Woody B

I'm sure you'll hear good and bad stuff about any of them. I wanted a Ghost, but didn't want, or need to switch to 24 volt so I bought a Terrova. I've had no problems with it and have no intentions of changing it. However, using spot lock and i pilot was too much for the group 27 trolling motor battery that came in my boat. I bought a lithium battery. Had I known I'd be upgrading batteries so soon I'd have went with the ghost. Before I got my Terrova I talked to everyone I saw at the landing with pretty much every brand of gps trolling motor. The only guy with anything bad to say had an Ulterra with automatic deploy/stow problems. Everyone loved their Ghosts, everyone loved their Ultrex's, everyone loved their Terrovas. I talked to one guy with a Force, and he loved it too.

People who aren't boat people don't realize what is "fast" on water. I've been 190 on a quarter mile drag strip. I've been 69 on a water ski. The water ski felt faster. I hope the "wrong" people don't see this. The local police have a twin engine boat that patrols one of the lake I fish. One of the officers said it will go 78mph. He said they raced an Allison bass boat, and the bass boat just drove away from them like they were sitting still. FWIW there is no speed limits. An old guy I see at the landing occasionally sold his Tracker and bought a new Vexus with 300 horsepower. I asked him how fast it would go. He said "45 with me in it" and laughed. He said he'd never had it past 1/2 throttle.

My most used rod is my Lew's Mach 7' Med/mod. It was ~$90. I'll look at the ALX rods the next time I'm in the market. I like buying US made stuff. I've got an old friend who's started making rods. I talked to him about one but he's already months behind.

I'll list the 3 that I use. Lew's MACH, 7' Med/Moderate Lew's TP1 Black, 7'3' Med-Hvy/Fast Duckett Silverado 7'3" Hvy/Fast All casting. I've got a few more but these are the ones I use.

That's an interesting chart. I wonder when it was made? I've caught a DD in NC but it was decades ago. Back then I'd hear about a DD every month or so. I haven't heard of a NC DD this year. I don't see myself traveling anywhere far off, so I doubt I'll every catch another DD. I have caught 10 this year that were 5 pounds and over. My Wife has caught 1 that was 4 pounds 15 ounces. I don't consider 5 pounds a trophy, but I do consider them a "hawg". My youngest Grandson caught one that was 7 pounds even in a SC farm pond.

The LTX A/T 2's on my Titan have 40,000 miles on them and still have 9/32" tread.

I do all of that. In addition I have a family tracker app where my wife can track me. I don't do anything or go anywhere that's a secret from my wife so I believe being able to track me on the lake is a good idea. The biggest drawback is if I were to drop my phone in the lake and she checked to see where I was. IF I were to lose my phone while fishing my first priority would be to find a phone to call her and tell her I was OK.

So I've had live sonar for several weeks. I'm going to list the best, and worst thing about it. I suspect many that have it will agree with me. The best- You can "look around" and see if there's any fish in an area. (you can "kinda" do that with normal sonar, but it's not the same) The worst- You can "look around" and see if there's any fish in an area. Seeing fish doesn't mean a guaranteed catch, but it still takes some of the mystery out of it.

My "guru" (an excellent 49 year old bass fisherman that I helped catch an 8 pound small mouth when he was 12) says there's 3 kinds of bass. 1. The dock bass. Self explanatory. They live around docks. Around here these bass get fished to death. 2. The ledge bass. These bass hang around drop offs and ledges. They're also the ones that come up on the flats to feed. 3. The deep structure bass. They spend most of their life around deep structure. There's usually some baitfish, crawdads, ect for them to eat so they don't move around much. I don't know much about their migration. Everyone knows their stopping places and choke points during pre spawn. The power company usually keeps the lake level pretty consistent at the lake I fish most. (nuke cooling) They pulled it down ~5 feet for Hurricane Ian. (late Sept) I don't usually target the dock bass this time of year due to fishing pressure but I believe the dock bass moved. Most of the people I talked to at the landing were flipping docks, and catching nothing. I caught 25 the day after Ian mostly on ledges and deep structure. The lake stayed low for a while but Hurricane Nicole has brought it back up to normal level. The lake turned over about the same time the level was coming up. Last weekend(the day after Nicole) the bass were scattered pretty much everywhere. I went up river and managed to catch 11 Saturday and 6 Sunday. Mostly where small feeder creeks enter the main channel. There weren't many bass around the bigger main creeks. FWIW 25 bass is an outstanding day for me. 10 is a "good" day. I haven't been skunked at this lake since I bought my boat. (a year ago) I've had a couple 1 or 2 dink days, but no skunk there. Lake Wylie, ~13,500 acres. NC and SC.

I'm with you. Fishing pressure is one thing but dozens or even a hundred or more boats carrying a bunch of bass around all day, then finally releasing them after a weigh in and a bunch of pictures can't be good. I suspect the mortality rate is really high. I would like to see all tournaments weight, then release bass as they're caught. There would still be a bunch of overpowered boats running around too fast, but at least the bass mortality rate would be lower.

I prefer bass fishing. I enjoy accidently catching other species while bass fishing. Decades ago I used to target Catfish some with some friends. The catfishing was as much about drinking as it was fishing. I've also trout fished a little. I enjoy the mountain streams but never got thrilled about the trout.

I don't miss mixing gas and oil. I also don't miss the plumes of smoke and fouled spark plugs. My old boat (that I sold in 1992) had a Mariner 20 hp tiller engine. A friend has an oil injected 2 stroke 40 Merc. The oil injection quit working so he mixes oil and gas now. It's temperamental but that's probably as much of a carburetor thing as a 2 stroke thing. My current 4 stroke 50 horse mercury starts easy and runs great. I don't run any kind of special gas or run any additives. I would run some type of fuel stabilizer but it never sits long enough to need it.

My night vision recovers really quick after using a white light. It seems to take forever to recover after looking into a white light. I can turn on my head lamp, remove a fish, re tie...whatever, turn it off and I'm fine in 30 seconds. If I accidently look directly at the white navigation light at the back of my boat I'm basically blind for a few minutes. I bought a really tall stern light so it's above me. This keeps me from looking directly at it. I suspect everyones eyes are different. I've often heard that people with light colored eyes are more sensitive to light.....people with dark colored eyes aren't. I've got fairly dark greenish brown eyes. I rarely wear, or feel the need to wear sunglasses. I wonder if there's a link between eye color and night vision. I've got a couple co-workers who use headlamps while working on automobiles. This is in a well lit shop. I've never felt the need for a headlamp at work.

I'm torn between "small windows where the bite is great", or just small windows where I can get them to bite. I've found that for some reason I do better when they're not supposed to bite. Some of my best catches have been post storm, North wind and all kinds of other stuff that's supposed to be bad for the bite.

Learning the name has sent my down the vintage lure rabbit hole. I've got a few mud bugs and 1 Bomber Crawdad. (like a wooden mud bug but didn't know the name of either) I've got to look around for more of my old stuff. I got a tackle box somewhere with some more mud bugs. I've also got a couple Bomber Water Dogs somewhere. Does anyone remember, or have in "Fish Finder" worms? The company was founded by a friend of mines Uncle when we were in School. They were basically stick worms with 2 hooks in them. The founder passed away a few decades ago. I don't know if the company still exist or not. The address on the pictured package is not the original company address.

I haven't hunted since my Grandsons lost interest in deer hunting and got interested in teenage girls. Both of my Grandsons killed their first deer laying on top of my shop building in my back yard. I used to hunt deer occasionally, as well as bear, hogs, rabbit, quail and grouse. 40 to 50 years ago we had to go up into the NC mountains to find deer. Now they're everywhere around here.

I managed to catch 6 nubbins (dinks) today. Once I get acclimated to winter it takes quite a bit to get me cold. I was COLD today. It was 41 degrees with 15 mph wind, 25 mph gusts. So, a weather story, kinda. Decades ago I was at Huntsville for a series of 4th of July races. It was Alabama in July. No shade and no wind. There was an old man who had 2 sons that raced. He was cool.....I always enjoyed talking to him. He reminded me of my Grandfather. I was with my car in the staging lanes near him. I said "It sure it hot isn't Mr Carr". He said "Sometime when you're cold think about the time you were at Huntsville talking to Tommy". I pretty much forgot about that. Fast forward a few months. It was October, I was at a series of races at Bowling Green. (Ky) It was probably 45, with the wind blowing. Not really cold, but the first cold I'd seen since summer. Mr Carr was near me in the staging lanes. I said "It sure is cold isn't Mr Carr". He said "Yep, it was nice when we were talking at Huntsville wasn't it". I had forgot about the Huntsville conversation, but now everytime I'm hot or cold I think about Mr Carr.

What's the lure pictured? I've got several of them. I caught a few bass on them last Winter. I try to be different that the other people I see fishing. They're all fishing spinnerbaits, buzz baits and wacky rigs. I used to fish a spinner bait quite a bit but don't so much now. I've never fished a wacky rig. I've caught multiple 5 pounders this year on a devils horse. 1 was right behind a guy fishing a buzz bait. He come flying up and cut in at a lay down that was less than 30 feet in front of me. He was 50 feet away when I caught the 5 pounder right behind him. I held it up and yelled "hey, you forgot this".

Interesting information. I've always wonders how fast different species of fish grow, and how climate affects them.

Caught 11 today. 8 spots and 3 largemouth. Didn't weight any. All between 13 and 18 inches. The 17 inch Largemouth pictured was deformed, or had some kind of injury. It swam, fought and jumped good. Biggest was three 18 inch spots. They looked like the same fish, but I caught them a couple miles apart. No boat picture today, so I've included a bird pic. I think it's a different kind of bird than the one I posted a while back.

I can't comment on the Dobyns. I've got a Lews TP1 black and I love it. I'm a cheapskate. The TP1 is my most expensive rod. I've also got a Lews MACH. I really like it too. I normally fish with 3 rods. The 2 Lews and a Duckett are what I usually take. My TP1 Black is 7'3" Med/hvy. It doesn't fish like a broom stick. I've got a BPS med/hvy that fishes like a broom stick. I'm not a rod guru. Keep that in mind when listening to me about rods.

My Grandson has one of the ~$20 H2O express rods and loves it. I haven't fished with it. I may get one next time I need a rod. I'm not a rod snob (no offense intended to anyone) My ~$100 rods are expensive by my standards.

It's kinda funny. Most nights my casting is really good.......no backlashes. Then, every now and then I start backlashing like crazy. I use a headlight but keep if off most of the time. I also wear the same hat I wear in the sun. (a bonnie hat) The brim keeps the light at the back of my boat out of my eyes. I don't fish in areas I don't know at night. I also don't blast off across the lake wide open. I got a ticket for turning my lights off several decades ago. I pulled up to a point, turned off my lights, then heard the game wardens boat start. The led light on my current boat doesn't seem to draw insects as bad as the incandescent light on my old boat. There's nothing like a night time topwater blow up. My PB came at night several decades ago.

It looks like you've got some nice rods, reels and tackle. IMHO your next purchase should be a boat.

My OLD 5500C (not 3)has 2 pin centrifugal brakes. There's 3 different sizes of weights to put on the pins. Mine is over 40 years old. I believe the C3 is a newer model. Wasn't the orignal "C" the high speed version of the 5500? I think it's 5 to 1 or something like that. I need to dig mine out. I was using it for deep cranks last Winter.