NorthwestBasser

I use chrome. I can go a week or two, sometimes more, without coming here and I'm always still logged on. It's gotta be something on your end. Trouble shooting these types of problems can be a pain though, good luck

I live in Spokane too, honestly if you're staying in Washington, you'll be hard pressed to find a better bass fishing area here. We have so many lakes so close and in close proximity, it's only two hours to the tri cities and the smallie Mecca that is the Columbia River, lake CDA is only 25min drive, potholes/Moses lake is hour and a half, long lake is 20min, p.o. river and lake are an hour and a half. The dozens and dozens of smaller lakes that are within half an hour drive. Find better than that up here and please let me in on the secret haha

Spokane/CDA area... Becker's Tackle Shop. Located in Coure d'Alene Idaho. Sits across a parking lot from a big box type outdoor store. We have Cabelas, Dicks, and Sportsmans Warehouse here. Along with a few other outdoors hunting/fishing stores. Becker's is hands down the best, not only does Blake, the owner, carry all the same and every day type items he also has all the unique, hard to find stuff too. His Customer service is EXCEPTIONAL. He closes on Sunday and Monday. Sunday is for church and family, Monday... He fishes. And he is more than happy to tell you exactly what he's throwing and where he's throwing it. He takes time and his own money to sponsor youth, highschool and local college level fishermen and women who are chasing dreams or just out having good fun. He donates to our local clubs and charity tournaments. This is a small shop, not even a fraction of the floor space the other guys have. But his inventory puts them to shame and he hangs in there punch for punch with those big money guys across the street and down the road. And that can only be credited to him and his family. Although, he'd be the first to tell you all glory goes to God. If you're every in the area it's worth your time to stop by and say hi. Even if you don't spend a dollar, he'll spend ten minutes talking about the local bass scene and if he meets you once, he will NEVER forget your name.

There's some Lew's reels there, hard to exactly what they are, but even Lew's low end stuff is better than garbage haha... Think about it this way, $20 per reel, a little over $25per rod... Decent deal and you get the baits for free

So many things... Passing by at an unsafe or illegal distance is wrong. Blowing through no wake zones is wrong. But that's about it from what I've read. If they really were prefishing for a tournament, they were probably doing exactly what they had planned on doing that day. You don't go hooking up with every fish you can inan area you want to fish on tournament day. Some baits, I'll throw without a hook. Get a few bites to locate fish and get a feel for how big they are in a particular area and move on. If the pattern calls for a bait that I can't throw without a hook,I pin one or two at most and get the heck outta there. Maybe spend 10 or 15 min per spot. When and if,at the end of the day, you overheard them complain about bad fishing, it probably wasn't from a lack of them landing fish,bitmore likely an inability to find a pattern or the pattern they expected to be present. I'd much rather a bass boat scream by me on plane than at half step. That wake is barely a bother compared to a 12ft aluminum boat with a 9hp motor and a 225lb man plowing water nose up thinking he is more courteous. I get you were trying to throw some humor on this situation. I just don't think you understand what these guys were trying to accomplish. The issue is everyone thinks they own the water. Rec boat guys are the worst, recreational fisherman think they have the right of way because they're just taking it easy and shouldn't be bothered by anyone else, tourney guys think they should be given the wide berth because they are "fishing for something" money, prize, trophy, bragging rights... The truth is, as long as laws aren't broken we can't control a single thing someone else chooses to do. And common courtesy, manners, respect... Well that's all relative. What may bother me might not affect your day in the slightest, what I perceive as the height of rudeness might just be your daily routine.

You'd be surprised. My club is only $25 to join, then $50 per tournament including big bass side pot. You can fish as a guest and only pay the entry fee but you don't amass any AOY points. So essentially you and fish the year any way you want. All in and go for AOY, or pick and choose your tournaments and lakes you want to fish. We have a great system to get non boaters in tournaments and learning new skills and experiencing the tournament world. Look for clubs in your area, I bet you'll find one like mine. I fished as a non boater for a while before I bought my boat. I still fish a few tournaments every now and then as a non.

I'm a boat owner, I tournament fish. My club is built for fun. I can enter any tournament as either a boater or non boater (co angler). And I do both depending on body of water, how I'm feeling, and how many boats are in the draw. Sometimes if I wanna fish I HAVE to run my boat because there may not be enough boats entered to get all the CO's a spot. We have a $20 required payment from co to boater. You have to pay it, but the boater doesn't have to accept. I ALWAYS have at least that much to offer my boater. I rarely ever accept it as a boater, unless it's a long tow and we're making long runs on the lake. It's a respect thing, not an "expect" thing. I get what you're saying, and for fun fishing you're spot on. Tournament fishing is different though. If you offer the financial help, I wont accept it, usually. If you don't offer it, find a different boat to fish from next time because I'll leave your behind on the dock if I draw you again.

You're just gonna have to do what you think is right. I'd lean towards protecting our resources and do what it takes to stop him. There is a lesson here to teach your son also. He may always remember how his dad handled this situation. Some will tell you a "man" isn't gonna be a snitch. Others will tell you a "man" is gonna stand up for his beliefs and make the call. That's for you to decide. I'd probably make the call. At the same time I wouldn't judge you poorly for either decision you make.

Ahhh... Gotcha. Same bait, same fall rate? There are a few subtle variables that can influence a fish to bite or not. But if you were pitching to the same place just before he was I'd chalk it up to "ticking off the fish". Imagine those fish weren't biters, they we're in those spots for so e completely different reason. Your lure floats down past them and they pay it no attention. But by the second or third time, now it's angry and irritated so it strikes. Happens all the time. Most easily recognized while sight fishing because you can literally observe this exact behavior.

Very possible you just never got bit. Flippin/pitching along a bank in a tournament can be brutal for the non boater, but not always. The biggest struggle is how your boater is attacking the area. If he is just jamming down the line standing on the trolling motor, making his pitches and moving on, you will have a hard time watching his targets and being able to cover the water he missed. The pace is just too fast. If you're a team, the whole point t of boat position is to put as much weight in the boat as possible, not to make sure the backseat is getting good action. So, flipping a line at pace isn't always the most fun strategy for the backseat guy, though productive and usually successful for the boat in general. I usually have this discussion with my non boater before the tournament. If it's head to head(non boater has his bag I have mine) I tell him I'll do everything I can to keep him in good position and give him virgin water and if he needs me to adjust something just let me know. If it's a team format, I tell him I'm gonna be putting the boat in the beat position for us to catch fish and that won't always mean he has the best opportunity to be the man. All that being said, I've had lots of successful co anglers pitch from the back. Right presentation at the right time right Target. There's a good chance if you were up front those 5 fish would have been on your hook.

I wouldn't rely on length/girth conversions. They may get you somewhat close... Sometimes. But I'm here to tell you depending on where you're fishing they can be highly inaccurate. Here in the PNW our bass are short and fat. My brother in law and I have weighed multiple fish on separate scales and then used conversion charts and "calculators" to see if there was a difference. Not once was the conversion accurate and a couple times was nearly a pound off + or -. Both scales were within .003+/- everytime. As for the fish in the pic, wild guess only... over 5.

Buzzbait... Although I love topwater in general, there's something about those buzzbait blowups that just gets me every time. Love it

We've had an unusually cool start to summer here in the northwest. Which has really thrown off the fishing, interestingly enough though, it's had positive effects on some lakes and negative effects on others. Morning surface temps have been around 66-69 degrees. I've always found those morning temps to be pretty indicative of total water column temps throughout the day. Surface temps rising to 71-73 degrees. This time last year we averaged about 7 degrees warmer by now.

Yes to all of those, at least here in eastern Washington...

I dropshot docks alot when they won't eat my jig. 3',5', 10'... My dropshot shows no discrimination towards depth. Only time I won't really throw it is in high winds.