TommyBass

It just depends on how your law reads... period. There are many states that say you can't fish for fish "x" during certain seasons etc. Same would apply for you in that. For instance, here in Indiana, we can fish for trout whenever we want, but you have to have the stamp to take them home. Thats how the law reads so thats what I do (or at least used to, I havn't checked lately). In your defense though, about ANYTHING will catch a trout. I highly doubt that they are going to enforce that much. Otherwise all you'd be able to use in that lake is a buzzbait. I've caught them on almost every bass lure known to man. Now if you were out there with a jar of trout krilla, then thats a different story obviously.

Theres a difference in what it will float in and what it will run in. Theres no way most fiberglass bass boats run on plane in any less than a foot of water. Realistically is probably closer to 18+ inches. Bay boats etc generally run anywhere from 6-12" on plane, depending on type/style and if it has a tunnel.

X2 Thats about as simple as it will get. You should periodically replace portions of the water as well during the tourney. Even with adequate oxygen, other toxins build up over time. A bilge pump makes filling and unfilling a little easier, but a bucket works fine.

I'm not sure what all these people are doing to need extra help keeping their fish alive. All you need is an overly efficient system and the bass will be fine. They live in the lake just fine without all of the magic livewell pixie dust. I have an aluminum 18ft jon boat. It came with an 11 gallon livewell that barely spits in water :'( So I fabricated a 37 gallon livewell for it (close to the total gallon sizes of most larger bass boats). I use a 800 gph pump to bring fresh water in, and two overflows to keep up with it. I also have a completely seperate circuit soley for recirculation at 500 gph. With both these systems running I've easily kept 20lb bag limits alive for 8+ hours on the hottest, nastiest days the midwest has to offer. No magic liquids needed. Actually they are too alive, and can be a little crazy to get out of the tank. I can see using the basic stuff occaisionally in this instant just to help calm them down, but I don't feel like its all that natural for the fish. If your having trouble keeping it cool, throw a few frozen bottles of water in there occaisionally like they said. Save your money on that stuff unless your livewell is just horrible. I'm sure it works as advertised and may be nice to have on hand. But I don't think its necessary. I suppose a bottle of hydrogen peroxide would be cheap enough to keep on hand in the instant of a pump's failure... it would help. I don't remember the video mentioning the ammonia / waste build up of the fish. Do their products take care of that? If not, you need fresh water occaisionally anyway, and you would be constantly adding more of their stuff the livewell as your previous application goes out your overflow. On a side note: Sometimes I wonder what kind of livewells are comming on these new big rigs. I fished several tournaments last year with not even a dizzy fish. There were several top of the line rangers and tritons that brought in dead fish on more than one occaision. Obviously there is more to it (such as hooked gills) but just a trend I've noticed. Does the bilge / inner hull of a fiberglass boat retain more heat or something? Do these boats come with appropriately sized pumps?

What??? 1) If you can't swim and your going out on a big lake or river in a coleman crawdad, removing the floatation foam was not your biggest mistake. Taking a boat like that anywhere where there are big waves or current isn't a wise choice even for good swimmers. 2) Im sure the #1 savior for water related accients isn't a floating coleman crawdad. WEAR YOUR PFD! A stupid boat isnt going to keep you upright if your unconscious. Relying on a very small upside down boat as your primary means of floation is beyond ignorant. 3) Im not saying that having that as a backup plan is all bad, and I by no means am saying that everyone should do that. It can't hurt to have anything extra helping you. But relying on that as your "only salvation"? Come on... 4) I agree, ANY boat mod should be highly scrutinized for safety, particularly when it involves its stability.

haha.... that hurts my eyes. Id rather just have it completely the wetlands camo. That or use a more manly color, like blue or green. The pink just dosn't go with it IMO.

x2 Foam has nothing to do with day to day operation on the water, and theoretically, its removal would actually make the boat more bouyant (although it would be miniscule). The only purpose of the foam would be if you capsized, it may help hold the boat up and keep it from completely sinking. Personally, since your talking about a coleman crawdad and not a $50,000 boat, and you won't be treading the giant waters of the US, I would take it out and opt for more room on such a small craft. Wear a PFD and you don't need to worry about your boat floating anyway. Either way your going to lose your gear if you capsize... let the boat go with it Seriously though its your choice. Either way though, don't rely on boat foam as your savior if you capsize. Note: You could also add storage, and use the expanding foam to fill in a few gaps here and there after you add your storage. That would help replace any chunks of foam you remove.

Ya id say those are carpenter bees. They usually don't bother you any, just tear up your wood. If I remember right, only the females can sting, and you usually don't see them very often. Most of the time its the males and they are as harmless as a house fly, although they seem to think they are tough. I've did the badmitten thing before... definately fun. Have yet to try a 22 though.

Shouldn't unless they spray too much. Its the same theory he stated about a large bloom... if you kill off too much algae with the spray you'll have a huge spike in decaying matter. This will reduce the oxygen in the water. Normally if its a huge problem, you kill some, wait, then kill more later.

Pretty sure you can get bushings for those so it strips before your lower unit takes the force. I know my Turbo Prop has one for my 90hp. And like Wayne said, you may look into a guard. I opted against one for my big motor because they do hinder performance. But if all your using is a 9.9 anyway, it may be worth looking into. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_20945_225011000_225000000_225011000_225-11-0

The only way you need to repack annually is if your driving rather large distances to your lake- alot. Personally I have had nothing but good luck with BB. Simply make sure they have enough grease with your gun and your good to go. Its not technically taking your bearing out and putting grease in every nook and cranny, but you'd be surprised all the places the new grease makes it under a little pressure.

I'm willing to bet that crayfish inhabit your lake. I'm also willing to bet that none of those crayfish travel through the water like a crankbait. Roger haha X 2 Crawdad color cranks are more a color thing than an acurate representation of a crawdad. I only throw them if the water is muddy, similar to when you would throw chartruese. Bass hit chartruese cranks and I havnt seen any neon yellow fish swimming around. Just throw it, you would catch fish on it even if a crayfish hasn't been within 5 miles of your lake.

Lots of good action on the Eel, but it barely holds up to more than a fish. Seems like ANY act upon the bait will make it swim funny or do loops. Usually, when rigged correctly with the 4/0 it does really well until you catch a fish. Once you get any minor tear or blemish on the bait, good luck getting it to perform. It is VERY delicate. So far the only way I have got it to perform OK past one fish is when its being used as topwater. I havn't tried the C-rig yet with it but I plan to this summer.

Bass Pro Shops Extreme Baitcasting Reel... currently on sale for $60. Very durable, smooth reeling, and great casting. It honestly keeps up everybit with my shimanos and revos, plus you get two or three for the price of one more expensive reel. I was skeptical at first but have found them to be the best bargain by far in the world of reels.

Orrr..... Don't be an idiot and ride your lawn mower drunk. Laws are pretty simple really. Its not so innocent when he runs over someone you care about. PS... not real sure, but by the sound of the video it sounds like his blades were running??? If I was that cop I would have tased him too, why wrestle a guy off of a moving lawnmower and risk hurting yourself. He had a chance to comply and got lit up for it. Hilarious. Oh, and I can't realy tell if its real or not, but to me, it seems more real than not.

If your going to do that just get the i-pilot. That way you get Co-pilot, Auto-Pilot, and the i-pilot, which allows the "spot lock" feature. I think spot lock would be worth the money alone, just hit a button and it keeps your boat within a 5 foot circle basically "anchoring" you with your trolling motor. I currently have th co-pilot and never use it, other than when I am trolling for species like crappie or striper. Bass fishing it stays in the storage compartment... to hard to use like that. Auto-pilot is nice though, and I use that quite frequently.

Goo-Gone is the ticket. If your still having issues slightly heat it with a hair dryer while rubbing in the goo-gone. You can also use a none abbrasive scraper (like the rubber kind you use for dishes) to help get it off there. Once you get it off wash the area and apply a coat of wax, it'll look like new.

Follow your hoses and make sure there are no kinks in your line first. They will slow down the flow just as bad. Also check the intake and be sure nothing is blocking the mesh on it. Other than that I would disconnect the line at the pump and try to use a higher pressure water to push out any clogs. You might also pull your pump out and be sure it is still functioning properly. Try hooking a very short piece of hose to it and see what your flow is then. Maybe your pump is going bad or you have something wound up around its impellar.

I had it done around 3 years ago and have perfect vision to this day. I had relatively poor near vision to begin with, but I may have not been quite as bad as some of you. I also had a slight astigmatism. Most of the good doctors can give you an evaluation to tell you if its right for you. There are several factors that go into you being a canidate, such as cornea thickness etc. I could see as good as I could with contacts within 8 hours of surgery. The biggest blessing for me has been the absense of contacts during my eye allergy season. My allergies would get so bad that my contacts would always slide around... making fishing and hunting almost impossible without glasses (which I hate). Now I just live like a normal person with good vision and almost forget I even used to have a problem. My one bit of advice.... DO NOT skimp on your doctor. Go big or go home, your eyes are a great gift and there is no sense risking your future vision over a couple thousand dollars.

Better be winning some tourneys with that much cash put on cranks. I honestly carry about 4 good cranks for each depth range. Depth ranges I consider to be 1-4', 4-8', 8-12', and 12'+. Colors I normally carry two shad or shad / chart colors. One chart color and maybe either a brown or red/orange. Don't get caught up too much in the many differnt brands. Find one you like and stick with it, its easier to fine tune your skills with a known crankbait than constantly switching around. If you want to throw and extra brand in there for a different wobble style you could maybe also do that, but I have never found that to make as much of a difference as some people claim it to.

One of the main reasons two strokes will eventually stop being made... terrible on the environment. Even the new and "improved" models will still do this, especially when you start it up, ie choking it. Watch most boats when they first put in and there will be a small oil film next to their stern/engine. If you start getting something that looks like a tanker capsized you might want to look into that. But a small film directly around your motor is pretty normal.

Unfortunately for Raul's "man card," the fanny pack was his original choice of apparel. That is not photoshop, just a poor choice. BTW, it will likely hurt his feelings less if you call it a satchel. ;D Yepp... its in the "original" photo. Who cares if he wears a satchel?... Indiana Jones wears one...

???? I've had both aluminum and glass ... I don't treat my glass boat any different. If you treat the boat like stuff and bang it around, sure you will chip or scratch the gelcoat. But, most if not all aluminum boats are painted now and I wouldn't want one of those scratched up either. I agree. I spent WAY more time fixing and maintaining my aluminum boat than my fiberglass. It seemed something was always leaking somewhere (rivets), or splitting (requiring welding), or coming loose on my aluminum boat. I'm not saying fiberglass boats are maintenance free, but with a good washing and a coating of BTS, you're good to go. And with a keelshield, you can beach it most places you would with an aluminum without issues. I'm not so sure about all that guys. I let my aluminum bounce down rip rap and chunk rock banks all of the time and the most it does is scratch off the paint (which can be redone with just a few cans of touch up spray paint every year). I would have never did that in my fiberglass Triton. Fiberglass dents more easily and gel coats ARE more senstitive to abuse than solid aluminum. Not to mention repair costs are not even close to the same. If I put a hole in my aluminum boat I can either JB weld it or just cut it out and weld a small square back in... its that easy. x I liked my fiberglass boat for stability and ride smoothness when cutting across the lake, but for carefree worryless fishing... not a contest, aluminum wins. Also, don't get riveted if you plan on doing anything abusive, they will pop and leak. Get all welded hulls. There is a reason the majority of river boats and duck boats arn't camo fiberglass... they expect abuse and the fiberglass isnt designed for that. As far as fishability, my aluminum is roughly the same size as my old 18ft Triton and as as much room, if not more. It also drafts much shallower. I'm not saying that a big jon like mine is ideal for some of your huge reservoirs and it certainly isn't indestructible. But for an all around boat that can do about anything... its pretty good.

The nice thing about the Terrova is its not just "remote" controlled. You can also use your foot pedal just as a cable steer. They turn just a bit slower but not enough to matter to me. And yes, the motor that turns the head does make a little noise, but that is above the water line and not likely to send much noise down into the water. Plus, its not like cables don't grind and make a little noise internally in the cable steer models either. I don't yet have the iPilot but would really like the anchoring feature, even though I have a power pole. Some water is too deep for the pole and it would be nice to hold on spot off of a point so I could pick it apart better. The AP already helps me do this somewhat though, you just have to adjust your speed once in awhile to changes in wind speed. Great Review! RoLo: I can't really see it completely replacing a power pole. If for example I'd like to setup on a laydown in 7ft of water, and the wind is blowing toward it, the pole would probably be of better usage (especially if you have to fish it from the upwind side). Too much TM thrust and adjustment would prop wash the area you are fishing (since the thrust would be directed at your cover) and potentially spook out weary fish. Same would go for fishing an shallow shoreline. I see the iPilot as really a tool for waters deeper than 8 feet or so, or if used shallow it would need to be in light winds.

Have any of you tried adding a rear treble hook to the Spro BBZ-1 4" shads? I'm getting alot of short strikes and this bait really seems to fall short on strike to hook up ratio compared to some of my other two treble style swimbaits. Just wondering if it would negatively effect the action and if not, how you would recommend going about adding it. :-?