Fishes in trees

In my opinion, if you're buying a new boat - there isn't any substitute for electric power. Purchase the strongest trolling motor your boat will hold. Pay for the wiring upgrade - it will be worth it in the long run. I wish I had a 36 volt trolling motor on my boat - just for so many things. You can hold in the wind better - you can cut across the cove quicker without having to start up your big motor - you can crawl along the shore line or drop off line much easier - it is just better if you can afford it. If you can't fit a 36 volt unit on to your boat - then go with a 24 - go with as much power as you can afford.

Where is the closest boat dealer to your house? That's where I'd go look first.

Don't have an answer for this one - maybe not enough information. If you going to try to throw that buzz bait as far as you can, ( to cover water I guess ) my only advice is - rod tip up, as far as possible - reel as fast as you have to to get the bait up and then experiment with how slow can you go. Next - gear advice for a new fisherman - decent digital postal scales cost $20 more or less and a plastic case to protect it another $10, max. I've had mine for around a decade now with no issues. (Be sure to remove the battery between uses ). If you have knee, you would KNOW how much that buzz bait weighs. I've used mine at least a dozen times per year, when I want to know the weight of something fishing related. On a cost per use basis, it is probably the most economical fishing related toy I have.

My current Ned Rig rod is an old style highland reservoir hair jig rod. Fenwick HMG 5'4" Med/ extra Fast Tip with a small light reel and 10 lb braid. Sometimes I'll go braid to leader, but most of the time not and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I'm wondering - maybe an appropriate size hose clamp?

I bought my Lowe WF 180 new in 2002. I should have made them find a way to mount a 36 volt trolling motor - and made them find a place for the extra battery. There just isn't any substitute for electric power. If you're buying new, spend the money and get all the trolling motor that is available. Next - had Power Poles or Talons been available in 2002 - I would have spent the money to get them. If you have a choice - go 4 stroke instead of 2 stroke and get as close to max horse power as the boat is rated for. Next - there isn't any substitute for boat storage. Storage in my Lowe kinda sucks, but I didn't know any better at the time. If I would have had the choice, I'd like to think that I would have bought the more easily cleanable vinyl flooring rather than carpet - but carpet is a little quieter. I wish trailer brakes would have been an option when I bought my boat. Ultimately, in 2002 the final choice in my boat came down to which dealer was closer and which dealer I thought would work with me better, and I think I made the correct choice there.

I've changed my mind so many times about what balance is or ain't so I don't worry about it anymore. If a rod feels right (or even ok ) I fish it and if it don't, I don't. For instance - Do you mean balanced on your finger or balanced in your hand? Balanced with a bait on or not? On spinning gear, does it make a difference where the rod hits you fore arm when you go to set the hook? Now, I'm all about details when I'm fishing and rigging up different rods & reels, however I've given up worrying about this particular detail. Another for instance - I like small, 1000 size spinning reels on my MH spinning rods, because I like to go as light as possible. Are those rods balanced? Not so much, for the most part they're pretty tip heavy. Turns out I don't mind fishing tip heavy rods. Good luck figuring out what you like in this instance. More advice - don't balance rods when you're drinking, sitting around in your fishing shed. I can recall messing with this issue and several IPA's later, thinking I had it right. Next day, out on the water - sober - wasn't right. Perhaps if I'd been a similar level of drunk, it would have felt right. Who knows? I do know that it probably wouldn't have felt right driving to the lake, and that's what makes that idea a bad one.

I'm not a fan of swivels in general. The only spoons that I throw are Dixie Jet jigging spoons. I consider a ball bearing swivel part of the package with that bait. Wouldn't throw one without it. This winter I acquired some heavier in-line spinners. (3/8 & half ounce). I remember about line twist from my bank fishing days and I installed ball bearing swivels on those baits as well. If I'm using swivels I prefer to attach them with appropriate size split rings rather than snap swivels. Swivels will help quite a bit with the line twist issue, but as mentioned previously it won't stop it. The only sure thing for getting line twist out of spinning reel spools is to let it all out, drag it for a while ( no weight on the end ) and reel it back up under pressure. It is much easier to do this from a boat, but dragging it across a field works.

The key to learning the bait caster is practice. Living in NW Arkansas and fishing in Beaver Lake, I'd recommend your next purchase be a decent spinning set up. There is a often a lot of clear water to fish at Beaver & more often than not spinning gear is better suited for clear water. If you're out of the service now, get on-line and check out the Fishing for Freedom program put on once a year by the Leavenworth Bass Club at Truman Lake. (Truman is about 4 hours north of you in Central Missouri ). Check out the Leavenworth Bass Club web site for more info. Anyway, if it is too late to sign up as a warrior, sign up to volunteer & you'll get to go fishing once or twice with a boater who can teach you alot about gear & technique in an afternoon. I generally get down there on a Wednesday for the event, which happens Friday, Sat & Sunday. I practice by myself for a couple of days, just to reacquaint myself with Truman and not get embarrrassed when I take the warrior out. pm me closer to the event if you want.

Do you mean like you might have with a Carolina rig - where you can't reel the bait up to the rod tip? When I Carolina rig I generally use MH spinning gear and I just get the weight up to the rod tip and lob it out the best I can. A back swing to kinda straighten out the leader helps some - but it isn't ever pretty casting a rig with a long leader.

An interesting question. I have very little experiences throwing swim baits. 8 or 9 years ago, I came across a Kistler "Small Swim Bait Special" ( one of the olive green ones) on close out at Cabelas. Didn't have a use for the rod at that time - but that isn't a reason not to buy a close out rod. Didn't really like it for a spinner bait rod and didn't really like it for a square bill rod, so for the most part it didn't make the traveling team. This year, I decided to throw swim baits more - focusing mostly on baits in the half ounce range, more or less. I put a 50 size Chronarch with 15 lb Abrazx and it seems to throw half ounce baits pretty well. Other than that I don't have enough time on this rig to know if I like it or not.

Most of the square bills that I throw are in the half ounce range, more or less. I throw these on 17 or 20 lb mono, mostly for purposes of abrasion resistance. I don't throw deep divers very often, the one rig that I keep in the boat most of the time is a 7' med action All Star Cranking Rod and I use it to throw a Timber Tiger DC 16 & because I'm generally bouncing this bait off of deeper trees, I throw 15 lb Abrazx. This gets me enough distance, and I'm not really concerned about extreme distance. My guess is that this set up gets the DC 16 down to maybe 10 feet and this suite my purposes most of the time. Last year I decided I wanted a rig to throw smaller, lighter square bills and if I wanted to get a little bit deeper, a wiggle wart. I got a slightly lighter medium action rod, filled a Curado 200 with 10 lb line and got all the distance I wanted. I experimented with 10 lb Abrazx and 10 lb Trilene Armor Coated mono and couldn't see any appreciable difference between fluorocarbon and mono, at least comparing those 2 lines. From pst experiences, my guess is that if I need more depth or distance that I get with the lighter action crank rod and the Curado 200 - I'll go to spinning gear & 20 lb braid. I'd do that now, however I'm trying to keep the rod count on the deck to less than 20, even a dedicated junk fisherman like myself can only have so many rods on deck.

I remember an article in In-fisherman magazine where the subject of the article was doing what you want to do, i.e. throw baits a long ways for small mouth in clear water. They mentioned in particular a couple of St Croix models. Option #A would be to find that article. Option #B would be to call In-fisherman and ask what model of St Croix rod they were using. (I've called them several times over the years and if they are home, they will take the time to talk with you and discuss your issue ). Option #C would be to call St. Croix and ask them. One thing I do remember about the article was that they mentioned that 7 1/2 foot rods that would do what you wanted, but 8 foot and 8 1/2 foot rods for the most part worked better. None of the rods that they mentioned were cheap. So, that is where I'd start looking.

I'm not a fan of pitching with braid. If I'm not throwing frogs into matted vegetation - I don't use it. I get it that in some parts of the country braided line is necessary when you're pitching - but I don't live there so I don't know. I generally pitch with 15 or 17 lb Abrazx. I do go through the KVD Line conditioner. My notion is that you're worrying about it and thinking about it - so just stop doing that. Set your rig up so that you can easily achieve pitches of 20 feet out to 45 or 50 feet. Then just go throw at stuff. If you get an over-run - so what. Fix it asap and get back to throwing at stuff. Either your thumb will get smarter OR you'll get very good at untangling back lashes. For pitches of 20 to 30 feet what I like to do is to throw 3 or 4 feet past the target - stop the bait at the surface with my thumb - raising the rod tip, bring the bait right next to the object you're throwing at and then let it drop. If you need more straight line drop than you have just by lowering the rod tip, kick start the spool with your thumb, release 5 or 6 feet of line then instantly stop the spool. I get bit much more often when I'm tracking the bait on a loose, semi-slack line than I do when I've got a tight, more direct connection to the bait. Give the bait time to drop and when it hits bottom give it a few moments before you think about what kind of retrieve you prefer. For me 90% of my hits come on the initial drop or those few moments when it hits the bottom and stops. You can't worry about throwing into gnarly stuff - worry about it after you get bit.

I remember a long time ago, reading in In-fisherman magazine, Al Linder wrote an article about how most of the time he fished spinning gear rather than bait casting gear - and he admitted that he more or less had access to an unlimited amount of gear. He wrote about a LOT of situations where, in his opinion spinning gear was more efficient than bait casting gear. Don't remember much else about that article. That being said, I think that if you're bank fishing, given average conditions over the entire year, spinning gear is more versatile. The line control issue mentioned earlier is important. If I had to start over again and was bank bound mostly and was only allowed 2 new rigs per year, I'd get a rig to throw slider worms and a rig to throw lighter swim baits. Any other baits that I decided to throw, I'd "make do" with one of those rigs. Back when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, I could throw quarter ounce buzz baits a long way with my 6'6" ML spinning rig and it was always an adventure when I got bit at the end of the cast. I landed most of those strikes that hit 60 to 80 feet away. Just remember rod tip up - keep the fish up in the water column - try to keep it from jumping. Of course, these days I'm a junk fisherman with a boat - I think I carry around a dozen bait casting rigs and maybe six or seven spinning rigs. If someone else is fishing in the boat and I have to cut down the total number of rigs I carry, that's a day to day decision depending on conditions.

No - you can put any size motor you want on it. However, should you have an accident or get inspected by the water patrol for any reason - sometimes the reason is that they have to make their quota of inspections this month - there are consequences for having a larger motor mounted on the boat and they ain't good. Should you accelerate too swiftly with a 5 hp motor on a 2 hp rated transom you are likely to crack/break the transom. Not good.

I keep a nylon towing strap in my go to work car and my fishing truck and in my shop. A couple of times I've gotten my riding mower stuck and the tow strap worked fine - pulled the rider out of the muck using my 4-wheeler. No clue how much it is rated for - however it is the same one I've seen cops carry in their trunk. My neighbor doesn't like the tow straps - he prefers a towing chain. Advantage to towing chain is that it don't rot. Disadvantage is that it is kinda heavy and a challenge to deal with in wet/slick weather which is when you tend to get stuck. Thanks for the reminder - just realized that I don't carry a length of rope in the boat and I probably should.

I have 2 different rods that I use for throwing spooks or other walking baits. Both are 6' long with a short straight handle - enough of a handle that I can throw 2 handed if I want to. They have enough flex that I can throw a long ways ( for me) without exerting my self alot. One is a very old Mitchell Fulcrum - the other is an All Star that I pulled out of a bargain bin. The Fulcrum is a bluish silver - I think I paid $40 or %0 when I bought it ( early to mid 90's). The All Star I pulled out of a bargain bin in 2019 - I think it was in the $30 range. Whenever I believe it is spook time, which isn't very often, I rig up the rod that I didn't use last time. The reason that I use the 6' rod is so that I'm not smacking the rod tip on the side of the boat while I'm trying to walk the bait.

I don't think in that situation braid or mono would make much of a difference.

The only place I've ever seen this brand is in Walmart. I have some of their stuff. Their version of the choppers is a little bit longer so I tend to go with a sinker & 4/0 hook rather than a jig head. (sinker is pegged )

I don't know the brand either, but I'm pretty sure those are salmon trolling plugs. Do they float?

In the past ten years or so I've upgraded the stuff that I use most of the time to lighter stuff. That is generally more expensive when bought MSP retail. I generally don't - I look around, I'm patient, so I have a decent selection of decent gear - with a few exceptions. The very high end stuff ain't for my budget and I have a tendency to wear out lower end gear pretty quick. So I try to strike a balance use wise versus economy wise with each purchase. I find that with the lighter gear my wrists & for arms don't hurt as much at the end of the day.

Another vote for the Bow Step. I tore up my knee pretty good, and getting into the boat was a chore. I happened to see the Bow Step advertised in a recent Bass Pro catalog. This is the second year for me. Be mindful that there is a learning curve to this toy. Getting it set just right and tight enough is important. It can get a little bouncy and you have to learn that that's ok. Price wise - it seemed comparable to other trailer steps on the market, not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either. I had many questions about this toy before I bought it, and I called them up and they helped alot over the phone.

When I throw a soft plastic bait and it doesn't work, I think that is an easy out to blame the plastic. I think that it is more likely operator error in placing that bait where it might work. I have a whole wall of never used/ seldom used soft plastic. It isn't because they don't work, more likely I have a tackle buying addiction and over the years I've collected a bunch of soft plastic. I tell. myself that it is ok because it is good to have options.

I use the smaller size spinning reels for bass all the time. I generally use 20 lb braid or 14 lb Fireline. I just crank the drag down some and dare the fish to break it. I've lost a few fish because of operator error and I've lost a few fish because of knot failure between the braid & fluorocarbon leader. Never lost a fish because I thought the reel was too small for the fish.