MrGiggles

I went to Masters yesterday afternoon, talk about tough. Wind was up and she was really rocking and rolling. Caught one short crappie and a white. Went down Maze right at sunset and started marking some fish. Didn't fish very long though, didn't feel like navigating through that minefield in the dark.

A motor with soon-to-be fried brushes.

It's a trendy thing among the younger crowd. A lot of my classmates were doing it 10 years ago, I don't know the reasoning behind it. Probably the same reason some people wear their hat backwards. I do it occasionally to keep mud off my pants. I wear pull-on (not real cowboy boots, per se) Wellington style boots for a couple reasons. They're usually waterproof for one, and with your pants pulled down over them, you will not get fescue seeds, sawdust, burrs, molten metal, or other trash down in them. Crap stuck to my socks drives me absolutely nuts, can't stand it.

Caught many a walleye through the ice with a tuffy head on a Swedish pimple. I went ahead and picked up Livescope, figured I might as well with the rebate about to end. All I have to say is that it is incredible, and intuitive. I've had side imaging for years and am still not that good at interpreting it. I had livescope dialed in and working within an hour. Nothing comes close. I went over to Pomme since the wind was pretty strong. Water is real high and muddy. I ended up with 3 keeper and 3 short crappie. For every one I caught, there were probably 20 that wouldn't commit. That lake is chock full of crappie.

I ran around the dam last night. Didn't catch a thing. Lot of guys are out there apparently catching walleyes after dark, but I haven't been. Every night that I've been out lately there's been several boats circled around every point by the dam. Water is clear and 45ish degrees.

It's private though.

I know, but they don't actively stock them in Bull, and I don't think anyone really knows how they got there in the first place. There are really no good places that I know of to catch them in Missouri. Bull has a few, and I read somewhere that Forest Lake up by Kirksville has some.

I wish MDC would stock those in Stockton and Bull. Good eating.

I'm a transplant. Moved here in 2006 when I was 13 from Minnesota. I'm kind of indifferent about Missouri, but I think a lot of it is a grass is always greener scenario. Weather wise we get the worst of everything. Heat like the south, cold like the north. Ice storms, tornadoes, snow fall, and heat waves. We got occasional 90+ heat waves in Minnesota, but not like here. And it actually cooled off at night. Of course that is offset by the 5-6 solid months of winter. The low cost of living here was nice, but seems to be going away rapidly with the influx of new residents. Land is insane right now, 10k an acre is not out of the question if you're in a good location. 110 acre farm down the road sold last week for just under a million. No way that farm could ever pay for itself in a lifetime. If I was going to move anywhere, I'd buy a lake house back in Minnesota.

As of Tuesday the main lake was pretty clear, with a lot of leaves and trash floating around. I haven't been since we got the last big shower.

For sure, there is no comparison between them. But compared to what people had at the time, which was practically nothing short of a string and a rock, the innovation is comparable.

I'm guessing guys were saying the same thing back when flashers came out.

If the original paint is still stuck pretty good, just sand it, take any scratches down to bare metal. Epoxy primer will stick like crazy to just about anything, but you can't hardly sand it, best to go wet on wet if you use it. This place is over by Monett, fast shipping and good prices. A gallon single stage kit should work well for you. If you are not very picky about colors, equipment paint from TSC can work pretty well, make sure you use hardener, makes a big difference. https://allkandys.com/shop/

I prefer to keep males. Not sure if it makes a big difference, but seems to me that it would. Shallow fishing can be so temperamental, especially on the main lake where the water is so clear. I think they only spawn deep, or only at night around there. Out of the past 3 springs I've been fishing Stockton, only once have I found shallow fish, up towards High Point. Pomme is a much better bet, I usually don't have as much trouble there, even during the high water years, some of those marooned docks were dynamite.

Went out tonight and only managed a 7" crappie. Put in at Masters and ran to high point. Water was pretty dingy and warmer down there (40*, 38 at Masters). I could not find any big schools of shad, only small, scattered ones. Lots of big lone marks out suspended in no mans land. I did throw a jerkbait for a while over shallow wind blown flats where the seagulls were diving, with no bites, although if I caught anything on that it would just be dumb luck, I have no clue how to properly run a jerkbait.

She's cooked. The biggest issue is what kind of shape the spindle is in. Don't rely on bearing buddies alone. They are a good idea in theory but don't hold up all that well in practice. They won't pump fresh grease in where it actually needs to go. A couple times per year pop the cap off, remove the spindle nut, and slide the hub/wheel assembly off. Check the grease in the rear bearing, make sure it's still liquid and hasn't turned into coffee grounds, add new grease if it needs it. That's all you need to do. The bearings and races are fairly inexpensive and usually not hard to find. Autozone and TSC usually have them in stock.

Used to go with my uncle out to Grindstone lake in Minnesota and catch smelt. Crazy, toothy, chub looking fish. Used to bring them home by the 5 gallon bucket full, clean them with a scissors, cut the head off, slit the bellies and pull the guts out. Fry them whole.

And delicious, if you can get around the bones. They're right up there with any other game fish. If you've ever had pickled herring, pickled northern is better. Shad aren't much different than sardines. Throw them in a tin with some oil, probably taste about the same.

3M 90 or Super 77. Both will work, but I like 90 more for carpet, it's a lot stringier than 77. Cut your piece, spray both sides, wait till it dries enough for it to not stick to your fingers, and slap them together.

I found a few smaller ones checking river channels, but nothing big like I had been fishing before we got the bad weather. I found the one in the photos totally by accident, was motoring around a cove trying to see how thick the ice was, and ran across it. Didn't think you'd find them back there when the water is this cold.

Sync was set pretty good. Quick adjustment to the linkage got the idle down. Just for shits I removed the carb linkage and tried opening each carb one at a time. They all responded pretty much the same, speeding up slightly and eventually choking out if you went too far. Plugs are looking better, bottom is still just a touch cleaner, they're oily because it's essentially running a 25:1 oil mix, the oil system should be bled, so I can fill it up with straight gas. Not sure if it was the Boyeson reeds, or just the removal of a big vacuum leak from the crank seal, but it picked up 2mph on the top end as well. I disconnected the electric pump, the mechanical pump seems to lose prime, think the plastic check valves may leak, need to prime it up if it sits for more than 30 minutes. Those are NLA so I'm not sure what to do about that. Wonder if a Briggs impulse pump would work. I'll keep an eye out for a set of carbs on Ebay, until I find a decent deal it runs well enough as is. I did try counting turns on the pilot air screws, they're so long winded that it's hard to keep count, and worn enough that the screwdriver just wants to slip out, then you're back at square one. They do all bottom out with the screws oriented differently (meaning, one may have the slot horizontal, the other vertical, and the other in between), but that may very well be just variance in the way those needles are manufacturered. I guess I could take one needle and try it in every carb.

You know it's a good one when the depth finder gets confused and thinks they're the bottom.

After running it for a good long while tonight, it is definitely better, but still not 100%. I'm going to pull the plugs in the morning, see what they look like. It was also idling high, higher than it ever has, I'm going to check the sync again, it never occurred to me until now that since I had the reed plates and everything apart things may not have gone back in the exact same place. Watching videos on Youtube of these motors, half run perfectly smooth, and the rest are lumpy and rough like mine.

Got out today. Quite a few boats out, most ramps are clear now, very little ice left, what is there is really slushy and easily broken. Wind was brutal and I didn't really do much main lake fishing. I eventually stumbled across a school of shad back in a cove and found some fish in it. Mostly short crappie, but a couple keepers and one walleye. No luck with the spoon today, 1/8 oz pink jig and a zoom tiny fluke is what they seemed to prefer.