RSM789

Your continued requests for others to go back & read what you have written does not change their content. Based on what you wrote, we are not talking about the same thing. No problem with that, I would just be hypocritical to not point it out.

Fishing close to someone was never the point of this thread. What bothers many of us is when another fisherman breaches basic etiquette and does something rude in an effort to get to fish before you do. It is a lack of respect towards another person. Here is an analogy. Lets say your neighbor does a poor job cleaning up after his dogs in your suburban neighborhood. His lack of etiquette means there is a stinky smell permeating your yard. Now you can play defense as you say and just get a couple of large fans to blow the stench elsewhere, but that doesn't solve the problem, it only pushes the problem onto someone else. Solving the problem requires confronting the perpetrator and telling them that their behavior will not be tolerated. Anything short of that just emboldens them.

No offense, but I believe your attitude towards this to be part of the problem. Acceptance of someone ignoring etiquette, be it in fishing or in everyday life, compounds the problem. Being defensive is nothing more than a passive-aggressive response, trying to get your way without addressing the real problem. While I personally would never throw a 2 oz. weight at someone else's boat, I also won't let an offender get away with his actions without addressing it. I refuse to sit there and be a victim, the long term solution is to call out the person on their actions with the hope that the confrontation deters them from doing it to someone else in the future. I can be cordial and address their actions as the problem (as opposed to they being the problem), most people still have some sense of decorum buried deep beneath their ignorant exteriors. They may leave me muttering curse words about my mother, but I have faith that the message will eventually sink in & they will change their behavior.

Today as I was fishing from my boat, a woman in a passing party boat said "Catch a trout for me". This lake is 12 feet deep at its deepest, the water temperature never goes below 55 degrees and since being built in 1970something, has never had a trout stocked in it. I almost made a comment about a trouser trout, but bit my tongue - I guess I am finally beginning to mature... Later, another party boat pulled up behind me as I was landing a bass. I was treated to a standing ovation from the five (liquored up) people aboard as the driver said "yeah, sushi". Bass fishing is not really part of Southern California culture...

I know your comment was dripping in sarcasm, however I have a quick response that I give to PETA people who claim that fish feel pain when caught. If you had a hook in you and someone pulled it, what would you do? Well, after you threw something & cursed at the person pulling the line, you would go towards them. The last thing you would do is fight back, that hurts too much. Now, when a bass or other game fish is hooked in the mouth, it fights back. It pulls against the line as hard as it can. Only when you foul hook the same fish does he usually stop fighting or swim towards the boat, trying to eliminate the pull of the line & hook. I believe this to be proof that a fish hooked in the mouth may feel some pressure, but does not feel pain. If he did, his reaction would be the same as when foul hooked.

So are most Minnesotans...

Living in Southern California, I have much less experience dealing with cold fronts moving through the area compared to anglers in the rest of the country. If I have the choice, I will fish 2 or 3 days after the front as opposed to the immediate day following (especially in the winter), but that is based on what I have always read as opposed to direct experience. This weekend provides a classic example of that choice. A front moved through today, raining most of the day with a few scattered showers forecast for throughout the evening & early morning. The forecast for both Saturday & Sunday are pretty similar, partly cloudy with temps in the mid 60's, with Mondays forecast being cloudy and another storm moving through Monday evening/Tuesday. While I would like to fish both days, I can only fish one day this weekend and was planning on doing it Saturday. However, as the weather situation unfolded, I decided to flip my schedule around and fish Sunday instead. The last few weeks, the majority of fish have been deep (9-10 feet), so I don't anticipate a shallow bite based on runoff into the lake (which, if it happened, would be better Saturday than Sunday). My hunch is that the change in weather tomorrow may make the fish a little sluggish, some of which may dissipate after 24 hours. Would you do the same or have you found one day doesn't make enough difference?

11.9999999999999 inches or less

We are fishing, not necessarily catching, correct? In that case, I wouldn't be particular on the rod/reel, but the lure would be a zara spook. Stuck on an island for the rest of my life, I would get bored after a while throwing a jig or worm. Even if you don't catch anything, fishing a spook can be entertaining. Heck, you might even be able to catch a seagull.

I have never bought into the phrase "A bass is a bass no matter where you find them", implying that all bass will act the same when it comes to their movements and how to catch them. IMO, factors such as regional differences, habitat differences & forage differences radically change how bass live in a lake. Think about two landlocked lakes, one in Texas & one in Minnesota, with the variances you would expect in those two areas. If those lakes are 50 years old, that means there have been over 20 generations of fish growing up in a different environment. Generation after generation of that Texas environment will create habits that differ from the cousins in the Minnesota waters. Unless a body of water is part of a river system where the bass can migrate to new territory, the bass in that lake or pond will never be influenced by genetics from fish outside of that finite territory.

For me, the best bass fishing has been in Texas (with Florida a close second). The worse would have to be Alaska. It is so tough, it makes you wonder if there are any bass in the entire state...

Yes I would, although it is obvious that I would have to be sitting down to do it.

I believe his name is Bob, although he prefers to by his birth name of Roberto...

It is a shorter (5' 6") ultralight rod that I have used on trout streams. I could put the lighter line on one of my longer spinning (6' 6") rods, but they are all medium or medium heavy, so I don't know if the weight of the lure will allow the rod to load properly for the cast. The darn thing is so light that it literally runs out of momentum on the cast. As opposed to a normal cast that has a parabolic arc & you can feather down, casting the bean is like throwing a feather. it initially zips off from the rod, but then it has no weight to fight the wind resistance & pull of the line off the reel, so it goes about 30 ft., slows to a near stop and then falls nearly straight down.

My son gets odd lots of different tackle now & again with his business and the other day he gave me a pair of Yozuri snap bean lures. With the water temps dropping & my curiosity aroused, I tied the larger of the two (1/16th oz.) on a ultra lite spinning rig with 4 lb. test and brought it with my gear when I went out this morning. I only found fish in the deeper portions of the main lake (9 feet, the max depth is 11 ft.) and caught a few on a drop shot rig. I ran the Yozuri in the water to see how deep it would dive & was surprised to see that it was a sinker, not a floater. I thought what the heck, & tried to fire a cast...it went maybe 30 feet. As I was counting it down, I just knew the lack of casting distance was going to prohibit me from catching anything, so as I made one turn of the reel handle...hold on, I got one. A 14" bass grabbed the snap bean on the first cast. Suddenly, I knew I had just been given the keys to the bass universe, this little bait was going to load the boat. Of course, I didn't catch another fish on it the rest of the day, even when I was catching them on the drop shot. Oh well, so much for the secret super bait... Nonetheless, it was a fun little lure to mess with, but the lack of casting distance in my fairly clear lake is a problem. I may mess around with it by either adding some splitshot up the line for extra weight or tying it off 6" behind another crankbait, sort of a clear water umbrella rig. The concern is being able to add casting distance without messing up its action. The fish I caught with it completely choked the little bean, hooked him in the roof of the mouth all the way back to the gullet, so he hit it as food as opposed to a reaction swipe. Any suggestions on how to better cast this bean for more distance?

I have the type of personality that often dissects a subject to the point of annoyance to others. However, when it comes to color when choosing lures, all I try to do is get close to matching what the bass are currently eating. If bright red crawdads are the specialty on todays menu, I believe it is more important to match that color (and action) than to figure out how the bass sees the color red or at what depth red is not visible. IMO, knowing how bass see color may be important, but far less important than knowing what the bass are currently keying on.

The factory in-hull wiring has dual fuses built into the positive wire, about 10" from where it connects to the battery. The charger has a fuse on the positive lead about 4" from the ring connector. I can splice in the quick connect so that it includes the charger fuse, but would that be overkill?

I have a pretty high capacity battery, an older A/C Delco deep cycle, and it powers my 46lb thrust Motorguide for 8 hrs. without losing much, if any, power. My boat is kept on the water, so an onboard charger was a logical modification, eliminating the need to haul a charger down to the dock. The connection to the battery is with the ring terminals & wingnuts, so that will stay secure. The quick connect that I am referencing would be one of these http://www.basspro.com/Pond-Prowler-Trolling-Motor-Plug/product/12052509153040/ , I may be wrong in calling it a quick connect. If I use it, then only the charger will be connected to the battery when charging. I guess my question is it this plug is solid enough to be used drawing current from the battery to power a trolling motor, shouldn't it be solid enough to send current the other direction to charge the battery? I have never had that plug come loose while using the trolling motor, even when I accidently kick the plug or pull on the trolling motor cable. I called the manufacturer, but I don't think the guy in Tech support understood what I was asking. He kept repeating that the charger connection to the battery needs to be the direct connection with wirenuts and I couldn't explain to him in terms he understood what I was contemplating doing. I believe he kept thinking that I wanted to use some kind of quick connect at the battery, not inline.

The fattest one I have ever seen was the one caught by Edwin Evers on the first day at either Dardenelle or Chickamunga. That bass had the same kind of beer belly you see on some guys, huge & perfectly symmetrical.

I can put up with the Texans (at least the ones in Wimberley http://www.cityofwimberley.com/ where my sister lives); they are friendly & there aren't many of them (which probably explains the friendliness). Texas weather does have more extremes than ours, but it isn't necessarily bad. When you compare anyplace to coastal So Cal & our "non-factor" weather, the other places lose bad. The deal breaker in my family with Texas would be the bugs. Again, I can live with them, but my wife would look like she had permanent goose bumps if we lived there. Those little critters find her very appetizing. But if you can get access to those private ponds & lakes on the various ranches, the bass fishing will make you forget the negatives...

Lund Explorer is correct. Companies do not need to keep your data following a purchase, they do so for marketing purposes and to drive repeat sales. If they are choosing to keep a treasure trove of information, they are responsible for it. For example, lets say you use my bass boat & then lock it up inside your garage, guarded by Dobermans. Someone gets past your security & steals my boat nonetheless. You were not responsible for the theft, but you are responsible for the loss of my boat. It was in your care when stolen. You can not legally or morally just throw up your hands & say "sorry, sucks to be you". In my business, I take credit cards, but as soon as the transaction is complete, the credit card number & other sensitive information is nowhere in my system. They can't steal what I don't have.

I am adding a on board charger for the trolling motor battery on my Pond Prowler and have a question regarding location. The trolling motor is bow mounted and the battery is in the stern, connected using the factory installed wiring run through the hull. There is a quick connect adapter spliced into the trolling motor wiring that plugs into the factory installed outlet in the bow. My question is if I spliced another quick connect adapter to the on board charger wiring, would it be okay to connect the charger to the battery via the in hull wiring? It works best for me to have the charger in the bow and using the in hull wiring removes the need to run wiring to the stern. When done fishing, I would just disconnect the trolling motor from the outlet & plug the charger in its place. The on board charger is the Bass Pro XPS charger. The in hull wiring has a pair of fuses built in to the positive wire at the battery location.

What I like about that picture is your bare feet in the mud. Summertime bank fishing, getting right in there with them!!

That fish is a little shy about defecating in public, so he built his own hidden poop palace. I doubt that he appreciates you posting a picture of him at such a private moment...

I'd say go the other direction, south towards San Diego. Some of the towns between San Diego proper & the Orange County line are really nice. There are plenty of lakes that have kicked out huge DD bass as well as many other small watersheds in the hills that most people don't know about or fish. The weather in this area is probably the most "non-factor" weather in the entire country, so rarely would a trip get wiped out due to weather. That said, while I haven't fished a lot of lakes in California, my favorite so far was the Delta.