VolFan

Yeah @TnRiver46 but you have small pieces and backwaters of many big lakes….

I love throwing a 7” or 9” MS Slammer, especially at night. It fishes like a giant jointed Rapala. You can surface twitch it, wake it, sweep the rod to make it dive and float, or just burn it. It catches fish in all these scenarios. And it’s a ton of fun. The Mini Slammer was my first swimbait that I regularly caught fish on, black one with a blue tail that I got from a @J Francho here. They aren’t sexy or cool but they sure catch fish.

I think you’re chasing something that’s not there in any reliable amount. You e got to get further south into the canals around Naples. That said, there’s plenty of other fish around there in the canals.

You may also be able to adjust your trim one hole to get the nose down too. It’s going to be weight distribution dependent but the sandbag fixed mine as good as anything.

‘The South’ is a big place. I regularly visit my in-laws near Fort Myers, Florida in December/January and again in March. I’ve never had a big problem catching fishing. If a cold cold front comes through they will go off the feed and sit very tight to cover, sunny cover if possible. The waters just aren’t deep so big cold fronts can and do affect them more, but it warms up just as quickly. Here in NC I don’t bother unless the water is over 45 and rising.

The ones a have are 3/4”, Item # 221900399 at Tractor Supply.

Looks like you’ll be near the Go Fish Education Center…I don’t know what that is but it can’t be bad!

My score at 27.4 is still higher than Andy’s IQ. And I’m cheating to get the thread going! And it’s my wife’s old fish! (NC: 4.35/15.875 * 100)

30 lb sandbag from Lowe’s or Home Depot works great, put it all the way up in the nose on the slant. With a wood deck up there I didn’t need it but without it, by myself, it helps a ton.

It’s super stable with the matts in the floor.

I get mid-20s out of it. It’s not fast, but it’s fast enough and super maneuverable.

I started with a clamp-on seat but now have a set of cushions from Oceansouth for the split and the full benches. Having no seats makes it much easier to move around and no seat backs make it much easier to fish around. I sit to starboard and drive lefty, but that’ll be a personal choice. I have a 6 gallon fuel tank that I keep thinking I’ll change to a 3 but haven’t gotten that motivated yet.

With the deck across the seats there really weren’t any stability issues. I put a 30 lb sandbag in the nose to balance the boat some since you sit in the back with the tiller. I take my son and occasionally my wife along and it was hard to fish three with the deck in. With the deck out and the mats down, everybody gets their own well.

@Skunked again and I both have the same Lowe boat. It fishes great. I put a small aluminum plate deck up front for a Powedrive. I also had a deck on mine across the seats, but I took it out and just use stall mats over the floor. There’s more space that way. It tows super easy, drafts shallow and is low maintenance with a 20 hp on the back.

I have the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, and it does great for the volume that I do, usually a couple butts or 4-5 pounds of beef at a time. I grind beef a little coarser for burgers and I really makes a difference. I haven’t gotten into cased sausages yet more out of laziness than anything.

I am in the same boat…

Winter. Is. Inevitable.

Rage Tail Space Monkey. IYKYK!

I bought a new 100 amp one just after Christmas based on the same concerns.

Yeah agreeing with @A-Jayand @MediumMouthBass- that skirt is going to create a ton of drag and slow anything’s movement, much less erratic darting like a jerk bait. Your best bet is a skirt on some sort of narrow fish head-style jig head with a tall slender buoyant trailer on the back like a jerk shad. Still isn’t going to be perfect but it might work. Now fishing a lightly-weighted tube like a jerk bait? That’s the money right there.

TW seems to have them on clearance.

I concede - you guys that think you’ll get every rod broken are right and you really shouldn’t order from there. I however, will continue to…Que sera sera…

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.

https://www.foxcarolina.com/2025/01/11/woman-hospitalized-after-four-people-anderson-co-rescued-sinking-boat/ Terrible reminder that going into 40-50 degree water is a huge difference than going into 70-80 degree water. Be safe if you’re out this time of year.