fishinwrench

Sexy ! Boy that one has a sore jaw, don't he ?

This is starting to piss me off I still haven't caught an 8 from my home lake, and now I gotta push for a 10? Gimme a break !

Anytime you "re-melt" a bait I think you need to add some kind of hardener as the end result will be noticeably softer. Using plastics ain't cheap at all when you are going through 2 bags a day. I bought a "Worm Welder" years ago figuring that was a good way to save money. WRONG! The thing eats battery's like crazy and battery's are more expensive than a handful of baits, plus the welded areas are always so soft that 90% of the time the bait won't even stay on the hook during a hard cast.

AF !

After the December flood everyone was pissed at Ameren when their docks got stressed, and Ameren stated that they DON'T operate according to weather forecasts. Then in March they obviously DID operate according to a weather forecast by dropping an additional foot just before we were supposed to get a major rainfall event...but it missed us. And people raised hell because docks were being stressed and Ameren said "SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE OPERATE ACCORDING TO FORECASTS!". What a bunch of children (on both sides). For 30+ years it was no problem at all maintaining a manageable lake level within reason. But now we have a fresh new crew with all new "technology" and they just can't seem to deal with it. They have fukked up 3 consecutive years of white bass spawning runs by keeping the lake down around 657 until right before Memorial day, and their immediate draw-back-downs after any April/early May rises definitely screws up bass and crappie spawns. If they don't stop this idiocracy they are gonna turn this lake into nothing but a giant catfish pond.

....or a Mitch Fields enhanced Hula grub ? 5.00 per jig is a little crazy when it's the TRAILER that is getting the bite.

What can y'all do with a Dirk jig that I can't do with a Crock-O-Gator ?

Cranes have a vocabulary and arry of voices that will blow your mind. One of the river stretches I float fairly often has a heron/crane rookery that I go by alot, and in the past I have heard the following... . Dinosaurs fighting. Girls being violently raped. Old women laughing hysterically. Chris Farley puking. A manatee having an orgasm. So I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that what you heard came from the voicebox of a crane or heron.

Nice job !

The jar on the left looks like aged fuel. How old is it ? Stabil, SeaFoam, Carbon guard, and other "magic" additives can turn fuel a sick yellow/green color after awhile.

I haven't caught that many river smallmouth 20+, but the 15-18 inchers seem to be more fun anyway. They crush baits/flys, run hard and jump high. All of the really big 20+ Smallies I've caught were heavy and pulled hard....but kinda lazy too. Lacking all the energy and acrobatics (fun) of the slightly smaller ones. I don't need to catch a bunch of big ol' fat brown slobs to put me in a great mood.

Once the lake hits 654 there's no problem at all. At 653 or below you gotta use caution. There for a couple days it was at 652 and a few props and trailers got busted.

Yeah Zebco. I use P-Line CX Premium just because that is what I use on everything else. Different line might be better but I haven't had any problems at all. You'd think that line twist would be a pain, but I guess since you're basically dealing with a short amount of line it just doesn't get too bad.

Doing it all with the trigger. If you want to shoot it an extra long distance spool it up with 4#, but for the average LO docks 6# does fine. The slow retrieve rate is perfect for crappie but when one runs toward you you sometimes have to reel like crazy to catch up. It's nice to not have to fumble with a bail when the wind is trying to blow you out of position, and getting the perfect amount of line out before loading/shooting is a breeze. I think I paid 12.00 ea. for them and they have lasted almost 4 years so far. I can hit a 4" gap consistently with it.

I generally detest Spincasting reels, but for dock shooting you can't beat these little pieces of crap

There is an insane amount of suspended fish (I assume Whites/Crappie) in 26-30' about 1/2 mile to a mile above Coconuts on the Rocky Mount side. Where was the big floater at? Glad I missed it Friday.

It's OK now, just use the ramp closest to the courtesy dock and trim up a bit.

Some of the best fishing of the year happens during the week prior to the Bash. Everyone else is "saving their fish". Some of the slowest fishing of the year will be the 2weeks after.

There actually are a few important details never shown on the DIY vids on YouTube. And never covered in Seloc or Clymer manuals. Nobody ever mentions the RTV dam behind the water pump housing on Mercs (pretty important) that needs to be redone each time the gearcase is removed to prevent exhaust from blowing air bubbles around the pump. And they also never mention the proper torque sequence when reinstalling the lower unit (the bolt under the trim tab is the most important fastener on the unit....Without it properly tightened the rest of the bolts will vibrate loose). As with anything there is "getting it done", and then there is Getting It Done RIGHT. There honestly is no substitute for REAL training, even on the seemingly simple tasks.

That does it.... I just gave myself a healthy raise. Thank you !

A buddy and I fished Friday in that miserable cold drizzle. We started off doing pretty well but as the day went on the bite just flat went to hell. Over beers that evening I made the comment that the boys fishing OMTT were gonna have it tough, and I predicted that 18# would win and that the weights would fall drastically from there. Could I have been more wrong ? Crazy weights!

That's some awesome Intel. How do you feel about mornings vs evenings ? Evenings seem better to me but I fish way more evenings than I do mornings so I really don't know.

The one time I tried the Wildeye shads I couldn't get them to run straight, they wanted to roll over on their sides. I tried bending the hook eye to make it stay straight but it just didn't work. What's the trick with those things ?

Lot of good it did me The one day I get a chance to go fishing and a cold front blows in. I could fish with a hangover today and it wouldn't matter. We'll see. Dang Ness ! ADT probably called the landline.

That's my kinda place. Never thought about it until now but I bet I have the only boat repair establishment with a free open kitchen/dining room. Happy hour begins whenever you get here.