Janderson45

I have 3 bassmafia boxes that I’m currently having this same issue with. I’ve transitioned to mostly Plano Edge boxes, but disappointed that the remaining Bassmafia boxes I have all have broken hinge issues… I’m going to try and replace because it’s like $100 in terminal boxes with nothing wrong with them besides the hinges/latches. Really disappointing that an expensive and premium tackle storage (that advertises running the boxes over with a truck) are now next to useless because of poor hinge design.

Brand new in (opened) box - Vexilar AlumaDucer 80/200 flat puck, universal connector. This is a thru-hull 2D sonar transducer for aluminum boats, I believe the only one on the market. I bought it new in 2019 for on-plane sonar readings in my aluminum bass boat, but was able to solve that issue by relocating my transom transducer. They sell for $170 new, I’ll ship it to your door for $110.

I’m not very active anymore, but wanted to update that Nick is currently living and guiding on a part time basis in central Texas (Fork and Ivie I believe). Would definitely give him a shout if you’re looking for some winter time studs on live scope like they’re getting famous for down there…

A+ recommendation. We spent three days on the water fishing pure artificials with Nick Kefaldies from “Warrior2Bass” and crushed it despite unfavorable conditions. Best 5 went 25+ on days 1 & 2, about 20lbs on day 3 with a heart breaking giant lost at the boat. Biggest of the trip was a 7-4, with plentiful 4-6lbers.

Anyone aware of an easy tutorial on swapping out clutch/thumb bar for a Curado K? Guess I got one of the early runs with bad adhesive/design, I’ve been missing the “button” for the thumb bar/clutch for the past two seasons on my single Curado K. Went and bought a new part from Shimano a few weeks ago thinking it was gonna be an easy swap I should’ve done years ago... silly me. Of course it’s not easy, you have to disassemble the entire handle side to access the thumb bar? Anyone?

Awesome, thanks. I will check him out. Think he’ll like my reel handles too... Please keep the suggestions coming Florida guys!

Hi All - I know this has been asked before (by me even) but I’m looking for suggestions on a Florida bass fishing guide. I’m looking for a strictly artificials trip/guide. I know a lot of guys use shiners for the general public fishing style trips they typically run, and for targeting trophy bass, but that doesn’t interest me. I’m looking for Orlando Area (Toho, Harris, Kissimmee, St Johns) or more towards Southern Florida (Okeechobee, Istokpoga, Stick Marsh) - will pretty much go anywhere in the state with a good guide and a hot bite. I fished Okeechobee a couple of years ago, and while the overall experience was good, the guide we fished with ran mostly live bait trips. He was happy to fish artificials with me, but you could tell he didn’t do it often with clients, and the lake fished really tough the few days we were there. Looking for a guide more focused on tournament style fishing this time. Any suggestions/help are appreciated!

How are they fishing right now? Anyone been out on them recently? Mostly if not all postspawn at this point I assume?

Webster Lake, Singletary, Manchaug, Quaboag, East Brimfield, Buffimville, and the CT river come to mind. I’ve fished all of these in my bass boat, no horsepower restrictions on any of them. They vary in size and location, let me know if you’d like more information on any of them and I’d be happy to tell you what I know. If you’re looking for spots further west, sorry to say I’m not much help there. CT River is as far west as I’ve fished in Mass, that’s about a 2 hour drive for me from south eastern Mass. Any more than a 2 hour drive and I’m headed outside Massachusetts!

Well, it doesn’t hurt to try after everything has dried out? You should have an answer to your question pretty quickly I would think. More importantly, how and why did you capsize your Jon?

Dobyns champion 704cb here, two of them in fact. Also a 685cb that I use for topwater walking baits. Much prefer them to my st croix M/F and MH/M rods that I was using for those techniques before. Love those croixs as well, but for different applications. Dobyns champion CB rods are the bees knees and perfectly priced for jerkbait and topwater applications, if you ask me at any rate.

How’d you do? I’ll be fishing from 8/11 - 8/15, right around the corner now. I’ve been putting in a lot of prep work the past few weeks and my confidence is growing each day as I game-plan and scout locations. I think I’m going to bounce around from waypoint to waypoint and put in a good 4-6 hours of strictly graphing on my first day. Hopefully putting some good hours in behind the ‘birds will pay off on the long run. For those of you with experience up there-how calm of a day does it need to be for me to consider running out to Ontario in my 19’ Aluminum Lund Mod-V? Recently, and for the first time as a boat owner, I ran into conditions that I deemed to be unsafe for my boat. It was in Plattsburgh NY on Lake Champlain in May. Winds had been blowing all night 15-20MPH out of the SE and it had the lake pretty angry in Plattsburgh when I launched. The winds had calmed down some by day break, and were forecasted for continual improvement as the morning went on.... I think the boat could’ve handled the conditions, but my partner was not in bibs/rain gear like I was, so he was going to get soaked by some still fairly cold water and we were going to take a pounding. I called it, pulled the boat and headed back down to Ti. Would like to avoid a repeat of this if I even attempt to run down the the big Lake. Am I stupid for even considering it with my rig?

The clip on mine used to hold the fish broke after a few months. I replaced it with a hook from another scale but am now looking to replace that as well. I hate how the fish can jump right off the hook with minimal effort/flopping. I still don’t really know how to use all of the features as @Team9nine alluded to. I clumsily clear and delete weights at random - that’s my fault for losing the instructions and never learning how to properly use it, but it’s not exactly intuitive either. The screen on mine is finicky, tough to read in bright light. It wasn’t always this way, I think it’s potentially taken some water damage. long story short I’m looking for an alternative. It’s been just OK if you ask me, but I’ve yet to find a digital scale that I’m happy with over the years. Love my Boga grips, but they don’t weigh to the same precision as digital scales which can be necessary when freshwater bass fishing.

Let me know how you do! Are the cartography cards in fish finders inaccurate? I’ve got both a humminbird lakemaster and Navionics chip for console and bow graphs.

This holds true for brown fish as well? That’s mainly a largemouth deal for me on the fisheries I frequent, but as I said my experience and knowledge on the river is very limited, I’ve only ever fished it one day, back in 2016. It was largely prespawn / spawn at the time and almost all of our smallmouth (probably 60 or so) came from 6-12ish FOW on reaction baits around weed beds. Quite a few pike fishing this way as well.

Fishing any sort of live or dead bait is going to be an absolute last resort for me, I’m pretty much a strictly artificial baits kind of fisherman, but I do appreciate the input regardless. My plan at the moment, without a ton of knowledge of the fishery, is to start by targeting shoals in the 25-30’ depth range with the usual fair of finesse smallmouth presentations- dropshots, tubes, Ned rig, shaky head and football jigs are typically my go to presentations for fishing summer smallmouth at these depths. I almost always have a spinnerbait, jerkbait, and topwater tied on as well. Most of my smallmouth fishing experience is in large/deep reservoirs and natural lakes. Finding smallmouth on deep structure is probably the strongest part of my bass fishing repertoire, but I’m a bit worried that their behavior on a large river may be quite a bit different than I’m used to. I’m always mindful of current when trying to locate feeding smallmouth, but I’m guessing the role it plays in the St Lawrence is even more crucial?

Agreed. Powerpole is a pretty small operation I believe. Big fan of their current product though, I’ve got two blades hanging off the back of my Lund.

Interesting, I hadn’t stumbled upon that yet. Would hope to see one or both of the aforementioned products released before that - it’s been years of r&d for both if I’m not mistaken.

They’ve been working on the “Charge” and “Vision” for quite some time now. Both very interesting and useful looking products, though neither is a trolling motor. Im very pleased with my Ultrex, won’t be upgrading any time in the near future, but I welcome lowrance and Garmin entering the market. They’ll be plenty of real world data/feedback (and probably updates) to both before I’ll be in the market for a new trolling motor.

Sir, this is a bass fishing forum.

Sold. Hopefully the water levels come down a bit as JFrancho alluded to and I’ll be able to settle in on a good summer smallmouth pattern. Will be spending at least 4 days on the water, hoping to come home with a new PB smallmouth. I think I’ll have a decent chance as all I’ve gotta do is break that stubborn 5lb mark

Hah - was just looking at this one this afternoon. I like the idea of leaving the boat docked and not having to launch/retrieve it daily...

Mine came yesterday - USPS package looked just like the one A-Jay photographed above. Luckily the internal contents in mine were fine too.

Hey guys- I’m in the process of planning a trip to the St. Lawrence in the middle of August. I’ll be bringing my boat up from Massachusetts and plan to fish with a partner for plus or minus 4 full days. I fished the river once before, with a local guide, three years ago. We fished for two days out of the Waddington area and did very well on a handful of presentations. Smallmouth, largemouth, walleye and pike. Conditions were a mix of all 3 spawning phases, so we fished shallow for everything but the walleye. There didnt seem to be any shortage of bass up shallow in the bays we fished on that stretch of the river. I’m wondering if location becomes more important during the summer? Am I better off lodging and fishing further south in and around the 1000 island region than I would be up in the further north stretches of the river? Are heavy current and sloppy weather conditions a bigger factor down in the 1000 islands area? I’ve got a 19’ aluminum bass boat, and would prefer to avoid super long runs in either direction to find good fish. Any thoughts or comments are welcome. Thanks!