WIGuide

it makes it even better when they drive right past the big hazard buoy to get to that rock pile

My dad had a love for fishing and passed it on to me. It started at a very early age watching fishing shows with dad, looking through the BPS catalog like a bible, and catching panfish. It quickly grew from there, going out with my dad more and more trying to catch bass and northerns. I bought my own boat in 5th grade and I've never looked back. One disadvantage of starting so young is I don't remember my first trip or my first fish or any of that, but I really must have enjoyed it because it kept bringing me back time and time again growing this fishing/bass fishing thing into a passion I'm sure nobody could see coming haha. A few pics from the early years...

Pontoons usually get to me. The vast majority seem to think that if you get off the bank more than 50 yards your pontoon falls off the flat earth. Nothing like fishing a point and watching a pontoon drive right in between the point directly over where you're casting. Last year, I had one that I literally could have ran into the bank. I pulled up to fish this bog edge, I was off the bank a little ways and a pontoon came around the corner behind me. Being that the driver's course appeared to be set to cut between me and the bog I was fishing I turned the bow of my boat in towards the bog. I could see the pontoons course change, but it was changed to still cut in between. I moved forward again and had the same result. I kept it up until when the pontoon passed there was literally 10' of clearance on both sides. Meanwhile, the 1/2 mile of water on the back side of my boat was left without another boat in sight. I can understand some ignorance, but when it's just blatant disregard and straight up stupidity it just irks me.

Personally, I'll share some info. I'm far more likely to give you general information than specifics. I'll leave out the weight, color, specific bait, as well as specific spot. Something like telling someone to try hitting some shallow points with a squarebill or whatever I've been doing that's working. If you're a close and "trusted" friend I'll be more loose about information. I've got a few trusted sources as well and we speak freely.

4" Yum Dinger is my favorite

I use the Plano 3730 box for my deep divers. It's basically a deeper 3700 tray and it works well for jamming quite a few plugs into.

My little blue missile

nicely done!

I haven't done the deck lights yet, I was planning on adding them to mine soon though. As far as spacing and height you're going to have to experiment with that based on what look you're going for. Not knowing how high the gunnels are on your boat you may be able to mount yours a considerable distance off the deck. If you keep them up higher they'll still provide light, but you may not see as much of a pattern on your carpet. (see picture) The angle of your gunnel will also dictate this. On my last boat, I put lights in my compartments using LED strips. I had an "interior lights" switch on my last boat, so I wired the compartment lights to that. If I didn't have that, I would have wired them in with the navigation lights. If you do deck lights, you'll probably want them on something other than the navigation switch as having them on could interfere when you're running in low light. If I remember correctly some boats use a type of magnetic switch for their hatches. You might want to look into those if you're concerned about amp draw. From what I've found, led's don't pull much for power at all and I didn't have to worry about upgrading any wiring. (pics of my old boat for reference)

Sounds like you need to remind her that she was good enough to fool that big one once, she can do it again. Giving up on it is letting that big bass win!

No problem! Unfortunately, I didn't think of it either until after I purchased 3 battery backpacs for mine. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20 haha

It's not a wake bait, but you might want to check out the Bill Lewis Stutter Step. With a straight retrieve, it'll stay on the surface but give you a similar action to what you're looking for. It's a topwater bait so it's not meant to dive, so it will stay up no matter how long of a cast you make with it.

Whatever the first purchase was because it led to my current tackle buying/hoarding habits haha. I've got a few bad buys with baits I've purchased but never used, or purchased and found out they were absolute garbage. I think the worst was probably a few packs of tungsten weights when they first came out. These had inserts in them, but the holes were so small you couldn't get your line through the weight.

looks like you had a great day! Congrats!

Thanks! Mikaila's dad and grandpa usually go panfishing more than anything so that was her fishing background. For our first date I took her fishing for bass and northerns which was all pretty much new to her and she really liked it. Shes stuck with it on some pretty slow days so I think she's in for the long haul. Even though your wife would rather fish for trout, it's still awesome that she goes out there with you. It's an experience more couples need to share!

Looks like an awesome day! Quick tip to keep the GoPro from dying. If your boat doesn't already have one, purchase a 12v power supply socket, an automotive USB charger, and a USB extension cable. You can install the 12v socket under your dash and leave the USB charger in it. Then when you go to film bring your GoPro charging cable and the USB extension and plug it in. You can run all day off your boat battery and never have to fiddle with it.

Thanks, I took a little time out from fishing to run it for a bit and get the cut shots. On the last fish catch my drone was in a mode called "active track" I put it at the height and distance I want it at and it'll follow without anyone having to control anything. I can also turn the collision sensors off and it can stay out in front of me or off to the side as well instead of following me.

Nice fish! Next time you catch one and you don't have a ruler take your bait and line connected to it. Lay it over the top of the fish and cut your line at the length. Take the same line/bait and measure the girth using the bait as the marker on one side and then tie a simple overhand knot in the line where it comes back and meets the bait. You now have the length and girth on one string as the distance of the whole line is the length and distance from bait to knot is the girth. You can save it until you get home, or in your case, you can measure with the tape that wouldn't properly measure the girth.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Haha she's the same way, she's asking me questions all the time even when we aren't fishing. She's also very competitive and when she beat me one afternoon last year you would have thought she won the Bass Masters Classic. It was quite comical (and made the losing more tolerable haha). Also, it sounds like you didn't go wrong at all! It just turned into one of those "when the student becomes the teacher" type deals. It takes a great teacher to get a student to that level

Thanks, A-Jay!

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend was home from college on break. She ended up getting an extra day off out of the deal due to her class schedule, so she had asked if we could go fishing. You REALLY have to twist my arm hard for that, so I took the day off work and took her down to the Mississippi River as I had a tournament coming up and needed to do some prefishing for that. Conditions weren't that great with on and off rain, high winds, cool temps, and water getting dirtier and faster moving by the hour. Couple all that with the fact that I had only spent a total of 6-7 hours on this pool and it was looking like it could be a tough trip for her. I give her huge props as she hung in there though and shook off some of her rust and did catch a few. They may not have been big, but she kept the skunk out of her end of the boat. Here's what we managed to get on camera. I'm not going to lie, I'm a lucky guy. I've got a girl who I've managed to get somewhat addicted to fishing. She's still green to a lot of it as I just got her into it a little less than a year ago, but she's getting better every trip and it's been awesome watching her grow in the sport! Looks like I've got a keeper!

A few things come to mind here the first is your knot. I know it hasn't given you a bit of trouble before, but because the rod is extra fast and you're also using braid as the main line everything is stiffer. Your hooksets with a previous rod could have pushed you knot very close to the breaking point without taking it too far. Now that you're using an x-fast action and still setting the hook the same, that extra torque could be what's pushing your knot past the breaking point. The second possibility of the break offs could be your hookset itself. A lot of anglers get over excited when they get bit and don't reel into the fish all the way leaving just a little slack in their line. When you rear back to set the hook this sudden pressure put on the line will cause it to snap at the weakest point. You can think of this like a truck hooked to a tow strap trying to pull a stump out. If the truck gets a bit of a run taking the slack out of the rope and tries to jar the stump free often times the rope will snap, even though the rope is more than capable of handling the force of just pulling the stump out. Hopefully, your switch to straight fluoro will fix your problem. If not, it might be time to look at what you're doing to see if there's a fix that needs to be done.

Welcome to the forums! Plenty of info here for beginners as well as seasoned anglers!

I don't throw the rig all that often, and when I do I like the smaller rigs like the Flash Mob Junior. On that, I'll throw 3 smaller jigheads and two dummies 4 of the baits are a 4" Eco Pro Tungsten Swing Shads and the last one is a 5". For that I use my frog setup a 7'1" H/F St. Croix Mojo Bass with 50lb braid, and a Johnny Morris Signature Series Bait caster in 7.1:1. It works fairly well for that, but if I were going to use it a lot, I'd buy a dedicated A-rig Rod, like the Mojo swimbait/a-rig rod. I would also go for a higher compacity reel as well, but I'd stick with the 50 lb braid.

I've been a fishin' fool pretty much since I could walk. I grew up on the water and fished as much as I could. I'd watch fishing shows with my dad all the time. Heck, I bought my own boat when I was in 5th grade. I've always been competitive, but I was also heavily involved in basketball. That was always my outlet for my competitive side. Fast forward a few years, after being a standout player in high school and playing college basketball, my competitive basketball career came to an end. Sure I still coach, play in men's leagues, a few tournaments, and open gyms, but it's not the same once you've played at a higher level. Anyway, about the time I was finishing up with college basketball, a friend of mine who loved fishing as well had asked me about joining a local club. He had been a non-boater a few years before and enjoyed it, but would rather fish with a friend so he had more say in the plan. I figured as much as I loved fishing I should give it a shot. From the first tournament, I was hooked. It appeals to my competitive side and my love of fishing, and I can keep at it for far longer than I'll be able to play basketball. Even though I had always had an interest in fishing tournaments, I guess the deciding factor for me turned out to be a friend asking if I wanted to get in some. If you think it's something you might like, I urge you to give it a try. The worst that can happen is you find out you don't like it.