Bassattackr

Having owned both of those Loomis rods, both will be horribly underpowered for an A rig. And too short IMO. I prefer to use the E6X 7'4" Heavy / Moderate Swimbait rod personally for a Jr size A rig. But of the 3 you listed, I'd go for the Dobyns for the ease of casting. But I believe their actions run on the lighter side as well, probably too underpowered also..

You're going to have a serious amount of scale and algae leaving a boat in the water for very long.. Hull, lower unit, prop, you name it.

I normally flip with flourocarbon, so I prefer the Owner Wide Gap Plus or the VMC Ike Heavy Wide Gap Hook.

Outkast 4/0 jighead is no problem for me on a 3.8. Even 10" spots don't have a problem eating it. Caught close to 50 the last couple weeks, haven't lost one yet. The Megabass body balance head uses a 4/0 or 5/0 can't recall, works well also. I think the length of the hook shank has more to do with impeding the action than the hook size/gap.

Guessing if it has a good smallmouth population, the water clarity is probably at least 2-3 feet, if not a lot more. Combine that with water temps around 49 degrees, and I'm with A-jay. I'm going to have a jerkbait, jig and an A-Rig tied on and the rest of the rods in the rod locker. Start out on main lake points and work your way in until you find them.

Bingo, you're lugging the motor with your current setup. Check on the motor mount what your max RPMs are for that motor (5600?). All else equal, one pitch down equals a gain of 200 RPM at WOT. You want to me close or at your max in winter (cold air, cold water). See if you can test a 20p and 21p and go from there. Your boat will come alive, I wouldn't change anything else. (Ignore my previous posts, I had assumed you had the right prop before..) Good luck! Fair enough. I should have specified - four blades typically carry loads better resulting in better bow lift.

Then I would use a mono leader. The thicker (heavier) you go, the slower the fall will be.

Revo STX4 for me. I have close to a dozen, I personally like them.

It's all over the place honestly. A 3/8oz Jackhammer is a lot lighter than a 3/8oz Chatterbait Elite. Jigheads are no different..

1) No hard and fast rules here. Just be considerate, I try to do the same. If you hang up once every hour or so, no big deal. If I have to circle back every 5-10 minutes, then as a boater it gets old fast and distracts from my fishing. On the flip side, I used to fish as a coangler and no one is expected to be perfect. As others have mentioned, if you're way off behind the boat with a shakey head, just break it off and tie on a new one. If your Vision 110 is on a dock cable, it would be take a real jerk not to go back and get it for you! 2) Not wrong but.. don't take it personal if the boater isn't interested. The most annoying thing for a boater is drawing a coangler and 2 minutes into meeting him he wants to know how many fish you're on, I got a spot where my buddy and I whacked them here yesterday, etc, etc.. It's a running joke in most circles. Personally speaking, I bought a boat to make my own decisions, game plan, etc. You don't like it, don't enter or step up to the pro side yourself. On the flip side, I've had a few boaters ask in my coangler days and contributed before. So as a general rule, I'd say keep those kinds of things to yourself unless asked. If they're that desperate they may ask. 3) I agree with you 100%. Even as a boater, I generally don't even attend these anymore.. Have fun and good luck!

It's a boat, things are going to fail or break. This coming from someone who the last two bass boats I've owned have been bought brand new. Yes, they are expensive. More expensive than you think.. Marine environment is hard on everything. Worth it? Right now, for me yes. Only you can decide..

You are 100% correct. A 4 blade will give you more lift, but I would still raise one slot on the motor mount. One hole up likely won't be enough to offset the lift you "created" with the 4 blade but it will help get RPMs up higher to where the motor needs to run at WOT. As a second point to this recommendation, comparable 4 blade props like to run 1/4"-1/2" higher than 3 blades anyway. You could also use trim extender tabs to get more lift with your current setup. I had these put on an older champion and it helped extend the useable range of the trim if your boat is still plowing at full trim. Your comment of your boat pushing more water the faster you go seems odd, I'm not sure how to interpret that. There should be a trim "sweet spot" where your boat runs the fastest with a given load. An aluminum boat typically only porpoises if it is over trimmed. Which leads me to believe you don't have enough trim or lift for your setup because you can't get there, even at full trim. If it were me, I would try the trim tabs first (budget solution), swap the prop next and lastly move the motor up one notch if your RPMs with the new prop are still a touch low. Hope that helps.

You're just reeling in slack as you drag it, don't overthink it - 7:1..

1) No defined "window" of speed where you get bow lift. That is a function of motor height, setback, boat load, etc.. 2) No, if the bow were to "fall" you would get porposing, not a steady "plow" thru the water. 3) Moving the motor UP, DECREASES bow lift. Moving the motor down increases bow lift. Questions for you: - Do you have a jackplate on the boat, or is the motor directly mounted to the transom? - Given your 22P prop, what are your RPMs at WOT?

Best advice on this thread. ?

Extremely uncommon. I've only seen it once or twice max in the close to 15 years I've fished with FLW.

If fishing a draw series, I'd go a time or two as a coangler. If team series, I see no reason to fish your own boat from the get go. I see quite a few that are apprehensive about tournament fishing.. Not for everyone but I certainly love it. Just remember, after blast off it's not any different than another day on the water. Just you and another guy fishing together all day.

I used to have a Phoenix 819 and it did pretty well at LOZ. Granted, I didn't go out on summer weekends but we had BFLs in May and early September when PLENTY of big boats were out. It was a great 19' boat, ran and felt much bigger than it was (everyone says that right?), and did really well for some situations I was in. I even ran 5 footers on table rock in 50+ mph winds and it did surprisingly well (Only submarined twice if I recall??). 42 deg WT.. Don't plan to do that again. I'd highly recommend it, Boat-Wrx in Springfield actually has one for sale that was won by another angler in a tournament. 200 HP 4 stroke, they're in the high $40s if you can swing that. Otherwise, I would still recommend a smaller glass 19' if you can find one, new or used.

A Rig! They wreck it. ?

Haha fair enough..

Don't know much about Dobyns rods but I prefer a 7'1" MH for 1/2oz and 7'3" MH for 3/4oz spinnerbaits. The shorter rod has a little less power and loads better with the lighter bait. 20 lb line on both for me.

FLW has called non-boater in the draw format "co-angler" for years. For the OPs question - IMO, not necessarily. About 10 years ago, I won a 2 day BFL as a co-angler and brought in over 15 lbs the first day, the angler/pro only had 1 small keeper. Some boaters/pros are excellent fisherman, vacuums of sorts.. and are tough to fish behind. The best of the best (Top 10-15%) were in my experience. The low end of the pro division (Bottom 10-15%) may not be on fish at all and may be tough for either angler to be successful. The middle 75% +/- main field can usually find or be around fish but may not be as skilled, giving the co-angler a great opportunity. Now that I've made the change to the front a few years ago, I'm probably in that middle 75% most of the time. Some cos have done fairly well behind me.. Others not so much.

This might help: Carolina Rigging with Castledine - Major League Fishing

I think you're putting a bit too much into it at this point. Don't have any expectations for the first event or two - Just go out and try to fish and have fun. That's what it's all about, especially at the club level. Too early to start worrying about finishes and finances. Besides you've obviously been fishing for years - so there's nothing really to be "nervous" about, right? After the first event or two, you'll learn to work on time management, strategy, learning how to better find fish, be more observant on the water, fish patterns instead of history, etc.. You'll be snapping necks and cashing checks in no time. Good luck! And remember your boat plug! ?

By April or so - Garmin, Lowrance and HBird (All 3) will all have their own version of Livescope on the market. All 3 have DI, SI, mapping and sonar. All 3 have their own trolling motor. HBird has M360. If your trolling motor preference is Minn Kota, I would recommend Humminbird graphs. Although you can mix and match as others have mentioned with no networking.