fishinwrench

To test the 24v terminal on your boat (to see which side is Hot and which is Gnd.) You can either look at the back of the plug, or use a decent digital voltmeter that will read reversed polarity. If it shows -24v (minus 24v) then your black test lead is your Hot side. If the motor is straight 24 (2-wire) but your boat is wired for 12/24 (3-wire) then you'll need to terminate the 12v side of the boat wiring clear back to the battery.

You don't have to fiddle with live bait, just superglue one of these to a 1/64oz. trout sized jighead and watch the gills go completely batshit over it. http://www.southernpro.com/TW.cfm One color, Black, is all you need. You can put a soft hackle collar on it if you just gotta tinker....but it's far from necessary.

The operator was 4 years old ? http://www.mshp.dps.mo.gov/WP03/AccidentDetailsAction?ACC_RPT_NUM=140557004

Deep slow pools that are 100-200 yards long often have a "hump" in the middle of them that extends out from the inside mud bank (similar to a point in a lake). Usually it is silt or leaf covered and home to tons of aquatic insects, crawdads and leeches. The downside is that it is hard to approach without spooking any fish that are patrolling it. If you have a rocky bluffy bank on the opposite side you'll usually have a 25 yard (or so) sweet spot in the immediate area of that mid-pool hump. Wood cover on the mudbank side of a slow pool is usually worthless to everything except turtles and ducks. Herons don't even like it.

I'll settle for the thousand words.

I met the new Mountain creek folks and they are super nice. I hope they do well enough to avoid the typical land-snatch antics of the L&C company. I'm actually quite surprised that Niangua L&C hasn't built their own private bridge or ferry yet. It has to be a PIA for them to drive back and forth to their land on both sides.

Table rock lake is a massive stretch of frogwater, and they catch nice smallies there all the time.

I don't have any answers for ya, bro, but I can assure you that you're not wasting your time. You are learning something each and every time you cast, whether you realize it or not, and eventually what you've learned will most definitely pay off. In fishing and in life.

I have a playbook ? Sweet ! Nope, Ronnie and I don't share gigging viewpoints. He's way more democratic than I am.

Yeah I'm beginning to suspect a "drive by" post. Just as well cuz it is a Tender and Touchy subject for Me.

4500-4600 is typical top end RPM for stock I/O's (Inboard/outboard).

Engine OFF.

Are the carb throttle plates fully open when the controls are in the "wide open" position ? Raise the outdrive and inspect the exhaust bellows. No Mouse nest/Bird nest or any other exhaust restriction? How does the engine react to a quick throttle snap in neutral.... Does it rev up immediately or stumble/hesitate to respond ? Can you safely do a "cylinder drop test" (remove and reattach each plug wire individually while the engine is idling) to compare the effects or loss of RPM when individually dropping each cylinder ? That will let you know if all cylinders and banks are handling their fair share of the load, or if one or more cylinders are "being lazy'. (Do not attempt this if the engine compartment is cramped, or if you aren't confident in your mechanical ability....it's easy to get hurt....Bad !) If all the above checks do not unearth the issue let me know and we'll take it a step deeper.

The Sloughs and bays off the big rivers used to get some attention. Check out missouriflies.com ! That boy knows where to find them and how to catch'em.

Mercruiser/Chevy 4.3 I/O (I assume ???) Carb or throttle body injection ? (1996 could be either one). Top RPM is only 4300-4500 so it could just be a wrong or damaged prop. Need more info.

My girlfriends 15 y/o son has the same affliction. I just wanna shove his head underwater sometimes. I have hooked him up with good gear and have given him all the patient instruction I am capable of but it ain't working out for him. He just goes thru the motions without paying attention or anticipating a strike. And although he has easily mastered every virtual reality game on the planet....including the fishing ones, he just doesn't concentrate or attempt to learn and/or react when he is actually fishing. Therefore he is only "into it" for about 10 minutes at a time, after which he just starts casting around and daydreams. I say "dude you gotta pay attention". He says "I am"..... But he ISN'T !!!!

Sounds good, gimme a shout whenever. Be glad to help with the John-rude too if needed I paddled/hiked up to Burnt Mill and had a fun day. Got off the stream just before the heavy rain hit.

Nobody I know has ever been approached or ran off from gravel bars between Prosperine and Leadmine but plenty of seemingly intimidating signage on the gravel bars is very common through there and it is obviously directed towards fishermen since all the party floating ends above there. I still stop at those "posted" places if I want to wade and fish, have lunch, or just stretch my legs, but it does make me nervous so I tend not to linger even though there's times that I'd like to just chill awhile without having to keep looking over my shoulder and worrying about a potential confrontation with some gunslinging Niangua Land & Cattle employee that THINKS he is doing the right thing. The part that bugs me the worst is that MDC agents know that those ("Private Property-Don't Stop Here") signs are all along there but they choose to just let it slide knowing full well that it is an intimidating infringement to people who are within their rights to be there....and to stop and fish/wade/camp if they darn well please. But instead of contacting those landowners and "advising them" the agents are just gonna let the situation go uncorrected until somebody has a confrontation with the wrong-somebody-else. What is it that those people down in that neighborhood are worried about ? Some fisherman trudging 2-4 miles thru the briars to steal something off their land ? Ya think they might load one of your cows into a canoe or Jon boat and make off with it? Give me a freakin break ! They bought land along a stretch of navigable public waterway and are attempting to intimidate the public via signage (or "graffiti", depending on how you look at it) on gravel bars that implys that river users have no right to be there. It's wrong and I cop an attitude every time I see it. Those signs are nothing but obnoxious misplaced litter and I really wish the people who put them there would kindly clean them up.

Yeah, they just look at me like I'm crazy for asking.

Speaking of the worms, I'd like to know if the smallies are as heavily infested with them, but I don't want to kill one to find out. Anyone know ?

Yeah I'll participate, but not on the Bourby. I'll kill a few for the cause on a different watershed. I don't wanna eat them though because the spots in streams around here have more weight in worms than they do meat. Why is the bourb highlighted in this regard ? Is it among the worst case spotted bass intrusion victim list ? Or is it serving as a chosen testing area to see if awareness and action can indeed make a difference ?

After all the "Ermergerd they're so delicious" talk I almost took one home to try it. But then as I was trying to figure out how to put it on a stringer I changed my mind. No regrets there.

Curious how this "jig on top" method goes.

They say bad things about them.

Maybe if she learned to use decent equipment she'd enjoy it more ? Probably not though, as anyone who takes a book or a tablet fishing is already anticipating boredom.