vernon

This probably sounds (or is) pretty stupid but I actually wore mine around the house and while doing chores outside for a couple of months just to kind of condition myself to having it on. For what it's worth, I think this really helped me to get over whatever mental hurdle I seemed to be dealing with that kept me from keeping it on in the boat. Well, that and tan lines of course. Wear that baby Champ! Especially if you've read my posts about that stupid Ranger ladder. I'm pretty sure that yours has the same kind and about all its good for is something to hang on to until hypothermia sets in! Think "Titanic".

I think I remember hearing about this one and looked it up on the manufacturer's website. It appears to be quite sturdy and is certainly the most discreet I've seen regarding its design. Short of installing a hydraulic hoist (hmmm?) I imagine all of them require a bit of strength but (thankfully) that's not yet a problem for me. But I swear Michael Phelps would struggle climbing back up that danged Ranger ladder. I can only imagine how quickly panic could set in when one is struggling in cold water. While I was far from panicked, I do have to say it's the first time that I was ever in a position in the water where I realized that my mind was beginning to go too fast as I knew I only had the strength and endurance for one more try. As this was in 83 degree water, my wife was safely in the boat and we were less than a hundred yards from shore speaks volumes about how fast things can happen and get out of control. I agree that the "practice" deal is essential in order to gain the confidence that one needs to remain calm in an otherwise stressful situation. It's one of the biggest reasons that police, military and first responders train and train and train. Or practice, practice, practice. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll certainly keep it in mind going forward.

Donna? He didn't mention Donna. Except for the fact that she is still gainfully employed in order to make the Ranger payments! BTW, I got one too! I'll call him a deadbeat but the similarities are a bit too stark.

Remember Maynard G. Krebs? Before he was Gilligan of course. WORK?!?!?!

Not too sure what I'm gonna do until I talk to the folks at Ranger. As I mentioned previously, I can't believe that no one else has encountered this problem and I doubt they kept it a secret. While obviously safety always comes first, I'd rather not have a couple of dozen holes drilled in the back of a brand new boat if it can be avoided. Don't imagine duct tape would look that attractive either! I don't have talon's and although I've seen the ladders that bolt to the jack plate, I again would rather not have a mish mash of hardware (i.e., two ladders) hanging off the back end. I'm hopeful that Ranger has a solution that won't compromise the appearance of the boat. I hope the one you ordered works out for you. You're right about getting that "test" out of the thinking stage before that water temp starts to drop! I think we've achieved that certain status in life where what was once considered "exhilarating" might now just kill us! I, for one, hope to die warm!

Rods don't catch fish - PEOPLE catch fish! Pretty proud of myself for that one.

I don't mean to distract from the post of this poor man's drowning but this might help someone who "thinks" they're covered by installing a boarding ladder. I bought a 2016 Z521c this spring and the boarding ladder is WORTHLESS! I have had ladders on all of my previous Ranger's and they were similar to those on a boat dock or the side of a pool and made getting back in the boat a piece of cake. Not these. On our trip to Table Rock in September, we decided to take a swim and utilized the ladder for the first time since buying the boat. It was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get back in the boat! Now granted, I'm 63 and not quite as svelte as in my more athletic youth but still pretty strong and it took everything I had (and a half dozen attempts) to get back in that boat. And that's under ideal circumstances wearing only swim shorts AND a life jacket! Kathy, who is much slimmer than myself and several years younger had an equal amount of difficulty. The design of the ladder is such that the bottom is positioned forward and under the boat and Ranger no longer installs ladders with railings on top of the deck - I guess instead figuring the chrome "handles" that are part of the boat design (although purely aesthetic) will suffice. NO DICE! When you attempt to pull yourself up the ladder, your feet, legs and lower body are actually forward and under the transom and when you attempt to pull yourself UP you're actually moving backwards. And there's just no way to get there from there. We finally had to put one foot on the ladder step and the other on the outboard and literally pull/crawl ourselves back into the boat. We were both exhausted (and bruised) after finally getting back in. Had we been fully clothed, in cold water or simply under duress we would have been in serious trouble. It was on my final attempt and with her help that I finally got back in. I say "final" because if I hadn't made it that time I knew I was done. She would have had to use the trolling motor to drag me to shore so I could get back in that way. When we come back down in a couple of weeks I intend to drive over to Flippin and see who I can talk to about this deal. I can't believe that no one else has encountered this problem. I'm pretty sure this is the same ladder design that Ranger's been using since the early days of the "Z" boat with the chrome dealies on the back. The ladder itself is smaller, more narrow and compact than previous models. Looks nice but..... I honestly do not see how even someone who is young, slim and athletic could climb up and in the boat using this ladder. Now I ain't saying that bass fisherman ain't "athletes" but I think you know what I mean. I'll be sure and re-post after visiting with Ranger. In the meantime, please wear those PFD's.

What's scary to me is that he actually seems to LIKE doing nice things for people!

Didn't Gary Klein win a BASS event on Bull Shoals a couple of hundred years ago doing this? Seems I remember an article in BASS MASTER about it and they made it a point to stress that he WASN'T trolling (and that trolling was illegal) but rather was dragging a finesse worm behind the boat for up to a hundred yards at a time occasionally correcting his course with the trolling motor. I remember thinking that it sure sounded like trolling to me but what do I know? That might even have been when the term "strolling" was coined but then again, I might just be dreaming this whole deal. I know there have been times that Kathy has waxed my behind dragging lizards and worms behind the boat while I'm fishing a spinnerbait or jig and working down a bank. Heck, half the time she's reading a magazine and drinking coffee while doing it! All of a sudden she'll just say, "Uh-oh, I think I've got another lunker!" Girls........

Good for Michelle!! AND you. Retirement doesn't suck. Just the pay.

Man, is it about time or what? Looked at the almanac yesterday and the "normal" high for this time of year is 76! It's been that at 1100 at night for most of September. Normal low's are in the 52 - 54 range and we've been hanging around 65 recently. Didn't do enough research to verify but it sure seems like this has been an extraordinarily warm month - especially with the high dew points. We had that nice little break back in August and I thought September was going to be like magic or something with a nice long fall. Probably snow in two weeks the way this is going! Anyways, gonna be back down mid October and am hoping things have cooled and stabilized some. Came home a week ago today and that week was like fishing in July! High 80's and 90's, humid and hardly any wind. Sweat city.

Kathy is usually the same way - always telling me to calm down and let it go lest I end up in the ER. You know the, "Are you really expecting to get in a fight out here in the middle of the lake?" Well, last week things changed. Dramatically. It was so bad that I was having to tell HER to calm down! We were making the turn from the James back to the west towards Big M to the east of the exposed island there at the mouth. Two guys in a white Champion cut between us and the island and THEN cut back directly in front of us to head south back down the White. I swear, there's no WAY they were more than forty or fifty FEET in front of us when they made this brilliant maneuver. We were running about 40 - 45 MPH and I had to completely shut it down to avoid either running into them or burying the bow in their wake. Then nail it again to get the bow back up before the second opportunity to submarine their wake presented itself. Both literally waved casually kind of like you do on the highway when somebody graciously allows you to change lanes in front of them or enter the flow of traffic from an on ramp. I'm pretty sure there were being smartazz because NOBODY is that stupid. At any rate, my bride (at the top of her lungs) began spewing a tapestry of obscenities their direction that would have made any longshoreman proud. Then wanted me to chase them down! Fortunately, when one of us completely loses our mind, the other tends to remain sane enough to keep said lunatic out of jail. This time was my turn. While this was by far the most egregious (and life threatening) example of the week, it was certainly not the only time that rude and stupid showed itself proudly. In fact, a fine young man and his family that were down for the first time from Ohio were absolutely in shock at the behavior of other boaters. He told me that if anybody tried half the stuff that he witnessed last week where he was from they'd find themselves in jail or shot. Too bad.

Actually I've got that part. The problem is it just won't show the digital depth. Just - - -.

One minute I feel proud that I'm branching out and trying to learn new stuff and the next I feel like a complete sell out! Feel free to talk me in off of the ledge Champ! (Pretty good pun that!)

You know, I've caught em' this way a few times before but it was way more dumb luck until now. Really making the effort to learn the right way utilizing electronics and not wasting so much time fishing fishless water. BTW, the deal held together again this morning. Although, during the times when the water turned to glass, the bite would stop. They were still there and I tried everything I knew but no soap. As soon as a breeze returned and put a little ripple on the water the bite would resume. Why fish thirty feet deep would care is beyond me but it was a consistent deal at three different locations. Have to make a social detour of sorts this afternoon but hope to get back out for a couple of hours before packing up.

Surprisingly, I've done OK with the touch screen. I just can't seem to get the same (or what I think is the same) result with the same action. Every time I add a screen I have to start over adding the things I want displayed i.e. depth, temp, speed and time. I save the stuff but when I go back to it, it's changed or gone. Or so says me. As I've said before, I know it's me and not the units but DANG it's getting old trying over and over again without getting the desired results. And I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the HDS 12 and HDS 9 to "look" the same. Settings and displays are always different. But the digital depth display is the one driving me most batty. The unit is obviously reading the bottom perfectly but continues to show - - - for the digital depth. I've watched about 20 gazillion YouTube videos, taken pages of notes and printed out tons of stuff from the Lowrance website all to no avail. It makes perfect sense at the time and I always think to myself, "Ah ha! Now I've got it." and then when I try it on the water I'm right back where I started.

As an update of sorts I finally buckled down and got my mind right fishing the gravel run outs. As some have already indicated, 30 ft. seems to be the magic depth. Using one of Bo's Nu Tech jigs (really like these by the way) and a Jewel trailer, I got into some of the fattest Spots I've ever seen. They were serious too. Nothing subtle about the bite and whenever I missed one, it or another one would grab it up to four times on the way back to the boat. As much as I've been griping about my Lowrance junk, seeing them on the graph was essential. Didn't get a single bite that I can recall unless they were evident on the screen. Before and after the storm, I was able to replicate this pattern in five different locations. A couple of times I was a 1/4 to dang near 1/2 mile from the bank! New territory for me that's for sure. Heading back out momentarily to try again throughout today before heading home in the morning. However, I still hate these danged Gen 3's. They're way too smart for me! I've pushed every button on the HDS 12 and still can't get a digital depth reading on any screen except the full sonar page. The bottom reading shows up perfect - just no digital depth number. Switch to full screen sonar and, bingo, it's back again. A couple of times on combo screens it'll momentarily show some wild number like 1447 and then go right back to - - -. Oh well. Got a couple of weeks to figure it out before our return in mid October. I'll be back whining full bore again at that time!

Yeah, the brakes deal was probably a pretty good idea. Now granted, I ain't figured much out with my Lowrance but I am nonetheless pretty sure it don't got much stopping power when it come to your tow rig! There's no doubt in my mind that these units are absolute state of the art and that the problem is not them but me. Nonetheless, it is frustrating to no end to not know what you're looking at. I've never had networked locaters before and I swear yesterday I was in 40 feet of water and was watching something broadcast from my Dish network back home! It's like somebody gave me the freakin' space shuttle for Christmas and just said, "Enjoy!"

Not much to offer so far but since Saturday night have been out and at it some. Truth is, the boat's still so new I'm spending way more time playing than fishing. Danged Lowrance electronics are about to make me give it up all together! What a stupid I am. Anyway, have actually caught quite a few fish although only two keepers so far. Bunches of 13 and 14 inch smallmouth and spots (and some smaller) and all have been in less than 15 feet of water. Just throwing the Ned around gravel and rock banks. Nothing remarkable about the locations at all. Have tried a few gravel run outs in 30-35 feet with a jig but only caught three shorts. Nothing for me so far on the Plopmeister but fun to fling. No spinnerbait fish either. After escaping to the golf course today (y'all freaked me out with those Ebola virus looking ameba pictures yesterday) we're planning to hit it a little harder tomorrow. As I said, nothing really to offer other than you can get lots of bites up shallow if all you care about is getting a little attention. And, at this point, I'm actually pretty happy with just that! Go Ned.

Really not meaning to throw any rocks here Alex. Just an observation. I just think with 80+ degree water temperature and the fact that a lot of the better fish are caught pretty deep this time of year it's just inevitable. The fact that they were where they were and the wind direction would seem to me to indicate that if they were released somewhere on the main lake outside of Fisher Creek, that'd be where they would drift to. Was just sad to see. It ain't like its gonna effect the future of bass fishing on Table Rock or anything but maybe the more these incidents are pointed out the more tournaments will try to figure out a better way. I'm sure all of the guys did their best and felt confident that the released fish were good to go. No way they could know without someone pointing it out after the fact though.

The release boat was still in the parking lot when we arrived later Saturday afternoon as was the associations trailer and four or five guys that appeared to be affiliated with the tournament. Didn't really pay that much attention though. Just another of the many that run out of that ramp. Didnt notice anything that evening but the next morning the guy in the slip next to me had just came in and told me about it. When I headed out a little later, sure enough, there were floaters all over the place. Most were about a hundred yards or so out from the shore off the end of the south dock. Some pretty solid fish too.

Hate to say this but this morning there were more than 15 largemouth 2-5 lbs. floating about 100yds. out from the Ahoy's launch ramp at the Kimberling Inn. I was told there was a pretty good size tourney out of there/here yesterday. Didn't have my phone at the time to take pics but will look again in the morning. They were white to the point that they had obviously been dead overnight. Bad deal.

Dang. I'm out. Think I'll play golf tomorrow.

Yep. Like All Star wrestling. Manufactured parity. Just don't try and wear shoes commemorating 9/11. Personal foul against humanity and all. Geez. We just can't seem to get out of our own way these days. Oh well, think I'll go fishin'! There. Already all better!

Bingo. Why didn't I think of that. Too much MSNBC I guess! Too bad about Ward. They've had some pretty dang good athletic programs over the years. Nobody needs to be beat down like that. Seems like there's a real disparity growing among a lot of high schools in the area and their ability to stay relevant and be competitive. See Imac for example. Keep coachin' em' up though. The world needs ditch diggers too!