papajoe222

Yea, I've seen the videos Glen, but I've been getting lazy with up-keep and just added grease to the Bearing Buddies rather than clean and repack the bearings the last couple of years. Paid the price, too

The problem would be securing the floor, it's below the water line, to support you're sitting on a pedestal seat. A floor to walk and stand on could be spot secured with epoxy. You'd need much more secure mounting for what you mention. Are the benches riveted in place, or tac welded? Removing rivets puts you in the same situation with holes at, or near the water line. What about that area under the bow for storage? The other thing, if you really want swivel seats is to add them to the bench. They even make removeable mounts. just some things to think about.

Okay, I'm sure we've all heard it more than once: Maintain your trailer bearings and tires, or you'll pay the price with a ruined outing or worse. I just went through what I consider worse, a month plus of lost time on the water because of trailer bearing failure. I thought I caught it before it did any damage, just switch out the bearings and I'd be on my way (I keep a spare set just in case). No such luck. The bearing race fused itself to the spindle before the bearing fell apart rendering the spindle useless. Of course the entire hub is welded on to the axle, so I had to have the entire axle replaced and it would be two weeks to get one in stock. A new trailer would only take three weeks and seeing as mine was over 12 years old and starting to rust, That's the route I took. SIX WEEKS later it finally arrived. HEED THE WARNING. Maintain all your gear guys and gals, including your trailer and don't be to macho to stop every hundred miles or so and check for excessive heat at the wheel hub. It could save you precious fishing time, or half a season.

Welcome First off, leave the bow the way it is regardless whether you add a deck or not. The addition of running lights, or a bow mounted TM will make you happy you didn't. Second, I want to talk you out of the idea of adding a deck in the first place. I'll tell you why. I had a very similar boat, a 16ft. Alumicraft with a modified V-hull that I added a front deck too. It was not a stable platform to fish from and even if I sat on a short pedestal, any movement from my partner would toss me overboard until I educated him about warning me before making any sudden movements ( it wasn't hard, I just had him sit up front and proceeded to reach over and pick up my pliers. Did I mention he can't swim?) I digress...... Your center of gravity is going to be too high even if you only run the deck on top of the bench seats. What I'd recommend is adding a carpeted floor down the center third from the front bench to the back one. You'll accomplish the goal of having a flatand stable surface to stand on while casting, you'll only be adding a couple of inches to your overall center of gravity and the carpeting will deaden the sound of your shuffling around from being transmitted through the hull. You could even add the floor and then carpet the sides and it together to give in a more uniform look. If you're certain that you'll be the only one fishing from the boat, you could try the board over the bench seat scenario before securing it. It's your boat, tailor it to what you want.

The make-up of the line has more to do with abrasion resistance than the line diameter. In your example, the XT will hold up much better than the XL 15lb. Original Stren is a good go between for manageability and abrasion resistance. Mono will still retain a good portion of its breaking strength when exposed to abrasion. Fluoro, although touted as more abrasion resistant only because it's breaking strength is under rated and similar to mono, it will retain a good portion of it strength. We're talking abrasion and not nicks or cuts. Fluoro stands above mono and braid when it comes to dealing with them.

Welcome. That St.Croix Mojo set-up is also a good choice for spinnerbaits, if you use braid. The combo you have listed for spinnerbaits doesn't have enough give, IMO, to let the fish suck the bait in. A simple switch from braid to fluoro in the 15lb range would be one way to go. The way you have it set up now, it could double as a jig/worm rod. Switching reels with your swimbait rod is another. Don't over burden yourself with a lot of color decisions. Think dark for off colored to low visibility water and light for clear to stained water. if you feel like you're trying too many different things, leave all but one or two techniques home and just concentrate on them. Maybe one finesse and one power presentation. Good luck and most importantly, have fun.

I prefer using a baitcaster, but couldn't find a rod that had the action I wanted, so I went the custom route and built one on a spinning blank. I even went one step further and did a spiral wrap. I do, however use a 'traditional' baitcaster for bigger/heavier tubes that I use a lot for largemouth. There are a number of fine tubes out there, I prefer hand poured, thin walled tubes for clean bottoms and rigging with internal jig heads. For punching and skipping I like Ozark Tackle tubes. If you haven't tried using a tube, they are awesome for both presentations.

Based on your evaluation of the conditions, starting with a finesse presentation was very logical. What you need to remember is that you based your approach solely on those conditions. In a tournament situation you need to constantly evaluate as many factors as you can. One thing that will tip you off that a faster presentation may be more effective is to evaluate how aggressively the fish you caught took the bait. A deeply hooked fish, or a hard thump vs. a tel tale pick-up are good indications that a faster presentation is in order. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't power fish when that may have been the route to take. Finesse tactics will work the majority of the time regardless of the conditions. In tournament fishing the mindset is to get a limit as fast as possible. If finesse is how you feel you can do that best, don't fix it if it ain't broke. But keep your mind open for the other option when it presents itself.

The beauty of a true Texas Rig (sliding bullet weight) is that it allows the fish to pick up the bait without feeling the weight. The downside to using it in weed or brush type cover is that the weight and bait often separate catching the cover in between. The normal way of eliminating this is to peg the weight. What you are finding is that, rigged that way, the bait is falling nose first whereas with a belly weighted hook, or weedless on a slack line, the attitude of the bait is different. It's horizontal. That is more than likely why you are not getting bit. The fish prefer that look. There will be times when they prefer the vertical fall of the pegged weight and I would suggest the next time the belly weight isn't working to give it another shot.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/berkley-havoc-change-up I've been using these on both my Jika rigs and 3/8oz. stand up jigheads with very good results, especially with lengthy pauses. My go to prior to trying these out was the PacaCaraw . Are there any other 'craw worms' you have confidence in using? I've been looking at BigBites craw worm and NetBaits Slim Crawas I like the more realistic craw portion, but I've been unable to find them locally.

If you target suspended fish, there isn't anything for your crank to deflect off to trigger strikes. A constant retrieve will get you an occasional fish, but varying the retrieve speed, stop and go, or popping the rod tip occasionally will trigger a lot more strikes. I have a couple of baits that will kick out when I give the reel handle a quick spin. I get a lot of strikes just after doing that. Suspended fish are tough enough to get a response from. Up the odds in your favor, change it up. The other thing I'll repeat that's already been pointed out. Find cover, or structure, at the same depth you see fish suspending and target that rather than the suspended fish. At the very least, give the suspenders a shot and if you're not getting any love, move to those spots.

It really upsets me when I see unattended rods there is a good chance that fish may survive, but using circle hooks, even for cat fishing would have eliminated their need to cut the line and insured that bass' survival.

Way too early in my area to be thinking about the fall bite, but one fact that was driven home last season was that a body of water cools MUCH faster that it warms. On one set of strip pits I fish, the deepest water is only 12ft. and in the span of a very cool week in Sept., the water temp. dropped fifteen degrees. It took me the better part of the day to figure out fish location. On other, deeper, pits the temp. only dropped seven degrees and that was just enough to trigger the movement of the gills and the bass. All you pond fishermen, remember... Water cools faster than it warms and a shallow body of water will cool much quicker than a deeper one.

The fall bite turn on has more to do with the forage than the water temp. IMO. If minnows and shad are the main forage, their movement can start as early as a temperature drop into the low 70's or upper 60's as mentioned. If it's bluegill, expect it much later, closer to turnover. Around here, it happens around the same time the frogs start to migrate and the craws begin burrowing.

To narrow down the spots, I'd look for two things.....Forage and Structure. Those areas where the bottom drops quickly to the 7ft. level and the banks of the old river sound like the places to start. Don't rule out flats close to those deeper areas if you can determine the presence of forage there. Pick your poison for presentations, but you're pretty much limited to the top of the junk, or getting down into the timber underneath. Either way, stealth is going to play a big part in your success. Shallow water is not the place to disregard how much of a factor it is, regardless of the clarity of the water.

I use a 6'6" Med. power Fast action B/C,Daiwa Sol reel spooled with Yo-Zuri Hybrid UltraSoft 10lb. Any of the smaller baitcasters should be able to handle all but the lightest soft plastics. My buddy uses a 50E and another guy at our club uses a Carbonlite. I'd go with fluoro, but I hate the stuff. I'm not attempting to steer you away from fluoro, it's just my preference.

I've used the weed guards of a jig and tied/trimmed them to the hook (one strand per hook). Most are already V shaped when pulled from the jig.

There are a number of options other than cranks that will target a variety of depths and come through weeds fairly well. A swim jig, or swimbait, T-rigged worm with the sinker pegged, spinnerbait, heck, even a wacky rigged senko can be worked just of the bottom, or over the weeds.

You don't need to burn a spinnerbait to keep it over the weed tops, but if that is your intention, I'd go with a 1/2oz. double willow. I'd also go with the 1/2oz. but with a Colorado/Indiana combo. All blades would be gold.

Not necessarily in any type of order: Jig, plastic worm, spinnerbait, minnow style jerk-bait, shallow-medium-deep running crankbaits and the hooks and weights for the soft plastics.

You'd better check the weight capacity on that jon of yours. Eight of us fat old farts would probably be the limit and I have trouble with my balance of late and standing in a yak is out of the question for me.

Pick me up on your way down A-Jay. Just let me know if we'll be taking your boat or mine. BTW, what lake is it and does he have enough room for us all. I call dibbs on the recliner.

I stumbled upon Ozark Tackle while down in Branson, Mo. The make awesome 4.5in and 5.5in. tubes. I picked up two packs of their 2.75in tubes that were on clearance and have been fishing them on a 2/0 Trokar tube hook when I T-rig them. Most any thin walled tube can be fished on a 2/0 hook. Tender Tubes and Havoc Smash tubes come to mind, but they're 4in.

I'm really bummed out about my trip to NW Wisconsin. I drove 960 mi. round trip to get skunked for the third time in three years . I even resorted to trolling because my shoulder couldn't take the strain after two days of chucking everything from bucktails to Depth Raiders. The only musky I saw is the one that tore into a 12in. bass that was unfortunate enough to inhale a 1oz. spinnerbait. Stupid bass! That muskie was likely following my spinnerbait up from deep water when that bass hit it. I'll say one thing for the bass up there, they are not spooked by big baits. I ended up with nine bass on them. I switched over to bass fishing for the second half of my last day. I had a blast with fish in the 16in.-18in. range, but I didn't go up there for bass! I'll be looking for a different lake even though my PB came from those waters six years ago. Anyone know of a good muskie lake up north?

You don't have the issue of coils slapping against that first reduction guide with baitcasters, so increased line diameter influences casting distance much less than with spinning gear. I've always been in the minority when it comes to line size. The heaviest I use is 30lb. braid and 14lb. mono or copolymer. I do so for two reasons, casting distance isn't one. I fish mostly clear natural lakes and the heavier non-braid lines I find difficult to manage. BTW, the only time I use any kind of leader on my braid is when I Carolina rig.