BrianinMD

Short answer, yes!! Longer answer....it can be a great experience and a chance to learn a lot from different boaters who will fish different. Some will be great to fish with, others will be jerks but that is how it is with everything in live. Cannot let the chance of getting a jerk or two keep you from something you want to try. I have found that if you treat the boaters with respect and treat their boat with respect things turn out just fine. Go do it for a year and re-evaluate with the experience. If you don't try it you will always wonder about what it would have been like.

Well yes its an obvious advantage, first shot at targets, better angles, control over speed and when the boat moves.... All you have to do is look at tourney results, how often down a person fishing from the back end up with more weight then the person at the front?

only issue with each boat weighing their first seperately is different scales will not always match. I am sure Major League Fishing goes thru a lot to keep theirs matched as much as possible but a regular club just won't be able to do that. No matter which way gets used it must be fair to all participants, paper has its issues but the same for all.

Hard part in this selection of 2 rods is lighter baits, without a spinning rod there will be baits that you will not be able to throw

The day I am happy with where I am at is the day I quit.....

My club does the same paper tourney's at a local lake with a slot limit which doesn't work well for tourney's. I actually prefer them, fish are immediately released, culling is simply scratching out the shortest fish.

if you are using a bullet shaped weight on the texas rig you do not need to peg it down. Unless fishing heavy cover a lot of people just let the weight slide around.

More than likely they are following it and the sudden change of direction got a reaction strike. Do you add complete stops to your erratic retrieve, or switch sides you are holding the rod on the retrieve to change the angle of retrieve?

Those are decent rods, no rod is going to take getting stepped on and high sticked. Ugly sticks will take more abuse but are horrible for anything other than moving baits. Just have to be a little more careful.

It is hard to say what the issue could be, age, eye-sight, senility, something hurts, not feeling well.... Are you sure what the cat was doing before the incident? Cats are not always well behaved. Wouldn't worry to much unless it continues, then it may be time for a trip to the vet to let them do an exam.

1. don't get caught up with colors, black/blue is a general favorite. Otherwise stick to colors similiar to other baits you have success with. 2. bites can be hard to detect, in the beginning any tick in the line you feel, mushy feeling, odd line movement, etc set the hook hard and fast. hook sets are free don't be worried about whether it was a bite if that question comes to mind you should be swinging. 3. used at least a MH rod with a fast to x-fast action, the most sensitive one you have. 4. stick to at least 15lb line, more if there are a lot of things to get snagged or wrapped around. 5. try different retrieves, from dragging it, hopping it, different speeds until you figure out what they want I am sure others will reply with there thoughts, but this is my 2cents....

Boat flipping fish to 5lbs is not an issue when attention is paid to not getting the rod into a position to straight up and down. Getting it that way puts to much bend in the road and it will snap.

I would venture a guess the rods broke while high sticking fish when swinging them into the boat, correct?

I usually have 2 brakes on. After just getting my reels back from cleaning I forgot to double check the brakes, made one "cast" and that reel was done for the day. Worst backlash I ever had, even ones from when I was just learning them. Ended up cutting out almost a full reel's worth of 20lb Abrazx when I got home. There were 0 brakes on, will never do that again.

Most of what I know and do today has been from what I have learned since joining a bass club 5 years ago. Thought I was pretty good until I started then realized how much I didn't know. Have learned a lot in these last few years and enjoyed every second.

If you are in that area of Frederick check out Google maps of the Frederick watershed area. There are ponds sprinkled throughout it, some are close to the road some are a little bit of a hike but don't get much pressure.

Allen, yeah all of our guys that got limits all hit a quick bite first thing in the morning then it the bite died. My boater and I ran down to Chicamuxen first thing and nothing was going on there. Oh well, still a good day to be on the river. It was August so it could have been unbearable.

Munkin, where did you fish on the lower? I fished a tourney out of pohick yesterday. Got 3 for 4lbs 10oz.

Still know a good club you can join

Here is an excerpt from an article I saw posted. I don't have the full article. "Good morning... Many of you know I have been on a committee with other Cecil County business owners, politicians, and members of the County Council for over a year in an attempt to lure BASS to conduct a Bassmaster Elite tournament here in 2015. This is a long difficult 4-phase process with several financial requirements that are needed to be met just to be considered. Well, it was down to us and another venue and I'm happy to say that yesterday morning we learned that our bid was accepted and Cecil County will host a Bassmaster Elite in late August next year!"

Well whatever he tells you do the exact opposite...... Just kidding Sean.

Welcome spiggy212, there is a lot of info in this thread. A few of us live in the area, I am sure someone can help with any questions. I live in Germantown now but used to live in Hagerstown.

A lot will depend on what type of water you fish, large lakes or shallow rivers.

This is the list I was referring to "we tried all kinds of lures from senkos, grubs, jigs, crawls, shakey head with a trick worm" And a chatter bait is better is shallow grass.

In the list of baits you tried there are no moving baits. Staged like that I would have tried a crankbait or spinnerbait.