vernon

Ancient Chinese secret!

Sounds good. We head out tomorrow also although Kathy's kinda pushing for bugging out today ahead of the storm. I guess it kinda depends on whether or not this current stuff moves through as predicted. It seems to be lingering and building a bit contrary to the forecast. I guess we'll wait and see but I sure would like to get back out there one more day.

I hope that for once the Weather Underground knows what they're talking about as they now have the rainfall totals at around four inches. Still way too much but better than ten.

Man, I really hope that doesn't happen. Good luck.

That could happen I guess but the motor's not usually running continuously. It just comes on intermittently as needed to hold the boat in place. Of course the stronger the wind, current or whatever the more the prop will be spinning. That being said, if a fish made a run at the motor it would only take a nanosecond to tap the Spot Lock button to disengage and then a second tap to re-engage once order was restored. I just don't see as a big enough deal to matter but that doesn't make me right about it either I guess. A first world problem for sure though!

That's about as well stated as it gets! I've mentioned here before that most of my paid adult life was spent working for the federal government and even had seven years in city government. One of "our" favorite things to do was to solicit public input and dissenting views. Made us feel good about ourselves and helped to reassure us that we were indeed objective and free thinkers. That is, right up until we actually received some. Then it was time to deflect or flat out ignore the issue in hopes that they would go away or (the personal favorite of any good bureaucrat) hope that they give up entirely and then go away. The deflection aspect was usually changing the subject to something we really were good at or proud of (not necessarily the same thing) such as walleye, stripers, spoonbill, etc. In fairness to the folks you're referring to though, they are typically one or all of the following - understaffed, overworked, undertrained or unqualified in the particular area of expertise. In fact, quite often the "answer" doesn't even exist or they haven't been provided the wherewithal to find out what it is. Nonetheless, they're now caught in a tight spot and are desperately struggling to escape, dignity be danged. Having been "that guy" more times than I care to admit, I sometimes would quote the philosopher Mr. T, who poignantly stated "I pity the fool." I apologize for the fact that this in no way helps to answer the question at hand but hope the insight into the process somehow lends perspective to your frustration. In others words, there's most likely no answer forthcoming as nobody has any idea what it is.

Yep, I saw you guys! Unfortunately, I think I briefly had my shirt off when you went by as I was in the midst of a wardrobe change (or malfunction - your choice). No losing that visual I'm afraid! I agree on the area - I didn't travel a half mile either direction all day either. And just about every fish I caught was spitting shad or crawfish all over the place. One even tossed up a little fresh water shrimp that I wish I would have taken a picture of. Right before you guys came by I was fishing merrily along when I looked down and the shad beneath the boat were like the stars on a pitch black night. Their reflection in the sun was incredible. Then all of a sudden they scattered like crazy and three or four keeper sized smallmouth began slashing through them. They darted back and forth three or four times before they alll disappeared. I'd never seen anything like it before and it was pretty amazing. Again, if you see me tomorrow feel free to give a yell. Of course, after the shirt off deal I'd completely understand if you kept a considerable distance! Thanks again.

Great stuff as always Ben! Thank you!

Alex, I don't know anything about the Motor Guide but the Ultrex is virtually the exact same size as the Fortrex pedal. I gotta think that it would fit just fine. Wouldn't make much sense to design a pedal that wouldn't fit the majority of existing trays I wouldn't think. The difference between the Ultrex and the Fortrex (if there is any) in my Z521 tray is not even a little bit noticeable.

Hey! That was me! Thanks for the nice compliment! And yes, we did do pretty dang well. I'd guess 30 - 40 total and I counted keepers as 14. However, unlike you, we had one largemouth and no Kentucky's unfortunately. But, man, those smallies were fun! We tried a bunch of stuff but the Ned was the deal for us (again). I also agree that the sides of the points was best. We also spent a lot of time paralleling the banks with the boat in 15 - 20 foot of water. Seemed as if there was gravel then there were fish. Caught them on the bottom, swimming and even fast reeling back to the boat after a cast was thought to be done. All were fat and aggressive and full of shad and or crawdads. What boat were you in? I wish you would have stopped and said hello. I feel like we already know each other just from the discussions we've had here. Maybe tomorrow! Funny you mentioned the Ultrex. It must have been pretty apparent the boat was "driving" itself most of the day! Thanks again for the kind words about the boat. It's nice to hear that someone else noticed and liked it.

I've only used it playing around but was pretty impressed. In fact, I was so impressed that I ran about a half a dozen routes just because it was so crazy. I don't know if I'll ever use it again but it was kid fun cool. I can't say for sure but I'd guess I'm using the conventional method of foot pedal control less than 50% of the time now. This thing is that good.

Wow. I had been worried about fishing when we come back a week from Saturday. Now that's the least of my worries. Man, I hope all of you guys are gonna be OK. This is scary stuff.

I'm pretty sure that "stakeholders" is another term for "people that agree with us." Consequently, you and me is either disqualified or overqualified but, either way, irrelevant to the issue.

Last Sunday I was fishing some secondary points and the wind was out of the north. Because the water was so amazingly clear, I figured longer casts would be to my benefit so I positioned the boat on the north side of the points. As the boat will always pivot around the motor and face into the wind, the bow was the farthest distance from where I wanted to cast. With the Ultrex I simply engaged Spot Lock and fished from the rear deck. Spent a good thirty minutes at a time back there and the boat never moved. Later in the day Kathy came out and was catching fish pretty regularly from the back of the boat. Whenever she hooked up, I'd engage Spot Lock again and then could go to the back to help her land her fish while the boat remained in place for however long it took. I know I'm making this thing sound too good to be true but in my opinion that's exactly what it is. I went out for an hour night before last and after backing out of the slip never started the outboard again. Operated the trolling motor with the remote control from the driver seat whenever I wanted to move to another spot. I just set the heading and retied lures whereas before I'd have been standing on the trolling motor pedal the whole time. With the press of a button you can adjust the heading or speed to whatever you want while underway without so much as getting up. I'm not somebody that trolls but I gotta think this would be pretty cool for that too. Once you've run a route you can push a button and the motor will retrace it back to where you started. And that's without the added benefit of linking to Humminbird electronics which would add an entirely different dimension I would imagine. Sales pitch over.

Wow. And I thought I was just getting paranoid in my old age.

Thanks for the share - lots of great detail there. If a guy took what you've stated and Ben's report I think he'd certainly be headed in the right direction. Of course seein's how it's pretty much a new lake every day right now who knows how long it will hold? Regardless, that's the stuff I'm goin' with today until it just doesn't work anymore! Thanks!

I guess "persistent/nutty" would be ONE way of describing y'all. Of course all the MU guys that I know have already cleared space for both the SEC and NCAA basketball championship trophies for next year so that's nice.......

I KNEW IT!! Talk about conspiracies!! Ben, you da man. Way to go and thanks for the HONEST information. Dave, not so much now that I know I've been played like a two dollar banjo! I bet you currently have a watermelon red Ozark Finesse head in the works as we speak! Champ, your new nickname might be Deep Throat for exposing this scam. What a stupid I am.

Uh oh.

Originally I had a tough time (for me anyway) justifying the purchase since the boat and Fortrex that came with it was less than a year old. But, as usual, I convinced myself in pretty short order and am glad I did. It helped that I sold the Fortrex for $900 and had about $400 in Cabelas bucks from the boat purchase. If you ever get the chance to try one I think you'll be sold though!

Unfortunately, I'm the worst of both worlds. I'm a grumpy old mans that LIKES to spend money! Much to my wife's dismay, if it's fishing or golf related I'll usually figure out a way to "afford" it. That being said, this Ultrex deal is off the charts in my opinion. Only time will tell regarding reliability and longevity but the performance aspect is (my opinion again) has been confirmed and it's better than I had hoped. In the last three days, I've hit the Spot Lock button over a hundred times and it has worked flawlessly. Every time I hook a fish I immediately engage it and I'm free to focus entirely on getting the fish in the boat. Plus, the boat doesn't move so I don't have to try and figure out where I was when I got the bite or maneuver back to the spot. Same thing when retying or changing lures. I mentioned this in my earlier review but I've used the North Up feature every time I've fished down a stretch of bank. I can't even describe how great it is to be able to fish with both feet flat on the deck. Of course, none of that means a thing if those features are unimportant to a guy or if he just can't afford it or justify the expense. This grumpy old man is a little less grumpy today thanks to the Ultrex though!

Bingo. It's pretty much a "lose, lose" proposition from the COE's perspective. Especially when you factor in the hand tying, bureaucratic meddling of congressional legislation that is entirely driven by lobbyists and political agendas.

Well stated Phil. When people's property, homes and even their very lives are on the line "common sense" is not a very reliable mechanism. Whether or not someone can conveniently access their dock upstream isn't much of a reason to flood someone out downstream. Balancing act is putting it mildly for sure. The best of luck to you as this plays out. You are in a most unenviable position.

Nope. Reacting to "water on the ground". That's always the policy. It's all dictated by congressional law. No arbitrary decision making is ever involved.

When flood control isn't a factor you can bet your sweet bippy they'll suck water out of here till the old Kimberling bridge is serviceable again in order to generate electricity when the market so dictates. That's how it got so low this past winter.