GobbleDog

I've come to hate that saying... seems like people who don't fish like to say it the most. And they think they're the wittiest people alive when they say it. In any case, I've noticed that when I tell non-fisherman that I caught 12 lbs of fish in a recent tourney, they instantly picture me pulling in fish after fish like it's the easiest thing in the world. They don't realize it took 8 sun baking hours to catch 5 legal fish. They don't know about the HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of casts that I made and didn't catch squat.

2 weeks ago, my 10+ y.o. MotorGuide was having trouble so I took it in for repairs. The guy just called me back today..... $400.00 to repair it. Needless to say, I told him to forget it and I'll come by pick up the corpse. So now I'm in the market for a new trolling motor. I've got a 16' fiberglass Bass Tracker. My old motor was a 24 volt/55 lb thrust (which was more than enough power). I read the other thread "Bow Mounted Trolling Motors" and now I've got a few questions: Which is better Minn Kota or Motor Guide? My old motor would spin in circles if I left the power on and took my foot off the pedal - I hated that! Do the new one's still do that? Which is better MK PowerGuide or MK All-Terain? Does anyone sell used trolling motors - other than E-Bay? And finally, why did this happen to me? I'm a good guy. I hate having to spend $350+ !!! >

When my fishing partner used to live in Tampa, we only went bass fishing one time. And it was probably in that same river you're talking about. If I remember correctly, we didn't catch much - if anything. Instead, we always headed out for the Gandy boat ramp and would absolutely sley the Snook, Redfish, Drum, Trout, Flounder, Sharks, etc.... around the big barge pilings and near the power plants.

That remote control trolling motor is the coolest thing in world. I would love to have one. Of course it's another part that can break, but that's probably worth the risk. I HATE my foot controlled motor. You have to stand on top of it or it'll head off in the wrong direction. And you really have to apply the preasure on the peddle in order to turn while moving at the higher speeds. The motor itself works great - 24 volt 55 lb thrust Motorguide, but the peddle sux. I was thinking the next trolling motor I buy should have the extended handle instead of the foot control, but I'll definately be looking into that remote control motor. I'd be willing to spend an extra $70 or more for that feature.

I've never heard of that. That would pretty cool assuming the controls aren't too big and don't mess up the casting and whatnot.

As fisherman and humans we're trying to make correlations all the time, even when they probably aren't even there. If you try a new color and it doesn't work after a only a few trips, you start to discriminate it. It gets in your head. I have no confidence with Watermelon Seed, even though it probably works just as well as my Green Pumpkin. And you have to have confidence in your bait. I'm shocked at the size weights your using. Is that for deep water or something? I don't even own a 3/4 oz. bullet weight. The biggest I have is a 1/4 oz and I rarely use it, but when I do it's for my curly tail worms. I can't even imagine using something that big with trick worms. But if it's working for you, you must be doing something right. Where are you fishing? That 4/0 hook you use is heavier and robbing the bait of a little bit of action, but you probably get better hook sets than I do with my 1/0. I know I'm missing a few fish every once in a while because the hook is so small, but I like finess fishing it as small as I can get. I've also thrown Trick Worms weightless before and it works great when it's shallow and no wind.

You're right, you probably don't need much for an aluminum boat. Stick with a 12 volt motor definately. No need for 24 volt motor and toting around 2 batteries. It's only a matter of how much thrust you want. You need enough to not only move your boat around, but to get through the thick lilly pads and grass. I've got a trolling motor on my bass boat with 55 lb. thrust. But it's a 16 foot fiberglass boat. And it's more than enough for me. So, as a guess, you probably don't want anything more than 45 lbs. Heck, 25 lbs. would probably be sufficient.

EVERYONE starts off thinking fishing = eating fish. Eventually fisherman realize that while bass are fun to catch, they are disgusting creatures. Take a look at the roofs of their mouths and watch the leaches squirm (not all bass, but a lot). And that's just the stuff you can see - I don't even want to know what else they have. Not to mention most bass live in small lakes which get all the run-off from surrounding areas. Nasty. Also, you want to be careful not to deplete that small pond of fish. What else are you going to do if you can't fish? If you still like eating em, that's cool. I know a lot of people who do. Personally, the last thing I want to do after a long day of fishing is cut open the guts of a dead nasty fish.

Ok. Berkley Powerbait. You're right, I have heard of those. But I've never thrown em. You're stealing my thunder with the Trick Worms. It's actually my #1 bait. And dang if we don't both use the same color - green pumpkin/red flake. It's my bread and butter. I aslo have green pumpkin (without flake), but I only seem to use them when I run out of the others. I also have black Trick Worms. Normally, I'd never use em, but I once had a situation where none of the other colors were working, so I tied it for fun and it worked really well. Now I always keep some black ones stashed in the back of the box, even though I rarely ever throw em. My buddy caught his biggest bass on a Trick Worm Camo ... 9.5 lbs. I've since used them and they're ok, but I'm with you - green pumpking/red seems to be the best. I personally hate Zoom's Watermelon seed color. It looks like it disapears in some lakes. I quit buying those altogether. And I've never done very well with the June Bug color Trick Worm either, (even though I love JuneBug curly tails.... go figure) By the way, I'm interesting to hear what hook and weight size you use with the Trick Worms. I use 1/0 worm hooks and VERY little black bullet weights. From 1/16 oz. all the way to 1/64th oz. (which looks like a bebe) depending on the wind and depth. Finesse fishing at it's finest.

Actually, it was a Zoom Trick Worm. And I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. But Trick Worms aren't scented ... at least, not much. It was a miracle that the bass hung onto it. I've never heard of "power bait", but this weekend I was down in Lake Okeechobee throwing Chompers. A Chomper looks exactly like a Senko, but it's got the strongest (and nastiest) garlic/onion stink you've ever smelled. It's so strong that you really can't even keep them in your tacklebox without stinking everything up. But the bass sure seemed to like them.

If you set the hook and missed, it's difficult to get that fish to bite again. He's probably already felt the sting of the hook. But if you never got a chance to set the hook, then he'll probably hit it again. I'd throw the same worm back out and hope for the best. That said, I once set the hook on a fish and broke off. About 10 minutes later, d**n if I didn't catch that same fish with my old hook still lodged in the side of it's mouth. Must have been a very hungry fish. Even more amazing.... another time when I was fishing... I got a bite, but the fish only had the tail of the worm in his mouth so when I set the hook, the worm came off. I reeled in and put a new worm on and started casting again. 5 minutes later, I got a bite and set the hook. When I reeled in the fish, I noticed that the fish amazingly still had the OLD WORM in his mouth. He must have been down there sucking on that worm for five minutes or so. And he hung onto it even when he bit the next worm. The odds that of that happening have got to be one in a million.....

True, but the "bank angler" is a bank angler for a reason. What's he going to do if the depth sux? Move? j/k. It is interesting, but who uses a bobber unless your shiner fishing?

I don't get it. You just hold your watch over the water and it tells you the depth? Where's the transducer?

I rarely throw spinner baits, but from what I've read... Gold spinner blades are used for clear water - Silver blades are used for murky water. Willow leaf for shallow water - Colorado for deep.

I mostly bring the following 5 rods to a tournament. Ranked in order of use: 1 - Trick worm 2 - Curly tail worm 3 - Weightless fluke 4 - Jerkbait (minnow) 5 - Top-water

I found this web-site about a week ago through a Google search after I realized that the other Bass Fishing forum I was using was averaging about 1 reply per month.

A castable depth finder? Isn't that called an anchor? ???

We've got way too many people moving into Florida every year. The lakes are becoming rediculously crowded compared to ten years ago. The worst are jet skiers. These people have absolutely no business being on the water. They annoy everyone on the lake with the sound of engines contanstly going from full throtle to idle every 2 seconds. They quickly get bored of driving in empty parts of the lake and will drive towards other boaters in order to show you their cool new jet-ski. I keep a 1 oz spinner bait ready as a warning shot over the bow. These people are scum. 2nd worst are the "family boaters". They rarely ever get on the lake, but when they do they want to mindlessly drive around and stare at other boaters to see if they're doing it right. Due to their lack of experience, these people don't know much about lake etiquete. You will also see these morons at the boat ramp. While you're waiting an hour for them to load or unload their boats, you'll notice these people tend to have confused looks on their faces. That's because they're idiots. Then you have regular ski boats. These people tend to have a little more experience from being on the lake so often, but the boat is often full of drunken teenagers who have little or no respect for anything. These people are never bothered by the presence of bass boats. Of course, if you're lucky enough to have them ski by your boat, you can gaurantee that the skier will fall right next to where you are fishing. It never fails. Finally, you have the inconsiderate fisherman. These guys are usually found diving their brand new $30K bass boats, even though 90% of them don't know a thing about bass fishing. These guys will often pull up along side your boat, making casts the whole way and ask "so, how's the fishing?". Many fishing clubs have been forced to create the 50' distance rules despite the fact that common courtesy should be sufficient. Unfortunately, it isn't. I'd also like to mention those wonderful human beings who enjoy hanging out at boat ramps as if it's a family park. Despite their obvious wealth, these people do not own a boat, but they do own about 10 dirt faced kids who can always be found swimming throughout the boat ramp. These people tend to have have a strong grasp of the English language and you will instantly recognize them as the upper class of society when you see their extrodinary appearence and hygene.

The hook definately won't rust away in a week like in salt water. So the question is can most bass continue to eat and live with a hook stuck in it's gut/throat. My guess is that most probably can't. I think they generally have the best chance of living by taking out the hook, no matter how gut-hooked it is.

Good luck with that. There's no way in hell I'm cutting off the barbs. You're bound to lose a bunch of fish.

;D Good luck.

In Orlando, all we have is WalMart and Bass Pro Shops. WalMart straight up sux for fishing tackle. I don't bother unless I need something for my boat. Bass Pro has a lot of good stuff obviously, but they don't carry everything. They quit selling Daiwa Capricorn reels and even when they did sell them, they only had certain models. Same with lures. They don't have the specific type or it's not in the right color. When it comes to buying specific fishing tackle (when I already know the model number), I've been buying stuff on-line through any number of fishing tackle web-sites. I get a much better selection and they always have all the colors.

It seems like it would be pretty cool making a lure out of wood, painting it and then actually catching fish on it. But I've never done it. My friend tried it once. The lures looked like crap. I guess you need a special type of high gloss paint and whatnot.

I love topwater lures. My favorites: Zara Puppy (just the right size), Spitt'n Image, and basically any type of popper. 2 points of advise: 1 - Like the poster said before, NEVER set the hook until you feel the weight of the fish. 2 - After each cast, count to 15 and let the ripples go away. I once read that the biggest mistake anglers do with top-water baits is they work them way too fast. Give it a quick twitch and let it sit. Then walk the dog for a second or two... and let it sit. Keep changing it up and keep letting it come to a full stop for a few seconds.

Plastic worms my friend.... Think Zoom Trick Worms, or Zoom Swamp Crawlers or Culprit Curlytails.... I recomend small 1/0 worm hooks - texas rig. A small bullet weight and light fishing line and you're in business. Finess fish them right out of the lake.