just watched this video from matt, really enjoyed it. Wanted to hear your opinions on this subject, been bass fishing all my life but always as the co-angler. Hopefully before Im 30, ill be able to own my own bass boat. But wanted to hear some opinions on rough water and safe driving. My favorite lake is Ray Rob and it can get choppy!

I got my first bass boat last Friday, a 2017 Legend v20. I went out on Lake Travis Saturday at around 2pm. It was a disaster. It was super super windy. 20MPH+ winds and had the easter weekend crowd on it.

To make matters worse I didn't yet understand trim/tilt and the waves were just brutal. I got beat to [censored] over the next 3 hours. It was not a fun day. I left with the worst headache of my life and I had caught 1 fish. a half pound Guad.

I would love some rough water tips. I actually googled it that night when I got home and watched the video you linked which is nice, but the water I was on was about 3x rougher.

Guys, my son and I are in the process of making a rough water video, shot on Cedar Creek Lake,, this lake is big and can get extremely rough,

With over 30 years of boating experience, I will show you how to run the big water when it is blowing. We will use an 18 ft. Bass Cat Boat. The first thing you need to do, when facing these conditions is don't panic, Once you lean some basic skills how to run the conditions, you will gain more and more confidence, and how to get back safely.

Stay tuned.

The only problem with the video you linked, its not rough... Lets get video of the run in from Texas Team Trail on Rayburn this year... It got rough that day.

Another tidbit about why this isn't as helpful to us... we have trees in our lakes that affect direction one can run. Some of the concepts will help, but face it, in Texas when the wind picks up from the south or north, you're going to get wet!

Sorry but that's not rough. Rough is when you are praying that you make it back.

+1 Been there a few times. I know what really helped me learn to drive besides getting stuck out there in bad waves was going out when it's not too rough but pretty choppy. When there was about 1-1/2 or 2ft waves. Those aren't enough to make me too uncomfortable. I just went out and for about 2 hours I drove all over. I tried different speeds, different trim angles, hitting waves at different angles, just all kinds of stuff. At the end I really felt a lot better at knowing how a boat would react and how to make the smoothest ride I could. Now I know when it gets tough I can get back in. It still can get rough enough for that pucker factor to get on up there and you still have to respect and know how fast it can go bad. The biggest part is planning your trip. Launch close to where you want to be

When it gets real bad its best hunker down and wait until it passes. If you absolutely have to get back to the ramp for whatever reason, strap down, put a PFD on, grab a soda and then idle on out. Sometimes its just too rough (read: dangerous) to run on pad.

Only way to learn to drive in big water is doing it. No amount of videos will teach you.

Pick a day it's blowing 20+ and go spend 3-4 hours driving in it. Do that 5-10 times or so and you should be able to get the hang of it

I kinda understand that the video isnt rough, i know clear lake can get rough like our lakes though. Point of me asking was to learn tips of the trade haha. One thing that always changes is landscape. Cant wait until Im a boat owner and I get to run that 20 mph straigh south wind on ray rob!

that's just runnin in a light chop.

Yep, that's not bad waves. The roughest water I've personally seen (other than the ocean) in order:

Lake Ontario - 30 mph NW wind - 5 to 6 footers
Lake Okeechobee - 30 mph N wind - 4 to 5 footers
Lake Falcon at full pool - 30 mph SE wind - 3 to 4 footers
Lake Amistad at full pool - 40 mph NW wind - 4 to 5 footers

The only one I really got scared about was Lake Ontario. We were coming back in slowly and doing OK until we met a big ship going the other direction. He was throwing off a 7 - 8 foot wake that was crossing the wind driven waves at an angle. When we hit that it was like being in a washing machine. We were on top of a wave when the ship wake hit us. It spun us around and we nose dived into the trough. The first 7 or 8 feet of the boat went under and just as it popped back up the second wake hit us from behind and just rolled over the boat. Fortunately for us, the engine didn't die so we were able to idle along with the waves until the bilge pumps finally caught up.

T-Bend with the wind blowing 35mph out of the North. Never Never again!!! Roller coaster's have nothing on that lake. my2cents

In the video he says running into the wind is best. Maybe I'm crazy but when it gets really rough the ride seems a lot better running downwind. The waves aren't as sharp.
The important thing, especially when learning, is not to get to far into something your not comfortable with if you can help it. If your stuck with really rough water dont be an idiot and try to go on speed. Go slow and look at each wave and swell individually untill you get a feel for how the boat handles it and the angles of approach that work best for you. Take small bites at a time to test what speeds are safe.
You can get into more trouble in really rough water without power, tyed up, beaching or launching. Bass boats aren't built for taking big waves in the stern.

You gotta give the man props though, unlike some of these video freaks, he does wear his PFD and kill switch when the big motor is running. I've been in some rough water on a lot of Texas lakes fishing tournaments but the only time I feared for my life was going to a weigh in at Twin Dykes from Harvey creek. A brutal storm blew in that actually spewed a tornado and seem to come from out of nowhere. We made it but said a lot of prayers. There were quite a few guys who just beached their boats and if I had it to do over again I would have beached mine. No time to risk your life when you're dodging 4-5 ft. waves.