MrGiggles

I use 10lb Power Pro with a leader. White or yellow high vis, green is too hard to see. I've been using the same spool for 3 years now and I don't think it has knotted up once. I like Fireline too, it has a little more memory than normal braid but still far less than mono. I used Nanofil for a season, it was okay, but I found that it would eventually fatigue just from running through the guides. I'd have to strip a hundred feet off now and then to get to fresh stuff before a knot would hold. It also sucks to tie with. I never bought any more, it really didn't seem to offer much over regular braid. I have buddies that can't stand braid, cuss it the whole time they're forced to use it, but I get along fine and don't do anything special. Occasionally I will get a loop around the front of the spool but it's easily dealt with before it gets out of hand. Reeling on a totally slack line is what does that.

I went out again last night. Came home with a good mess. Same story, crappie really deep on the drop shot, 40ft down in ~50ft. The whites and the walleye on points casting at dusk. Probably could've done better on the walleye if I had stayed later, but I pulled out just before 9. I've always heard jerkbaits are the best, I haven't caught a thing on that $30 jerkbait, crappie jigs have done way better for me.

Yeah I was talking about the plastic gutters. The ID on them is quite a bit smaller than a 2x4.

2x4s won't fit inside unless you rip them.

I used to have PVC gutters on mine. I didn't really notice a big difference in loading and unloading, so I put carpet back on. I also couldn't find any that would fit well over a full size 2x4. Just like anything else it can be the best thing ever for one and a nightmare for another. My boat is not that hard to crank up, and I like to drop the winch while backing down. I won't pull the boat out of the water without the winch hooked, but when the bunks are dry and the boat is pulled up hard against the bow stop I don't worry too much.

I was out again last night. Did much better as far as walleyes go, between the two of us we had probably 15 fish but mostly shorts. Anywhere from 15-30 feet. The one big female I caught was still full of eggs so they are not done with the spawn but I suspect we are at the tail end of it. Crappie are still tough to find on the main lake.

I found crappie in 50ft yesterday on brush by the dam. Real deep. Caught one short walleye and two bass casting around the points near the dam last night. Been pretty slow both nights that I have gone recently.

Torsion axles are simpler in mounting. Bolted right to the frame. They can ride a little smoother. Parts are more expensive and they're a lot more complicated to do any work to. Can't just bolt a in a new spring pack. I think coil springs are more susceptible to sagging but that may or may not be true. Won't know what kind of shape they're in until you put a boat on it.

If you're gonna be crawling around on the ground drilling holes you might as well do it right and get a proper receiver hitch. It's not hard at all, most trucks are already drilled for them. Modern bumpers are good as a step and for hanging a license plate on, that's about it. Doesn't take much at all to tweak them, especially when you've got a 4ft lever hanging off of it.

I would only need to make it 60 miles round trip for any of the lakes around here. They are still way too expensive for me to ever consider in the near future. Range goes way down in the cold with EVs. That is no secret. Cold weather hurts conventional vehicles too though. Heck it hasn't been that long since we figured out how to make a diesel start in the cold unassisted.

Same here. Costs me $40+ to run out to Stockton and back, definitely not worth it for a couple hours of fishing. And I don't have a "thirsty" rig by any means, probably somewhere in the middle. I definitely miss my 14ft Alumacraft with a 25 Johnson, and a Ford Ranger to pull it. I've been going out probably twice a month lately. I don't even know if I'll be able to keep that up. If that electric F150 was a little cheaper, I'd have one ordered. That tank a week in my current truck would go pretty far towards making the payment.

I've got a Garmin Striker 5CV that I'd sell for $150.

There are places to avoid and places to stay with the wind on Stockon, use the terrain to your advantage. Just generally speaking, the main lake and most of the big sac arm is awful in a strong south wind. The little sac arm is more sheltered, aside from west winds. The dam will block a north wind pretty well, but it can still get some rollers going the further south you go.

If you want to some snagging for spoonbill, I have buddy that is doing some pretty reasonable guide trips this year. If you're staying in Stockton then I'd say you could put in at Orleans or the city ramp and fish the dam area, or Hawker and run down towards Mutton. CC/Greenfield is really popular this time of year as well but the ramp is a zoo.

I'm a transplant, originally from the Detroit Lakes area. No pike in the state. Pomme De Terre has a pretty good musky population though. The crappie fishing has been excellent on Stockton this year. Start looking in the mouths of bigger coves, and in creek arms. Walleye should be close to spawning if they haven't already. Check the points close to the dam at dusk, there's usually a pretty decent crowd of boats anchored up there fishing for them at dusk. Stockton is a big lake and fishes totally different from one end to the other. It would be good to know where you're planning on fishing. Only thing unique I can think of is spoonbill. Season is open now, maybe you could book a guide. Stockton is pretty close to the Osceola/Taberville area on the Osage river.

47-50 around Masters.

I went last year once for the first time. I had always wanted to but didn't have any of the stuff or knowledge to do it. I think it's fun but it definitely has it's nuances. If you aren't doing the right technique in the right area you'll just be losing a lot of expensive tackle and wearing yourself out. But I supposed that applies to a lot of species. I went with a buddy, on that particular night they were suspended pretty high in the water column so we used Livescope. Run them down, drop it right on their back, and hope you connect. I thought the meat was okay. Not the worst but nothing to really write home about. I cooked up some steaks with a little lemon pepper season in a frying pan. I thought that was decent. I also sliced some thin and fried it. Some pieces were really good, some had a pretty strong fishy taste. We trimmed all the red meat, took out the spinal chord, etc. I'd like to try it smoked or grilled. Unless we get a lot of rain this week, the conditions will be a lot better this year.

I always liked being able to hear the bullet impact. BOOM......thwack.

I shot a 300 BO for a while. The issue I always had was finding good hunting bullets that would expand at lower velocities, that were also reasonably priced. At the time Barnes had one but they were about 75c a piece. Nosler 125gr BTs were what I used, but they weren't real cheap either, and there was really no guarantee that they would expand reliably since they were designed for the 308/06. I bought a 6.5 Grendel barrel a couple years later during a New Years sale and sold all of my 300 stuff. Which was kind of a mistake because 6.5 ammo has been next to impossible to find lately. Last I saw was $40-50 a box for the good stuff, steel is just shy of a dollar. An upper in 350 has been on my list for a while. I see cheap ammo laying around for it everywhere. I haven't noticed any real correlation with caliber and whether they're DRT or if they run a ways. Shot a tiny doe with a 30-06 at 40 yards, she ran probably 60 yards leaving a blood trail that a blind man could follow. My 2020 buck had a 50 cal hole through the boiler room and he still ran 80 yards without bleeding much at all. All of my 270 kills have been DRT but I think that's just a coincidence. A shot through the nervous system is the only thing that will kill them right there every time.

It's really nothing groundbreaking, but has a couple small things going for it. Mainly, you can load long, low BC bullets. It's a short action round with good velocity, minimal recoil, and excellent ballistics. I think people hate on it because it's popular and a little overhyped. The advantages aren't significant enough to matter for what 99% of us use a rifle for. But people like to play with the latest and greatest, which is fine. I haven't had any trouble finding ammo. Finding it reasonable priced on the other hand, forget it. Been to a couple places that had plenty but it was marked up 20-50%. Online is a lot better but still a lot of price gouging. Ammoseek is the best thing ever.

Old bridge of some sort under Stockton lake.

I see. You made it seem like you had that exact aftermarket control.

I'm not sure that Merc is even to blame here since that isn't a Quicksilver control box.

You can unplug the control harness under the cowl to isolate it. Big round twist lock connector on the right side. If it still acts up the issue has to be in the trim switch under the cowl or in the harness. I have that exact control box on mine, if that's what you have too, I'd almost bet the problem is in there because it's a Chinese POS.

I have a couple antique gambrels, basically a bar with two cast hooks and a swivel loop on top. Hooks into that tendon behind the knee. I have a cheap 1/2" rope pulley tied to a garage rafter. Feed the rope through there, tie it off to the ATV winch, and winch them up, tie the gambrel up when done. The garage is insulated/unheated and stays pretty cold with all the doors and windows shut. Couple that with a few cold nights and I'm comfortable leaving them hang with the hide on for a few days unless we have a really bad warm spell. The meat stays cold enough to be uncomfortable while skinning. We have a neighbor that strings them up in the front yard, lets them hang for a week in the sun even when it's 60*, no hide. The things are black and nasty by the time they process the carcass, but they keep doing it.