WIGuide

I for whatever reason have always had more confidence in suspending jerkbaits vs floating. I'll use floating more if I'm fishing really shallow or on something like the river. If you want you can send them to me and I'll make sure they're disposed of properly haha. Don't give up on them yet, they can put some decent fish in the boat for you in short order.

Welcome to the forums! I'm glad to see you got back into fishing

I've got a LONG ways to go before I retire so there's a lot of time to change, but I don't see me fishing so much that I burn out. As it stands, I fish about 4 days a week and just wish I could be out there even more. There have been years when fishing season opens in May up here that I'll fish every day for that first month. It's my passion/obsession.

That's quite interesting. I'd be guessing you're in the minority when it comes people who use that area for a whole lot other than maybe taking a leak which you can do just as easily over the side of the boat. It must be quite the sight seeing you out fishing though, you've got the whole boat to fish out of but there you stand, in the back but not on the deck even instead you're on a 1'x1' section of rubber haha.

It really depends on if you're throwing weighted soft plastics or weightless. If you fish weightless a lot more, I'd be looking at a Medium power fast action rod, if you fish more weighted, you might want to go for a medium heavy power fast action rod. With either of these, when you throw crankbaits, you'll want to back off on the drag considerably. Also, welcome to Bass Resource!

Right now they're at that age where they probably aren't worth a whole lot. I could be wrong though. I'd guess that if you hold them for a few years they'll go up, or at least some of them will. You can probably find some info on the rods like original retail price if you call the manufactures. You can also check out old Bass Pro or Cabela's catalogs.

How often do you find yourself swapping batteries in your boat? Or putting something heavy in? Both designs offer you a flat pad to set something on...it's called the deck haha.

I've got a 97 Evinrude 130. It starts and idles better when it's trimmed up to relieve the back pressure. Once it's been running and warmed up a little I can drop it down without much issue. You have a Mercury though which in my experience unless it's an EFI have always had more issues starting especially in that 50-60 range for whatever reason.

For what you do, that's a great way to save money. Sure it's nice to have them all matched up, but when you can only take a few with at a time there's no reason to drop more coin on something that's just going to sit there. If I was a kayak guy I'd like to think I'd do that as well. I live in a part of the country that has quite a bit of diversity in the bodies of water. Being that I own a boat, I match mine 1:1 for the most part even though I do have a few backup rods that don't have reels anymore. That usually happens when I upgrade a rod and don't use the old one anymore but I move the reel to the new rod.

In that price range, I'd take a close look at the St. Croix Mojo Bass Worm and Jig Rod. I bought the 6'8" model earlier this summer and absolutely fell in love with it. It's a great rod at the $130 price point. They also have a 7'1" model as well. Since their redesign, the sensitivity has went up and they have improved the overall balance of them.

I use my 2 6'6" M/F Legend Xtreme's. They allow me to impart the action I want in the bait. Any of the moderate actions I've used, you really have to crank on them to get the bait to work because there's so much flex. I don't find myself loosing fish with the fast action either because I keep my drag loose, and because in that cold water the fish don't pull nearly as hard or put up as much of a fight. They're pretty much the perfect rod for my jerkbait use.

Those must have definitely been suburban deer since nowhere else are they considered dangerous haha. A few years ago, I was at this small lake in the middle of nowhere. The parking lot consists of a small clearing that was bulldozed in the woods and is only big enough for 3 or 4 vehicles. When i pulled my boat out that night it was right at dark and instead of just pulling it out of the water and stopping right by the side of the lake, I pulled it up to the small parking area. This what when I had my last boat that had full blue underglow on the trailer and I had those lights on as it helped to light up the area around the boat in the darkness. I also had my Jeep running as well with the lights on and everything. I heard a noise behind me as I was putting my stuff away and at first it didn't register. When it did the hair on the back of my neck stood on end when I realized that it was a wolf growling. I wasted no time getting out of there! I left my stuff laying out and drove a few miles until I got to a driveway that had a yard light so i could see everything around me while I finished putting my last few rods away. Needless to say whenever I fish there and am out late, I load my stuff up right by the lake. That way I don't have to worry about anything sneaking up from one direction and my headlights cover the rest of the area.

Congrats on getting a heck of a deal! Have fun with it!

Congrats! That's an awesome tournament story!

St. Croix Mojo or LTB 6'8" MH/F Worm n Jig Rod. They have a nice soft tip so you can skip and they have plenty of backbone.

I'm only speculating, but I think they're there to add ascetic value to the back end of the boat. If you look at the design of the boats you mentioned, the transoms are completely different. Rangers have a set back transom built in where the Stratos have a straight transom. Design wise the transom on both Ranger's is lower than the deck of the boat and is sloped downward. You could fill in that space and put a rubber pad on it, it'd be heavily sloped and if it looks like it does in my head, it'd look pretty stupid. You also picked the Z522D as your example photo which is a completely different hull than the rest of the Ranger bass boat lineup. My assumption on the Z522 since it's designed for big water, they decided to use more of the transom as a splashwell to handle the larger waves in the environment they were desinged to be fished in. Below is the Z520C You can see in this picture how the splashwell runs almost the full width of the boat and looks as if it's shaped to direct water towards the center and off the back instead of being a true well like on the other bass boats. Just my 2 cents

That's just insanity! Awesome fish! I'd love to catch a smallie that big!

I had heard a lot of good things about the DT-6 and I'm a fan of the whole DT line of baits. I had never really given the 6's I had a chance though. I decided to throw a new one Sunday so I pulled a new bait out of the box and it didn't even last one cast....no fault to the bait, just a pike came up and ate it right before it got to the boat and cut me off haha. I've got a few more that I'm going to have to try and see if mine have the durability issues mentioned above.

Like DVT said you are't supposed to dunk the reel spool. You dunk the spool of line in the hot water right before putting it on the reel.

Depending on what you have for a spinning rod, I'd go with either a M/F or MH/F for all around use. Pick the one that has ratings the closest to what you throw. Is it going to be perfect for everything? Nope, but it'll make due. If you're going to be fishing anything with treble hooks, just be sure to back the drag off considerably and that'll save you a few fish. Having a full arsenal or rods at your disposal is nice, and once you have that you won't want to go back to just one, but when you're building you make due with what you have until you can build things up.

Those temps should keep them pretty agressive and feeding. Depending on the lake look for shallow pockets that shoot off from the main lake. If there's any creeks that run in check around those as well. This time of year swimbaits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs, and plastics should all be effective. If you've got any deeper weedlines that are still green try fishing those first. Largemouth will often congregate on those before they move shallow. Without electronics it's harder to find warmer water throughout the day, but any banks with a southern exposure are sheltered from the colder north winds and if they have a wind blowing into them it should stack a little warmer water up against them. If the weeds are gone, try looking for hard cover such as wood, boulders, gravel, even docks will hold them this time of year. As the water cools start checking places close to deeper water.

Lots of animals have a reaction to a lazer light. I had a dog that would chase that thing wherever it went. I used to have all sorts of tropical fish and they'd be all over it. I used to have bass too and it was the same deal. I've seen cats chase them all over. Humans react to them too some more than others. That's the basis of lazer lure and livingston lures. Sure Livingston has the sound feature too, but a lot of their baits have a red light in them as well.

To answer your hypothetical question, I'd hope that the first 4 hours of the tourney that you have been catching them, you've managed to figure out a pattern as to where the bass are located on the weeline. whether it's the points of it or the cuts of it or what have you. If you have figured that much out I'd probably zip from area to area with the crankbait, maybe throw a few casts around the area you think that is holding them and then swithch to the flip/pitch and pick that area apart. If you haven't figured out what they're keying on, I'd probably work the weedline with the crankbait and mark the areas where you caught them, then turn around and hit those areas again with the pitch/flip. If this were a laydown situation instead, I'd work the area around the laydown with the crankbait, and slowly work my way in switching to the jig or plastic when I get in closer and then pitch all the way to the heart of the laydown.

I usually use them in muddy water, or clear water when fishing for smallmouth.

I'm a big fan of the Big Bite Bait Cane Thumpers, Yum Money Minnows, and a local company's hand poured paddle tails. I'm also looking forward to trying the new Eco Pro Tungsten Swing Shad.