moloch16

Hit power button to bring up the menu, then select settings, goto chart settings, then turn on Range Rings.

I was just there for the 4th of July week vacation, first time to Lake Anna, we rented a house for the week. Turns out it was on the "hot" side which is also the "private" part of the lake. I must say, those living on the private part of the lake have it made in the shade, hardly any boat traffic compared to what the public lake experiences, and fishing was pretty decent probably due to the greatly reduced fishing pressure on that part of the lake. The down side was the water temperature was insane, 90+ degree water temp, sometimes reaching 95+. It was a hot week air-temp wise and the bass still felt warm to the touch when taking them out of the water. Amazingly, the bass fishing was still pretty good even with the water so hot. I caught multiple 1 to 3 pound bass in 2-3 foot of water near boat docks. The last one we caught in this weight class really struggled to recover after being caught, we thought the fish was going to die. We jumped in the water and swam with the bass to keep water going through the gills and help it along, it finally swam off slowly heading for deeper water, so I think it made it. Still, the water temps... good lord I've never seen anything like it! I don't know how the hot side isn't infested with more ecoli and covered in algae with water temps staying that hot all summer long! Seems water that hot would cause a lot more problems than it seems to.

Short answer, you can get bit bouncing them off things, or you can get bit just swimming it in open water, just depends on where the fish are and what they want. At my local late in the summer the bass are in open water hanging out under shad balls, so swimming any crank bait at the correct depth can elicit strikes. Not far from that lake is a river that is just full of wood laydowns. I pull Lucky Strike RC 1.5 crankbaits over those logs and the bass just love it! And it's a great way to fish you often see the strike as the crankbait comes over a log. Bouncing a squarebill of rip-rap is another great technique, bass love it. So it all depends and you don't always HAVE to be digging bottom or banging cover, but sometimes that's the right thing to do, and sometimes the right thing is in deep water just swimming it along not hitting anything. For banging cover can't beat the Lucky Craft RC 1.5, I don't think anyone has topped it, if they have please let me know

Well, there are a lot of things to consider, but if it's the right time of the year for top-water in your area then a black jitterbug is hard to beat.

I agree with the Spiderwire votes. I've tried a lot of cheap sunglasses (pretty much every brand available) and Spiderwire's are the best of the bunch. I tried the Strike King S11 glasses and weren't thrilled with them, they weren't any better than $20 glasses. You can get Spiderwire glasses at Wal-Mart.

Looking to get some shakey heads, mainly for 6" zoom lizards. Any recommendations of type and size?

I do a lot of low-light and night fishing. I'm looking for a headlamp that doesn't use a cycle switch. I have a headlamp that cycles between red light, low white, high light, narrow beam, wide beam, etc. It's annoying if I just want to turn the red light on and off to have to cycle through all settings. Correspondingly, if I want to just turn on and off the low white light, I have to cycle through all settings each time I turn it on and off. Are there any lights that don't use a cycle switch?

Looking for something similar to the Zoom Mag Finesse Worm, except floating so it sticks up. The primary thing is I want it big and thick, not skinny like most shakey head finesse worms. Any ideas?

Bought a couple can't wait to try them out.

Check out the old schoolers making the top ten this weekend! Grigsby and Clunn. Way to go, I always pull for them since they have the guts to still compete even though they don't really have to make a living doing so.

I've always been intrigued. Do you consider them to be at all dangerous? Also, all the lakes and ponds around here have a mud bottom which makes the idea of walking around and such....gross.

Class act, I like Alton a lot.

Also, before heading out take careful note of the wind. If it will be blowing, find a ramp that will shelter you from the direction the wind blows. I have a ramp 5 minutes from my house but will drive 40 minutes to a ramp sheltered from the wind if it is expected to blow to any appreciable degree.

Check out the latest issue of Bassmaster Magazine, there is an entire article dedicated to this very topic!

To me the feathered treble looks like a fish tail in the water and definitely adds a little extra bait-fish type action. A lot depends on the mood of the fish I've seen fish come up to inspect the bait carefully before striking and other times they come flying out of nowhere and hit it like a 500 car freight train - those fish didn't notice the life-like feather treble ;D

Getting blown around is just a fact of life in a small tin boat. In my 14' stump jumper I either fish when there is little wind, fish with my nose into the wind, or if I can't manage those I go home

Good article on line management: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/fishingtips/news/story?page=b_FT_MS_Martens_Tackle1 I only replace my line when there's a noticeable issue, but I only fish about once a week.

I bought a lucky craft RC wake bait but it doesn't make a wake - tt just swims under the water. :-/ I've had good luck on the Mann's Waker. Make sure you replace the crappy hooks with quality trebels 8-)

They may work most of the time, but often it is not the best bait to use. In the fall bass key in on shad, so a fast moving hard bait may be a better choice. Case in point, I was fishing a local pond last week. Usually a weightless trick works well but I wasn't having any luck. I switched to a top-water pop-r type lure and caught 4 bass at the exact same spot the trickworm completely failed So it pays to mix it up occassionally.

I've thought about this question a lot, and the others have nailed the pros and cons. Weight and wind is the biggest factors. How far do you tow and what is your tow vehicle. Then consider where you fish, if there is lots and lots of wind you may get frustrated quickly in an aluminium boat because you'll be blown all over the place. Then again, if you fish shallow water with lots of debri, aluminium has a shallower draft and can take a beating. Really you have to think about what requirements you have for the boat, then you can decide which way to go. It isn't eay, I think about it all the time - I plan to buy a "real" boat one day!

Cape Fear River, NC - Autumn Pond Shearon Harris, NC - Early Morning

Hmmm looks similar to my fishing trips in August and Septmember except you can stop after the first three pictures. Beautiful scenery, unorthodox boat launches (complete with sailor talk), no fish.

Well, it's not just Dick's. I went to Bass Pro one day and was asking some questions about high-end rods and the guy didn't have a clue. I was at the local Dick's one time a young tournament fisherman was behind the counter we talked reels for a long time. It's just the luck of the draw.