Shewillbemine

It opens fine for me but I hate that it won't let me rewind. So yeah, YouTube is what I do.

Since you're looking for a bass boat past the "entry level" price, you'll want to make this decision less with input from us on the internet and more from your friends with boats and experiences you've had in person. I've owned my first boat for a couple months now and already I'm thinking of things I would like to upgrade to when the time is right. Fortunately, my purchase price was entry level (below $20k) which means I'm not underwater, can sell/trade if I choose to do so. It's exactly why I chose a cheaper boat for my first one. There's good advice in this thread. You won't know your personal bass boat habits until you have one of your own. If you have the experience for the more expensive fiberglass models (and I don't just mean putt-putting around once in a while on a friend's boat) then go for it. If not, you may not want to go through the experience of ramming a $30k boat into a dock ramp. Don't ask how I know the pain of such a thing.

Any aluminum boat (within reason; we're not talking about commercial vessels) will be much more tossable in the wind. Light aluminum's advantage of easy towing, less fuel consumption, low maintenance, low cost, low anxiety when bumping into things becomes a disadvantage in the wind and waves. I don't think the deep V model necessarily gets more pushed than another aluminum bass boat. Just be sure to have the correctly powered trolling motor or anchors or Power Poles and you're fine. It WILL be moved around by wind regardless of size. But ask me how often I've filled up my fuel tank since I purchased the boat and gone on 7 fishing trips since then. Once.

Losing 25 bass sounds like a maddening experience. How did you stop yourself from lighting a stick of dynamite and just dropping it in the water?!

If you're going to balance between freshwater and saltwater fishing, then you may not want a dedicated bass boat. They lack the freeboard to handle waves and you might poop your pants in rougher seas. You're likely not to see Mako boats in bass tournaments either but as long as the tourney allows your kind of boat, who cares whatever it is? I have a Tracker Deep V and I purposely chose that design because a) I fish year-round for all species I fish saltwater inshore c) I use it for recreational water sports as well. It's really served its purpose and works well for me. From what you've described about your kind of fishing, I'd look at any deep V models from all manufacturers and the smaller, skiff or inshore type boats. LOL you'll grow tired of cleaning blood off bass boat carpet real quickly.

Dude, I got skunked 6 trips in a row before I decided to switch to trolling for a day and then caught some nice trout (great dinners for me and wifey). I'm going back for bass when I find the time again (and the sun is shining better). Hang in there. These skunkings are why bass fishing never gets repetitive. That next one you catch will feel like winning the lotto!

For those with more than 5 colors of any bait, do you guys believe that your access to such variety really helps you catch more fish on the water? Or did you just help the lure company increase their profits? I see guys with hundreds of lures and wonder how often any of them get used on the water.

You can catch fish on any given day with any given bait, but there are probabilities you're going up against depending on weather, time of year, temperature, structure, cover, lake personality, etc... The bass will begin coming up to shallow water as we enter pre-spawn. My suggestion is to throw that crankbait, work it and see if you get bites. Don't get too caught up [yet] in bait size/color--there are countless examples of people catching bass on something that "wasn't supposed to work". Use your on-the-water experiences to see what works for you. Be on the lookout for bass and baitfish in your shallow water to see if there are fish in the area you're fishing. Good luck!

First time I've heard of this and would like to try it when needed. So if I understand correctly, take weight and tie it to a line. When you say "place in bass' throat" do you mean just plop it in its mouth or attempt to put the weight into the throat (the part that actually "closes" and looks like a...ahem, body cavity)?

Btw, I had the skunk for 5-6 fishing trips in a row. Yes, it's brutal and I had to check my man card every time I left the water. I stayed motivated and although I haven't broken the skunk in regards to bass, I decided to try some easy trolling to convince myself fish were still in my lake. I've caught a 3.5 and 5 lb. trout in the last outings while losing an even larger one that broke my line due to a tightly wound drag.

I've read that bass love consistent weather and that 3+ days of no change will entice them to be more active. Sometimes, you just get skunked. But the key is to keep coming back.

I read that today as well. For all the effort he put into this caper, he could've applied that same energy to practicing his fishing skills.

In the internet age, the following edict is 99% accurate: "If it's too good to be true, it probably is". When I looked for a used tow vehicle, I found a Toyota Tacoma that was listed as immaculate, unbelievable low mileage and priced lower than comparables. The "owner" told me he's a marine who is about to be deployed and that eBay motors had possession of the car, ready to ship to the buyer. He said I couldn't come see the car because he was out of state but assured me it was ready to go. A day later I saw a listing for another Toyota Tacoma with the same price, mileage and color. This "owner" told me she's a widower whose husband passed away. The car reminded her of her dead husband and she was ready to let it go. She said she couldn't show me the car because she was out of state with her grieving family and that eBay motors has possession of the car. I emailed both of them on the same message and remarked how awesome the coincidence was of their cars looking exactly the same. I didn't hear back from either one. It's possible you can luck out and find the old man who only used his boat on Sundays to get to the church in the middle of the lake. But unless you have a personal connection to the seller, deals that raise eyebrows usually have darker secrets.

I'm not looking for an argument so don't take this post as an invitation for one. But parking a boat on a street is already seen as a no-no in many cities and is sometimes even illegal (usually it's a maximum 72 hour rule and the boat has to move/go). In a tiny apartment complex, you're likely inviting bad things to happen whether it's your rubbing the boat against this "very tight squeeze", others accidentally hitting the boat or worse, neighbors retaliating in annoyance. I personally don't like how a boat looks in any residential area (unless it's in your garage or behind your fence) and I know I'm not alone in that perspective. If you live in an area with Homeowners Association it's probable that they have rules against marine vehicles anyway. As others have suggested, your options are: a. Find someone/anyone who will allow you to park the boat on their street, driveway, backyard or side of the house. I'd compare what you might pay for local storage and offer an amount less than that. b. Find local storage and pay the fee. Some would argue that's part of the cost of ownership for boats (frankly, it kinda is). c. Some lakes/marinas have slips they rent out monthly. For charging, I have the same issue because I don't keep my boat by my house. So I either: a. Charge the boat at my house the day/night before I go on a trip. b. Charge my boat at my storage facility. It has outlets that aren't close to my space but I just tow my boat close to it and charge a few hours at a time. c. Buy a generator.

From the last articles I've read, yes, at 30' deep. You didn't attempt to fizz it?

In the words of the tap dancing teacher on The Cosby Show, "CHALLENGE!"

Congrats! I have the opposite situation: no natural lakes and very few man-made ones with lots of fishing pressure. Hence, our bass are finicky as all heck.

I'm a research ***** and for the money, you can't beat Tackle Warehouse prices. Perhaps the only thing would be ebay or Craigslist but neither of those give you a selection. It's sad for local retail stores but I have learned that all of their equipment is marked up significantly and cannot compete with online shopping. The only time I'll buy anything in person is if I need something in a bind, like if I lose a lure the day before and want the same pattern the following day.

Good thread and I will speak up for the silent "newbie" who might stumble onto this page. So you've started an informative conversation about how bass behave and their primary motivations when it comes to movement. I think the next logical step is discussing how to apply these observations with where bass are much likely to be located on a body of water. My biggest issues when starting out as a bass fisherman was the lingo. Many of you grew up speaking terms like "beds", "flats", "creek channel", "drop offs" and "points". Many of the articles on this site haphazardly throw this jargon around but to the layperson who never learned how to interpret a topographical map and didn't have a fishing dad teaching him/her 20 years worth of bass info, it all becomes white noise. So I'll limit this to the current season. It seems to me that we are still in "winter mode", which varies by location. In SoCal, water certainly isn't frozen and water temps. have hovered around 55 - 57 degrees. In the NorthEast, I'm sure it's a different story. To me, "winter mode" means slower, lazier bass that won't move too much to catch prey. They are looking for stable (and warmer) water temps. which presumably is still towards the deeper parts of the lake. Your lure selection and presentation need to be slow and meticulous since you are attempting to dangle the bait right on top of their faces. The last time I was out on the lake, I noticed a school of baitfish hanging around the shallows, actually inspecting where my line touched the water from time to time. Conventional wisdom tells me that bass follow this food and should have been close to the shallows as well. So my question is: how do these two things jive with each other? Winter tells me bass are still deep and baitfish in the shallows tells me bass are shallow.

In your guys' experience, is it true that California bass are more finicky than say, Midwest or Southern LMB? I have no idea what it's like to fish in a natural, freshwater lake and can only imagine how much [relatively] easier it is to catch the wild bass there. I've read and heard countless times that CA bass are harder to catch because of our limited lakes and tons of fishing pressure. Do you guys agree with these ideas?

Is this the same knot Shaw Grigsby recommends for fluorocarbon?

You know, I'm really impressed with guys who do this kind of stuff. I didn't get much in the handiness/creativity department. I'm especially impressed with those who custom paint crankbaits.

Oh snap! I have a Raymarine VHF radio on my boat for my inshore fishing expeditions.

I know that any road trip is possible towing a bass boat with a reliable vehicle. But I wonder how many of us take long road trips and how often it happens. My immediate fishing locations are within 1.5 hours of my house. So for the sake of this thread, let's assume that "long distance" is 2 hours or more. How often and how far do you take your bass boat on "long distance" trips? Where do you keep it stored if it's overnight? How do you keep the batteries charged if it's overnight?

This is very good advice. I have done this on all private party car purchases I've made.