching. scott

I truly believe that we have the find the lures that work for our local bass. I use to fish with six or seven rods, each with a different lure, and switch rods continually throughout the morning, but now that I know what my local bass prefer, I fish with four rods and often two will have the same lure.

When you read about those anglers who score with lures you don't use, don' cha wish you could sit in a boat with them and watch them fish? I wish YouTubers would aim a camera at their hands so that I could watch them work a lure I don't use or can't use well.

I've already had some time to think about this one. When the conditions aren't 'right' for a jerkbait bait early season. instead of trying to force feed the Lake Menderchuck brown bass one, I'm going to slow the whole show down a bit and fish a light hair jig and a tube. Both have produced for me in the past but the last few years a jerkbait has dominated. So it's been hard to put it down. Additionally, there a decent chance the flat sided square bill will come into play as well. My late summer/Fall approach will not change - it's been too good. Topwater early morning, then an assortment of wiggle wagons, spinnerbaits, shallow running crankbaits and old Faithful - The A-Rig. Especially in any & all windy and or obscured sky conditions. A-Jay