no39

I don't think it's a hopeless endeavor. At the worst, it's a wash and none of the footage is usable. However, I'm sure you'll learn a bit better of what your camera is capable of. I think you're top down idea could be really interesting and make for great footage. I hope you go through it share what you see with us.

I believe you may be right. The only instances I can say where mono will hurt your performance is dropping shotting on using tubes in depths greater than 25 feet. As you stated, is something you typically don't do. Given your situation, I would make the same decision. No need to waste money if what you have works perfectly fine.

Lots of interesting posts. I enjoy seeing others though processes on things. Thanks for the suggestions. I've only personally broken one rod and that rod had 4 seasons on it. Eventually everything breaks down with enough use. Most of my rods have guides or hook keepers missing, but that's just free weight reduction. I know durability and weight aren't usually to traits one that coincide, so I sacrifice longevity for comfort. Personally, I don't think I'm too particularly hard on gear, I think I'm honest with it. It seems sensitivity is a trait that is highly sought after, but how does one empirically measure such a characteristic? I bought the veritas rods thinking they were fairly light but there's a huge variance between them. I weighed identical rods and one weighed nearly 3/4's of an ounce more than the other. So, if I can't even trust a company's specs on weight, I'm not going to trust them on their claim of having high sensitivity, something I can't even measure. I've tried rods that were touted for their sensitivity, but I was never really wowed. I was admiring their design and build quality, but never noticed any marked improvement over my garbage rods. In fact, I preferred using a veritas over a orochi xx when used for pitching. Simply, for the fact that it was noticeably heavier. For me less weight=speed=efficiency.

I'm curious to see how others make choices in purchasing rods. What guides your decision in choosing and purchasing a rod? I believe rods are most the fragile things we carry on boats and have seen a few destroyed. So the idea of shelling out 250+ for something that can be ruined with an errant cast, livewell lid, careless foot step, tungsten weight, or any of the other various hazards founds on boats is rather unnerving. For me, the rod has to have two particular qualities. First, the rod has to on the light side in its tier. Secondly, it has to be cheap enough as to not ruin my day WHEN I break it. That being said, all my rods on veritas that were heavily marked down when the "new" ones came out. So, I'm not really bothered when they explode as I boat flip a 2 lb fish or when I close a lid on the tip of one.

I have a sustain fg and the ci4+ is nearly identical in performance, but much lighter and cheaper. If I were to lose the sustain it would be replaced with a ci4+

Well, I have spent too much time looking at this. Here's a cropped and slightly contrasted version.

It's funny how it's always like that. There's a couple guys that are just like "Way to go, man! I've never seen a boat in here." For everyone else, I put on my marine grade roller blades and give them one of these:

I used to use flip flops, have moved away from them for reasons already stated. Sperry topsides h20 bungee I think its called has been the best I've found. They drain super fast and breath extremely well. If there's a light breeze you can feel it through these shoes. They so comfortable I actually wear them at work.

@Dave_Fenlon Nice to have another guy representing New York. Welcome!

@River Dave I've actually managed to get my boat in there,too. It was a busy day and I lost count of the death stares I was getting from the people on shore. Good times.

Ugh...I'm just seeing this for the first time. I've been seriously overpaying for jigs. These look to be of better quality too. I feel like my life has been a lie.

I agree, I believe profile and proximity to fish is more key. I don't believe bass perceive color the way we do, either. I've read their biology is more attenuated to the detection of motion than discerning color. There was a pretty neat experiment where a researcher would train bass to leave an area when a color was flashed. From this, they were able to observe the ability largemouth had to differentiate colors. If I recall correctly, I think they experiment suggested that bass were relative weak in differentiating colors in the blue to purples. Which implies they most likely see blue as dark. Mind you, this is simply speculation based on one experiment and personal experience. I believe it is far more important to make yourself more comfortable with any given color. If a person as confidence in their choice of color I think that individual is more prone to using bait and not wasting time switching colors, and thus fishing more efficiently.

+1 @ww2farmer I have a 14 foot aluminum boat and run a 70 lb TM. Somedays, I still wish I had more power. There's nothing worse than feeling helpless because of wind/weeds/whatever. The boat used to have a 12V 36 lb thrust and I was always fudging with weeds and had significantly less run time. My recommendation would be seeing if you can upgrade to a more powerful TM.

@RiverDaveI suppose I should elaborate on why I had a bad experience there. It really had nothing to do with the launch itself. The one I used was this one. https://goo.gl/maps/aNFrnLqi71v My experience there was mainly due to bad luck. It was a combination of being rather busy, a few inconsiderate people, a poorly maintained ramp, guys fighting with their girlfriends, trucks breaking down, and the jetskis doing donuts near the ramp that put me off that lake. Which I suppose is pretty standard stuff now that I think about it.

@fayegarnett There's actually quite a bit in the region. There's a book that may be of use to you. It's the sanders fishing guide for wny. I think there's a few places locally that carry it. It describes most of the bodies of water in the region. Personally the biggest bass I ever caught came from a small local pond. There's a pond in Concorde that was really nice and was also stocked with trout. I think it was called Sprague Brooke pond, or that was the name of the park. There's also another small pond in Clarence that held a lot of bass. The typical offerings will usually yield fish. I would suggest a wacky rigged senko. This is the book I was describing.

The guy who invented marshmallows.

I probably throw the wacky rig way more than I should. So, I've tried a lot of the specially advertised hooks with mainly disappointment. I usually adjust to conditions and these are the main three hooks I use. The hook I would prefer to throw would be the gamakatsu wide gap finesse. I like because it has straight hook point and slightly wider gap. It's not so large where it constantly catches on stuff, but it's width and shape give's a nice boost to hook up ratio. There's also relatively cheap for a value pack. I generally use it on weed edges and light to medium density weed beds, or flats. This is the weedless version of same gamakatsu hook mentioned. I prefer to use these hooks around docks. It should be noted that the weed guard is super delicate. It doesn't take a lot for it bend, but I found if you're careful around docks and reel slowly at the right times you won't snag. I like the to able to skip way back into a dock without worrying about snagging on a rope or something. Some of the issues I dislike is that these things are expensive and the rather fragile weed guard. After a few fish it seems to want to stay in place less and less. This is vmc's weedless wacky hook. I don't like the beaked hook, I feel that it tends skin hook a lot. If I bend the point out more a little bit I find I'm sticking the fish better. The wire weed guard is stiff, like really stiff. Sometimes, I think I miss fish because of it. As much as I dislike this hook I have found a use for it. It works great in the really snaggy stuff. I typically use it fish deep into lily pads. They're okay for the money. The wire guard despite being stout seems to get destroyed sometimes by fish. I think they're great for throwing a wacky rig where I feel most won't.

@Michael Gay don't recall quite a bit. I remember running out a few times. If I were to give it a number I'd say about 72 feet, but a lot of that was because I added five compartments that greatly increased how complex the framing needed to be. With a simpler setup one could easily get away with 32 feet or less. There's a website you should check out if you're interested in ideas. It's called tinboats.net and it's pretty much just guys doing conversions. A lot of good info.

I do seven wraps up and five down. My break-ups are usually the lure knot or at a nick. I've noticed that the knot won't quite break but slip through after a few weeks of fishing. So I'm trying to force myself to retie every tenth or so time I take the rod out.

I've been there, but it gets worse.

I've heard of Lake Alice too, but never knew what people were talking about. For clarity's sake, are you guys referring the body of water formed from the damming of the oak orchard? If I recall it has a horrific launch. I was there once and caught a few, but nothing special.

@Scarborough817 I believe the beam was 60 inches. The boat became a bit more stable with the addition of three batteries and the decking. Although I lost about 5mph top speed.

I have. They're nice and always suspend nose down. The downside is they're uber expensive and the visions had three trebles which would be a nightmare sometimes. I took out the middle treble but it wouldn't suspend right. I haven't the inclination to mess around and test different hook set ups. I can't really say if they catch more fish. For me, the x-rap is proven and cheaper but when I need slightly deep running jerkbait I go to vision 110+.

The framing is 1 inch square aluminum tubing.