Jason Admin : Fishing Forum Posts

T-H Marine states that "The HydroWave unit is completely waterproof. The functionality of the HydroWave will not be affected by any elements, rain or shine."

Sorry, here's the link with some additional FAQ https://thmarinesupplies.com/pages/catch-more-fish-with-hydrowave-technology

I'm not aware of any suspension or rules. It is my understanding that all state & federal wildlife limits are observed in bass tournaments. Additionally most trails have an absolute limit, even if the body of water allows smaller. I believe 12" is the gold standard for the trails. So, many lakes where I live have a 14" limit, so that would take precedence to the 12" trail rules. As a result, I think a 13-15" slot limit, effectively make the tournament a 15" limit, since the trail already limited anything under 13". That is my understanding of how it works on slot limit lakes.

Additionally, I found that a tournament director posted exemptions were once available on Smith Lake, but that was temporary and expired in 2018. He stated that state fishery bioligists had allowed this for research purposes, but noted that allowing slot exemptions did not affect the winning weights, as few fish under 15" were weighed in by top competitors.

Hey, thanks for posting. Here is our library of basics videos, https://bassu.tv/program/4
We did these videos a couple of years ago, and they start with finding a place to fish, equipment, etc. We did find, from this series, that most of our subscribers knew the absolute basics and wanted us to dive deeper into specific topics. Once you have a basic foundation from our Basics though, here are some great topics that I recall being good for getting started fishing with artificial baits to catch bass. (akin to "Did you know you can take a piece of rubber, put a hook in it and catch a fish?")

Soft Plastic Baits & Rigging Techniques - Gary Klein https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/soft-plastic-baits-rigging-techniques-gary-klein
Floating Worm & Wacky Worm Fishing - Kriet https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/floating-worm-wacky-worm-fishing-kriet
Rat-L-Trap Fishing for Beginners & Pros - Mark Daniels Jr. - https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/rat-l-trap-fishing-for-beginners-pros-mark-daniels-jr
My Best Lures - George Cochran - https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/my-best-lures-george-cochran

I use light wire hooks, and reel into every fish when finesse fishing (I never "set" the hook, mostly because I'm often using 8lb test line or less). I would describe the majority of my finesse bites as feeling "heavy" or "spongey". With a Ned rig, it's entirely possible to just see your slack line swimming off as soon as you flip the bail.

We've got some great prespawn content. They cover a lot of this. Here in NC we had a cold snapped that pushed everything back around this full moon phase. I'm not sure what will happen now, as the air temps are back in the 80's for the highs and high 50's for overnight lows. I think we are forecast close to 90 a few times. Weather is tricky, the females are likely in the closest deep holes.
Here are a couple of top choices to check out:
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/prespawn-power-fishing-tactics-jason-christie-remastered
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/alternative-spawn-bass-fishing-tournament-strategies-brandon-cobb

I'm sorry Douglas. I see these questions. As you can tell, I'm not a pro, though I have fished competitively for a # of years, the guys who are most qualified to answer these question are in their busiest time of the year. Between the boom in fishing tournaments, guiding services and fulfilling sponsor obligations, this is the time of year when they can fall behind. I've brought your topic directly to "The Dean" Pete Gluszek's attention, and I rest assured that he will review the recent questions and provide his expert feedback.

Imagine you're in a helicopter at night flying above the ground and shining a fixed-position flashlight down diagonally outward from both sides of the the back of the helicopter. That's basically what you're seeing. Things that catch the light are brighter and things that are dark are shaded. This was hard for me to grasp at first. I still have a hard time judging where the fish are, in relation to the bottom, and sometimes determining that things are fish, but I'm usually more concerned with finding and waypoint-marking underwater cover than individual fish. Sooner or later brush will have fish on it. Here are some good videos for getting better with side imaging:

https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/humminbird-side-imaging-lakemaster-maps-kevin-vandam
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/side-imaging-down-imaging-mega-360-gluszek
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/electronics-master-class-bryan-thrift

I used the Bass Pro 100MPH stuff for years with no issues. I was very pleased with it. As I get older, I'm more of a fair weather fisherman.

We welcome any feedback about features that you would like to see on the website and in the mobile app.

I'm not aware of another discount from Tackle Warehouse at the moment. We'll certainly be talking about it in the newsletter if we get one on the calendar, so keep an eye out.

I contacted Humminbird and they sent me a chart of all the networkable interfaces https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/NetworkingChart

Jon,
Thanks for the question, it's pretty specific. I believe most of our pros, if they are running 2 forward-facing sonar units on the bow, are using Humminbird for one of the units, since it has 360, then either Garmin or Lowrance for the forward facing. With Humminbird Live Imaging, I'm not sure how much that will change to guys only using Humminbird upfront. Patrick Walters talks about the advantages of this setup in https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/forward-facing-sonar-live-imaging-activetarget-livescope

Douglas,
I think most anglers are interested in conservation efforts and ensuring that gamefish thrive in the future. MLF is probably the most prominent live & nearly immediate release tournament series, but there are guys doing it at the local level (though I've not competed in one of these tournaments and am not exactly sure how it works for smaller weekend events). That being said, we have come a long way in fish care, even with 5 fish limit tournaments. Everything we can do is certainly a step to ensuring a bass-rich future, so we should never stop looking for ways to improve. Bass University applauds every effort to decrease the mortality rate of bass tournaments of all types.

I do seem to recall that at least one of our class instructors recommended changing the color completely if they follow and won't bite. While I'm not a pro, from my fishing experience, I would be sure that the crankbait is hitting something. I've had times when they would be very curious about a bait, but wouldn't bite it unless the could "ambush" it. I wouldn't hesitate to try one of these things:
1. Change color, as mentioned
2. Change action - if you're throwing a wide wobble, like a wiggle wart, try a tight action like a shad rap and vice versa
3. Try a suspending or weighted crankbait and give the bait more stop and go action
4. Mix it up with a fluke/soft plastic stickbait/floating worm and see if they will bite something slow-sinking with erratic action

We had a cold snap in the south (I'm near the NC/SC border), and I didn't see a single bream bed around the April full moon. We had a high of 68 yesterday and lows in the low 50's the last 2 nights. I haven't been out in May as I went to the coast instead, but it could be June before they are really on beds here this year.

Douglas, thanks for sharing. We certainly agree about fish care. Our goal should be low mortality rate to ensure that we protect the natural resource. To clarify though, the guys that caught Dottie hooked her outside the mouth, and they chose not to submit it for a world record. They more likely hoped for a live release so that they could catch her again in a fashion that would allow them to get the official record and make all that money. They were also accused of mishandling the fish and that she would probably die (which proved not true when she was found dead 2 years later).

Certainly, baitfish feed around the underside of dock floats, which also warm faster (since they are usually black and absorb heat). There are certainly times that a bait in the top 3 ft of the water column will get a reaction strike from bass under floating docks. In clearer water, they will certainly move 20ft up to eat the right lure.

I prefer a soft plastic jerkbait like the Zoom Super Fluke https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=c1UQEdGla5o&mid=38416&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tackledirect.com%2Fzoom-023-039-salty-super-fluke-soft-baits.html because it's easier to skip under docks and they don't get hung up in other cover, I like the colors Albino and Glimmer Blue (I think I also did well with Smokin' Shad).  

You have to wear them, that's for sure.

Wow, Bob, that's a more advanced question. Check out the guys at Sea Clear Power, they deal specifically with wiring marine electronics for exceptional image quality. https://seaclearpower.com/

T Hora, I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with these models. The only time I've had a lost GPS signal was when the power to my GPS puck was being interrupted.

Jondoe67, I'm escalating this to have my team look into a resolution. I'm sure there's a misunderstanding. Most or our sales go through the website and go straight to order fulfillment, so the customer service reps may not even be aware of it. As we're learning here, it's easy for someone to get left out of the loop as teams get bigger.

Rapala, and most tackle manufacturers, are currently affected by COVID-19, when I've ordered from them in the past, they have the vast majority of their products in stock. Hopefully inventories will increase soon. For months I couldn't find a single 7:1 - 8:1 gear ratio reel from a manufacture I trusted at any price point on Tackle Warehouse, it's improving now.

We are constantly refining the process. The vast majority of our seminar now have slides edited in, to help when a pro says something like "The bait on the top", or "See the 2 split rings?". In most of our classes, the focus is on the pro and occasionally, they hold up a bait. The areas we are improving are the ones mentioned: pros talking about electronics, and pros talking about maps, as they require we get shots of the pro highlighting or pointing to specific things. We'll continue to make strides in these areas, and I believe we've improved significantly on the electronics videos like https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/finding-fishing-isolated-cover-for-bass-bryan-thrift (Finding & Fishing Isolated Cover for Bass - Bryan Thrift)