first tourney, afew questions

all,

participated in my first bass tourney over the weekend, a night tournament
that was alot of fun. got on the water at 7pm, check in was at 1:15 a.m.
we finished 20th out of 40 boats with 2 fish 3.77 total and a 2.6 big fish,
learned a ton. but now I have some post tourney questions.

We were somewhat crippled by a lack of light for navigation (bad prep on our
part, 0 night boating experience prior to this) so we couldn't get around to
well since the moon never came up, we actually ended up on the bank by
accident at one point. scarey at first but it ended up ok, but could have
been real dangerous - won't make the mistake of leaving the light at home
again. what size of spot light works well and are you using 1 or 2 of them
for extra visibility as you navigate the water?

the tourney had a published 13" minimum, we had 2 fish that were in at 12"
and 11" that we threw back. but when we got into the weigh in there were
many small fish that we being included in other participants bags, so I'm
left wondering what the strategy is with this?? should you keep everything
and cull the smallest as larger ones come on the boat - but still bring the
undersized fish to weigh in and then let the officials make the decision to
cull the undersized ones? the guy who won large fish at ~7.5lbs ended up
with a total bag weight of 10.46 lbs, so his other 4 fish totalled up to
about 3lbs - looked "fishy" to me to have 4 13" fish total only 3lbs. he
ended up taking 2nd/3rd and about $400 or so IIRC.

the blacklight worked great, I used an Optronics 802R off the back of the
boat and it was real helpful. since i fished the back of the boat i stuck
it on the hood of the outboard to get it up above the water line and got
great projection off the light. this was a great addition to the gear bag,
and the white light part of the 802R made it easy to view the bank for
trees, rocks etc when we were not sure what was there. descriptions of the
fishing line with the UV light on it as looking like "rope" were very
accurate. and the line coming off the spinning reel as I cast out made it
look like an old spirograph design.

i found it a PITA to get my 3 poles taken up to the front when we decided to
move, and then once stopped to go back up to the front to get them, return
to the back and set them up, repeat. is there a portable pole rack designed
for back seaters? or is there a better strategy for pole management from
the back seat? I'd much rather pop to the back of the boat when we are
getting stopped, pull my rods out and get the line wet than to go thru all
the back and forth. lots of traffic in the center isleway that would be
better to avoid.

saw a few guys with headlamp setups - looked like a good idea. is there a
headlamp setup with red light and UV/blacklight that is out there? links to
custom plans to make one? this one here looks like a great setup:
http://www.geocities.com/malc_hurn/hid_headlamp.jpg and no, thats not me.
he's got an HID white up on top for spotlighting and an array of LED white
on the bottom. replace the white LED array with reds and that would be a
nice setup. mix in afew UV LEDs with a switch to go back and forth between
red/UV and you'd be money.

thanks

mike

On 9 Aug 2004 11:12:39 -0700, (MikeD) wrote:
snip
saw a few guys with headlamp setups - looked like a good idea. is there a
headlamp setup with red light and UV/blacklight that is out there? links to
custom plans to make one? this one here looks like a great setup:
http://www.geocities.com/malc_hurn/hid_headlamp.jpg and no, thats not me.
he's got an HID white up on top for spotlighting and an array of LED white
on the bottom. replace the white LED array with reds and that would be a
nice setup. mix in afew UV LEDs with a switch to go back and forth between
red/UV and you'd be money.

thanks

mike

This is what I use: http://makeashorterlink.com/?B26512209 for night
fishin'. No red LED's but it toggles between a white halogen bulb and
UV LED's.

Harry J aka Thundercat
Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team
http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html
Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

On 9 Aug 2004 11:12:39 -0700, (MikeD) wrote:
snip
saw a few guys with headlamp setups - looked like a good idea. is there a
headlamp setup with red light and UV/blacklight that is out there? links to
custom plans to make one? this one here looks like a great setup:
http://www.geocities.com/malc_hurn/hid_headlamp.jpg and no, thats not me.
he's got an HID white up on top for spotlighting and an array of LED white
on the bottom. replace the white LED array with reds and that would be a
nice setup. mix in afew UV LEDs with a switch to go back and forth between
red/UV and you'd be money.

thanks

mike

This is what I use: http://makeashorterlink.com/?B26512209 for night
fishin'. No red LED's but it toggles between a white halogen bulb and
UV LED's.

Harry J aka Thundercat
Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team
http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html
Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

On 9 Aug 2004 11:12:39 -0700, (MikeD) wrote:
snip
saw a few guys with headlamp setups - looked like a good idea. is there a
headlamp setup with red light and UV/blacklight that is out there? links to
custom plans to make one? this one here looks like a great setup:
http://www.geocities.com/malc_hurn/hid_headlamp.jpg and no, thats not me.
he's got an HID white up on top for spotlighting and an array of LED white
on the bottom. replace the white LED array with reds and that would be a
nice setup. mix in afew UV LEDs with a switch to go back and forth between
red/UV and you'd be money.

thanks

mike

This is what I use: http://makeashorterlink.com/?B26512209 for night
fishin'. No red LED's but it toggles between a white halogen bulb and
UV LED's.

Harry J aka Thundercat
Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team
http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html
Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

what size of spot light works well and are you using 1 or 2 of them
for extra visibility as you navigate the water?

I never use a light at night - kills your night vision and causes you to see
only what is in the light. If you will give your eyes a few minutes to adjust
- and keep lights in the boat off, except for running lights, you will be able
to see fairly well unless it is a cloudy night.
Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com

what size of spot light works well and are you using 1 or 2 of them
for extra visibility as you navigate the water?

I never use a light at night - kills your night vision and causes you to see
only what is in the light. If you will give your eyes a few minutes to adjust
- and keep lights in the boat off, except for running lights, you will be able
to see fairly well unless it is a cloudy night.
Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com