vernon

Was thinking that myself but then considered the source.....🙃

Guilty as charged - wish I woulda known to ask you first! Actually I checked with Wrench and he didn't see any reason for me to make the drive all the way to his place for such a basic service. Now we both know better! Of course if Johnny hadn't torn up his Evinrude contract and gone exclusive Mercury a year after I bought the boat I coulda had it serviced at Cabela's where I bought it in the first place. Ten minutes from my driveway.

I hope they didn't shortchange you! $1469.38 for normal five year maintenance service on an Evinrude G2. According to Wrench it shoulda been 2.5 hours labor tops. They charged me for 7! At $140 an hour. They doubled up on some parts prices as well. There's so few places to choose from to get Evinrude's serviced now that they were the closest. Trust me, I'll remember next time. Coulda towed the boat to about anywhere, stayed a couple nights and played some decent golf courses for what I paid these bandits. Guess I should have inquired around the forum first. Expensive lesson learned.

If they screw over everybody as bad as they did me they should all be drivin' Lambo's and flyin' private!

Probably woulda been at least 3K at Blues Springs Marine!🤦‍♂️

Ahh - the trials and tribulations of the one percenters!😉 Just hopin' my social security check ain't late. Runnin' low on gruel and black pudding.........🥴

This is the saddest news I've heard in quite some time. I was/am a big fan of Bo, his posts, his videos, his knowledge and his lures. A true innovator. Awhile back he invited me to his house to pick up some of his Big Wobbler's but I didn't want to impose and never made it by. Will always regret that. I will miss him and didn't even know him.😢

To hear him tell it it's been about everything but he's a whiner by nature and never happy with anything. To be honest I try to avoid the guy so I don't really know many of the details. He's constantly at war with Phoenix and Mercury too. He pretty much tears the crap out of everything he owns and then blames the manufacturers. The good news is he just sold his house and is moving to Alabama so fortunately he'll be taking all the complaining with him.

Not looking to jinx myself here but my Ultrex is one of the first ones built (over four years old) and I've had zero issues and still consider it the single best boat related purchase I've ever made. In contrast a neighbor of mine is on his third or fourth Garmin and is still having problems so I guess it's kinda like everything else in life and is somewhat the luck of the draw.

Gale Sayers.

When I bought the Z521 in 2017 I financed 30K of the 70K that it cost. The loan was at 4% for FIFTEEN years. A couple hundred bucks a month. If I want to pay it down faster I can but if I don't I don't. I had no idea that such financing even existed. At 68 years old it's my last boat and if something age related happens to me it can be easily sold for more than what's owed and if I hang in there in relatively good shape for another ten or twelve years the payments are easily managed. Never would have considered such an arrangement when I was younger and paid off each of my previous twelve boats in four years or less but as an old guy this seemed like the way to go for me. Now 225K is a completely different galaxy.......😬

Ya know, I feel terrible about having said that. It certainly wasn't very inclusive and I'm ashamed of myself. Not really sorry though.🤔

As my beloved Soft Science shoes have gone the way of the buffalo I've ordered up a couple pair of the Hey Dude's. I like the way they look and Fly and Snagged are great and reliable sources of info (that really hurt to say) but I guess we'll see. Ordered a couple different styles in both size 13 and 14 since some reviews seemed to indicate they run a little small. Can't beat free return shipping if they don't fit. 🤞

Are you hash tagging me? 🤔 I think under the circumstances ol' Vern should be absolved of any and all responsibility for the ridiculous weather events so far this year. No one person, regardless of considerable magical powers, could possibly wreak this kind of climate terrorism. On the not so bright side however the days start getting shorter three weeks from tomorrow! 🤦‍♂️

Actually I did have but they declined to renew the deal a couple of years ago. Said they just didn't have the resources and manpower to keep up and they were gonna just stick with the "natural" occurring stuff from here on out. Currently have a deal in the works with the History channel though. It's a documentary called "The Vernon Chronicles - Natures Not so Natural Natural Disasters." If it all works out it could amount to a pretty penny for ol' Vern if you know what I mean.😉 Might even be able to work out some guest shots and interviews for a few of you guys if you're interested! That is if you don't end up on the cutting room floor..........📽️✂️

Thanks. That's kind of what I figured but was curious nonetheless. If it was ten years ago when I was still gainfully employed I'm sure I would have been among the first to have one but now being on the "fixed income" and all........👨‍🦳 Now I just have to be happy living vicariously through all you one percenters!

Curious as to how valuable the Livescope was or how much you used it for the kind of fishing you were doing last week? Fortunately (or not) the days of me being able to afford such amenities has come and gone but I still find the technology and its applications to be of interest. Glad y'all had a good trip after last year's cluster!

You think YOU guys are pizzed - if Kathy doesn't kill me before we even leave she'll drown me soon after we get there. She is NOT happy and of course also thinks that it's MY fault! I gotta come clean here. I ain't doing ANYTHING! It just follows me around like Joe Btfsplk (if you're under 65 google it)! Heck, I'll even try the nose wiggling deal just in case........👃

🤦‍♂️

Now you be hatin' just to hate..........😒

Just for the record - I AIN'T THERE! I am in Basehor, Kansas waiting for it to snow!🙋‍♂️

This is gettin' a little weird......😒 Do you like movies about gladiators?

She probably would be just fine with that but she's not allowed to drive the boat anymore so........🤭

I actually bought a pair of those snippers a few years ago after you recommended them. They work great and I'm pretty sure that the fish we hooked deep will be OK but I'd still rather just avoid the deep hooking altogether if I can. And you're right - those babies will cut about anything with minimal effort.

We did the slack line dead sticking deal a bit early on in the trip but ended up with a couple deep hooked fish so we gave it up. It just kills me to hurt those beautiful fish and it just ain't worth it. As for Ned in general it was probably the fewest fish we've ever caught on the little dude. Lots of trips by the second day its about all we fish from then on but not this year for some reason. We caught probably 80 - 90 percent of our fish just slow reeling the little Keitech on one of Bo's 1/8 oz. crappie heads. Although we tried the deeper fish on the flat gravel and the extended points quite a bit we just never figured it out. We ended up mostly "pond fishing" the swimmer either paralleling or just casting to the bank in pretty shallow water in the pockets and coves and they would just load up on it. No discernible strike at all it would just get heavy. On the steeper banks we would let it fall and quite often a smallie would just rip the rod out of our hands before it got more than six or seven foot deep. But only on the drop. The fish that we did have hit it hard while slow reeling either missed or came off almost every time and I'll be danged if I know why. A bunch of times we'd have what felt like a decent fish on for eight to ten seconds and then - poof - they were gone. We didn't really see very many beds but what was really weird is I think we only caught three Spots the entire week and they were all little ones. Had maybe a dozen largemouth and a half dozen really nice Googlers but everything and I mean everything else was smallmouth. I can't remember a spring trip that we didn't catch a bunch of the big football Kentuckies but I guess I can't say that anymore. Overall I'd say we averaged twenty or so fish a day with four to six keepers. The first few days we had several nice three to three and a half pounders but later in the week the keepers became more marginal and not as fat. Of course we're fat, old and lazy and seldom get out there before one or two o'clock so if they were biting in the morning the only way we'd know is if we read about it. We didn't do as good as we had hoped and anticipated for this time of the year especially with the rising water and the color being so good but what with the up and down and in and out weather conditions I guess maybe it wasn't to be unexpected. And, yes, for that I blame myself!🤦‍♂️