Mr.Victor

Fair enough!

Nice job...looks clean...but just a heads up there are two built in rod holders at the front of the boat.

Looks ver similar to what I did to my Mariner 4 before I got my Bass Raider.

Picked up my bass raider 3 or 4 months ago and I absolutely love it. I did a bunch of mods including a casting deck and the deck is rock solid. It's 3x more stable on my deck than standing in some of my friends jon boats.

Packman, great info. One question though. Is the M power setup reasonable for frogging and topwater? If I put 50 lb braid on it instead of fluoro (which I have on it now) would I be able to get away with using it for lipless/shallow cranks and topwater lures/frogs? Am I asking too much of the setup?I know I'm trying to do a lot with very little but I don't have much choice at this point. Maybe in the future I will be able to pick up another rod and reel.

Thanks all.

Thanks for the replies guys. I use a lefty reel and didn't have many choices at Dick's...I was debating on the Abu Silver Max or the Escalade HD...went with the Escalade cause it had 9 bearings but it was $20 more than the Silver Max...is the Silver Max a better reel for the money? So 12-15 fluoro on the St. Croix for crankbaits and braid on the Abu for jigs/plastics/spinnerbaits but is that setup better for the topwater stuff too?

I'm a new member here. This is my intro post: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/103924-new-from-ma/ I've been doing a ton of online research and just reading, learning, and trying to apply my knowledge out on the water. All I've read and learned about rods and reels has my head spinning though. If I had endless money I would have 20 rod/reel combos for every type of fishing but I don't. So right now I have 3 rod/reel combos. The one I have had the longest is an Ugly Stik SPL1100 6'6" Medium rod with USP35 spinning reel (3 bearings, 5.2-1 gear ratio). A month ago I purchased an Abu Garcia combo, VNGC69-6 6'9" Medium Heavy rod with Black Max 2 casting reel. And just recently I bought a St. Croix TRC70MF 7' Medium/Fast rod and paired it with a Quantum Escalade HD casting reel. I tried to get what I thought would be a rounded out selection of gear for the limited funds I have. But after reading site after site on what rods to use for what application, there seems to be a few different schools of thought, and now I think I'm a bit overwhelmed and confused. As far as types of fishing I like to do and lures I like to use, here is the list of stuff I'm trying to get accomplised with my 3 rods: Soft plastics (mostly senkos), crankbaits (shallow and deep), spinnerbaits, jigs, topwater stuff (I like jitterbugs and have been toying with floating frogs). I will list below what I was thinking of doing. Is this good? How would you do it? Looking to get the most out of my limited gear. Ugly Stik spinning setup: use this for throwing soft plastics and lures that are too light for my baitcasters (and baitcaster skill level). not sure about using mono/fluoro/braid here since I may be throwing plastics into some heavier cover. Was leaning toward 20-30 lb braid. Input? Abu Garcia casting setup: deep water cranks and jigs? 15 lb fluoro? St. Croix casting setup: spinnerbaits, shallow cranks, and all topwater stuff? Was thinking of backing spool with some 10lb mono and then putting some 50 lb power pro on to cover everthing from frogging to spinners and cranks. I know it's not ideal but it's what I have to work with. I'm looking for advice on what line I should put on each setup and what lures I should fish on each setup. Thanks in advance for the replies. -Victor

Hey everybody! I'm Victor. I'm a new member here currently living in Worcester, MA. I'm originally from Framingham, MA and used to fish when I was a young teenager with my best friend Ben. He was the only person I ever fished with. We sucked at fishing and hardly ever caught anything but we always had a blast anyway and just enjoyed each other's company. Then the first year my friend Ben had his license he crashed his car into a tree and died and that was the last of my fishing days, or so I thought. Fast forward 15 years, and another friend of mine who was an avid hunter/fisherman asked me if I fished and/or wanted to. I explained my story and one day in the near future we went out and he introduced me to the black senko and taught me how to fish it. We caught so many fish I couldn't believe it. After a few sessions catching a ton of fish including some lunkers, I was hooked. I've been fishing pretty avidly now for the past 3 years, and have been on a mission to catch big bass. I've also introduced my 3 year old son to the sport of fishing and he loves it. It's been a great bonding experience for us both and I see a lot more father/son fishing trips in our future. So that's my story. I'm looking forward to improving my fishing skills and becoming a part of a like-minded community. Tight lines.