Troy85

SE louisiana. Rivers I fish are about 85-87. Brackish marsh about 87-89.

Usually the night before. I do it to save time on the water and also because I still get excited the evening before a fishing day! It’s not uncommon to call an audible on a rig or two depending on unexpected conditions the following day.

Also, down here for some BASS nation tournaments they don't have enough "non-boaters" sign up. So they force boaters to fish with boaters. I would hate to be forced into being a non-boater after I had a practiced and found all my spots and patterns. Team format is a much more enjoyable experience for me, especially since my brother is my partner.

Welcome. As far as good books, I'd recommend In-Fishermen Critical Concepts 1: Largemouth Bass Fundamentals. It covers a lot of topics from fish behavior, vegetation, impoundment types. It has some really good information.

I prefer mornings, but having a newborn son in the house, evenings are more doable at the moment.

I don't really like fried catfish. I'd much prefer fried Speckled Trout, Bass or Redfish over catfish. I don't like the waiting game, I never have liked throwing out a bait and just letting it sit till I get bit. I'd much rather cast and retrieve. Even when I'm salt water fishing I don't like using dead or live bait, I'd much rather cast and retrieve my artificial bait.

HA! My uncle will be happy to see this. He showed me a picture, back when he was young, he bought one of those plastic snakes from the toy store, made holes in it and ran fishing string thru it and attached hooks. I don't think he ever caught anything on it tho, sadly.

I agree with you. Sometimes I'll fish a a shoreline from one direction, then turn around and fish it again from the opposite direction. Based on his rule, If i were to do that with a co-angler in the back, the co-angler fishing behind me on the first pass, would be fishing in front of me for the second pass. Of course this is an exaggerated example, and could never be enforced, but imo the logic is the same. IMO, as long as your aren't physically casting in front of him, and blocking his ability to cast without crossing your line, I don't see an issue. This is why I only do Team tournaments.

Based just on the results of the TB Lunker Program from 2017-now. I would agree with you and I'd say the lake is doing just fine.

I use spit shot weights and attach them to the line 1-2' above the fluke. Its not as good as weightless, but sometimes it has to be done.

Todd! You are a genius! I can put a bobber stopper on each side of my weight and instantly switch between C-Rig and TX Rig.

"Easy Culling" in the App Store.

Don't you just hate that. Your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, you see another boat coming and what does he do. He turns on his spot light and points it right in your face....its like, thanks man, now I'm night blind for the next 5 minutes.

I'll fish near grass edges, as the water is usually slightly cleaner. Spinner baits along a soft grass edge, I usually reel slow enough to where I just lose visibility of my spinner bait. Just two weeks ago, I caught all my fish doing this, water visibility was about 1.5', surface temp was 89, all fish were caught in about 4' of water or a little less. I'll use a 2-4' diving crank-bait if I'm fishing a hard grass edge. Also, if the grass isn't to heavily matted, buzz baits will work. I've had em take a buzz bait in the middle of a hot summer day, working over slightly matted grass.

Thanks for the info everyone. Just an update. I ended up getting the Okuma EVX rod, paired it with a PENN Fierce II 3000 that was on sale at academy and Seaguar InvizX 8lb Fluro. So far its great, I've used it twice and already picked up several nice bass, as well as the biggest bluegill I have ever caught in my life.

My Oahe team has crashed and burned....I think I have 796 points.

I use Easy Culling on my iphone. I think it cost $1.99. You can set your fish weights, you can also fill out weather conditions, baits that caught fish, baits that didn't, depth of fish, etc. Not a bad little app for the price.

That's no fun! We want someone to re-post in this topic 5 years from now giving boat purchasing advice.

I had looked at a few CC boats a few years back. I ended up sticking with side console, I just don't like the high console in the middle of the boat, I think it gets in the way. Storage is another, the CC boats I looked at didn't have near as much storage as my H18 does. I do 75% bass fishing and probably about 25% inshore saltwater.

Reel for sure.

I fish most of the day regardless of weather, I think best weather is overcast which a chance of rain. I'd say when I'm fishing rivers, morning or evening is the best(during the warm months). When fishing tidal waters, I think the tide plays a much larger role than time of day. Now, if you have good tidal movement at morning or evening than that is probably the best case scenario. At the same time, if slack tide is first thing in the morning and then tide starts falling/rising in the heat of the day, the fishing will usually still improve as the tide starts moving.

I've got the MinnKota MK210. Can confirm that they are waterproof, fully submerged mine about 3 months ago when I forgot to put the plug in before launching the boat. I don't have a Nitro, but my charger is in the back right next to my batteries.

Sometimes I do on a slow day just to mess with my brother. Other than that, it’s usually the fish that’s making it scream. We have great offshore fishing near most of the oil platforms down here, plenty of fish around those to make your drag scream.

I don't do much bank fishing, but i have my best luck with crankbaits when I'm ripping them thru grass.