Nico - I think you should put a 1/2" pad and some shag carpet in the new boat :) That would cut down on noise, not to mention how cool it would be to have shag carpet in a boat.

Aright seriously... noise is half of the problem trying to catch a big bass IMO. If it were possible to get a boat that was 100% silent, you could catch a ton more fish. Oh wait, that's called a float tube or a kickboat :) But then of course the problem is that you can't go very far in a rig like that.

There's been a few times when I've been lucky enough to get on a big school of prespawn swimbait eating bass from my kickboat/tube, and it's a big difference between that and a regular boat. You can lay cast after perfect cast in the right spot without moving or making any real amount of noise. A lot of times in a boat you can pull in and get a fish but then you have to leave for a while to get another one. So instead of capitalizing during the time when the fish want to bite most you have to kill time and catch less fish total.

I hate hate hate the fact that my aluminum boat makes a ton of noise fishing upwind. Splash, splish, slap, splash, splash. Ugggggggg. The worst. I think it's due to the raised metal ribs on the boat. As a result, I always fish downwind, like Nico says. Glass boats are quieter. They do displace more water which I think is bad, but on a windy day I'd much prefer to be in one. Certain glass boats seem quieter than others depending on the shape of the bow.

The drawbacks of glass is that you have more electronics. Fish finder, bilge, aerator, etc. You want big bass consistenly you need to turn all that off. The irony is that in tournaments you often want/need to turn it all on. Could be a reason why so many people catch big fish in practice and small fish come tournament day. Just my opinion.

Sometimes big bass act real stupid in spite of noise, but most times they don't. The more variables like noise you can eliminate the better off you are.