TommyBass

I usually prefer the detail that Lowrance gives, but they are a little more pricey on their basic units. Would probably just do a standard stern mount off of the back and put your screen where ever you can see it while trolling.

If you never have had BASS its pretty good, I feel like it gets a little repetitive once in awhile though. But you can definately learn from it. I agree that In-Fisherman is probably one of the best. I would also get one published for your state. I get the Indiana Game and Fish and like it pretty well in the respect that it focuses on areas and topics closer to home. You may just want to research whats available for your state and look at them on the stands to see which one you would prefer.

To me... if conditions or lake or boat or whatever warrant you to use a tiller in the first place you have no business with anything that huge. If you think you need a 250 hp tiller I dont see why you wouldnt put that on a console / wheel in the first place. 250 is alot to be respected even with a wheel. Seems a little crazy to me

I dont generally fish jerkbaits but I do fish topwater plugs with the same "snapping" motion. I am right handed and also fish as you described but I don't seem to have that problem. I reel right handed on baitcasters and left handed on spinning reels. Maybe doing it both ways has helped trained me to be a little more ambidextrious. I would say a little practice could get you in shape and save the money on a opposite handed reel.... that or use a spinning reel in which you can change the handle on.

We still got 6 inches of ice here :-/ and it was -6 last night.... BUT it is supposed to get mid 50s for 5 or more days with some rain which is basically the same weather as Jamaica ;D ..... so Im hoping the ice will go away and let me get out and do some deep water winter fishing..... HOPING

I doubt you will tell too much in performance loss unless you use the top end speeds of your trolling motor religiously. I used to have a machette but plastic and it did help some. The 4 blades mostly just help by giving the weeds less space / time to get between your blades. Your still not weed proof though. As sneaker mentioned, you still need to be careful and check it once in awhile. I find that if the weeds are wrapped on my unit very bad I'll just pull my prop slightly out of the water and hit it on a higher setting, usally clears them right off. Or sometimes even reversing your prop in another direction quicly while giving it more speed can clear it in the water w/out pulling it up. If it would happen to be a stern mount style then simply throwing it into reverse will clear most of it.

Most of them state how much weight they can hold up if you look where you are buying them or on the manufacturers webpage. Personally, I have had trouble with the autoinflates (never had the Mustang brand though). I usually have to buy at least 1 new C02 kit a year because they go off when I didnt want them too. Most of the time they accidentaly got wet in a compartment, but I have had them do it for no reason as well. I got them for the same purpose. I don't doubt it would work when you fell in, you just have to be sure your C02 isnt out and it has a yearly cost associated with it (I believe they recommend replacing the cartridge yearly regardless). They are definately cooler though. I went to something like at the website listed below. It has mesh arms so your cooler and move very freely and the waist / chest are a normal lifejacket. Only thing is I dont know if they hold you face up very well incase of knockouts. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_50114____SearchResults

I used it this year and my boat has started just fine after a month or so of sitting, well see for sure here in a few weeks I guess. Also been using yamaha decarb. Can't remember what I payed for the stabil though.

Hooray! Im glad at least some people seen my point of view! ;D

Bass Chump, I wouldn't worry about it being the prettiest on the water. Theres alot more trouble to that then meets the eye. Alot of people spend high dollars on boats and have alot invested in them but maintaining them becomes a chore. I bought a 03 Triton off of a friend and it was a great boat and pretty as can be. But after 2 years of babying it through rocks and trees and wiping it down everyday I got sick of it and traded for a 18ft jon that I can run into all I want and it does everything I need it to. Everyone has their preferences and reasons for them. And yes x2 sox fan: the transom is a good place to start looking for problems and probably one of the most important.

I agree RW that there are definately new lures and techniques that can do nothing but better you as a fisherman, thats inevitable. My biggest problem is just with the "re-invention" of the same lures or techniques that others have used for years, mostly for the sake of marketing. I am by no means saying that those techniques don't work, just don't get caught up in all hublub and use what works best for you.

BassChump: It dosn't appear you have scaled back very much... thats a nice looking boat you got there.

I definately agree. Buying a used boat is nothing more then a more sophisticated form of gambling in some respects. But taking the time to look just a little closer can pay off huge. I was in no way trying to degrade your Force engine I was just stating my personal experiences with one. I have also had a 90 hp merc act up on me. I currently have a 90hp Yamaha and havnt had an issue with it yet but barely have put any time on it. Same with cars, you'll have your lemons no matter what brand... just some brands have bigger lemon orchards

I know this has been covered before but it just hit me wrong today when hearing the word sexy shad for the 1000th time. > Do any of you ever get tired of hearing about the "coolest" lures? 9 times out of 10 it was already a lure and someone has promoted its use to stardom. For instance, the sexy shad which is what I call in normal people terms a chartruese and silver or chart and shad whatever. Its not any different than any of the yellow silver mixes of the past. Another one really getting to me is the "shaky head". My grandpa used to fish with nothing but a jig head on a curl tailed worm, and if you rig a standard jig head right you can get it to stand up a little and thats what he did. Most pros would have laughed at such a primitive setup now they all throw it. Same with the swimbait craze. Rubber bodied minnows were one of the first soft plastics and used to be sold in walmart next to the beetle spins. No dedicated bassfisherman ever picked them up because they looked stupid and childish. Heck you would see packs 5yrs old with dust on them still sitting on the shelves and now they are all around you. I for one like my tackle but I hate it when the crazes get to be like that. I never really follow the lemmings over the cliff to the next one unless it seems like a legit product that has new potential. Ok Im done now :

I had a 96' 75hp Force engine on a Nitro and had lots and lots of trouble with it. Always would die when idling regardless of setpoint and usually ran rough. Ended up putting a fuel pump on it from a 90 hp (other brand) and made it somewhat better. It was used before I bought it so I cannot vouge for how it was treated before me. I know every engine is an individual case but I have heard of other Force owners having problems. Youll have problems with any brand sometime somewhere, but for the relatively few amount of Force engines out there, many have their issues.

Stained.... no specific color or tactic would hit me for that... I wouldnt use tranluscent colors or very light watermelons but any black, blue, red, darker green etc would be best. Alot of people deal with alot worse clarity on a daily basis.

I hear alot of you talk about fishing the flats for bass. What do you consider to be a flat? How do you approach fishing it? How can you tell productive flats? Are flats without some type of cover still areas to fish? This is by far my weakest area of fishing and would like to focus on it this comming spring. Any advice welcome!

Well I am not entirely familiar with the area but I'll let you know of the areas I have been. The Hoosier national forest down I64 to the west has several good lakes and if you want to drive a little further you can fish "Rocky Point", which is a bay/creek off of the Ohio River in Cannelton, IN. I imagine there are several creeks along the Ohio River near you though that may contain good fishing, just drive out onto the river and go up and creek and start fishing. There are also a few lakes to the north near Scottsburg such as Hardy lake that are decent as well. Patoka is also a very good lake and within a good distance for a weekend day of fishing.

Caught two on a strike king deep crankbait one time but they were on the seperate treble hooks. One hook sounds even harder but I don't doubt your story... congrats!

I will be installing an RPM gauge "tach" on my boat soon and was wondering if anyone had any advice. I don't have any experience with these or even an idea on how to hook it up really. My motor is an 08' Yamaha 90 Fourstroke.

BrianinMD is exactly right. Most transom mount motors will allow you to pull off the top section and spin it around 180 degrees. Your motor will still face forward so there is no need to switch the controls. Forward would still be forward and backwards would be backwards. Best bet would be to contact the manufacturer on your specific model.

When you look at your screen it will be moving from right to left. The very far right side is your instaneous reading directly underneath your transducer. The best way to look at it is everything on the screen is in the past unless you are sitting perfectly still. So for instance if your driving and you go over a stump your unit will graph it as it goes under your boat on the right side of the screen. As soon as your past the stump the unit will start graphing the bottom again and the little stump-like lump on the screen will continue to move to the left until it goes off the left side. So if your using your trolling motor and your transducer is on the very back of your boat and you see a stump in the middle of your screen you could safely assume that the stump is several feet behind your boat opposite of the direction of your travel. As far as the left and right side of the cone goes, it is very hard to tell what side of the boat something may be on. For a beginner its safe to say just think of it as all directly beneath you and don't worry about left to right until you get the rest down pat. Somoeone else here may be better at explaining that part.

Good point hoosiergramps, completely forgot to mention the parks. There are a couple parks in the area that do have ponds including Fowler, as well as Deming (East end of Ohio street). I believe there is another also but I cannot think of it off hand. They are rather small and get pressured by the panfisherman alot but you can catch fish there.

The Chinook he talks about is just up I-70 right before Brazil... never been there befoer but sounds like it could be alright. I live down in sullivan and fish lake sullivan alot. The park and lake there has probably a mile of shoreline you can walk and fish.. but alot of it is rip-rap so becareful walking around on it. I used to fish that lake alot when I was young from the shore and did very well, just run some cranks or Trigged worms parallel to the shore. Its only 20min or so from you. If you want to go a little further you can go down to minnehaha FWA or green sullivan state forestry... there are tons of areas and lakes to fish from shore. Both are near the sullivan county and greene county line (go down 41 to 54 and head toward dugger/linton). Would take you maybe 40 minutes tops. As others mentioned, Racoon lake isnt too far just outside brazil... mediocre bass fishing, not much experience from the shore there though. Dont recommend turtle creek, its even hard from a boat. Don't drive to Patoka, it will take you forever to get there for average shoreline fishing. That lake is good but wouldnt be worth that long of a drive without a boat. There is a lake that used to be called Issac Walton in west terre haute, know nothing about it but its worth a shot distance wise.

Wind direction shouldnt matter too much unless for some reason your lake / area you are fishing is protected or something out of the ordinary. Certain areas for certain winds do matter... like others have said, it all depends on how the wind is effecting the area you may be fishing. I would say that most wind caused lockjaw days are more due to the atmospheric conditons than your wind. But the wind can be a good clue as to whats about to happen. For example, here in Indiana we usually have a west to north wind during winter stable weather. When we get a big warm up the wind will switch to the south... great for the person fishing but that usually means the weather will be changing back soon and may cause you problems. During the summer however its more opposite. Stable weather usually has west or south winds and unstable weather is east or north. Generally throughout the US an east wind is bad, simple because weather patterns move west to east and rotate counterclockwise. This means that usually your east winds are comming from the backside of a recently passed front (changes in pressure). Light pressure changes the fish just hold tight, but I find larger differentials can push the fish back deep if they wernt to begin with. Don't let it psych you out too much though, a fish will always eat an easy meal. This is an old time saying, sometimes true but dont take it to heart. Winds from the North, dont venture forth. Winds from the East, fishing is the least. Winds from the South, blows the lure into their mouth. Winds from the West, fishing is the best.