SoFlaBassAddict

Brush Hog, enjoy playing with it. I know I have fun with mine. Spend the time to learn the settings and get a good picture you're happy with. Turning the TVG/Switchfire off gives you a great raw sonar picture. You can track lures as they drop, etc etc. You've just got to deal with the extra clutter that comes on the screen from it. For just cruising around looking for structure, I leave mine off to get a nice clean image of the water. My biggest problem right now is deciding what bottom view I like. Inverse, structure id, or the whiteline. I'm not a fan of the bottom black view personally.

New electronics. More lures that I really didn't need....but who doesn't love having lures. Having two daughters that absolutely love fishing with me. Catching fish is just a bonus. Now I just need to find a new boat to use on the lake so I have a little more room in it.

Got it at BPS on sale, like 10 bucks cheaper. Regular is $199.99. Got mine for $189.99. Maybe the chick just liked me though. You know, for my manly body and all...

I grabbed one earlier today. I need to play with the settings some more, but I'm happy with it so far. My only complaint, and I complain about all B&W depth finders, is that I need to turn the contrast pretty far up to be able to see it well.

There are craws in the lake for certain. I've found them in the early mornings and at night. Little black stinkers. The drop offs actually descend pretty rapidly, mind you I haven't really had the chance to explore the banks with the sounder thoroughly. I think one of my biggest problems is that I'm mostly a shallow water type of guy while bass fishing. Using a baitcaster to toss a jig or a worm is easy. It's the getting enough line out that kills me. I always feel that I'm having to strip WAY too many times to hit bottom. Could that mean in this situation I should really loosen up the spool tension on the reel? As far as color goes, I figured at the deeper depths that color was a lot less important, everything is probably contrast at that depth anyway. I figured colors like blacks, blues, greens, etc etc were probably the better choice because they absorb more light. I will say this, turning the TVG off and looking at the raw image on the 570 was cool. Thats the first time I've been able to watch a jig bounce around on my sonar for a long time. On my offshore boat we've got a nice high dollar sounder, and rarely use it. Most of the time we're trolling offshore...

Tonight while motoring around I marked lots of suspended fish. 20'-30' in 45' water. Earlier today fish were mostly sticking to the bottom. Several bait balls with feeding fish on a point that I frequent had suspending fish.

So I finally broke down and bought a decent depth finder to use on my home lake (Humminbird 570). As I've motored around a little, I've realized how much unfished area there is on this lake. Let me preface this by stating that this lake was a fill pit used for building up the adjacent properties. It has very short banks underwater (5'-7' from the shoreline) that drop steeply. There are steps on the dropoffs (picture a giant staircase). Some of the areas have lots of milfoil/hydrilla, some parts of the drops are semi-rocky or thick sediment. It was stocked by the FWC several years ago and now supports a fairly healthy population of Largemouth, bluegill, peacocks, and other smaller baitfish species. As I've looked around the depth in most areas of the lake are between 35-45 feet deep. The bottom is somewhat hard, somewhat soft (rocks here and there on top of thick sediment). I have found several really nice features and marked some areas that are full of fish. I've known of spots before that hold fish, but never realized how far out and how deep some of the structure really is. So, as a start I'm looking for advice on what you guys think I should throw in this deep water. Worms with heavy sinkers? Jigs (I'm horrible with jigs, but this is a good chance to get better)? Cranks? and what kind of rigs. I've rarely fished a Carolina rig or a drop shot, but now I can see where they might become used a lot here. Thanks for any advice as I'm really looking forward to trying out some new techniques to catch fish.

Dink, check your PM's.

Agreed Mike. I took it back earlier today and swapped it out for the Humminbird 570 that I was looking at. No, it's not color (who cares). Drastically better imaging with it though. I'll give the Garmin this though. It did have a great screen. Lots of colors, etc etc. Not enough for me to keep it though. It went haywire a few times where the screen would pixelate and all. Power cycle to reset it. I shouldn't have to do that. I never have before with any other sounder I've used. Garmin = no bueno.

Anybody out there have any experience with Garmin Fishfinders? Specifically the 300c. I picked one up earlier today on sale for my Jon and was wondering if there are any known issues with that unit, or Garmin sonars in general. The reviews I've read are favorable, one problem seems to be the auto-gain feature has issues. I'm fairly sure I won't be using that all that much anyway. This is going to be used on a small lake on a small boat. No need for expensive stuff. 200 bucks is about the max I really want to spend.

I could deal with the cold. The temps yesterday and today weren't all that bad. It's the stinkin wind thats killing me. It was blowing 30-40 down here yesterday and the day prior. It slowed down some today, hopefully more into the weekend. I just want to fish and not get my butt whipped doing it.

I grabbed one of the XPS Stalker Backpacks. I'm much happier with that. My only complaint is that the shoulder straps don't give for a lot of adjustment, and it's off center when using them as a handle. But thats just being trivial. Otherwise I couldn't be happier with it.

I'm currently in love with my carbonlite for worm fishing. 6'9" MH XF. I'm not sure if you can still get the introductory price of 79.99. But normally they're just at 100 bucks. I grabbed a carbonlite reel today to match it (on sale for 79.99), which seems like a fantastic fit to it. The rod is ultra light, and ridiculously sensitive. For the cash I don't think you can beat it.

Man I really wish I could go. But scheduling with my parents to watch my daughters is incredibly difficult at times. On that note, there needs to be a roadtrip down somewhere in Florida one of these days

So what are your store hours so I can come do some shopping? Looks like the wall in a darn tackle shop. I've really got to do that in my garage. Especially since I just finished up a job and have a bunch of that wall material in the shop....

If you don't wash them off, you might as well send them to me now... Like anything, if you take care of it you'll be fine. Generally hosing it down really thoroughly should do you. If you're worried about it, a mild soap should do just fine. Just make sure you rinse it completely off.

The best way to fix it is to not let it happen. When it does though, tighten down the drag, put your thumb on the spool while applying pressure with the thumb. Turn the handle. Make a few turns then pull out the line, works like 95% of the time.

Like SmokinShad said, KVD has a how to of it floating around somewhere. I found it online on accident one day. I've never caught a fish using it, but man it looks good in the water. I just never remember to actually use one. Or I'll think of it and decide that I'm really too lazy to tie one up.

I must be in the minority. I use a cheapo Daiwa rod I picked up broken at wally world. It's roughly 7'3" now. It "says" medium power on it, but I really don't believe that. Has a long handle on it that lets me monkey down on it for longer casts. Probably has a moderate tip on it, but has enough backbone to allow for solid hooksets. I use 10 lb mono on it and have no issues at all. All that being said, most of the areas I fish in don't have a ton of vegetation on the top. I also use the same rod for lipless cranks and soft plastic swim baits. I don't have the need for a single purpose frog rod and I do just fine with what I've got. I really believe sometimes people go overboard in bass fishing with line sizes and whatnot. I see people talking about using 50 pound braid or higher...I don't use stuff that large on most of my offshore trolling reels and I've boated fish that are several hundred pounds on lighter gear. Maybe thats just the saltwater angler in me speaking not being used to people using such massive line for bass. I can understand the need to pull out a whole bunch of weeds and junk, but man ultra heavy braid seems excessive to me at times.

I put floating or suspending on mine. But do you really need rattling? It's pretty self explanatory. You know, it's noisy or not.....

I know on my lake, I've killed fish previously on a ghost minnow and and ayu red eye. The citrus shad I've never had a strike on. I've never tossed the original sexy shad color. My lake has no shad. Just crawfish (which are rare), bluegill, shiners, minnows, and smaller bass.

I'll throw my two cents in, I've got the 6'9" MH XF and I love the way it feels. For the money it's a great rod.

I picked up one of the two Carbonlites at the Dania beach store. There was one more left at around 1:30 for anybody interested. I was questioning the foam grips on it, but I kind of like them. It is a very nice fit on the carbonlite rods. It's almost scary how light it is. Hopefully after this 30-40 mph wind dies down I'll actually get to use it some and provide a little feedback.

That is one sexy looking reel. Love the finish on it.

Yeesh, I'm glad neither of my BPS' are as bad as all of yours. I've got two of them in different directions from me, equal distance. Unfortunatley one of them is very close to where I work...yeah not god. I've never had a problem with either store, or the associates (shocker being that they're in Miami). That being said, I went to pick up a Carbonlite reel, sold out. The guy at the reel counter said the warehouse had 500 reels to go to 50 stores. He's hoping to get some more in any day now. Call ahead and if they don't have them, he'll do a raincheck for me.