Brew City Bass

I pretty much boycott any major tackle shops like BPS or Cabelas. Every d**n time they just happen to be out of what I go for, and then when I ask for help on what I am looking for I get every employee trying to up-sell me on some ***. Just last week I went to Cabelas for a new Garmin sonar. I told the guy exactly what I wanted, and that their website said they had it in-stock at this store. Right away he pointed me towards the Garmin live-scope and told me this is what I wanted. I became livid and told him that he has no clue what I want, and what I want is in this store and he should grab me it before I grab the manager and ***** all night long. What a surprise, the product was in my hands within 2 minutes, but not without some grumbling and arguing. It's sickening what stores like those have become. Back when I could walk in, every shelf stocked, associates helpful and plentiful, I'd spend thousands there every spring. Now days they might get a few hundred bucks from me a year because all I can count on is them is providing me sub-par customer support, shady sales tactics, and lies from employees. It's basically an emergency if I go there. ****, I'd rather shop at Walmart for my stuff most of the time. At least there I won't have some "sponsored" man-child who lives in their moms basement making $12.00 an hour and 1% commission trying to up-sell me an extra $2,000 every time I go.

Nothing works better than deet. I spray it before I get on the boat, wash my hands, and enjoy being bug free.

I think you're missing the point. You're not "paying" anyone but the government. Higher prices or not, they're not pocketing the sales tax.

I wish I could get into St. Croix. They're located a few hours from me and I could go get mild defect rods or warrantied rods for cheap, but I've just never liked a St. Croix I've had or tried. They're fine rods, don't get me wrong, I just always felt a few competitors were better for the price.

Decided to get some sidescan finally. Entry level unit, but should be good enough to cut my teeth on.

With the amount of pike in my lakes, about 10 casts.

This is what I call an ice cold solution.

Caught this thick boy on a t-rigged structure bug. He smoked the drag on my tatula. Luckily I had 65lb on, still managed to horse him in. My best pike from shore for sure.

I landscape for a living. I'm walking, pushing, or rolling through every brush, plant, tree, grass you can imagine. Yep, those bumps stay for a while. My skin gets agitated just the same as yours. I wear long sleeves, jeans, and gloves to combat it.

Dick Smith's is just a bait shop really. Never found anything worth looking at gear-wise in there. And what I have seen, they're marked up 20%-40% over retail.

Yeah, we're really lacking in good sports stores up here. Gander is 45 mins from me, Cabelas can go to hell, Dicks is bleh..

Amen! Keep em tight!

Agreed. The only times I've ever placed in the money or won a tournament was when I went with the mentality of having fun. Any time I've treated a tournament like money was on the line, it just put unneeded pressure on myself and I ended up trying hard and flopped.

Depends on the water and bait your fish feed on. Is it murky waters? Throw on something bright like chart, white etc. Is it gin clear? Stick to the script, match the forage. If your bass feed on gills, throw on a pumpkin, or black blue trailer. Keep it natural. But in reality, I've never noticed trailer color making too much of a difference. I've thrown chartreuse on a black jig and nailed em, I've thrown black trailers on a white jig and caught em. But I try to match them if I can.

I had this issue, then I fixed it. I did exactly what I did when I played sports. I recorded myself to find out if the problem was me. Sure enough, it was. Every fish that came unpinned was my fault, I had a whack hookset. I ended up working on my mechanics and making a solid hookset muscle memory. Now days I don't lose much fish from coming unpinned. I use fairly heavy rods, some would say overpowered, but I've got a gnarly hookset now that doesn't discriminate. Small or big, every bass is getting it's eyes crossed. When I was fishing with medium rods and lighter line, I'd sweep the set and it was a guessing game if it'd come unpinned or not. Now I rarely use a medium. I'm usually using a 7ft+ MH with xf tip, or a heavy stick. I switched most of my lines to braid, and I beefed up my hooks on what I could. Gives me all the confidence I need to really jack some jaws.

I did have the $15 Wally rod, then it broke within a day. I've been using knock-off ploppers all season and not a single one has broke or failed. Why would I not use them? Ploppers are not superior to the knockoffs, no matter how much you would love to believe this. Sure I have some $400 combos, but I can only afford them because I don't spend $15+ on every over-priced bait to hit the market. I only go cheap on what should be cheap. No plastic bait should cost $15+ unless it's a limited edition, hand painted, kissed by the lips of God type crap. I'd bet a signed dollar those guys at R2S aren't spending more than a buck or two to make the plopper. I've used em all last season, and I've used the knock-offs all this season. They perform the same, flat out. My buddy swears by the jackhammer, he spent over $200 filling a box with them. Guess who outfishes him every single time with a $5 regular old Z-man? Fisherman get caught more than the actual fish we target. I won't be one of them.

To save $5-$8 per bait. If I can buy a cheaper bait that does the same thing as one that costs $5 more you're d**n right I'll throw the cheaper bait. If money isn't an issue to you, keep chucking the overpriced plopper. Most people can't justify spending double the price on the same bait just because it says "R2S" on it and not H20 or Berkley.

Considering he posted this thread 10 years ago, my money is on no.

Yeah... Uh.. I don't think that's supposed to be like that. I've never seen one permanently bent out of shape like that. Looks like it whacked something pretty good.

I'd buy the newest boat you can AFFORD. If you can spend $15k on a newer boat without ever missing that $15k then go for it. Enjoy the new ride. If $10k is the most you can spend without missing it, then stick with the older rockets. If they've been kept in good condition they're just as reliable as a new one. They really haven't changed much. The bolt-ons have changed more than the actual hull / motor technology. Personally, I'd be the type of guy to buy a little older boat that's been kept in immaculate shape, and throw $5,000 in electronics and trolling motor / power poles on.

Most lakes in my area are capped at 40mph. It's for good reason though, it's Wisconsin and it's a guarantee 9 out of 10 boaters on the lake are hammered.

AFAIK those genies had oil feed problems. My buddy had the same year and it ate turbos like nobodies business. I think we put 4 in it over the course of 3 years. Also went through rear axles like butter if you did anything harder than a roll launch. Of course he beat the crap out of the car, but even my 2g eclipse with the 4g63t never ate a turbo with all the abuse I fed it.

I don't have much life experience, but I know how much it sucks to get tossed out like a wet towel. You sound like a supremely supportive husband. It seems like a rough road ahead, but you've done it once, you can do it again.

For max sensitivity, braid. If you're in clear water, throw a 5ft fluoro leader on.

I've got my drag locked down in most situations I fish. I think it's important to evaluate your style of fishing and gear towards it. I personally fish 90% at night, I throw bigger baits, I fish in some serious thick ****. All of my rods have 40lb+ braid, I'm always using stout hooks and nothing lighter than a MH rod. To me, drag isn't a factor when purchasing a reel. I don't need it if I'm gonna be horsing bass out of sloppy messes every night. I also thumb my spool so the drag doesn't peel out on hooksets. It was relatively hard to train myself to thumb it hard when I go for a set, but muscle memory takes over.