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So I was out fishing some fish cribs on a lake I had never fished before the other day. I had lost 1 bass and had another one rip my creature bait off on back to back casts. I decided to change my profile a bit and threw on an old jelly worm and quickly fired my bait back out there. As I'm letting it sink to the bottom, my line starts moving sideways, so I reel down and set the hook. I expected to feel some resistance from a bass, but instead my weight and worm came up to the surface and I saw my bait with something small skip across the surface. Thinking I just lost a little fish I reeled up quickly and my line came up to the top basically skiing across the surface. I flip it in and this is what I found. https://www.facebook.com/michael.mudgett.9/videos/10205895800746620/?l=4804262720545942785

The practice would probably help slightly, even though the number of bass brought to the scale during a bass tourney vs the total breeding population would be a very minimal percent so it's probably close to a draw. There are a few paper weight tournaments around here. Basically you keep track of the number of fish you caught and the length and that's converted to a weight by a chart. If you catch a legal bass that's heavier than the statistical weight, you can bring it in to weight it to get the full weight. It's a great idea for small clubs where everyone knows everyone and you know nobody is going to cheat. For bigger clubs, I think the live weigh in is the best. Not that people still can't cheat, but it's harder. Plus, as a fellow angler I enjoy seeing how everyone else did vs looking a a piece of paper.

When the bite gets super tough, there's only a few options: 1. Slow down and downsize. Things like weightless t rigs, drop shot, shakey head, very small profile baits in general. Fish them very slow and make them either look natural enough to coax a bass into biting, or keep them in the fishes face long enough it annoys them into biting. 2. Pull out the power fishing gear and cover water. By fishing fast, you are trying to force a reaction strike and/or find some feeding fish. It's a numbers game, but it can work.

Sounds like you could use a lure retriever!

I think it'd be sweet to try, but I'm not sure how good at it I'd be.I think I could make it longer than the guy who left on the first night though!

I'm definitely a fan of Berkley fishing line. In fact, it's basically all I run anymore. I've tried other lines, but I keep coming back. That being said, I run nothing with Vanish. I would also not recommend it to anyone. If you want to use some FC, go with the 100% Professional Grade. Not a whole lot more money, but it's SO much better!

I would put a few wraps of electrical tape around it and then use an anit-rattle pin. I've got the Reese version of this http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Accessories/Lets-Go-Aero/63232.htmland it works well. Virtually eliminates all clunk and rattles. The only issue I have with it is that it loosens itself up over really bumpy roads so I end up taking a 5/8" ratchet and socket to it about once a month during the summer to tighten it back up. I could probably just throw some thread locker on there and it'd be fine, but tightening it isn't a big deal either.

Kind of frowned upon in the bass boat community. There's definitely a place for them because they do work, but they're usually the sign of a poor performance, under powered, or poorly propped boat. If your boat is under-powered it's definitely a cheaper alternative to re-powering, but in most applications a very similar result from a smaller prop, and that usually puts your rpm's in the correct range as well.

I love reading the progression of these posts

I'm assuming if you have 4 batteries that you must be running a 36 volt trolling motor? If you are then yes you need a 4 bank charger. I'd recommend a Dual Pro 4 bank charger. It's not cheap, but they're worth the extra money.

Yum Dinger and XCS 100 Squarebill

The only way I can control him is by fishing. I still spend money on some stuff during the year, but a lot of my purchases come during the hard water season when I have the urge to fish but can't. I end up spending hours online looking at new stuff, or things I want and usually I pull the trigger.

You can't determine if a fish is educated or not just because you caught them. That also really has nothing to do with the question. If everyone always kept their legal limit of bass, the populations would go down. However if nobody does, on the smaller lakes especially, the populations will increase until the point where the bass will begin to get stunted. It happens when the population exceeds the forage base and the bass will stop growing. They will also not produce normal sized off spring and those fish will also be stunted.

x2 he beat me to it.

x2 they will bun themselves out from time to time. Should be a simple fix.

I think most of them are pretty effective, but my favorite is the Booyah Pad Crasher, followed by Spro and then Live Target. Being that frogs are fished mostly in calm water and sit with the tail end down, the fish do see the colors on them. Also, with flatter water the surface can act like a mirror depending on conditions which will reflect the color downward. None of that really matters when fishing over thick matted vegies, but when the frog hits a hole, or the edge it does.

Depending on the wights of baits you throw, either a medium power fast action rod or medium heavy power fast action rod. With the frog included, I'd say you want to go with a medium heavy. As far as length goes, you need to find one that's comfortable for you. Personally I prefer a little shorter rod than the norm, where some prefer longer. There's no right or wrong when it comes to that. The other thing is when you're using 1 rod for everything, just remember to back your drag off considerably when using any sort of treble hook lure. It's still not quite as good as a moderate action rod, but it'll get you by and you'll lose a lot less fish that way.

I had read the full topic. That may be your point, but it reads more like your throwing out a blanket statement towards all the 300 series Rangers when your experience is only with a 17 footer. If you're just trying to say a bigger boat rides better, that's common knowledge.

You should try it. There's no reason not to especially since you already know there's fish there.

Clean them out and use reel oil. Also, unless you're fishing salt water, cleaning your reels every month is a bit excessive. Not that you can't do it, but they can go a lot longer in between services.

x2 I've had the same results with it as fish

I would go with a M/F instead of the extra fast for an all around rod. The extra fast blanks are a bit more specialized for finesse single hook applications, where a fast action rod will give you better all around performance. The Mojo's are good rods, but I'd probably take advantage of the discount on the Rage, as it's an upgraded blank.

It's really not a high stress area. If you want to test it, hook you line on something and tighten it up and see if you can still move the line back and forth easily between the first guide and your reel.

Agreed, seems gimicky to me. Besides you can do the same thing if you put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. Move your hand in the direction you want the trailer to go...

You are kind of comparing apples to oranges there. You can take the same 2 hull designs and have a 17' version vs a 20 1/2' version and the bigger one is ALWAYS going to handle bigger water better. Not saying hull designs haven't improved over the years because they certainly have, but if you compared yours to a '15 Z-6 you'd find that a lot of the ride quality comes from the size of the bigger boat.