Scott F

Apparently, the life jackets can be a problem on those duck boats. People wearing them can get stuck in the overhead canopy when the boat sinks.

Why do you say that "The bass obviously wouldn't be eating the bugs themselves,"? Bass will gorge themselves on mayflies, and most other insects they can find. You may have heard of fly fishing where those who use fly fishing gear often use lures that mimic insects.

In future posts, you might refrain from saying that you “snagged” a fish. Snagging is when you throw a weighted treble hook and try to hook a fish not in the mouth but somewhere on its body. Intentionally snagging fish is generally illegal almost everywhere. I know you didn’t snag your fish, but saying you snagged it doesn’t look good. ?

Those light bites are more than likely bluegills that are pecking at your bait. Not much you can do about hooking them unless you drastically downsize and fish for panfish.

Did you take the prop off and check the drive pin? They can break and leave enough of a rough edge to turn the prop with no load but slip when there is any resistance.

If the plug was bad, it probably would not work at all. If the motor is brand new, take it back ASAP and they might exchange it without going through the repair process.

A lot depends on the lake data that was available. Garmin did not go out and map 17,000 lakes. They bought the data from others. Sometimes, that data is good sometimes not so much. The lake map of a lake I do a lot of fishing on is extremely accurate. I could put myself right on the edge of an offshore sunken island in the dark. The contour lines line up almost perfectly with what my depthfinder shows. The good news is, you can create your own much more accurate map of that lake with the software built in to your unit.

Rods are a very personal choice. Everybody is different and everyone has different things they look for in a rod. For example, I don't consider balance at all. If a rod is tip heavy, I don't even notice. I also can't really detect the subtle differences that many can feel in sensitivity. I stick with St Croix's and don't obsess about rods.

Fishermen are not the people who should be helping. You should seek professional help from a person qualified in dealing with depression.

No seats at all?

Have you tried a Batteries Plus store? They have a lot of rechargeable batteries of different sizes. I think there is a location in your town. If you charged your previous battery 24 hours every time you used it, you may have been over charging it which is why it didn't last as long as it should. Get yourself a small volt meter so you can see what the battery's voltage is before you charge it. 12.7 volts is usually fully charged, 11.7 is usually fully discharged and time to recharge. Most modern depthfinders will show your batteries voltage. Adjust the amount of time you recharge or use a smart charger that shuts down automatically. If your Noco went green pretty quickly, it might have meant your battery still had a lot of juice. It also probably charges much faster than the Cabela's charger did. If the depthfinder has a big screen, color, and mapping, it uses a lot more power than a small screen, B/W unit. You might consider that when buying a new battery. I'd get the biggest SLA that will fit in the amount of space you have. Seeing the variety that Batteries Plus caries in person will help you a lot. To make your connections, solder if you can but if you don't have a soldering iron, I'd strip back a little extra wire and fold the wire over, doubling it, before you put it in the connector to crimp.

I use a third party site like TinyPic to upload all my photos.

Just the fact that being in a tournament makes a difference on how you would act. You'd be a nice guy if you were fun fishing, but if you were in a tournament, you'd be different. I don't think being in a tournament gives someone the right to be rude.

What is the maximum HP rating on the data plate? Get the biggest motor the maximum rating will allow. Use a dealer close to you so when or if you need service or to get it installed, you don't have to go too far.

Since when is a state forest not public land?

“Feeding time” is whenever a bass wants to eat. It is not limited to late evening. Low light conditions might bring some fish shallow, but it’s not the only time they feed.

^^^ This. This is what I see most people do. This is what gives tournament fishermen a bad reputation.

What makes you say it's a warmouth and not a rock bass?

In river fishing for smallmouth, smallies will often follow carp around. Smallmouth will pick up various goodies that the carp stir up while they root around on the bottom. If you aren’t looking closely, you may not notice that one of the smaller carp you see in the group of fish is actually a bass.

The rivers I fish are the same which is why I don’t use baits that go to the bottom. I will still use spinners but you just can’t stop or even slow down when reeling. Going to a smaller size might help some. Using weightless T rigged, Senko type baits is one of my favorites in those conditions. Letting it drift with the current will get you lots of strikes. It will get down some but the current will keep it from the bottom. T rigging will make it pretty snag less. Cast it upstream on floating braided line and watch your line as it drifts. You’ll see the line twitch when a bass picks it up. If you don’t have too much slack, you can get a good hookset. Topwater poppers will also come through without getting snagged and are great in the summer.

From the web address listed on the fender, it's a company and puts upgrade packages on trucks. Not a pro fisherman.

I use Mepps Aglia #4, plain (no squirrel tails). The plain Mepps work just as well as the dressed versions and cost less. Because I like to use them especially in shallow, rocky streams, I tend to get them hung up and lose them so saving a buck or two on each one adds up.

It's so hot....the fish I caught today were already fried.

As far as your equipment goes, all I use for my Ned rigs are ML fast rods with 10lb braid, no leader and seldom have problems losing fish. One of the reasons I use braid is because I get better hooksets with no stretch line. There are a lot of different jigs and plastics that people use that they call Ned rigs. Be sure any hook you have is good and sharp. Points can get rolled over after a snag which can dull the hook and cause you to lose fish.

The replacement size you need depends on how much of the rod broke off. To determine the right size you’ll have to measure the end of the rod. Do you still have the tip top? If it broke off very close to the tip, I’ve had luck drilling out the tip top and glueing it back on.