Big_Easy_Bassin

I’m perfectly fine with 55mph. If I go with the Gator Trax I’m going to add a hydraulic jack plate.

Gator Trax is at the top of my list. The customization options are amazing.

Never had an Alweld. One that I def will not be buying again is Alumacraft. I can be tough on boats, which I why I run aluminum. I had one of their 16ft semi-v jon boats back in the day. I was idling using side imaging and bumped a stump. Barely changed the angle of the boat. Well… it put a 5in crack in the bottom. I’ve hit stumps in other boats running 50mph and there was no damage lol.

A few years back I purchased an older model G3 18ft aluminum bass boat with a 2001 Yamaha 115 V4. Motor has been completely rebuilt from top to bottom. The G3 has been good, but a few months back I had issues with the console. The guy I bought the boat from was a BIG guy, and apparently he used the steering wheel to pull himself out of the seat every time he stood up, so the console had a stress crack under the steering wheel. A buddy and I were taking off for a tournament and I went over another boats wake and when my boat came down the steering wheel fell out of the console and landed between my feet on the floor of my boat. Scary situation, but no one was hurt and we were able to get it back on the trailer. Never had a chance to work on it bc of work, and I’ve decided to just replace the boat. Going to keep the old Yammy… it runs like a top and I spent all that money getting it rebuilt so I’m gonna get my moneys worth out it. Any suggestions on brands to check out???? I have my eyes on having a GatorTrax custom built, but I’m still browsing looking for options.

I’d say 25’ is a little much leader… I’m not sure exactly how long of a leader I use. Depends on the rod. I try to get it where the knot is between the reel and the first guide of the train. I find it much easier to cast that way and the knot doesn’t catch as much on the guides bc of the momentum. 🤷🏻‍♂️

A glide would probably work, but I don’t think a jerkbait would in this area. Wayyyyy too much grass around the beds and even the beds in “deeper” water were no more than 2ft deep.

My thoughts exactly! I fish bc I enjoy it. I posted a report from this past weekend about trying to force a reaction bite for a whole 12 hour day of fishing. I was just fishing for fun and that’s how I prefer to fish. I fish small local tournaments occasionally, but I it’s not how I make my living. If I fished tournaments to put food on the table, I would probably have a spinning rod in my hand staring at a screen like everyone else. Also, I’ve heard that guys use it in shallow water, but I can’t imagine FFS would be much help in South Louisiana, especially the areas I fish. It’s mostly 2-4ft bayous, but I guess it would work in turns and bends. Those get up to around maybe 10ft lol.

I grew up inshore fishing for speckled trout in the South Louisiana marsh. I hated paying for live shrimp, so I focused on catching them strictly using artificial lures. I learned two techniques when I was younger and tried to get as good as I could at them. One was a popping cork with a paddle tail swimbait on a 1/16 or 1/8oz jig head… I always preferred ball style jig heads. The other was basically a Damiki rig. I normally use a 1/4oz jig head on 20# or 30# braid with a FC leader. I started out using 20# FC bc that was what everyone was using inshore, but after I started bass fishing I realized how much line test mattered for lure action and presentation. I don’t target trout much anymore, but I’ll use anything from 10-15# for my leader depending on the situation. I find it kind of amusing hearing about all these pros using this technique… I was throwing the Damiki rig before it was even called the Damiki rig 😂😂😂

Yeah I def don’t have to worry about that down here in South Louisiana. It’s never “too cold to go fishing” here. Might have to bundle up if temps drop into the 20s, but I have enough cold weather gear to still get out there lol. Lakes up north are iced over 6 months out of the year? I didn’t realize it was that bad.

I read this post when I first started bass fishing. I grew up fishing soft plastic swim baits and shrimp imitators for speckled trout and other inshore species so jigs and T-rigs and the like came easy… Moving baits were pretty much completely new to me other than catching a few speckled trout one of the few times I tried a topwater. I’m a researcher when it comes to new things, so I looked at post after post about crankbaits and how to fish them for like a week before I went out to try it at a local park that is known for pretty good bass fishing. I started with a lipless and quickly realized how true this information is. I was setting the hook every time I ticked the grass at first, but I focused on the vibration. When I tried a squarebill for the first time it made me even more sense to me. Now I can fish a crankbait and feel the difference between what hitting a rock or stump feels like vs what a bite feels like. This was a valuable lesson learned before I knew how much I would love bass fishing now. Thanks for all of the valuable info you have shared over the years!

Already put up a post in reports about my weekend of fishing the early spawners down here in South Louisiana. I have always gone with a Texas rig with a pegged tungsten weight when sight fishing beds, but I wasn’t getting the fish’s attention and when I found a bait they would really not like they were grabbing the tail to move it. I switched over to a pitching jig and got their attention but they wouldn’t bite so I switched to a black and blue 5/16oz IR Finesse Jig with a solid black chunk trailer and the first time a fish picked it up I had them hooked. I’ve never really thrown “finesse” jigs, but that was definitely the deal today. It stands up great and stays upright very well like a football jig, but it comes through grass super easily bc it has a slim profile. I think a 3/8oz would’ve worked a little better bc I felt like I moved the bait more than I wanted to a few times, but other than that I found a new tool for fishing beds. Need to get some more and try some different colors. Any suggestions for sight fishing jig colors???

Based on my experience with boats and outboards, ethanol free gas is only necessary if you don’t run the boat regularly. Again I’m just basing this off of my experience, but I have never used ethanol free in my boat and have never had any issues. Two buddies who also fish almost every weekend feel the same way . I do put additives in every time I fuel up. And I normally fill the tank before every trip unless it’s totally unnecessary lol. Just wanted to throw in my thoughts on outboards and ethanol. 🤷🏻‍♂️😂😂😂 If your boat sits up for 6 months at a time I’d say you need to fish more 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

I can’t say I don’t like fishing the spawn but I’m not the biggest fan of sight fishing for bass on beds. Especially when I’m stuck on the bank. But we’re lucky in South Louisiana and the fish are on beds while some guys are still waiting for their lakes to thaw. Boat is in the shop so I decided to hit some of my old bank fishing spots this weekend. Started out with a topwater walking bait and a small popper to catch the early morning topwater bite. Gave up on that plan after about a hour. Something crushed my 1/2oz shad color Mini Max with a 6th Sense Juggle Minnow trailer. I’m guessing the fish chased it down and hit it from behind bc he knocked about 3 feet of slack into my line and the vibration stopped. I reeled as fast as I could and finally caught up with him and set the hook. Felt like I got a good hookset but I guess I was wrong. I could feel some of his weight on my line for about 5 or 6 turns of the reel handle but it felt like he was swimming straight at me. He came off and broke the surface and did a little flip just show himself and tick me off. It looked like a decent fish. At least a decent one for the area around 2-3lbs. This got my hopes of fishing my strength and covering water, so then I tried to force a reaction bait bite for most of the 12 hours I spent fishing and finished the day without a bass. A tiny goggle eye that bit my trick worm got the skunk off me about an hour and half before I quit. This morning I decided to go back to the same body of water but fish in a different area. I had noticed a few beds along the bank in the area I fished Saturday, but didn’t see any fish on them and the ones I did see didn’t seem to be locked on. The area I went to today had a few more beds, but they were in slightly deeper water. I could still see the fish, but it was much easier to lose them especially when they darted away to chase something or bc they were spooked. Fished a few different beds and couldn’t really get the fish’s attention. After trying almost every type of plastic know. to man, I finally got a little male that was interested. Lure was a custom deal made by a former sponsor who is no longer in business. Straight black beaver style bait. Similar to a Berkley Pit Boss with the four thin tails, but the body on this one is thinner and ribbed. Went through 3 lures before I caught the first bass of the day. He kept picking the lure up by the tail and when I’d try to set the hook my lure would come back missing one or multiple tails. I almost exclusively use a T-rig when I’m bed fishing, but I decided to change it up bc the bite was so finicky. I had a Dirty Jigs pitching jig tied on already, and he seemed much more irritated by the jig, but wouldn’t bite it. I figured maybe it was the profile so I tried a new jig I bought a few weeks ago and it was all the difference. A 5/16oz Black Blue Tip Evergreen IR Finesse Jig was the ticket. I made 4 pitches into the bed and he grabbed it. This time he got the hook right through the top of the mouth. I was using a black Zoom Super Chunk trailer, but the fish knocked it off during the fight. I took the plastics I was using earlier and cut a little bit more than half of the body off and removed the two middle tails and made chunk style trailers out of them. The jig was definitely the deal bc I went back to the fish that had ignored my T-rig earlier and caught 4 more smaller males that were 1-1.lbs. I did see a female sitting out a little deeper on one of the beds. She was posted up using an 18 wheeler tire right for cover. She was at least 4 pounder… maybe bigger. I caught the male and released him on the other side of the road to see if I could get her to bite without him there. She did move up and set up on the outside edge of the bed but she liked that tire and didn’t want to move. I did everything I could to tick her off trying to get her to bite. Pitched my jig right on top of her. Shook it in front of her face. I even used my “go to” move for when bedding fish are being difficult and not biting. I pitched my jig over her so that she was between me and the lure and pulled it so it was almost under her and picked the bait up with a little bit of force and hit her in the belly. I wasn’t trying to snag the fish…. Just tick her off. Well she was def ticked but it didn’t help make her bite. After I hit her with the “go to” move she took off into the grass out a little deeper than her tire. I left her alone and checked back about 45 mins later before I went home. I could barely see her, but she was back on the tire but this time she was on the opposite side away from the bed and had half of her body tucked in the grass.

I'm going to go with the CERecoil size 8 double foot as my stripper. I’ll probably order a double foot size 6 and then finish it off with RSPG5 runners. If I don’t think another reduction is necessary, I’ll just go straight from the CERecoil to the runners.

Since recoils are a wire guide, (right? , no ceramic ring?) I would consider a second double foot guide as you suggest. Probably sized to be the same ID as the recoils. Mick, I think I will use one of the CERecoil as the first guide. Size 8. These have a ceramic ring. Would this be sufficient in your opinion or do you think I should still go with a second double foot guide in the train? Thanks for that. I saw an old thread on another forum size 6 runners but I could only find size 6 spinning guides. And I plan to use the CERcoil tip top