mixermarkb

I think that is just Dave's college fund for his kids. He doesn't fish anything but the little rig anymore...

If you could only get one rod, I'd say a used Loomis IMX MBR-843 is as good an all purpose casting stick as there is for our lakes. I do agree though, that you really need another stick for cranking. For that, I'd suggest the 7' lews David Fritts medium on sale through sportsman's outlet ebay store (and probably in the actual store) for $49.99.

If the Smallies are going, it will take you all of 10 minutes to learn the Ned...

And my goal is going to be to put as many of those rods back in the box as fast as I can. If I end up with two rods with the exact same bait tied on them, plus my topwater stick out on the deck, then I'm gonna be posting some good pics because I've figured out a pattern I can run...

I'll be on Bull Shoals next week. If it's windy and cloudy, I'll have two crankbait rods with a wart and a rock crawler or DT-10, a jerkbait, a spook or Redfin, and a smoke grub and a Ned. If the wind dies down, the crankbait sticks and the jerkbait rod will go in the box and a C-rig, and wobble head will come out. I plan on experimenting with a chatterbait shallow in the most muddy water I can find for a few minutes, and may throw a blade or even a swimbait a little, but I fully expect to have a spinning rod in my hand the majority of the time, unless it's windy and the bite is on. Did I mention I want some wind and some clouds? It's really going to be letting the fish tell me what they are wanting. I think it's going to be a fun week, and probably will have several options on what fish I want to catch and how I want to catch them-

The spook can be used anywhere from 80' of water throwing it at schooling fish, to bluff end points with trees, to flat secondary points, to the very backs of pockets. It's just a feel thing for me. The spook and the Redfin are just good big fish baits in the spring. I use topwater a lot as a search bait, that also happens to be a great big fish bait.

I'm not gonna say the wart won't be the deal in 10 days, but I sure wouldn't leave the ramp without a spook tied on...

For me any wart that isn't a craw pattern is a painter.

If I was fishing a derby on the rock, in the next few weeks, I would pick an arm of the lake that I thought held fish, and get familiar with the channel swings and points on the map. During my prefish, I would spend a good bit of time in that area looking around, making notes of rock types and where the transitions happen, and where you can find similar banks. Things are going to change day to day (sometimes hour to hour) from now until the post spawn summer pattern sets up. Making your game plan too specific is going to be counterproductive. Getting out there, fishing the conditions, and being familiar enough to know where to find more pea gravel with ledge rock banks with a southwest breeze blowing on them when you catch 3 solid keepers on a bank like that is going to be the key. You need to know enough about the area of the lake you fish to be able to adapt quickly, because these darn fish are as fickle as the weather in the springtime in the ozarks. Don't get so locked in to what you found in your prefish that you won't throw it all out the window when the wind changes direction and the clouds move in or go away on Derby Day.

That's a fine $250 added to the wall!

Don't worry Ham, you might see Bull in the 680's. They won't let the rock flood too bad because of the tourism dollars, but I doubt they let all of that water flush through to the Mississippi when they have 40 feet of storage in Bull to make electric money with all summer long...

I'll be praying for you 96 champ. I know God can give you and yours the same peace and comfort that He has given me in my times of loss. It's never easy to lose a loved one, but watching the final stages of cancer is especially hard. Don't forget to remember the good times when you are going through the bad times. Love is the only thing that helps combat loss.

Champ- you should really try the sunline sniper on one spinning rig for grubs. It really handles better than any fluro I've tried. I'm convinced that the fact that it sinks really and truly puts more fish in the boat for me on the grub vs mono. I know I feel bites that I used to miss due to mono being blown about by wind, and I've gone to a 3/16 ounce head vs a 1/4 ounce on all but the windiest days. Fluro really works for me, and the sniper, while expensive, is the best on a spinning reel by a good bit, and I've fished seguar carbon pro, invisix, red label, bass pro and cabelas house brands, and Trilene 100 percent. And yes Ham, nanofil is great stuff too, I love it for my crappie rod, and I love it on the wife's rods for it's ease of management, but it floats and I feel like the sunline just works better for bottom baits for me.

Maybe it was just how clear Bull was that day, but my father in law (newbie to bass fishing) was getting bites 3 to my 1 last year on 6 pound seguar vs 6 pound Trilene 100 percent. I switched to 4 pound Trilene, and started getting the bites I felt I'd been missing. Line diameter can make a huge difference... Fwiw I'm normally throwing grubs on flat pea gravel a little later in the spring- and I'm really not fishing any sort of cover that I need to keep fish out of. Light line, smooth drag, lots of fun brown fish...

Your jerkbait fish could have been a big gar- not gonna say a bass won't straighten a hook on a pointer, but the hard mouth of a gar would pretty easily. As far as your grub heads, those would work fine, although the hook looks a little small to me. I prefer the unpainted heads with either gammy or mustad hooks. I fish grubs with 7 pound green sunline flouro, but I also like 4 pound Trilene 100 percent flouro just fine. The Trilene is good line, but runs thick for it's pound test compared to lots of other lines. I don't know if it's visibility or if the lighter line gives better action or both, but I'm a firm believer in as light as you can give away with-

This is going to be hard to describe on the internet, but here goes- Bend your index finger into a hook shape. Now with your other hand, with your index finger in the J of the other finger and try and bend it straight, like bending a hook out. Now put the pressure on your fingertip, like the point of the imaginary hook, not the J or gap, and pull. Easy to straighten, right? Hooks are the same way. If you can get the point driven through, so you are fighting the fish with the hook Gap instead of the point- it becomes much harder to straighten. That's why I mainly like light wire, as sharp as I can get hooks. I don't remember the last time I lost a fish due to him straightening a hook on me, because with the light wire I get good penetration, as long as the point is strong enough to not roll up on the rocks. Just my thoughts- others probably have different ones- I'm just a hack with a 3 month old baby at home that is seriously cutting into my fishing time and friends who keep sending me pics of fish they are catching!!!

Living in Ava would be like having Bull Shoals in my backyard! Try working till 10pm on a Friday and driving down from STL to fish a tourney on Saturday! Let me tell you you feel it by the time you get back to STL Saturday night!

Hey Phil- how about pinning a food joint thread to the top, or maybe another forum- would be handy to have somewhere to look up places to eat and know info about them like boat parking ease, etc... Not all of us who fish the ozarks live local enough to hear about the good places...

Thanks for the replies guys, I ended up at Mexican Villa on south cambell- it's kind of like white castles to me. I wouldn't call it "good" or even "Mexican" but sometimes it hits the spot... Fwiw, they have done a remodel since I has here last, place looked relatively nice and clean

Lamberts was closed today due to weather, where should I go now? I'm always down for a good burger, possibly could go for Chinese, also thinking about Mexican Villa but I'm towing a boat. So where to go guys?

Ummm. I'm not gonna get into a measuring contest here, I'll just say that the basscat hull rewards someone who knows how to drive. If you point and shoot, and bash waves, the nitro may react as you say. If you know how to use trim, and turn into waves, and "roll" a hull over the rough stuff, the cat is going to outperform the nitro in every situation you just listed. And an old narrow beam champion 202 or 203 will outperform the cat in every way except top end.

The MDC is great as is. We all have minor complaints, but I can't see how privatizing it will help anything

Well, I started to write a big response about how that is apples to oranges, and how we didn't have elected representation in England's government, and how we are all one nation, under taxes, indivisible and justice for all and should maybe try to do better and be more efficient with all of our money, but then I thought better. I give up. I have SEEN the LIGHT!! Repeal Obamacare! Don't tread on me! States rights! Yay guns! (As long as they are only owned and conceal carried by people who look like us.. None of those low pants wearing guys) Drill and mine everywhere, all the time! Nuke the Middle East! (Except Israel)

Yep! I'll yell something about 10% of the fisherman catching 90% of the fish and how I'm only redistributing the wealth to "make things fair"

Lol, I wasn't even gonna fish until I saw you catch one. Then I was gonna fly in almost on plane, and yell at you for fishing my spot and being a republican!