These days guys with bass boats are going with 36 volt trolling motors and it isn’t because they are fishing strong current or fishing with the boat moving at a high rate of speed. No, they are going with those powerful trolling motors to chop up weeds. We used to carry push poles back when I ran bass boats, and I still carry one and if I am bass fishing back in the weed beds I push myself through. But not the new bassers, they let the trolling motor do the work for them. This is fine and dandy for them but us Walleye and Catfisherman are having a terrible time fishing with floating grass coming down river. It gets so bad that we have to watch which way the wind is blowing to plan on which side of the river is fishable, because when the cross winds blow the floating grass to one side of the river trolling and stationary lines are impossible. Forget fishing at night, you can’t see the grass and it is on your line in no time and you catch any fish when your lure or bait is covered in grass.
No I don’t hate all fisherman, just most of them. Like this guy above, he sees me and stops and starts fishing ahead of me; then he runs by close to me leaving me in his big wake. Next he goes strait to the spot I just left. He runs right through the weeds and then there is a ton of grass floating down river. He runs right by me one more time heading down river and his eyes about fall out of his head as he stares at me, for what ever reason. Maybe because I was sitting under an umbrella in the shade having fun fishing a spot he couldn’t understand in the middle of nowhere, while he was weed beating in the hot sun for fish that bite on anything. Now he will sure tell people about seeing me out there, to trade fishing information. If I would have asked him if he knew that grass he was cutting up was such a problem for other fisherman he would have told me where to go and that he could care less about catfish and walleye guys. This was on a Friday. Anymore the river is packed with bass boats on Fridays to practice for a tournament on Saturday and Sunday. He is probably from Chicago or some far away place. That might be all fine and dandy but there is multiple tournaments every weekend so now the other fisherman have to put up with bass guys for three days out of the week, or more. They see you fish a spot and they will check it later. They will always fly right by you never slowing down and they will cut you off with no guilt what-so-ever. After the tournament they tell everyone else where they caught fish, so the spot they stole from you is now common knowledge. Now who can love these guys? Not all are that way, but most are. They are desperate to fill a huge void in their ego. They have the big expensive boat and you are dirt. I used to fish bass tournaments, I got followed everywhere I went, before and during the tournament. That’s why I quit and I don’t like being followed by bass guys almost as bad as I don’t like being followed by walleye guys who are known for piling on top of each other.
Back to the weed people cutting all that grass up that floats down river: What is needed is some kind of walker that walks the boat through weeds without cutting it in large masses. Bass boats now have these huge poles in the back of the boat to act as an anchor, so maybe it’s possible to have some sort of paddle wheel or something back there. But instead they will just go with a larger trolling motor. 48 volt next and who knows, maybe they will be nuclear powered someday.
