gulfcaptain

Shoot I got room to grow with screens.....only rocking 41" and my single ffs transducer up front. I can still add a 10" helix and 360 and I'll still be legal. Rather spend 2k and have the original 32 with a 7 or 9" screen myself. Garmin is definitely more affordable then lowrance or hummingbird and more head units as well

You talk about fishing the edge of the grass, do you also fish the inside edge. Please tell me you waypoint EVERY bite you have gotten fishing the grass. This way you can go when it dies and see why they hold there. If you get a bite deep in the grass are you throwing back in there? You should be....grass fishing isn't a quick break down. The 1st year I did it I was okay at it. The next year I did even better because I would go back and look at what worked and break it down more. Yr 3, I could break the grass down quickly in lakes I fished often. Sounds like you have something to look forward to doing in the off-season. When the grass dies off get out there and run your electronics over those areas and mark hard bottom, structure, and any cover that may hold them under the grass......ditches are huge.....if you find a 1ft depression or drain.....those are gold. Good luck

I put it on my frame, then again I have a square tubular frame tandem axle trailer. Rather lift from the frame then from the axle that's held on with u-bolts and possibly bend the axle jacking up my trailer. Then again can use 2 pieces of wood and drive onto it to get one tire up off the ground to change too.

Check out Siebert outdoors. He's on this site as well and has a great price on tungsten punch weights.

So #1, grass fishing is fun.....with the right gear. Now wirh that said you have to look at the grass and pick things out that stand out, 2 different kinds, a point of grass, a clump all by itself thicker then the rest, greener grass clumps that look healthier then the rest. Also sleeper here, over grass that has 2-3' of water a hybrid hunter as well as a river to sea 168.(pb on a 168 over grass that wasn't topped out and was over 11lbs). Punching works great with a 1/2oz min. 3/4-1oz is better. Also use a Tokyo rig, or a powershot. If you fished it before grass and know where rock or hard bottom is, bonus ....this time of year look for wood or something in the grass they will relate to. If you see 2 types of grass, there is an edge. It's breaking it down and not looking at it as a whole otherwise you'll go crazy and waste a lot of time. Remember grass uses oxygen at night and only produces oxygen during the sunny parts of the day so edges will be #1 place jn the morning.....inside and outside edge. Also look for bait popping, fall is great on grass Flats but they normally will pull to edges and won't go into the grass unless it's bright and sunny. And dying grass avoid it, they aren't gonna be in it if there's greener patches. Hope all this helps

Just make sure you put the jack on the frame

Thank you Kent, enjoy and hope you visit still. You earned it.

Well guess I need to add a 360 to my bow now and a bow transducer. They just trying to make me buy more electronics because I consolidated it into one with my 32lvs. Making fishing too expensive now......lmao

The 73 also has the quick release bracket which is nice not having to plug and unplug units everytime you have to remove the graphs

This is misleading, they didn't ban it. They prohibited the use. Yes you're not allowed to use it wasn't banned. They left the door open for the next year. Prohibited for the 2025 season yes, banned no. I think it's stupid people are so up in arms about it. Maybe they need a circuit where everyone gets a participation trophy or ribbon. We won't even score fish. Be like youth sports where they don't keep score, everyone gets to bat, no strike outs because that way it's fair. They aren't masters if they can't compete with it or without it. If you watch Christie won a classic with it....no complaints. But the min some rookies start winning, not fair. If your job is tournament fishing you see what's coming down the line. You stay up with technology. You learn new things in the off-season. That's your job. If you get beat because you didn't learn new techniques and the technology as some of the hungry newer guys that's on them.

So I have went straight Garmin from lowrance. I would jump up to the 73 echomap that way if you ever want to network it and go all garmin(or opt in ffs) you have a compatible unit. By far easy to navigate and operate, I know on my units I have the upgraded chip that let's me offset water levels which is nice and the charts are detailed as well.

Try swimming a zoom ultravibe speed worm, 3/16 worm weight pegged and cast and retrieve like a spinnerbait or swimbait. Can kill it next to weed clumps, swim it just under the surface. I prefer the magnum version over the standard. The mj rig with a senko style bait( screw lock a spinnerblade with a swivel in the back of your t rigged stick worm and swim it through as well.

Well spinnerbaits do well, swim jigs, a weedless swimbait as well. I would probably throw a swim jig with a swimbait or some sort of kicking craw trailer (rage craw cut down a bit). Make sure it has a good weed guard and work it through. A spinnerbait is very good in woos. The arm keeps it from hanging up pretty good but it will hang just like every thing. Hope this helps and welcome to the forums.

So like the zoom finesse, the 5" pro senko, the discontinued 6.75" pro senko is the bomb, so glad I bought lots of them and a cut tail worm.

So I'm more 60% tried and true, 40% new Why, well I'm a great junk fisherman, if I have something tied on I have confidence it will work. Location and learning new areas on lakes, finding a new bait, thinking outside the box and being a little different then everyone else sometimes pays off big especially in highly pressured lakes of S. CAL.

So adding to the above comment and seeing it for myself, there are definitely 2 populations of bass. Ones that forage in the day and then those that choose night time. And you can't catch night fish during the day, whatever was on fire at night normally isn't once the sun comes up and those fish shut down. I have friends that do lots of night fishing here in S. Cal all winter as that's been when they catch their biggest and sometimes the most productive due to so much pressure as well on the fishery. Comes down to how much you wanna be out there when it's cold and dark.

They were an actual 1-1/0 2x jig hook with a regulation fiber weed guard in 1/16-1/4oz ......I just remember fishing an flw event as a co and wacky fishing a 6" senko and having my hook open up an a fish pulling it out of the tullies. I bought a bunch of them after that in like 2015-2016, then found out the company stopped making them. Belive they were revenge baits

I really need to make some weight wacky hooks. Only ones I used to use are disconnected, had a 1/0 jig hook it it, fiber weed guard and could pull fish from heavy cover with conventional gear, no hooks straightened then they were discontinued.

Agree with Tom, FC collects memory quickly, when slight damage happens, it's not slight its major. I use small top shots and it gets changed out often. If I start feeling irregularities on a spool (it's not smooth anymore) it's trash. I don't care how much is on the spool it's garbage. You want to fish it at your own risk, disaster is waiting for you.

There are times I have to turn my units or put them in sleep at the console for battery conservation. And I've put my ffs screen on the back display before or give them the back sounder with a chart. But if I'm fishing a certain pattern or bait and see something my co can captailize on, then I point it out. Now if I tell you to throw 40ft a certain direction. And you launch it 100ft off the side, I can't help you with that......lol you can't wrap up every boater that has ffs with all of them. Some are better then others, some fish what is in front of them and some chase their tails. I am not wasting time chasing fish over and over that don't respond. Move on and continue, or position the boat where I know fish are and can slow down and fish a bottom bait to target them since I know they are there. Which also lends me to let my co know where he can possibly catch fish as well.

And I would say those that make that kind of moves full speed aren't very good at what they think they are trying to do or even understand their units. But bet they watched a lot of Utube and still have zero idea.

I did that back in 2015. You never have control of what you're doing as a co in a bigger event via Open or MLF tournament. As a co you're in the hands of the guy in front good or bad. Nothing has changed with ffs on that aspect except now you feel you're missing out on something if he's looking around with it. When I've had co's with me and I'm doing that, I let them know what I'm gonna do and suggest what they should trying. But S.Cal lakes are a bit different, you can fish the bank even if I'm looking in 25ft of water since we have such steep shorelines.

Of course it changes the way you fish before you have it and after. It's my eyes underwater to identify weed edges, rock, drop offs, timber, etc. Let's me fish baits before over brush I wouldn't have before due to excessive snags and loss of gear. See if what I'm throwing even generates a response and let's me break down an area quickly and decide if I wanna fish it or leave. I was good before I had it, now it's made me efficient and better with it. Now I did play the video game for the first few months and wasted a lot of time. Since having it since 2021, I have since just made it a piece of electronic equipment. One unit up front that is used as basically a depth sounder and quick scan of what's around me fishing structure or cover. I don't get hung up video fishing and in S. Cal, fish have become accustomed to the beam and swim away from it.

So it was told to the TD directly, he told them he didn't have a remote plug. He was given the ok. But hey it's okay leave your boat for a fish.....5min penalty, dive underwater 5min penalty. He never left the boat, had one hand on it at all times. That tour plays favorites, changes rules(often) and is a sinking ship. Feel bad for those that left when promised a different tour, they just didn't know it was gonna be a difference in badly managed. I'm sure Zack will be in the doghouse and possibly fishing boat docks with Watson as soon as I'm sure he calls out their BS.

Yep, he asked, told them what he was gonna do. Director said that's fine, apparently did it in previous rounds, and after it being seen on live a call was made to the TD. Official was in the boat.....weighed fish.....mind you the Officials know the rules. Most think it's due to Birge being possibly outspoken about this failing tour, and if he'd been one of the "Golden children " he would have been fine. Problem lies when the TD gives you the ok then its over turned after you did it. If you were granted permission from the TD then all of a sudden someone calls and says no, well too bad. You gave permission. Live by your ruling, don't change it. But then MLF has a way of changing rules on the fly which is why well I now represent #FBD.