FloridaFishinFool

Bass Pro Shops still sells them! http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Power-Plus-Graphite-Casting-Rod/product/98362/ But all of them are in the cheaper price range and none are made to high standards.

Very true. And for .59 cents per swimbait Berkley does indeed give me a lot of R&D value too. Just today someone posted a video take inside the Berkley lab in another thread. It shows some of the Berkley R&D. http://www.bassmaster.com/video/spirit-lake-iowa-inside-berkley-plant Point is, Berkley still keeps their price down to a reasonable price and even adds in to the swimbaits I use their R&D scents and tastes. Does Huddleston include into their swimbaits lab tested scents and tastes? To my knowledge they do not. I am not aware that Huddleston is even involved in scent and taste R&D. So what R&D is Huddleston into? Making their swimbait look like a real trout? Make it shaped like a real trout? Is this the extent of their R&D I have to wonder? When I look at the Huddleston's I am just not seeing R&D. What I see is art. West coast art being sold at inflated prices. When I look at Berkley swimbaits I see a product designed to fool and catch fish in more ways than one. I see a company that really does do the R&D needed to make their product successful, and yet they keep the price incredibly low when compared to a Huddleston. The Huddleston is an art piece, while the Berkley is specifically designed in every detail to catch fish. I just visited the Huddleston website and can not find anything in R&D beyond art. They even have a fan art section too. So Huddleston is basically an optic bait. An art bait. Huddleston is merely a company who copies nature in art very well and sells it as a lure. For .59 cents with Berkley I get paddle tail swimming effect, I get scent added, and possibly taste added too. For $25 with Huddleston I get a swimbait that looks real. No paddle tail. No scent. No taste added. Their realistic art is not worth $25 to me. Here is where the difference may lie... out west the waters may be far more clear than here in Florida so a more realistic looking bait might have a greater effect than here in Florida where our waters are often so dark the fish can not even see the swimbait so vibrations from paddle tails and added scents and tastes may be far more effective. If I want art I buy oil paintings and hang them on the wall! And I have purchased several oil paintings for less than a Huddleston swimbait!

Here in Florida a lot of the water we fish in is so dark you can not see your hand 6 inches below the surface. So it does not matter if a swimbait looks more or less real when a fish can NOT possibly see it 6 feet down. Realism is a non-issue in these waters. It might be important in crystal clear water, but not here. If realism mattered then why does pink color work great? If realism mattered then why does a chartreuse color slay them? I know of no naturally occurring bait fish that are pink or chartreuse. This kind of throws that naturalism thing right out the window and appears to matter more to the paying customers than the hungry fish in these parts. I've never seen a paddle tail bait fish either. But our bass don't care! That paddle tail kicks butt on the bass in these parts. Is a paddle tail naturalism? Not around here. When you walk into a fully stocked bait and tackle shop and begin to look at the thousands of varieties of shapes and colors available, the truth is they all catch fish, but all that variety is for the paying customer to spend cash on with each fishermen claiming this one or that one is better. The companies who make this stuff could care less which of their products catches more fish, but they are really concerned with the fishermen they can catch and what gimmicks they can use to get that cash!

Sure. When you look at the components some of the swimbaits are constructed from, basically we are dealing with steel hooks, usually lead weights, and rubber or silicon and some coloring. These components have a certain market value individually. And when a company like Berkley puts these components all together they can produce swimbaits that are sold over the counter for $3.00 for 5 swimbaits. But not so with Huddleston. When they produce a swimbait using the same components, for some reason the price of their swimbaits are inflated to many times the component value. So why the drastic inflated pricing? Is it a realistic market value? To me, in my opinion it is not. If it were, then the Huddleston's pricing should be on par with Berkley and they are not. Tackle Warehouse shows this price difference: Huddleston Deluxe 6" Trout - $24.99 (1 bait for this price) Berkley 6" Powerbait Swim Shad - $2.74 (5 baits for this price) Let me whip out the calculator and do the math... Let's see... $2.74 divided by 5 baits makes the Berkley single swimbait cost .59 cents for just one. Now let me divide the .59 cents into the price of just one Huddleston's swimbait at $24.99 and this comes up 42.36 times the price of the Berkley swimbait. So the Huddleston swimbait is nearly 43 times higher for the same components? I'd call this "over priced" every day of the week. At these prices I could buy 43 Berkley swimbaits to just one Huddleston. This is why I buy Berkley and never buy any Huddleston swimbaits. Just too pricey and I want more bang for the buck and keep fishing fun rather than having to worry about destroying $25.00 with just one fish tearing it up. So would spending $25 on just one Huddleston swimbait deliver 43 times more fish? The answer is not just a no, it is a hell no. Paying Huddleston prices is not going to deliver more bang for the buck. But would 43 Berkley swimbaits put more fish in the boat than the one pricey Huddleston swimbait? The answer is hell yes! Berkley delivers more bang for the buck to me. Simple as that. From my perspective Huddleston is a waste of my money. Huddleston is throwing money down the drain- literally. And it is hilarious that right here on this forum there are entire threads started by fishermen crying about going fishing with an over priced Huddleston and losing it while fishing! So they come here to post all about how they paid way too much and lost it without ever catching a fish with it. And what makes losing a Huddleston worthy of crying about it in an entire thread? Price. Artificially inflated price. Let's go cry about losing so much money called Huddleston! (Just trying to make a point) I have yet to see any fishermen create an entire thread crying about losing a .59 cent Berkley! Crying goes hand in hand with throwing too much money down the drain. A clear indication of the Huddleston over pricing problem...

I am starting this thread as a curiosity since a lot of us -now old timers- grew up learning how to fish using pistol grip rods. So I am infinitely curious if any "modern day" fishermen are still using them? To make a long story short, I grew up using pistol grip rods and recently I had an arm-muscle injury that caused me to pull out some of my decades old pistol grip rods and begin using them again. I was amazed at how the rod and reel package was more like a natural extension of my arm and so easy to use. My injury made using my longer rods 7' to 7'11" more painful to use for a short while this past summer and so I dropped down to the 5'6" range with the old pistol grips and discovered how much I still liked them, and it is now getting me to think about building some brand new rods with a pistol grip, but using modern rod blank technology and titanium oxide guides done in a spiral wrap. And I may experiment and push the rod length up to 6' but I realize I gotta worry about leverage and not having too much rod out there working against me. So to get started I pulled out the one old pistol grip rod I hated the most, an old Lew's Speed stick, which is basically a whippy rod not much better than tying line on to a rubber band and trying to fish with it. It is a rod I would never use so I am removing the old pistol grip handle to use it for my new rod experimenting. But there are a couple of old pistol grip rods in my collection that to this day are still amazing old rods to use as they are stock- an old Shimano graphite rod, a Ryobi graphite rod, and my oldest old favorite a 6' Abu Garcia fiberglass rod. Heck, I even found an old Ugly Stick in there too, but that one just collects dust now. I find it really difficult to modify some of these old rods I still like so much, but I am thinking of redoing the guides on the old Ryobi rod since they are getting close to needing repair anyways, I might as well remove them and turn that old rod into a spiral wrap for next season's fishing here in central Florida. This past summer due to the arm muscle injury my favorite less painful modern type of rod was a 6'6" rod shaft through the handle rod. As I used it I began to realize that basically it was constructed not much differently than an old pistol grip rod which is what prompted me to pull out the old pistol grips. But I suppose the point that really hit home for me was that the modern rods with rob blank running down through the handle is more like a tool in my hand with somewhat of a disconnected feel to it, while the pistol grip rods felt way more connected to me and almost like a natural extension of my arm. So what do you guys think about pistol grip rods? Does anyone here still use them? Do they still have a place in fishing today?

Zoom swimming fluke Jr's work great! And they are cheap and found at most Walmarts. Same with Berkley swimbaits up to 6". Bass tear these up! Huddleston's are way overpriced.

Hijacked! Join the club!

Its OK that you did, I am sure most of us can still appreciate the first bass while also discussing swimbaits that you hijacked this thread off into: Bluebasser86 said: " ...a bait that doesn't swim properly isn't very likely to be effective." And GulfCaptain said: " ...the baits are supposed to swim straight, and the subtle action of the bait is what makes them appealing. " While I can understand this line of thought and how humans can come to this conclusion that only straight swimming baits are appealing to fish, in my opinion there is not one shred of truth to it. This is a case of a human making a determination and then behaving according to this one conclusion from then on out. Years of fishing have shattered this straight only myth for me. So the working theory is, that when retrieving a swimbait or lure, that the tight line forms a straight line into the water and any lure tied on is required to follow the straight line perfectly or it won't catch fish and is not appealing to the fish, etc. So if a lure goes a little to the left or a little bit to the right, it is now some how unappealing, no longer working properly and therefore will not catch fish and should be rejected or tampered with to bring it back into a straight line. This is what I am getting out of the straight only conclusion. And all I am trying to say is I totally reject this type of thinking and have for more than 25 years of fishing. When I buy soft rubber swimbaits, how many of them are perfectly straight out of the package? The paddletails are often sagging heavily off to one side or the other. I'd bet that out of a bag of Zoom swimming fluke Jr's, that no two are even shaped the same out of the bag- original mold shape yes, squished in bag shapes, no. How many weeks and months has a rubber bait been smashed down twisted around sideways and now stuck in that bent position when it is pulled out of the bag to use? So if it is not straight I am suppose to not use it? To reject it out of the package because I- the human- have made a decision that fish simply will not like it with a bent tail? I think this is a pattern of thought or a rut that some of us can get stuck in when in my opinion we should be more versatile and open to fishing with lures that don't all follow a straight line behind the line. And in terms of what is straight or not, who holds this perspective? Does a fish look at the line and think to itself that it will only hit on lures that follow the fishing line in a perfectly straight line behind it? Or, is this a purely human perspective looking down into the water that it is we who want it to track straight? How can a fish determine, know, or ever care if a lure is tracking to the left or to the right? I don't want the fish to be distracted by my line. I don't even want the line to be an issue when fishing. So how can any fish I catch put two and two together like that to only strike or hit on lures operating and tracking in a perfectly straight line behind the line? In my opinion they can't. A bass can not determine if my swimbait is tracking slightly left or tracking slightly to the right or perfectly straight. In my opinion this is completely irrelevant to my fishing. I will use every swimbait in a package and I do not care if it swims right or left or if one swimbait paddle tail wiggles more than the next one. I use them all. And if there is a shape variation like a bent tail that causes it to swim improperly or differently then I am the one who adapts to it and I am the one who makes that lure act how I want it to so I can catch fish with it. I am sure there are those who could care less and will say so...

I agree as far as depth goes. It does fluctuate. But for bodies of water that do not experience the effects of river current, the shape or contour of the bottom can remain consistent for decades. I still use sonar created maps going back to the 1960's and still find them to be generally accurate. Rambler said the above quote: " You have to understand that to make an accurate map of a lake you have to criss-cross that entire lake in a grid pattern. Who is going to pay the price for that." And this was my whole point to my comments above. Here in Florida we do have someone who pays for accurate lake mapping and they have been my source for more accurate maps for decades. Paid for by the taxpayers. And since the taxpayers are footing the bill, we have access to that public information which I have been accessing for decades. I have no need for any satellite generated mapping. None whatsoever. I don't consider it accurate enough to be of much value to me or my fishing activities. Florida has 5,444 lakes, not including smaller bodies of water. The government has a huge interest in keeping a watchful eye on these bodies of water since a lot of our drinking water is directly tied to proper care of all our bodies of water here in Florida. So the government is spending our tax dollars to accurately examine and document more and more of our lakes. Here is a link to the Florida wateratlas website which describes the method of lake mapping they use. And Rambler, notice that they are mapping by following a grid on each lake mapped. You and I have free access to this already paid for information! As you said in your comment above, the most accurate method of lake mapping is done by humans on the lake, not satellites. My whole point to all my comments above rests right there. When they combine the on site grid mapping with satellite, is when we get the best info on a lake in my opinion, but satellite on its own is to me not very accurate and not very useful. http://www.lake.wateratlas.usf.edu/shared/learnmore.asp?toolsection=lm_bathymetric "A Bathymetric Map is similar to a contour map. In making a bathymetric map a SONAR depth finder is used along with a Global Positioning System (DGPS). Researchers map a course around the perimeter of a lake and then navigate parallel transects using the depth finder to store various depths of the lake in a consistent pattern. This data is then used to create a map showing the contour of the bottom of the lake. Florida LAKEWATCH, at the University of Florida's Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, may also provide data." The great work our various government agencies is doing to map our Florida lakes in person using sonar is already paid for by tax payers. Once the data is collected it is free for us to access. I have no need to pay Navionics for what they do. Thanks for helping to make my point Rambler! ---------------------

Yep, a nice fish for a first swimbaiter! But, since it was brought up and this thread has now been hijacked away from strictly one-fish appreciation and into how swimbaits run, I'd like to ask some of you why is it important that a swimbait swims straight? I find this curious for several reasons. I am a swimbait fanatic here in central Florida. I catch a lot of bass on swimbaits and my 2 biggest bass of 2015 were caught on swimbaits and in both instances neither fish hit on a straight swimming lure. I go through swimbaits faster than I can change underwear! Seriously. One fish can tear a swimbait up in seconds, bite the tail off, etc. so I go through a ton of them and sometimes I'm tying them on one after another so fast I don't even know if it can swim straight out of the package. But here's the thing... I honestly don't care if a swimbait swims straight out of the package and I don't mess with them to get them to swim straight either because from my own experience the hungry fish don't seem to care if the swimbait swims straight, off to the left, or off to the right. It has never mattered one iota to me or to the fish. My biggest concern is bait weight. I fish a lot in the St. Johns river and sometimes with strong current and I want the bait to be heavy enough to sink down deeper on retrieve sometimes bouncing them off the bottom is where the bite is at. A lot of time I am using a swimbait I am using it in a way that I don't want it to swim perfectly straight. Sometimes I am jigging them off the bottom and sort of jerking them into motion for a strike. And I am often using my rod tip to make the lure zig zag swim as I reel it in. Sometimes I am ripping them in right on the surface like an escaping baitfish tries to jump out of the water to escape a pursuing bass. Point is, a lot of what I do with a swimbait to get a strike does not even involve swimming straight to catch a fish. I am simply trying to use that lure in such a way that presents an apparent food source that looks something like the other real baitfish they are eating on a daily basis and trick them into biting it. To me swimming straight and true gives the bass too much time to get a good look at the lure and possibly reject it. I don't want them to have the time and opportunity to examine it like that. I want to trigger their instinctive strikes by an element of surprise by constantly changing up the movement of the lure to anything BUT straight! So I am curious about the comments here about being concerned whether or not a swimbait swims straight out of the package. Does it really matter?

I think your maps show more detail and I was wondering if this might be the difference between what Navionics provides for free with limited detail and a paid for amount of detail that might be better than the webapp I looked at, but I will show what I found anyways... Here is a government made map of a portion of Kingsley lake using sonar- made by humans on the water. It very clearly shows 2 distinct deep holes. Very clear in the image below. But if I relied on the Navionics webapp info posted on their website, I see this image below, and it does not show the second deep hole. Maybe I don't have the Navionics set up correctly, but this is as good as it gets for me with the free non-paid webapp info I accessed off their website. Another example is Lake Maitland. The sonar produced maps show a lot of detail: Now look at the Navionics webapp map I see online: No comparison really. Same thing in the best part of this lake: The above image is DEP produced. It is very accurate. Now take a look at what Navionics shows me of this same area: The deep hole locations are just not shown the same. The Navionics mapping completely misses some of the holes and does not show contour bottom details anywhere close to reality based on more accurate government maps. Is it possible to get the same level of detail as Wayne's maps show without paying for the Navionics chip or maps? I'd like to see if paying Navionics produces better quality, with higher accuracy and more detail.

Wayne, your maps show a lot more details than what I find on the Navionics webapp. Would you please post some map images of a Florida lake Maitland in Orange County (Winter Park) and post what your maps "see" around the Isle of Sicily for deep holes and bottom contour? Or, Kingsley Lake in Clay County? I'd be curious to see the difference from the webapp I am looking at. Thanks in advance if you can post the bathymetry images...

I forgot to mention that another reason I go to government agencies for most of the maps I use is because satellite generated maps never show bottom structure locations. The Florida FWC has a new program of "planting" plastic trees on lake bottoms all across Florida to improve fish density by giving them artificial cover. They started this new testing program in Lake Griffin. I want to know where these artificial trees are being planted all across Florida. Satellite map companies will never give me that information. But the FWC does give it to me for free since our tax dollars have already paid for it! Here is a link to Florida's interactive fish attractor map for the statewide program: http://atoll.floridamarine.org/fishAttractor/ Here is the PDF list link: http://myfwc.com/media/2686794/fw_fishattractorlist.pdf Once I collect this data it can be programmed into GPS and also be added visually to edited digital maps I have archived. Fish attractors being installed in Lake Griffin Posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 6:00 am Austin Fuller | Staff Writer austin.fuller@dailycommercial.com | 0 comments The first large-scale, comprehensive evaluation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission of artificial, recycled plastic fish attractors in Florida is beginning in Lake Griffin. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Brandon Thompson, the attractors are being assembled and taken into the lake from Leesburg’s Herlong Park. Thompson said there will be 18 quarter-acre sites in the lake, with 100 structures in each site. Twelve of those sites are regular brush attractors that already have been deployed, while six of those are the recycled plastic attractors. Thompson said the usual oak brush attractors start to lose their complexity after three to five years, while the plastic attractors could last for 10 to 20 years. The brush attractors were placed several weeks ago, and Thompson expects to be finished putting in the recycled plastic attractors by next week. The attractors will be both for research and to help concentrate fish for fishermen. Thompson said in areas that are not over-harvested, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission wants to help people catch fish. “Sometimes people view the FWC as putting in regulations to limit people, but really we work for the anglers and we want to see the highest populations of fish; we want to see them catching the most fish,” he said. Thompson said any offshore structures and cover help attract fish, and more complex structures attract more fish. “There’s gonna be a lot of different stuff growing on these, similar to how there would be on oak trees, that attracts the bait fish all the way up the food chain,” Thompson said. Thompson added there are short- and long-term goals for the project, with an initial goal being to see how the plastic attractors compete with brush attractors in concentrating fish, and a long-term goal of seeing how the plastic attractors compete with brush once brush starts to break down. Twelve members of the Hawthorne Fishing Club volunteered to put together the artificial attractors on Monday. “I think it’s really, really important to involve the stakeholders, the people that are going to take advantage of these attractors and the people that are gonna be out there catching the fish on them,” Thompson said. Bill Connelly, a member of the fishing club, said the group of fishermen wanted to do what they could to help Fish and Wildlife improve fishing and the lakes. The artificial attractors have 30 limbs on each. The plastic attractors have been used in other states and, from what Thompson has seen of those results, they look promising, he said.

A lot of the paid for bathymetric maps are done by satellite imaging. The state of Florida has various government agencies at the state level, county level, even city and town level who produce their own bathymetric maps from direct surveys of the lakes and then combine that info with satellite image info to produce some really accurate maps that I can download for free from the various government agencies. When I compare the bathymetric maps made by government agencies and then compare it to satellite only made maps I find huge discrepancies. For example, in Kingsley lake is a second deep hole. It is clearly shown on man-made maps, but the satellite maps I have seen do not even show that second hole. Lake Maitland is another one with a nice deep hole shown on man-made government maps, but the satellite maps I have seen have again completely missed the hole all together. And as stated above, the contour lines from man-made maps can be different than those from satellite only imaging. How can satellite-only generated maps be accurate when as stated above on well known lakes like Kingsley and Lake Maitland even be considered as "accurate" when they completely miss known holes and don't even show them? That is NOT accurate. That is hit and miss. Point is, for me here in Florida, I don't even use satellite made maps. I have downloaded hundreds of maps for this state from numerous government agencies and find that for my purposes they are accurate. One of the lake programs I follow here in Florida called Lakewatch shows on their website how they make the really accurate maps: http://lakewatch.ifas.ufl.edu/MapList.htm Satellite-only mapping is not as accurate. Not even close in some instances... One day satellites may be able to look through the water and produce some accurate 3D images, but technology is not there yet.

Try all of them! I like Berkley because they are reasonably priced, and found in most Walmarts. Another reason to love Berkley is their scents. No one else specializes in scents like Berkley and this is an added bonus for their products. I do however use more than just Berkley, I also use zoom swimming super fluke jr's and do very well them! And calcutta flashfoil swimbaits too. Just yesterday I caught a nice size bass in central Florida while speck fishing with 2 inch Berkley swimbaits that the specks were tearing up. Kind of surprised me to catch such a nice bass on the smallest of Berkely swimbaits seen hanging out of this bass' mouth...

Funny you should mention those. The JM Carbonlites are about the exact same reel as the Browning Midas and Citori. Same manufacturer Dawon. Same location for manufacturer in South Korea. Same technology. Same build. Same client of the Korean manufacturer too: Bass Pro! Bass Pro purchased Browning in 2005. So you are basically buying the exact same reel from the same seller Bass Pro marketed under two different brand names for very different prices too. The Browning you can buy today used for less than $50.00 and often for under $40.00 because no one wants to touch a Browning, but the same reel marketed as a signature Johnny Morris reel Carbonlite series and now the price for a used reel is twice as much or more than the Browning. Save and get the Browning! Just sayin'!

Nice fish!

Berkley works!

They all catch fish! I like Berkely and Calcutta and Storm and zoom and even Bass Pro too, but as said, they all catch fish. I am trying to determine which brand holds up better. At .60 cents to a dollar each, one fish can tear one up in a hurry, or you might catch 6 fish on one before it gets torn up, maybe more if lucky. And I can not tell you how many have had their tails bitten off on a first cast. It will tick you off in a hurry out there. Another issue I am trying to nail down is swimbait weight. A lot of time they don't tell you the bait's weight and I have found some brands are heavier than others and this is important to me because of fishing in strong river current I want the bait to sink down when retrieved rather than be so light it tends to want to rise to the surface. I have tried adding weight experimenting, but the only real solution for me is to buy the rubber baits only and then add in the weighted hook I need for the application. But in no current situations, I can get away with using the swimbaits that come with weighted hook molded inside. Sometimes I just go with the hook they come with, and sometimes I rig them weedless and sometimes add a stinger treble hook for open water. I love swimbaits! When I started out this summer and met up with a fishing buddy for the first time this past season I had a 4 inch chartreuse Berkley paddletail swimbait on a rod and he saw it and laughed at me telling me how I would not catch anything on that thing. He soon found out otherwise real fast as he got his butt handed to him by that bait several times this past summer. I found it hilarious and ribbed the crap out of him when I saw him show up for a fishing trip with one hanging off his rod. He wisened up real fast! And then he made note all summer long watching bassmaster events where the professionals were also doing well in pro tournaments using the same bait or similar. And he was keeping count when we were out fishing and he was not getting anywhere near as many bites or fish sometimes when I was raking them in on swimbaits. He is a believer now. So now we buy in bulk quantity together to save money. But I buy all the colors and variations and keep a lot of them in stock because you can go through a 5 pack in one fishing trip as they get torn up. Carry some super glue and you can extend the life of some of them for a few more fish...

Here is the link to the abu schematic page you may find your reel listed: http://www.abugarcia.com/AbuGarcia-reel-schematics.html

Mineral spirits will do fine. Soak and spin out. Lube as you choose. Lower viscosity oil faster spin, higher viscosity oil slower spin. A lot of reel techs love TSI-321 lube on spool bearings as mentioned above, but to each their own.

No, not jealousy. I don't want one of those boats. Never did. And here in Florida there are boats galore to be had cheap too. I could afford a bigger boat if I wanted one, but I choose to not go through the trouble and hassle and added expense. So it is not jealousy you are reading in my words. I have no desire for a boat like some of them have. I just left the gas station near the river and ran into one of those big rich man's boats- big enough to live on. It was so big the rig blocked up the parking lot up. They pumped more than $300.00 of fuel into it. Huge twin 200hp Suzuki outboards. That boat was so big it could run over any bass boat and not even notice it. "Hey George, did you feel a bump? Nope..." So no, nothing to be jealous about there. I like having a nearly maintenance free boat that is economical on fuel. I fill a 6 gallon tank and it can last 5 outings or more. Some of those big rich boats will blow through 6 gallons in less than an hour or a few miles. I am not jealous of that! Boats like that can run the river north of Sanford where it is deeper and dredged out for them. But where I go with my aluminum boat, they can not go. Aluminum to the rescue! When I describe a rich boat, it really is a rich boat. Some cost in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars and more. I would not consider a used fiberglass bass boat as fitting into the same bag as a "rich" boat- though some do cost tens of thousands too, that was not what I was attempting to describe. Not even close. Most of those guys are on par with us river rats and follow the rules and show respect for their fellow boaters. My point may have been miscommunicated. I have passed up nice used fiberglass bass boats and trailers with 125hp outboards for $2,000. That is not what I would describe as a rich boat- not even close. I'm in Florida near the coast. Think really rich past average bass fishing boats. Bigger my good man. That is what we have to deal with around here quite often. This photo was taken just minutes ago at the last gas station before the river ramps... and yes, boats this size and much bigger routinely run up and down the river... Here are some abandoned boats in the St. Johns river us tax payers will have to foot the bill to remove. Notice these are not bass boats... most are deteriorating rotting fiberglass boats and definitely not formerly owned by the working class type of guys... Definitely not your average working man class of boats there... I simply tried to point out that generally the bigger the boat, the less respect and consideration for others I have witnessed over the years. The smaller the boat, the more respect and consideration for others I have witnessed. Aluminum boats has its limitations and advantages. The original OP asked what he might expect transitioning into an aluminum boat. Hopefully I brought some details into the discussion that I had not read previously on the subject.

Very true Aluminum means problem solved for many of us. The big rich fiberglass boats go one way and us aluminum boats and air boats head in the other direction hoping to avoid the other. Simple as that.

Just sayin' from experience, when I run into trouble on the river, it is usually those with money far more money than I... & I have had almost zero conflict with people of similar status to myself. Trouble for me out there has always come from the more wealthy around here. Yes it is a generalization, but it is also an observation of reality plainly stated. I grew up fishing out of canoes too. Still have a couple, but rarely use them.

A lot of good perspectives!