groundedchevy

I’m making the drive up from Springfield and my brother in law is making the drive from KC next week. Planning to meet at the ramp off 13 called Sparrowfoot or Bucksaw. After some googling it appears Truman is known as a great crappie lake. Should we stick with crappie or is there a bass population too. How bad is the under water timber? Looking at it off the bridge it appears we will need to be careful with the boat. Would you suggest to launch at Sparrowfoot or Bucksaw? We would appreciate any insight about the lake that would be helpful to us. Thank you in advance.

Anyone have any fishing reports? First time I’ve been on this part of Bull Shoals in years. Just trying to get an idea of what to expect this time of the year. Any tips or suggestions?

Thanks for all the help everyone. Unfortunately the water was deep cold and dirty and we pretty much had zero luck except 1 perch my buddy caught. We were on the water at 5:00 am and lasted until about 11.

What ounce bottom bouncers do you guys use when going for Walleye?

Thanks for the help guys. I might get out there a little early for the bait shops to be open. I figured I'd set the slip bobber at about 12 foot. Does that depth sound about right?

A friend and I our planning on heading to Bull Shoals tomorrow. Plan was to pick up some minnows and go for crappie. Any suggestions? I was planning on launching at Shadow Rock or K Dock (I don't know the lake very well at all). We will leaving from Springfield and I don't want much over a hour drive. Also I might mention that my boat is very slow therefore most of the fishing will take place close to the launch ramp. Any ideas would be appreciated....he isn't a fisherman and I'd like to show him a good time for getting up so early.

Thanks everyone for all the great information. Doing some research I think a lot of my trouble might be the trim. If the weather is nice I might be able to get out on Sunday morning and I'll try moving the bar on my motor mount to where my motor is out farther from the boat. Looking at the condition of my fuel lines I should have them replace sooner than later but I might try and tackle that one myself. Rebuiling the waterpump and impeller seems like a bigger task than I want to tackle. Anythoughts on a local mechanic that wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg for this?

Thanks It starts up right away and runs smooth. Sometimes it has a little problem running at very low speeds. I think this is mainly to due to it running too rich. If I clean the spark plugs before i take it out I usually have very little trouble. I'm afraid to mess with anything because I don't want to get it too lean. I do notice that the fuel lines look like they could be replaced and I was thinking about doing a fuel pump rebuild at the same time. There is still water coming out of the pee hole but not quite as fast I would think it should (Then again I don't know). I was just thinking about having it replaced for piece of mind then I know the history of the maintenance. I don't mind working on things but at the same time if I could find a good honest mechanic to go through the motor for $150-200 and replace the fuel lines and water pump I would let them do it all day long. I will check around the heads for burned off paint....I know all 4 cylinders are firing because of the condition of the spark plugs coming out. Maybe I'll stop by O'reillys and rent a compression tester and see where I'm at there. The motor does not have power trim on it. i have noticed that there is a bar on the bracket that you can move up and down that will adjust the trim. Maybe I'll play around with it a little bit. I'll google correct trim height. I'm a little confused on whats optimal.

I recently purchased an old 67 Starcraft 15' fiberglass boat with a 67 Mercury 650 Outboard. I don't know much about Outboard engines but I've worked on about everything else and I'm a good weekend warrior mechanic. I heard this motors love to eat the impeller and dropping the lower unit sounds like a task I don't want to tackle unless it is easier than I think. Does anyone know of a good reasonable mechanic for this type of motor? I don't want to invest too much because honestly I only purchased the whole boat for $600. The motor runs and starts great but the boat is a lot slower than I expected with it having a 65 HP on it especially since the boat weighs hardly anything. I've replaced the plugs and it does appear to be running a tad bit on the rich side. I was in my friends boat 18' aluminum boat with an old 9.5 hp Mercury and it seemed to go faster than my boat. Any suggestions here? Thanks for the help in advance.