bobby b.

I' curious - what big water?

Here's my answer to the river boat/duck blind dual use. I built a duck blind on a 1648 Lowe and switch from an electric start 20hp in the warmer months to a 23 hp Backwater long tail for duck hunting. The blind frame comes off after the hunting season. Also check out the Gator Trax Marsh Series for duck hunting. If I were to be buying now that would be my choice together with a Gator Tail 23 hp with reverse.

Yep, in that case you could make a very good guess that what was on the screen was what you saw on the surface given that you could not get anything to bite. In my case there was no other datapoint other than no bite. However, a couple of Springs back I caught allot of SM off a point where fish were showing on the graph and gar were on the surface so what was showing on the graph - some of both? I'm thinking this is just one of the things that separates the Pros from the Amateurs - experience gives the Pro a pretty good idea of which is which.

Thanks for your thoughts - I know its not trees because it disappeared after a bit while the smaller bait fish remained in the area. So I'm thinking larger fish but what brand? Been trying to determine how to distinguish the difference between species on the graph. Been told that bass can run with the large gizzard shad and thus catching a few does not mean that they are all bass. Lately OAF members have been posting more and more screen shots - that is very helpful.

Bill, A question regarding the Garmin screen shot. 1) Is the bait you describing the bait ball on the upper right of the screen and the bass the long string below or 2) Are they all bait and the bass are not in the screen shot posted? If the answer is (1) the bass is the long string below the bait ball, how can you distinguish it from the bait? Thanks Bobby

I was vertical fishing a spot two days ago (see graphs) that had produced the day before. I got pretty excited because that is about the most fish that I had graphed this winter. But nada. Zero bites. I ask this because I had posted a screen shot some months ago and got a response indicating they may have been large gizzard shad even though I had caught some bass out of it. So what do you think? Bass that were not interested in my presentation or some other kind? Thanks Bobby

Had to drive far away from home to find the bait fish today. May need to start packing a lunch. 🙂 The bait fish moved from the creek bed to the adjacent point and back and forth. I could only get bit on the bottom and when the bait moved off. Best fish a 3.x LM. Ice jig in black/chrome is the only thing that worked for me.

Two neighbors and I were out yesterday afternoon in three different boats until about 5 pm - all of us in various parts of the North Indian - saw lots of bait balls and inactive fish - zero caught.

The Humminbird/Minnkota Ulterra combination if networked correctly has the ability to run a contour automatically at an preset speed - this is handy at times as you can move away from the troller - Randy used this feature to troll for walleye. You can also create a track, save it and run it automatically over and over. Occasionally my Ulterra Spot lock just turns it self off. Just need to push the button again to relock.

I think the slab spoon is a fish killer - here's the proof 🙁

😪 I like my Ulterra cause I'm too old and lazy to deploy and run your favorites.

I was throwing one two weeks ago and the line broke right at the end of the cast. I was able to just grab the broken line and pull it in. Changed out the spool as soon as i got home. My 10 year old wanted to buy me a Christmas present herself so i ask my wife to take her to Extreme and Jack picked one out for her. Got it from her Christmas eve. It was Ghost.

So apparently you found em on the main lake flats rather than the creeks?

Any guess as to how much that raises TR?

As for as I can see the shad have left North Indian Creek and/or scattered or whatever they do when they are not hanging out together so I took Bill Babler's lead and started looking on the main lake today mid-day. As indicated in Bill's most recent post bait fish were stacked up deep on the bottom in 80 - 100 fow everywhere I looked. I really could not distinguished bass within the shad nor did I see bass above or below the bait nor could I catch one from there. What did work was to find smaller bait balls that had bass around them. This usually occurred in shallower water (50 -60) on the main lake flats. They would hit the tiny fluke immediately on the drop. WT 53 deg today. As others have said, lots of driving around with the big motor. Best fish was a 3.7 lb SM.