Kevin22

Those look really good! I have never eaten SMB, mostly because they are a pretty rare catch here and I'd like to see them take off. But I hear they are fantastic eating. Nice to see someone else that keeps the smaller fish for eating and lets the bigger ones go!

Soak the bass for 2 days in water, changing the water daily. Cut into strips about 1" wide and 2" long and fry the same way you would bluegill. If you are cleaning a big bass, you may have to plane the meat so it is not so thick. Prepare them correctly and you will not taste a difference between bass and bluegill. If you try and fry a whole bass fillet right out of the lake it will likely taste bad. 12-15" fish are eaters. Bigger are breeders!

Well shoot, I was hoping to hit a good topwater bite! Oh well, Guess the flippin stick will get some use this year.

You will love the trion 20's. I have 6. I use them on ice rods and UL rods. Superb drag, very light, casts a mile, and are very smooth. On my open water UL rods I have power pro 4lb braid. I really like it! It is so sensitive you wouldnt believe it, I can feel a fish fart next to my jig. I swear it is the diameter of a human hair.

Well, it depends on the weight of the bait itself. I have thrown 10" worms with a 1/8 bullet on a MHF rod. I fish baby brushes on a 7' MF

I have a ranger with dual livewells. Mine discharges out the side for overflow and out the back for drain. Never heard of one that overflows into the boat, maybe you have a hose disconnected? Does your boat have a recirculation pump? If not, that is where I would start! You can constantly have water moving without having to pump new in.

imo, it is too big. But it is up to you. I like size 20 pfluegers on my UL rods. I use 30's on my walleye rods.

You have to pay them if you want them to touch your sammy.

You guys will not eat a bass because it tastes bad but you will eat a stink old catfish? To me bass is 1000 times better eating than a catfish. Catfish is the lowest of the low for me, just putting them in the same sentence with walleye regarding good eating fish makes me want to puke.

I buy from millers fly shop.

If it is a good quality blank I would suggest you send it off to a custom rod builder and have him strip it and make you a custom rod using your blank. If you want it exactly like it is he can even reuse your guides if they are in good shape. That way you will have a brand new rod for less than it would cost to buy a new one. I just had this done this spring and am amazed at what my 20 year old st. croix rod turned into when put in a professional's hands.

So you leave a big huge amount of slack wire on your deck so the mount has enough slack to go up/down? Seems logical to run it out the head and and down the cable so there is 0 slack. And you cannot crush the transducer cable with a zip tie. The cable is reinforced with a thick foil/plastic lining.

I ran it up the shaft and then down the cord to the foot control. I wrapped electrical tape around the wire/shaft and then secured with a zip tie over the electrical tape. I have a friend that drilled a hole in his shaft and ran it up through his TM and out the head, then used silicone to plug the hole.

Largemouth can have a pigment variation that gives them red eyes. It is pretty rare.

Maybe $5-10 at most. Old bamboo poles were everywhere. The valuable ones are 80-100 years old and octagon, not round.

Sure, its pretty stiff but you wont break it.

I get to experience your great regulations next week. Leaving friday for a week in MN. The lakes we are staying on are really nice though, not many fishermen but tons of bass. Also tons of catfish, you can catch a catfish every cast if you want. They tear up my frogs, yes catfish on topwater frogs... multiple times a day. Throw a white spinnerbait? hold on.. 3-5lb catfish every 10 casts. Usually average about 100-150 accidental catfish catches in the 7 days of fishing. Nobody on the lake will eat them, the locals will not touch one with a 10 foot pole. Can you guess where I am going? (my avatar picture was taken there)

Will be interesting to see the results! How deep was the fish caught? About 6 feet Did the lure contain rattles or have hinges? No Was the lure a natural color (brown, green) or was it an unnatural color (chartreuse, orange)? Black cherry (a very dark, almost black red) If possible, what moon phase was your PB caught during? No idea. Caught 8/1/09 if you want to look it up

They feel natural to me. Probably because I've spent my whole life fishing for panfish, walleye, and bass. So I was using a spinning rod and a baitcaster interchangeably at around 8 years old. I just wish I would have learned to use a lefty baitcaster from the start! Talk about awkward, try to switch to a lefty after 15 years of fishing a righty. The reel balance is way different and is super awkward for anything but flipping for me (casting with my right hand using a lefty reel).

I suggest 2oz, they will last you a long time with the exception of chartreuse and any fluorescent colors. If you are dying scrap plastics black you will need a lot of black as well.

Usually a C&R guy unless one dies on me.. but if I am in a tight spot on a fish fry I will keep a couple barely legal post spawn bass to fill the void. They taste like giant bluegill, which is pretty much what they are. The people who say they taste like crap are just believing a myth told to them by C&R bass anglers. I like the bass pro uncle bucks beer batter for bass. I don't make a batter out of it, I just roll the fillets in the dry and fry.

Anything 7' MH F will work perfect for spinnerbaits. I actually use the mojo spinnerbait rod unless I am throwing 1/4oz single willow in which case I use a 7' M F.

Some things I store in boxes and some I leave in bags. Never had a problem with plastics in boxes other than having salt everywhere. I prefer to leave them in their bags.

Just don't set the hook. Start reeling until the rod loads and then just pull back keeping pressure. Let the fish fight to the boat and there should be no problems. Wear a headlamp if you want and click it on when you get a fish so you can see what is going on.

15 amp is lower than 60 (obviously lol), so you will theoretically be SAFER with the 15 vs the 60.