MrGiggles

Thank you! I was kicked back in my tower blind, heater rolling, not really expecting to see anything. All of the sudden there he was. 😆 It's been quite the experience, went from having almost too many deer to hardly any. Landowners had some control, but unless you have a 1000+ acre parcel it only takes a few neighbors that don't care very much to put a big dent in the population, with how a good food source like that can draw in every deer from several miles around in the late season.

Got em. Not where I planned to find him, just got lucky. Bigger than I ever thought he was.

Firearms wasn't anything special here, real warm. Only had one encounter with a nice buck at 300+ yards, wasn't willing to try that shot. I didn't even attempt to plant my big food plots because of the drought, although I did make a new "kill plot" of sorts that is drawing some deer. The loggers took a few big walnuts out 5 years ago and left a 1/4 acre strip that was open, I got in there this summer, mowed it, and raked all the trash out. Waited for a chance of rain and tossed out some turnip seed with some wheat. The wheat didn't amount to much, the turnips really didn't either but there is some green there and tubers that are about as big as your thumb. I've got the muzzleloader sighted in and ready, just waiting on a wind switch to set up. They pass through there about every day, there's a few decent bucks but this is the biggest.

I hit it yesterday afternoon for the first time in a long time. In 2hrs I had 6 keepers and 1 short. Mostly 9.5-10"ers with one that might have gone 12. Good size for Pomme. Standing timber in the mouth of a cove.

Glad to see a recent report, haven't been out in quite a while. Last time I was though it was the same story, lot of just under legal fish. Looks like Stockton may be having another off year for crappie.

After much tinkering I may be able to hit the water again soon. Found this old girl on marketplace, ending up getting into the powerhead and the power trim needed a couple seals, not as good of a deal as I had hoped but it was still cheap enough. Seems to run good but I have yet to test it on the water. Lost 40hp, but I also lost about 200lbs off the transom.

And you know it's the same ones that have a "watch for motorcycles" sticker plastered on everything they own.

Wire feed only? What size material are you working with, and how often? You can pick up a great many imported 200A machine that should cover you pretty well up to 3/8 steel for $1000 or so. A name brand machine will likely give you a better duty cycle and more of an assurance that replacement parts will be available in the future, and there is a lot of stuff in a wire welder that can fail, really depends on how much you use it, and how much you want to spend.

You can fish the best spots on the lake sheltered from the elements, without the hassle of boat control. Moving from spot to spot is generally pretty easy. No bugs, no snakes, no heat, although you can get a sunburn, we took a trip to LOTW when I was in 5th grade, early March as I recall. To quote one of my teachers "he came back looking like a little indian." I will winter fish here with the best of them, but I feel like riding around in a boat right on the line of freezing is a much harsher experience with the wind and spray.

Most trailers with brakes are supposed to have a breakaway system that will apply the brakes if they ever get disconnected from the tow vehicle. The little cable that you clip onto the bumper somewhere is what trips them. I lost one once going over a whoopy section of road that's near here. That trailer has the squeeze type coupler, not the flip lever like I was used to, just forgot to close it. Chains caught it but the jack was toast, thankfully was empty so I just lifted it back on the ball and got back on the road.

I snuck out last Tuesday. Did pretty good on crappie but they were lacking in size. Every brushpile I hit was loaded with 9-9.75 fish. Only had two keepers at the end of the night.

The Merc hit the road today, I feel like I did pretty well on it. It was still running fine and had no issues, but the weight was starting to cause problems. Cracks starting on both sides of my transom brace. The game plan now is to find a cheap 50-60hp motor, slap that on the Turd and it will likely hit the road too once I strip my goodies off of it. From that point on I'm not sure what the plan is. I had considered getting something like the Starcraft Chieftain aluminum cuddies. That would be cool, but a big compromise in terms of fishing. May run up north and grab a walleye boat like I wanted to start with.

I've been feeling bored and a little burned about with fishing. Felt like I needed to take a break and refocus for a little while, I have only been out a handful of times this summer. Anyone else ever feel that way? I've also been reconsidering my boat setup. The Fourstroke is just too heavy. It doesn't tow that well anymore (especially with a full livewell), and my transom brace is starting to crack. Whether that means a repower, or swapping boats, I'm not sure yet.

Mercury was in bed with Yamaha up until 2006 if I'm remembering right, it may very well be a Yamaha powerhead. My first thought, you presumably changed the fuel filter, it started leaking fuel soon after. Start looking at everything you touched. About all there is on that motor is an impulse driven fuel pump (could leak through the diaphragm out of the weep hole), two fuel lines, the carb, and a filter. There's not a lot to rule out. It appears that there are two vent hoses that attach to the carb and tee together, if there is fuel in that hose, there is likely some debris in the needle and seat that's causing it to overflow. It probably runs through and out of the lower cowl so it cannot fill with gas. The primer bulb is an excellent tool for creating pressure in the system without the engine running, and will help you find a leak. If you are squeezing the bulb and it is not holding pressure, that is a sign that there is a leak somewhere. It should firm up and stay that way for quite a while, if the engine is off. This scenario likely would have been an issue from the get go, but I have heard that some of these new sealed fuel tanks can create enough pressure in hot weather to pop off the needle and push gas through the carb overflow. I don't think it's very likely, but if you've checked everything else over and can't find anything, something to consider.

I snuck out on Friday, didn't catch a thing. Saw some guys pulling up white bass here and there, probably could have done well with them if I tried. I have never done well in September. Just a tough month.

If you premix, most mix oils already have stabilizers in them. JMO but no stabilizer on the market is better than fresh gas. Use it up. Half full or full makes little difference, let it sit for years and you will have problems either way.

I bought a couple salvaged 40ah Valence batteries to try out on my Terrova. They're used in medical equipment for power outages and stuff, supposedly low cycles but who knows. Lithium manufacturers say that a lithium is comparable to a lead acid that has twice the capacity, because you can discharge a lithium near 100%, and you should only discharge a lead acid to 50-60%. I was always pretty skeptical, and could never find out if lead acid batteries are rated with that taken into consideration, or if you really only got 50ah out of a 100ah battery. Regardless, I took the plunge anyway and bought four 40ah lithiums, hoping to only need two while keeping the others in reserve if needed. I had Everstart 29DCs previously which are supposed to be a little over 100ah. I have been pleasantly surprised, haven't ran them dead yet. I installed a battery meter at the same time and noted a current draw of 5-8 amps at speeds I typically use, so 8+ hours of run time in those conditions. No voltage drop so the motor is stronger and never drops off. I had already upgraded my charger last year to a Noco, so charging is no extra hassle. Overall I'm very pleased, and should be set for a long time.

Pulling cranks is a lot of fun. You never know what you might hook into. Now through the first couple weeks of October, and early summer is when I always did the best with it. Like Dan says, #7 Flickers are my go-to, blue tiger, purple tiger, pearl white, and firetiger are usually what I start with. I always used the electric motor and tried to run around 2mph. I have used all variations of diving setups and preferred snap weights over anything else, let out 30ft of line, put your weight on, and let more out as needed. 1oz was usually enough for me. More often than not I don't use anything at all anymore, and just let 100-120ft of line out, that'll get you down 12ish feet with a #7 flicker and 12lb braid. I have bottom bounced a lot more this year and last with mixed success. It's still not my favorite method but it's growing on me. There's a good thread in the general angling section with more info than I could give. I think I need to go put my rod racks back in...

You're looking at things in a very narrow perspective. Nobody is arguing that professional fishing is physically demanding. Maybe more so than an office job, but nothing like what you mentioned. Distance from your family, sponsor relations, living in hotels, pressure to always perform, the lack of long term success, those mental demands are going to take a toll on you. Ask yourself this, if it was that easy, wouldn't everyone be doing it?

I always felt like the odd man out, but prefer working in the late morning/early afternoon in the summer. It's always dead still and far more humid in the morning even if the temperature is a little lower, once the sun burns that humidity off a little and the breeze picks up some I find it to be a little bit more bearable.

You know it's bad when you get excited to see that it's only gonna be in the 90s this weekend.

I snuck away to Crabtree yesterday afternoon. Man, the lake was busy. Felt like a holiday weekend. I expected the lake to be higher with all the rain in the Springfield area, but it hasn't risen much, if at all. The fishing was terrible. Ended the afternoon with one short walleye and a drum.

AKA, the lowest hanging fruit. 😁

I haven't been fishing a whole lot this summer. I did go out with a buddy Sunday morning and had 7 walleye (3 keepers), two channel cat and two crappie between us. Great morning until the wind came up. Mostly BB in 20ft or so.

My powerhead will blow again before I every need to worry about spark plugs.