VABassin'14

Was anyone else watching the live feed on bassmaster? The guys were discussing the meeting the anglers had last week at Champlain and the live feed "cut out." I want to know where that conversation was going!

Thanks everyone for all of the great information. Update: we were soo close to buying an 08 tracker the day after I made this post. We went to look it over, really liked what we were seeing, but dad really wanted to go look at one more before making a decision. Of course the boat sold the next day while we were going to look over another boat which we didn't like nearly as much. Now we're in a bit of a disagreement on what exactly we want so I may end up going solo and buying what I want alone, but probably not until spring. We're keeping an eye on the market and if the right boat comes along, hopefully we can agree and pull the trigger in time.

Thank you everyone for all of this information! This is exactly what I was looking for. We're getting ready to go meet a guy at the ramp to look over a 2008 Bass Tracker this evening. Hopefully everything checks out and now I have a better idea of what to look over. We took a look at an older tracker this morning but the motor needed work and deck was in pretty poor shape.

Hey everyone, after 15 years of fishing out of a 12' Jon Boat that we carry in the bed of a truck, Dad and I have decided to upgrade to something a little larger. We're looking at used aluminum boats in the 16-18' range and are going to look at a couple older Trackers, a Lowe, and possibly a Spectrum. Everything we're looking at is late 90s or early 2000s and I'm curious what specific things I should be looking for when we go to look them over? I'm familiar with checking over the batteries and other equipment, but just don't have any experience with checking over the the actual boats themselves. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There is absolutely no excuse for a competitor to leave his boat and board another competitors boat under any circumstances. In my opinion this penalty is way too soft on Monroe, and appropriate for Poche. Poche is being penalized for an accident, Monroe is being penalized for assault, and they essentially received the exact same sanctions. How is that fair?

My thoughts exactly. Its not ideal to use fc line for topwater but it can still be effective if used like this. I used flourocarbon line almost exclusively this past season and still threw a popper style topwater bait with success. I also agree with others that 20lb line for a dropshot is likely to be problematic. I wouldn't recommend using anything heavier than 10lb line for a dropshot set up personally.

I'll give it a shot. Count me in

I love flipping the Missile Baits D-Bombs. No one was talking about these much last year, but I glad they are finally getting the credit they deserve. I've never had much luck using any other brand of beaver baits, but that may be because I haven't used many other brands.

Fisherman's Bait A Bass Challenge for PS1.

Achieved a new PB this season. Absolutely great moment that I will never forget.

As a few people have said, the Xcalibur Eeratic Shad is an absolute great lure. This is my favorite jerkbait that I have fished. I love throwing a jerkbait and spend a fair amount of money on them, but I just can't make myself spend $15+ for a single lure when I version half the price produces as well as the eeratic shad does. Also, I have never had much luck with the Rapala X-raps. I know a lot of people on here love them, but me not so much.

I went through the first 5 pages of responses and didnt see my number one piece of advise. 1. make sure your drag is set! 2. take your time and don't force the fish in. Let them lose some of their sap before you go to land the fish 3. Fish in places that have large fish. My dad always said you can't catch a 10lber in a body of water that doesn't hold DD fish. I have broken off more big fish than I care to admit in my young fishing career, but those lessons learned have helped me land a few really nice ones as well.

Trout fishing is a great substitute in my opinion. Wading the rivers in the mountains of Western Virginia with a small spinning rod in hand definitely helps take the bite out of cabin fever for me.

This past season I experimented with a lot of different colored soft plastics. I found that when fishing in heavy vegetation that anything neonish seemed to work quite well. I am without a doubt less of a believer in "magical colors" after this past year of fishing, but i truly believe that there is something about neon that catches a fish's attention under many conditions.

Get him to the vet ASAP. Swallowing a fish hook can be extremely fatal if immediate action isn't taken. I surely hope for the dog's sake that he didn't eat it, but if he did a vet should be able to take care of it. I had a dog that swallowed a bunch of sewing needles and had to have surgery. He ended up fine but you have to get him to a vet to get him help.