SDoolittle

1. Fishing Tackle 2. Boat with livewell that WORKS! 3. Entry fee. I'll add #4- Working kill switch. The tournaments I fish always check before blast off.]

I use my wifes dumbells that same way ever since my old scale let me down.

The day I caught my PB my brother and I weighed it on two different scales that we each kept in our tackle boxes. His said 5 lbs, but the fish was obviously larger than that. So we used my scale and it read 10 lbs, but that seemed too heavy. Finally I just measured the length and girth and when I got home did the math. Turned out to be 8.5 lbs. I threw my scale away. Not sure about my Bro.

When my daughter was about 4 years old, she got a hook deep in her finger while playing in the sand on a riverbank. I used the method of putting the line on the bend of the hook and pulled it right out. I don't guess it hurt her too much because she went back to playing and I went back to fishing.

I've caught gar by putting a bobber right up against a bare hook.

I discovered this during a tournament when I ran out of a particular color of drop shot worms. The only other thing I had in the same color was a bag of trick worms, so I broke one in half and my catch actually improved. Now when a trick worm starts to fall apart from texas rigging, I break off the back half and save it for drop shotting.

I choose silicone only because rubber falls apart too quickly.

I once witnessed my fishing partner catch a bass on a gummi worm (texas rigged).

When I was a teenager (long ago) I broke my personal best three times in a week. The first fish was 4 lbs even. I remember holding that fish and staring at it for a long time and thinking about what a hawg I had just caught. Little did I know that an hour later I would catch one that weighed 4.5 lbs. The following weekend I was right back there at my new secret spot and caught only one fish all morning, but it weighed over five lbs and I was on top of the world. In the nearly twenty years since that week I've caught a lot of fish (and a lot bigger), but that still ranks as one of best times I've had fishing.

Make sure you paint it the same color as your truck. I'm considering having mine wrapped so I will look more like a pro. Just kidding! I repainted my jon this year and stuck with good old olive drab.

Let me see if I can explain this in a way that makes sense. When I converted my jon I ran into the same problem. The triangle at the bow was four inches higher than the bench so I ran 2x4's the length of the bench in order to highten it. That brought the difference to two inches. Next I took a length of angle iron (actually it was aluminum) and attached it two inches from flush with the triangle front. I then ran 2x4 braces from the 2x4's on the bench to the angle iron. Now you should be level all the way from the bench to the bow. I wish I had taken pictures as I built it. Sure would make explaining it a lot simpler.

I bought a 14' jon boat several years ago and have slowly turned it into a mini bass boat. Brand new the boat, trolling motor, and trailer cost me about $1300. I started with nothing but a transom mounted trolling motor and fished off the bench seats. It didn't take long before that got old and I started making improvements. I now have 9.8 mercury outboard, a fishfinder, swivel seat, and a bow mounted trolling motor on a deck that I built myself. I didn't add a livewell because I usually catch and release. Although I have taken it out on large lake, I usually stick with smaller ones.

Find some shade and fish small, natural colored baits. I like to drop shot or fish a 1/8 oz shaky head with a four or five in worm.

Hello everyone! I've been reading this forum for some time, but this is my first post. I have been bass fishing for 25 years and just started fishing tournaments this year. So far I have finished 1st place, last place, and eighth place. I have a jonboat that I modified into a bass boat and plan to buy a real bass boat next year. I didn't buy one this year because I wanted to spend a year fishing as a non-boater first so I could learn a little about tournament fishing. I hope to learn a little from the people here as well.