mixermarkb

Here’s mine from Bull Shoals this year on a wart

I only fish a couple tourneys a year, but even in that limited exposure and just in fishing for fun, I see several guys running their boats past their driving capabilities- holding on for dear life while they are chine walking so bad that they are washing the decals on the sides of the boat. Driving a high performance bass boat is a skill that takes a lot of time to master, and really needs a bit of training from the dealers who sell those rigs. In my younger days, I was constantly pushing the top end, down to custom props, lower unit mods, motor mods, hydraulic jack plates, etc. It was fun, and I still like to open it up and let it eat, but you have to pick your spots, and a crowded day on the lake just isn’t it. I spend a lot more time at 4500 RPM these days than I do at 5900, and I catch more fish now than I used to. Seat time is the key, but we need more on the water training by the dealers. Lots of these 20-21’ boats are capable of 75 or even 80mph, and you have new owners who don’t even have the basic understanding of how much the trim button matters at those speeds. Driving a fast boat up on the pad is NOT point and go. I also believe we don’t have nearly the quality of on the water law enforcement without the Water Patrol being a stand alone agency. like so many other things, if the money behind making and selling these rigs doesn’t start doing a better job at self regulating, and getting folks decent on the water training in their new toys, we are gonna be regulated by the state, and nobody is gonna like how that looks.

Falcon Super Duty rod next to the Jewell to show the similar grips, down to the American flag. Falcon blank is thicker because it’s a way heavier action rod.

Hey Guys- So, I picked up my pair of new crankbait rods the other day. I thought I’d post a quick review. The rods are American made, seem to be high quality, and bear a striking resemblance to the old USA made Falcon Cara’s, which is not surprising as they are made in the same OEM factory right here in the Ozarks (Harrison, Ark) I bought the blue diamond medium moderate crankbait rods, and they are everything I expected. Extremely light, sensitive, Fuji reel seat, and the guides are somewhere in between normal and micro guides. The rods load up on the cast very well, and have plenty of backbone, as the 6 pound LMB I caught on the first afternoon fishing them found out. The blue diamond rods are priced at $199, and the red diamond rods at $289, and they have a $100 buck no questions asked replacement plan. If you are looking for a rod in those price ranges, the Jewell rods are a solid contender.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that 20 years working with the public every day on a boat dock might just damage your faith in the common man just a little bit. Most people are good, and I’d like to believe most folks who love the outdoors are a cut above average, but any time you have “The Public” involved, you have a certain percentage who “just weren’t raised right” (is the way I’m gonna put it to avoid the curse words)

Ok. If your exhaust is all the way out of the water, how if your motor getting cooling, because unless you have drilled the bucket out and vented it, the prop shaft where the exhaust comes out is below the water intakes. And nothing wrong with a medical gummy as needed. It’s legal. It greatly helps some folks. Beats the hell out of opiate withdrawals. I think fish’s exhaust trail comment was a little bit hyperbole, but take a look at the color of the rocks on the bank at TR or Bull Shoals and compare them to the color of the bank at LOZ and tell me again boat traffic has no environmental effect.

Hey- I’m the radical left and I think fish has some valid points… LOL Seriously, Fish is a friend of mine, I’ve fished with him several times over many years, including in a couple derbies. He has at times nearly single handedly kept the Lower Bull Shoals forum alive with reports and information. I may not always agree with him 100 percent, but he’s got every right to post here without personal attacks. Disagree all you want with him, Lord knows I do at times, but let’s keep the debate as civil as possible, so we don’t have to be “moderated”. And yes, thieves often take advantage of big tournaments in the area, I’ve been hit myself the night of a tourney. It happens.

Great. Just when Bull was fishing really well, elevator goes up. Again.

Got out Wednesday after the storms, about 3pm. Fished around Spring Creek and the Little North Fork arms. Muddy runoff everywhere as one would guess. Nothing wanted to play in the mud for me, but I managed to put 4 fish in the boat, fishing chunk rock points outside spawning coves. I did get a 21” and a 22” LMB on nearly back to back casts. Today (Thursday) was a totally different deal. I started around 10am after eating a killer Ham and Cheese omelet at Cookie’s while waiting for the heavy fog to burn off. High skies, very light and changing winds made me give up my crankbait bite and I headed down lake with the idea of finding some smallmouth. Lots of looking and some catching later, I ended the day with 15 or so in the boat, all brown fish except for two keeper sized spotted bass. Nothing huge, but 5 keeper smallies along with the 12-14” pullers. Flat gravel on the Ned rig was the deal. Water temps around 58 this afternoon.

I’ve never tried the big TRD. I pretty much stick to the half zinker. I just loaded my rigs in the truck though. We will see if I actually have any time between storms to fish any tomorrow!

I’m coming down to fish tomorrow and Thursday. I’d say you are right on with swim baits, warts and jerkbaits. I’d for sure add a Ned rig to that for calmer days. As for back in the coves or staging, the answer to that will be yes. I’d bet you are going to have both, and whichever one bites the best is going to be a game day decision, depending on weather. AnglerSpy puts the current water temps at 53, but I’d bet it’s near 60 in the colored water back in the major creek arms. With the full moon coming up fast, we will almost surely get a wave of bass pulling shallow, but the cold fronts and cooler water temps will see how big that wave ends up being. good luck, and make sure and post a report!

I look at events like the big bass trail and bass pro fishing fair as “outdoor lifestyle” events more than “bass fishing” events. I’m frankly not all that worried about the damage to the resource with the big bass trail, because I feel like out of that 400+ boats, maybe 100 have the fishing chops to really catch a significant number of bass. It’s more or less a lottery ticket for folks who identify with fishing, but don’t get the chance to go all that often. They pay their fee, get a free rod, and get to role play as a “tournament fisherperson” for the weekend. It’s a hassle, but I don’t think it does the harm that the numbers of “real” tournaments do, simply because the “real” guys stick, transport, weigh, and release a lot more fish than 400 clueless flatlanders do. I’m all for the MLF/kayak style catch weigh and release on the spot taking over the sport though, and would like for regatta permits to come with some form of law/resource enforcement, for example an MDC officer at weigh ins, just to ensure best practices are being followed. We “serious” fisherman have to lead the way in both conservation and on the water manners and etiquette. Lots of folks like to fish a couple days a year. We have to accept that, and help them learn to do things the right way. Our guides in the Ozarks generally do that, with most of them being catch and release, and most of them being good teachers of sportsmanship. The old saying of 10 percent of the fishermen catch 90 percent of the fish still applies, in my opinion, and I’m going to group all of us in here as that 10 percent. It’s our job to lead by example. one last thought- how many of those free rods at the derby and how much of the fishing gear sold at “the worlds fishing fair” do you all think get used more than three days a year, if it ever sees the water at all?

Make sure and post us a quick report!

Keepers still biting crankbaits for me. Staying at Theodosia Marina Resort, I decided to drip the rig in at the spring creek ramp, to avoid the huge mats of debris washing in around the bridge. I fished from 1pm til about 5pm on Friday. Boat never went past the mouth of Spring creek, and I had 6 fish, 5 keepers, with the biggest a LMB in the 4 pound range. Chocolate milk colored water was flowing in, along with some debris. Water temps 52-55. I quit when I caught my limit fish, and made it back to TMR in plenty of time for the Friday Night Prime Rib special at Cookie’s. If you haven’t had it, try it Cajun Style, medium rare. It was worth the trip down, even if I hadn’t caught a single bass! The next day I fished with an old friend from the forum. We started about 9:30AM at the Spring Creek ramp. Water color had made it a bit farther downstream. There were boats everywhere in Spring Creek, so we cranked up and ran down the lake a bit. Caught a couple keeps cranking, but the morning was much slower than I’d hoped. As the wind picked up in the afternoon, we found some nice smallmouth in a windy pocket off of the main lake on a jerk bait. Fishing our way back to the ramp we ended the day with some more solid keepers cranking the muddy water in Spring Creek, seeing some water temps in the dirty water as high as 58. I think we ended with a few over 15 fish in the boat, with a very healthy keeper to short ratio, but no huge fish. Best five in that 13-14 pound range. Later I heard the derby out of Pontiac took 22 pounds with a 7 pound plus as Big Bass.

Replace “journalism” with “infotainment” and spoon feed it to the public 24/7 with no punishment whatsoever for lies and you get what we now have in the US. The media (both the red team media and the blue team media) divides us for profit. Until we all wise up and start to consume less of their bullshit, we are a divided country, cheaply manipulated by foreign actors.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/mar/10/facebook-posts/yes-oil-companies-are-reporting-record-breaking-pr/ Oil companies are making their highest profits since 2013, with the highest prices at the pump since 2008. I’m fine with making a profit, but this seems like price gouging to make up for a tough year or two in the pandemic to me. It certainly has very little to do with who is president, as the last time we had prices this high the red team guy was running things.

Sadly we are already home. I have to work on weekends, so Monday thru Thursday had to do! Thanks for the well wishes though, and ya gotta love those giant Bull crappie when you get one. May have to put some time into learning how to catch them more…

Lots of rig for its size too- that is maybe the best riding 17’6” boat ever made…

Still eating the crank bait today. Only fished a couple hours, but boated 6 with 4 being keeps. Colder weather in the low 40’s knocked the surface temps down a degree or two, but same baits and type banks as yesterday were working. Had a little help with the releasing today, even if it was too cold for him to go help with the catching…

Hey Jacob- how did it go? What did it take to win? Winners give any info up?

Hi guys- I’m down for my annual spring break trip with my boys and father in law. We fished today in the mid lake area, starting about 10am. My father in law got on the board first with a 13” spotted bass on a grub. The rest of the morning was fairly slow. I think the boys and my father in law missed a few more on a hodge podge of grubs, shakyhead and swim baits. I mostly ran the trolling motor, but managed to pick up a keeper LMB and a 17” smallmouth on a jig just to make sure I had them on spots that were holding fish. The guys had all had their fill of the wind and slow bite, so they went back to the cabin about two. I stayed out and picked up the crank bait and started running windy channel swings and secondary points. I caught three more keeper LMB and a few spots by the time I quit about 4:30. water temps were 48-52, overcast and sometimes wet skies.