mixermarkb

Hell, I'll be happy if I'm dead last as long as nothing else breaks on the boat! It's been a tough go the last several trips for me as far as boat and truck problems go...

Ham, it's out of Theodosia. Supposed to have over 100 boats, maybe in the 150 range. I'll be happy if I'm in the top third.

LOL Poor bastard had to be in a HURRY!

My neighbor Ron and I are in it- burgundy and silver Champion 203 with a 225 optimax. I know bullshoalscat is in- What other OAF fisherman are in?

I finally got to come do some fishing this week. I was staying at Theodosia, but put in various ramps from Spring Creek to Protem. Overall, fishing was good. Water temps ranged from 62-63 in the creeks, to 57-58 in the main lake. Lots of things were working pretty well for me. I caught at least 20-30 smallmouth a day on the Ned and Grub, main lake pea gravel flats and points. Wind blowing in on them was better. Had a few smallmouth eat the jerkbait on the same places when the wind was really blowing. Wednesday morning I spent in the backs of creeks throwing topwater, and had about a dozen LMB, including a 4 pounder. Shallow was the key. Like dorsal fin out of water shallow. They seemed to be in more on an eating mode than a spawn mode. I didn't see any fish locked on beds, and saw few beds period. I moved down lake, throwing a topwater at the mouths of main lake spawning pockets looking for a big fish, and found some white bass. They still had eggs, so not all of them are done yet. I'd have to say most everything seemed prespawn still- but that could already have changed.

Sorry guys, posted with a migraine. Sunline Sniper, not Shooter. I like Shooter for casting reels, but it's hard and stiff. Sniper is where it's at for spinning tackle. Casts well, holds up to rocks very well, and doesn't have the stretch that I have with invisix. It's expensive, but worth it.

If you guys ever tried Sunline Shooter, green tint, 7 pound test, you would never debate line again. Hands down best line I've tried

Guys, I don't recommend being reckless in any way, but after picking up a copy of the Missouri Watercraft safety pamphlet, and reading it cover to cover at least twice, every new bass boat owner should most definately put the rods out, strap on a real, (not an inflatable) PFD and go drive the hell out of their boat. Do it on a lake without a lot of boat traffic, a weekday is ideal. You owe it to yourself and others on the water to learn what your rig is capeable of. You need to learn how it turns, how tight it will turn before it wants to let go. You need to learn where to trim it in a tight turn. Too high, and the prop will lose bite and the back end will slide loose and want to spin. Trim down too much and the bow will drop and grab the water and hook, causing what the performance guys call a "bat turn", which is another kind of spin. You need to learn how to drive it to prevent it from chine walking, so you don't end up in a preventable accident like the guy in the other YouTube video. (Hint- a long straightway, wide enough to keep the boat in a very slight left turn will help a novice learn to deal with chine walk. Slight pressure to the left counterbalances the prop rotation torque and keeps the boat level. Keeping the boat in a very slight left turn, and then turn it back to the right when you have to correct course will help you learn to keep the boat from washing the decals off the sides and causing an accident like the guy on YouTube.) You need to learn how the boat feels at various speeds, when to expect it to get loose as the hull rises and chines pop out of the water. Some hulls will sort of pop free and jump to one side or or the other, some will get very loose very quickly, and you need to know at what RPM and speed that is going to happen. Bass boat drivers need to learn how trim effects their hull, and not just at top end. Knowing how slow you can go and stay on plane is important. Learning where the boat likes to ride to keep from porpoising at slow to mid throttle cruising speeds is something to practice. Watch your tach, and your GPS or speedo, and work the trim with small bumps until you find the sweet spot where you are getting the most speed from the least amount of RPM will help you find an efficient crusing speed and save gas money. Keep an eye on the water pressure gauge while you are experimenting to make sure you don't trim your water intakes too high and loose cooling pressure. Learn how to plane your boat off the best. Some hulls/prop combos like to start with the motor tucked all the way under, some like a slightly more neutral trim to get them moving, then trim down the rest of the way as the hull starts to break over on pad. Learn how to stop your boat. Fast. Bass boats are VERY fast these days, even a few Rangers will run 70mph now (sorry- had to take the shot..lol). Chopping throttle at speed without trimming down will cause bad things to happen. Learn how to turn out of the way of an imaginary object at speed. In a boat, it's more of an "S" maneuver, because simply turning the wheel to one side often times just pushes the prop right over whatever you are trying to avoid. It could be a floating log you run up on and need to miss, or it could be a swimmer or downed skier out at dusk. What I'm trying to say is that modern bass boats are true high performance machines, and don't require any sort of drivers test to get in. It is up to is to get enough seat time in our machines to understand how to maintain control of them, in ALL conditions, and under ALL speeds. It is the boater's responsibility to avoid accidents. That is what most of those maneuvers in that old Champion video are about. I'm not saying go try to duplicate all of that, but going out and just driving until you really get a feel for your boat's capabilities and it's limits, is something that ALL of us need to do. If you are scared of your rig, by all means swallow some pride and get someone who is an experienced high performance boat driver to go with you and show you, and double check your setup to make sure it doesn't have a problem that is making your rig harder to drive than it needs to be. All too often, boat dealers are selling 20' rigs with 250 ponies on the back and not giving the new owner even a 15 minute lesson on the water. Either we learn to be safe and regulate ourselves, or the public will demand that the politicians regulate our boating for us. To most of the public, we look way more dangerous zooming around the lake at speed than the wakeboard boats do plowing along doing their deal. Boating safety is up to us, and the ONLY way to be safe is to go get seat time.

+1 to what Champ said. Cables *usally* bind up and steering gets really stiff before they break, but it's always good to check them out, metal fatigue is a real thing.

Thanks Motoman! I'm really proud of her, she works really hard at formulating her products and making sure they work well. Her soap has pretty much ended our son's battle with excema. I had never paid any attention to soap, always just used dial and called it done, but it really is amazing how well her stuff works and how much better your skin feels without all the chemicals in most mass produced skin care products.

If you do, make sure your batteries are all strapped down. Preferably by metal.. Ask me how I know- hahaha

Pay special attention to the breech stop maneuver at around the 8 minute mark in that video. I've never seen another boat pull those kind of G's and stay upright...

That's pretty good. The 90's EFI mercs are as dependable as you can get. Thirsty, and smoky, but turn the key and they run. If you haven't already, close off the front livewell. It kills fish from beating them up, and kills performance. Makes a good storage box for light things like life vests and throwable cushion. Check your propshaft to pad measurement, assuming you have a jack plate on the old girl, somewhere real close to 3.5" shaft below pad will be the sweet spot. Make sure ulrich sealed the bolt holes when they mounted your motor, as the transoms in the 80's champs were a layered composite of fir plywood and fiberglass. You don't want water intrusion to deal with. Otherwise, enjoy your rig. Elements of that hull design have been used in lots of boats over the years. The 184 is a seriously ahead of it's time hull, that lots of new $50,000 rigs can't match, performance wise. Here's a YouTube video showing what I mean...

Yep! The 184 is a fantastic hull. Turns on a dime, handles rough water better than a lot of current 20' hulls. You did good!

I know this is a falcon love fest, and I do love the caras I have, which include the Jerkbait Special, Medium Cranker, Deep Runner, Angler of the Year, Mcclelland Swim Jig, Mcclelland Football Jig, and Amistad. As far as comparisons go, I would rate them between a Loomis IMX and GLX as far as sensitivity and weight. The tapers cast at least as well as the Loomis, and I prefer the falcons for moving baits. I'm still a Loomis guy for bottom contact stuff. I will say it's an incremental improvement once a person gets into a rod of say an IMX or Cara quality. Are the 3 NRX rods I own more sensitive than any of my others? Yes. $200 more sensitive than a GLX or $300 more than a Cara? Probably not, but I also bought them used, so I am more than happy to have them and use them. Good gear does help me catch more fish. No doubt more time on the water would help at least as much- Your mileage may vary...

I know some people who would pay big $$ to have that done. Sickos. Lol

Ok, I while I confess I still think my older GLX and the 3 NRX rods I have are more sensitive (and probably more fragile) in my hands than the Falcons I have, I wanted to join in the Falcon love with a quick story. Last week, I was fishing Bull with my 8 year old. We were getting ready to go in because he was bored. I was a bit frustrated, and grabbed a handful of rods off the deck, dropped them in the locker, and shut the lid, while I was trying to help him get his stuff ready to run. CRUNCH. About 12" of my Cara Reaction 6'5" jerkbait rod was still out of the box on the deck, while the rest of it was inside the box. One email to falcon explaining to them what I had done, $80 and the logo section hacksawed off of the $200+ Rod packed into a small padded envelope and returned to Tulsa, and I have a new rod headed my way. New $200 rod for $80 shipped is pretty hard to beat, since the breakage was totally my own stupid fault, and I'll put the Cara Reaction rods up against any rods I've ever felt for moving baits. Top Shelf for sure.

I'm sorry for your experience. I hope you give Bull Shoals another try, as I've found it to be the least pressured, most relaxed fishing of any lake I've fished in the Ozarks. Most of the the fishermen I've met on Bull Shoals keep very much to themselves. It's hard to meet and make friends, as everyone seems to play their info close to the vest, but I've never had anyone on the water be less than courteous. Sorry you ran into a douchebag. Us bass guys should do better, folks already think we have screws loose for what we spend to catch and release a little green fish. We should all work better at PR and treating the resource and folks using it with respect, wether or not they are in a tournement.

It's a serious long shot, because they never have anything useful, but maybe the BPS at Branson?

Showbiz is like that. I work in the music industry where everyone has a public persona. It actually helps people stay grounded in their private life, because it's a role they can step into when the lights go up, and then step out of when the show is over. I'm sure Mike puts on his flat billed "Ike" hat, plays the character, earns his living, then can be "mike" and "dad" again at home with his family. It's a way to separate real life and work, like wearing a tie to work used to be for my Dad. I like the guy. He has a passion for what he does, and by everything I've ever read spends very close to if not the most time interacting with young fans.

Buying a drift sock really helped me catch more fish. It looks a little silly, and of course the well heeled could probably just drag their power poles, but it sure slows down my Champion and makes it easier to fish those wind blown areas that hold the active fish-

Lol, I'm sure it was at least $20 worth- he doesn't know the meaning of moderation. His mom and I are trying to teach him that!

Hey guys- First a disclaimer- it was my first trip since we had our second son inDecember, and I had our 8 year old son with me, on our first big man trip with just me and him. Having said that, water temps were in the high 50's low 60's in a few pockets. Water color was very brown at Theodosia, so even though I was staying at TMR, I trailered over to Spring Creek Ramp on Tuesday and Buck Creek on Wednesday. Water color was much more to my liking, ranging from clear to a green tint. Tuesday I caught a short Smallie on a rock crawler, a keeper LMB on the same secondary point, then 3 very fat keeper spots on a Redfin in the back of a pocket. Trying to find something the boy could fish as the bushes were making life hard, I left the pockets and went looking for Smallies on flat pea gravel. They were either not there, or biting light enough that with the distractions of keeping an 8 year old contained that I couldn't feel them, so we called it a day and I went back to TMR and did some work on the electrical system on the boat, trying to fix the gremlin that kept turning off my graphs about every 30 minutes. Wednesday I caught a 4 pound LMB in a textbook jerkbait spot, last big bush in the back of a main lake pocket with live water running in. The boy was over fishing about an hour and a half in, and I got the news that my 83 year old uncle who had been on hospice for a month passed, so we packed it up and headed home. In short, the backs of the pockets seemed to be the deal, if I had to bet is say a man could wear some fish out early with a fluke or floating worm. I couldn't find the Smallies on my regular stuff, either with a grub or Ned or offshore with a jerkbait. All signs point to it being time, but I couldn't make it happen yet. Tight lines, Mark

This is just the baitcasters, had them all off for cleaning, lube, and line, since I haven't really been able to get away and get the boat out. Mainly Lews team gold and BB-1's with a few speed spools and some old shimano 100b's and JDM scorpions I can't bear to part with just yet.