fishinwrench

My only valid beef with Mercury marine is their annoying practice of discontinuing so many vital replacement parts after as early as 7 years and leaving it up to the aftermarket groups to pick up their slack.....That is IF any aftermarket group even chooses to. I suppose that's their way of ensuring that every Merc you'll ever see is Fresh & Pretty. On one hand I can't blame them, because I'd want those embarrassing design mistakes (like vertical throttle shafts) vanished from the planet ASAP also, had I been a part of their design/development.

Not if you stand on your head. Does anyone even make a "quality" spincast reel anymore? The old ABU Garcia ones were actually really well made, but you couldn't palm them. I wouldn't mind having a truly good one for shooting docks for crappie. Their only problem (aside from being line snarling beasts) is that they are all built like a 50 cent can opener.

You're REALLY gonna miss that ol' V4 while your boatless for 6 weeks waiting on a "warranty issue" to be resolved on that brand new shiney black POS

Yep, a fly rod with a ultra-lite spinning reel (with the bail hoop removed) used to be the tool of choice for panfishers on the Salt river and it's tribs. The bait shops and hardware stores all carried fly rods, but no fly reels or fly line.

Dangit ! No kidding! LOL

Here's a few other specialized combo's that have yet to see their day.... Ok, got that out of my system. Back to my corner now

Hey, give it a catchy name and market it. Next thing ya know there will be an In-Fish article about it and a gaggle of converts. And of course there will be a bunch saying ...." Ain't nuthin NEW about that, my drunken uncle has been doing that as long as I can remember".

This whole being quiet thing just gets harder by the day. I don't know how much longer I can do this

I didn't even know what a hoonyak was, I just always thought it sounded cool. Now that I've googled it (and realized that I am one) I like it even more http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoonyak

Now those were the days !!!! It was probably all that chronic you kept passing around that made me the way I am today. Knock it off ya bunch-o-frikken hoonyaks, before ya get me in even MORE trouble. Just let me pout for a minute !

Thx Ness. Solid (yet simple-minded) logic and/or humor has always been my MO but the list of those who take offense to it has like quadrupled over the last year or so, even to include the grand poobah himself. So I think everyone deserves a break from having to filter through my BS, for awhile at least, until I learn how to talk "right".

Thanks Mitch My method of straightforward thought sharing just isn't for everyone, but I appreciate those that can handle/put up with it, and not get torqued.

I wasn't insinuating anything. I was attempting to add food for thought. And I'm not "jumping on anyones bandwagon" I was basically telling JOE to shut up and figure it out for HIMSELF if he was "so concerned for his own safety". Kiss MY butt! I hate that every few times I feed off into a conversation that intetests me on here that someone takes something I say the wrong way. Apparently my typing skills are doing bad things to my reputation around here. My apologies FOR REAL! I've jabbed a few guys mostly in fun, in the past, but there's a growing percentage of folks on here that I can tell have me pegged for a Full Time trouble maker. That is NOT the case. But just for the sake of maintaining what integrity I do have I think it's best if I just reduce myself to lurker status here and only respond when I'm directly addressed. Again.....Sorry.

Shouldn't be hard to figure out, Joe. It's gonna be a fairly clean, girl friendly gravel bar that is a couple hours float from a reasonably popular access that has a couple semi-tricky bends below it. There is going to be a road/trail close to the gravel bar, and possibly a house/barn/building within sight of it. I've never wet a shoe in CC but it's likely that not too many spots meet that criteria, so you could probably narrow it down pretty close using Google Earth and some familiarity with the watershed.

Ol'bucket mouth is sick and freakin' tired of sitting in.the deep dark abyss and is anxiously seeking out warm quiet shallow pockets to chill in and get fat on crawdads as they come out of hibernation and molt. He/she will not pass up a well presented jig or tube. The cool thing about Lake O winter drawdown is that it scrubs the shoreline with every rain, cleaning it of all the silt, leaf litter, and other assorted muck.....so that when the water level is brought back up to 658-660 ol'bucketface has a nice fresh and tidy playground in the shallows.

Interesting point, and one I hadn't thought about....and almost hate to mention it out loud: If floaters are allowed to camp below the high water mark on navigable waterways then what could a campground owner do about floaters (accessing from above) camping on their place for free? Not that I'd ever want to, but couldn't you if you did want to? The folks at NRO, HO-HUM, Gasconade Hills, Sunburst, ROLF, ect. would have a freakin' fit if folks did that. But what could they do about it?

My stickers are kinda faded. I should be able to come chill with y'all. Sounds like a fun time. Good choice on the stretch of river too.

I know that around here people get run off from places by jackasses that don't even have a right to run anyone off. They just decide that they 'own' some land and start treating it like they do. Hoping (I assume) to one day own it by adverse possession. That's Horseshit ! There's a crapload of unattended/unmaintained property within 5 miles of me, so maybe I should just start nailing signs on trees and running people off from it. Maybe it's time to start requiring deed record #'s on all No Trespassing signs before charging someone with trespass.

Avg.55° in the shallow muddy water in the evenings.

Well, one of you broke the law. Either you were trespassing, or he (they) were harassing/terrorizing people unlawfully, and if either of them by chance had a few drinks with dinner then they are additionally guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm. The only reason I can fathom for you to "handle it directly with them" is if you feel that you broke the law. Otherwise you are choosing to attempt negotiations with possible felons. No? I'm afraid you may have dropped the ball by not calling the sheriff soon after the confrontation took place. Did you not have cell service, or the other guys not have access to a phone or be willing to show deed to the land? How far away was their house? Seems that if you are going to run someone off of a piece of non-posted land while packing a firearm then you should be required to show that you do indeed own it. For the time being I would not refer to (them) as "the land owners", because they may not even own the land.

Did you work over the mats of floating crud? That's where I found bites on Sunday. Some were as shallow as 10" but most were in 2-3' in the muddy soup, right on the edges of those thick mats of sticks, leaves, and sawdust. I ran down to clearer water for awhile, but the bites were better for me up in the mud so I came back up. Saw a few guys shootin'docks in that mud and I'm betting they had a slow day of it. Ya never know til ya try though I guess.

K, no prob.

Does your new sonar unit have a voltage readout? If so there's no need for a dedicated voltmeter....and another hole in the dash. The digital readout on most LCR's are actually more accurate and easier to read than a analog guage.

Visibility on this side of the pond is about 3 inches, and big mats of "sawdust" and wood debris are in the backs of all the little pockets. I couldn't catch a bass for the life of me but there were some nice slabs hanging under all that floating crud.... and I'm celebrating it as I type How a crappie can even find a jig in this soup is a mystery, but they can ! All males here too, today.

That's awesome! Now there is one ol'boy that won't sleep tonite.