Sam

fishinwrench, bfishn, - thanks! I think maybe I found and corrected the problem, but if not I'll take the boat to a qualified tech - 'cause you lost me at "relay". Checked everything I could think of with a digital voltage meter and didn't find anything strange. BUT there's a plastic plate flush with the deck at the front of my boat and the motor-tilt "up" and "down" buttons and the three-point plug-in for my trolling motor are mounted in that plate. All three are threaded, pass through the plate, and are secured by flat nuts. The "up" button nut was 'way loose and that switch was flopping around and had a lot of wiggle in the hole, so I tightened it. Maybe being loose in the hole was causing something to ground out occasionally. The wires to those switch buttons are real thin, and I'm thinking they must work like a starter solenoid on an old car - pressing the button just shorts out a small current to ground but that runs through a solenoid switch that sends current through a much bigger wire to the electric motor that raises or lowers the outboard motor. Is that right? For now I've got the battery reconnected and my boat is on the trailer in the garage. I left the tie-down strap off the outboard motor and left it half-elevated. Made sure the prop won't hit anything in either full-up or full-down position, and I've leaned a small stick against the prop that will fall over if that motor moves when I'm not looking - high-tech, huh? I'll disconnect the battery overnight for a couple of nights just to be sure, but I think the problem may have been that simple. The boat took a pounding running through whitecap waves last trip, so that would account for shaking some things loose. Thanks again!

My wife and I just got back from the store and were unloading groceries when she came in the kitchen and said "Something just came on in the garage." By the time I got there I heard an electric motor run for a few more seconds, then it quit. Looking around my boat on its trailer, I saw that the outboard motor had power-tilted itself all the way up and fortunately the prop didn't quite reach my garage workbench. The rubber motor tie-down strap wasn't broken but the metal hook was straightened out. My boat Is a Tracker TX-17 and I swapped the original motor out for a 50 hp Suzuki 4-stroke a few years ago. There are three power-tilt controls - up and down buttons at the front of the boat, an up-down toggle switch on the throttle lever, and an up-down toggle switch on the side of the motor itself. Standing there scratching my head, I figured my wife's cat must have stepped on the front deck "up" button - but I didn't see the cat. THEN - all by itself, it did it again. The tilt motor went on for about two seconds, trying to raise the already all-the-way-up motor, then turned off again. O.K., I can't put up with that. Imagine if it did that when I'm not around or in the middle of the night - dead battery, burned-out tilt motor, etc. What if that happened while trailering the boat? Not good. I disconnected the main battery ground wire and I guess for now I'll leave it that way and re-connect it at the launch ramp. Any recurrences while fishing would be a major problem, though. I've got to fix this, and since the short is intermittent I don't even know where to start. Suggestions?

Just sharing an old-time trick here. Fishing the James River with my grandpa long before Tablerock dam was built, he had a combined method for getting us some crawdads and catfish. He raised chickens at home and when they'd have a chicken dinner he'd save the innards, feathers, feet, heads, etc. in a burlap sack along with a big rock - and he'd bury the sack in his garden. When we went fishing he'd dig the sack up and tie it to the back bumper of his car - it smelled so awful that's the only way we could stand to haul it. At the river he'd tie a long light rope to that sack and throw it in the river at the head of a "hole" of still water where the current ran in. We'd fish elsewhere up and down the river for awhile then come back and bait-fish on the bottom near that sack for catfish. Those foul chicken parts would attract every catfish in the "hole", and when we got done fishing he'd haul the sack in by the rope as fast as he could, hand over hand. Crawdads would be clinging all over it and once they were up on the bank we'd grab them quick before they could get back to the water. The catfish part of this method is probably illegal now, I suspect. So far as crawdads, though, I bet some version of this trick would still work.

Thanks, Bill. I'm thinking back to a time when I was by myself on Bull Shoals and I had a big, flopping walleye in a landing net in the bottom of the boat. This deal quickly deteriorated into the rear treble hook of my plug being hooked in the walleye and tangled in the net, while the front hook had two hook-points buried beyond the barbs in my hand. It took quite a bit of blood, pain, and work with pliers to get myself out of that mess, and I wouldn't recommend it to others. Hey, there are often posts here by people without a boat asking where they can find some good BANK FISHING on Tablerock. If this early-morning white bass bite keeps up for awhile I'd as soon be casting from that bank just north of the Branson Belle or from the long rip-rap rock bank just north of the Dam as from a boat. People were jogging on a path just inside the trees there by the Branson Belle, so I guess that's part of the State Park. Just north of the Dam, I noticed a parking lot on top and a concrete sidewalk that switchbacks down to the water through the big boulders. First light, that's where I'd be throwing an in-line spinner or a small plug or spoon. Hope this helps someone.

I like the reel a LOT. I didn't spend the money to get a combo, so I put the new 200 Lew's reel on a medium-action Browning spinning rod I had. They work fine together, but I'm pretty sure Browning is a Bass Pro brand so I've been watching for smoke in case those two self-combust from touching. hehe. Dunno about you guys throwing top-water baits with THREE treble hooks at these big whites. I think I'd about as soon hire somebody to hang me - I've been having enough trouble getting just one treble unhooked and back in the water while they're boiling. I bet you'd get some double hookups that way because most every white I caught yesterday came to the boat along with others trying to take the Roostertail away from it. I don't need that - It's hard enough for me to get these monsters in one at a time.

Bill, you've got 'em figured out - they're on a 5:30 to 8:30 a.m. schedule, and at 8:30 they turn off like hitting a switch. A friend and I put in at State Park this morning and fished nearby, mostly around the Branson Belle and the Dam area. Early, I don't think it mattered where we fished - most all the banks had boiling white bass with baitfish jumping up on the shore. We didn't see any real big boils, just little bunches of whites all along the banks. We only caught 14 but they were big, and I think we lost almost as many as we landed. The idea of putting a single circle hook on a Roostertail didn't work. I was missing 3 out of 4 strikes with that rig, and soon went back to a Roostertail with a treble. My partner was throwing a small chrome spoon with a treble hook, and that worked fine, too. I treated myself to a new Lew's Speed Spin reel last week and I filled it with 10 lb. PowerPro braid and used it for the first time today. Caught a big white bass on my first cast with the new reel - that's gotta be a good sign, huh?

I'm going tomorrow morning, and I guess I'll stick with the Roostertail. Well, Bass Pro's knock-off Micro-Spin version, anyway. When I was catching whites last week, they were hitting hard and swallowing the lure deep. Not as deep as you describe, but the Roostertail was way down in there and a pain to get out with needle-nose pliers. The way they're swallowing things, I'm going to try something different. I'll cut the treble hooks off a couple of Micro-Spins and replace them with single Kahle circle hooks. I'm betting those big aggressive whites are gulping down baits then closing their mouths, swimming at high speed when they do it. If they're swallowing the lure I'm not going to miss any strikes - but I bet I'll get a good, solid hookset in the jaw as it comes back up. How's that for an idea?

Roostertail. I generally like the 1/6 oz. size, but as big as these whites are running 1/4 oz. is fine and you can cast it even further. When white bass are really hitting and going for topwater stuff, I raise my rod tip and burn the roostertail across the surface like a fast buzzbait - they'll nail it. For in-between blowups when they're not feeling so froggy, I just drop the rod tip, slow down, and retrieve it a little deeper. They'll still hit hard and get hooked deep when they're in a feeding frenzy, but I think maybe they don't swallow a fast-moving Roostertail as deep as slower lures. A Roostertail is easier to get out of them with needle nose pliers, since you're grabbing ahold of the treble hook only. Boy, that's frustrating isn't it when you're having to spend a bunch of time trying to get a white bass unhooked while others are boiling all around the boat? I've been saying "Roostertail", but I really like the Bass Pro knock-off Micro-Spin series a lot better. Those have bigger blades that turn better and at slower speeds than the original Roostertail, the treble hooks are bigger for better hookups, and they're cheaper. Bill, thanks for the report on the white bass. That's happening some between Mill Creek and Cow Creek too, but I haven't been going that early.

I fish for the dinner table and trolling is exactly my idea of fun. I troll a lot more than I cast, though I use trolling to locate concentrations of fish to cast to. Of course I'm not fishing for, nor do I keep, black bass - but I catch a lot of them. There are lots and lots of black bass 'way out away from the banks where they don't get fished for so much. Last Wednesday near Mill Creek I caught a 21 1/4" largemouth with a wore-down tail on a light spinning rod and a Roostertail - fun! BTW, can anyone here estimate what that fish would weigh? She went back in the lake unharmed. I figured out a long time ago that all my hobbies are "acquisitive" - I've got to figure I'm bringing something home, even if fish filets cost me a lot more than they would if I'd bought them at a market. Back when I used to play golf, what I liked best was finding lost golf balls and coming home with more than I went with. Different strokes, different folks. One thing I get a kick out of when trolling is that you don't know what you'll catch. Walleyes, crappie, white bass, big bluegills and green sunfish, goggleyes, once in awhile a catfish, maybe a gar or a big foul-hooked shad - there are lots of surprises. Trolling covers lots of water and can locate where to fish, for me - and yeah, I constantly find that there are lots of bass where hardly anyone fishes for bass.

My fishing partner of 20 years passed away last summer, so we won't go night-fishing again. He was old school all the way - Texas rig, black light, Stren 17 lb. clear blue fluorescent line. His lifelong "secret" (or he thought it was) was to use an 11" motor oil red-flake worm after dark. We caught many a bass on those.

Tablerock doesn't need stripers, in my opinion. Those 18" white bass have plenty of shoulders on 'em. I just got back from the Mill Creek area where I was trolling a Roostertail around the windy banks and chasing and casting to boils when the whites would blow up. Good golly - after catching the first three of those monsters I switched from a medium/light spinning pole to a medium/heavy with a bigger reel to catch the rest. Don't know that I've ever had to do that before, but I just couldn't handle them. The black bass were going crazy on the windblown banks, too - smallmouths, largemouths, and K's. Don't know what a 21 1/4" largemouth would weigh, but I caught one on a Roostertail while still using that light rod - and THAT doesn't even happen every year for me. She would have been a little longer, but was just off the nest and had a worn-down tail. All three kinds of black bass went back in the lake, white bass, goggleyes, two big bluegills, and one big crappie came home with me. A good trip.

My dad grew up fishing the James and Finley Rivers long before Tablerock Dam was built. Goggle eyes (rock bass) were about his favorite fish to catch on a fly rod, often on little topwater poppers. The lower James is now an arm of Tablerock Lake, so Goggle eyes are natives. I'm pretty sure Redears are, too.

If you like smoked fish, I've found that big white bass smoke REAL well. (Yeah, I know - it's hard to keep 'em lit.) When I used to fish the Pacific Ocean in California, there was a fish market on the way home that used to trade smoked ocean fish, 1 lb. for 3 lbs. of our fresh-caught fish. For smoking, they only wanted the oily, fishy-tasting species like bonito, mackerel, barracuda. Milder-tasting fish like calico bass and halibut didn't smoke so well and anyway those were good eating just fried. Since big white bass are pretty oily and fishy, especially if you leave the red meat on, I figured they'd make good smoked fish. This spring I've found that they do - real, real good! I filet them out and soak the filets in a salt brine for a few hours in the 'fridge. Then rinse and soak the filets real well in fresh water to get the excess salt out. The salt brine firms the filets and gets them ready for smoking. I turn one burner of our gas barbecue on low, put a smoker box with wet hickory chips on top of that burner, and put the filets on the grill far away from the fire. Close the barbecue lid and slow cook/smoke the filets for a couple of hours at about 200 degrees. They'll be golden brown when done, and you can tell they're ready with a little nibbling / sampling. I think this would work just as well or better with a charcoal barbecue. I like good smoked fish, and I have fun catching fish that put up a great fight. That gives me all kinds of motivation to go after these big whites again tomorrow before the jet skis / party boats run me off the lake.

Awwww, man. I was catching goggleyes on the point at the old campground there at the mouth of Cow Creek (Marty's "Moo Slough") just yesterday. I looked across at Marty's dock and thought about going over to see him, but didn't. We had some good springtime trips in past years. He'd pretend I was "teaching" him about crappie fishing (he knew as much about it as I did), and we'd have a good time, then he'd send me home with a bunch of morels. He was a good guy and I'll sure miss him.

Sure. In the lake the main thing is timing, and the time seems to be NOW. Goggle eyes will bite anything a big bluegill or black perch (green sunfish) will bite - small lures, in-line spinners, nightcrawlers, etc. They're more accessible in the rivers where they're fun with a fly rod. In the lakes they're scattered in deep water most of the year so I only catch one now and then while fishing for other species. Right now, though, they're starting to spawn in 15-to-25 foot deep water where there's a sandy, pea-gravelly bottom in coves and on big round lake points. I fish for them by slow-trolling a light-colored swimming minnow near the bottom on a 1/8 oz. jighead, covering a lot of water in places with the right depth and gravel. From previous years in May, I know several locations where they always spawn - but there are places like that all over the lake. On Friday I went to one of my spots with the surface water temp 61-62 and found a few scattered through the nesting area, and a big bunch of them around a brushpile nearby. I caught a limit of 15 fish in a couple of hours and they weighed over 10 lbs. total, so those are big goggleyes. When I cleaned them, about half were males and half were females with eggs that were ready to go - so those fish were staging and getting ready to spawn. When this happens it happens real quick, and I figure when I go tomorrow (Monday) to the same spot males should be on nests scattered in the right depth, and most of the females will have done their thing and gone back to deep water. The males guard the nests after the females lay eggs and leave, but those eggs hatch in only about three days and then the whole deal is over. I doubt that the color or type of small lure matters much because they're aggressively defending nests, but timing sure matters. You can get a limit one day and the next day find them all gone from an area and not get a bite. Hope this helps.

Yes, they're bound to be goggle eyes (rock bass). I took a limit from Tablerock yesterday and I'm going after them again on Monday - they're scrappy little guys on ultralight tackle. I look forward to their spawning time in May every year and sometimes I miss it. The rest of the year I only catch goggle eyes occasionally while fishing for other species so a couple of trips during this short time, targeting them specifically and with limits likely, is a treat. They're mighty tasty, too.

I've wondered why there haven't been any reports here from Upper Bull Shoals for a week, and now I know. We launched at K Dock this morning and tried crappie fishing in a couple of places. We got halfway down to Mincy and turned back - put the boat on the trailer and drove to Tablerock to fish the rest of the day. I haven't checked reported water levels, but Bull Shoals is maybe 12 feet above normal and it's COLD. 54 degree water temp, and floating bark, sticks, and logs so thick you can hardly get a boat through them without wrecking a prop, let alone fish. I can't say no one was catching anything, there were a half-dozen rigs in the K Dock parking lot so I don't know - but to us it seemed almost unfishable. The cold rain and snow last weekend must have really dropped the water temp, and there must be a lot of cold water coming out of Taneycomo. I wish I'd read a report like this before driving to B.S., and that's why I'm posting this.

My grandpa, a real Ozarks old-timer (1890-1968) called ALL the garfish around here "alligator gar". I think many in his generation just thought that's what their name is (and maybe it sounds more nifty than "gar"). He also called walleyes "trout", and any fish in the bluegill/sunfish line "perch". Rock bass were "goggleyes" of course, and I still call 'em that. From what I've read and from some place-names that are left, I think Ozark folks in the generation before his called deer "elk". Terms change, and I doubt there were ever any alligator gar in Bull Shoals.

Exactly! I went fishing today out of Cape Fair (caught some crappie) and I soon figured this out. I just got on here to post the "solution" and you already had it. When I start the outboard motor I'm sitting in the driver's seat, so all I've got to do is turn off the Humminbird, start the motor, then turn the depthfinder back on. Duh. Thanks for the help, though, guys. I'll get the Eagle up front off the trolling motor circuit, and while my new batteries are still good I'll simply turn the Humminbird off and back on when starting the outboard. In time, the first deep-cycle battery that conks out will be replaced with a cranking battery and then I'll be all back to normal. Sometimes I'm a little slow.

If you're looking for bass only (and you probably are) I'd pay close attention to Bill Babler's reports. You'll see in his "April 23" thread here that he's been slaying 'em from Kimberling City to Point 9, and he tells how. Lots of good information there. I'm not a bass purist, and this time of year I really enjoy combined trips for all species. It's still muddy further up the James, so tomorrow I think I'll put in at Cape Fair and fish between there and Buttermilk. That stretch has everything for me - bluffs, flats, flooded timber, creek channels and bends, big and small coves, and lots of spawning banks. With all that to play with I'll be pestering the bass, white bass, and crappie, and the only problem's figuring out which to go for at which times and places. In past years doing this I've even come up with a good catfish or two while casting a swimmin' minnow jig to crappie beds by the bank, and that can be a real rodeo on an ultralight rig. Good luck with your trip - whatever you decide, this is a good time.

Thanks, fellas. Uh-oh, that's what I've suspected for some time, that I ought to have the trolling motor on its' own deep-cycle circuit and everything else on the boat, including the two depthfinders, on a cranking-battery circuit. I ran two Delco M27 deep-cycle batteries for years and as they both got pretty old and weak last fall I had the same problem with the Humminbird freezing up, but not so often. It got to where neither old battery would take a good charge so I waited all winter to replace both of them in the spring. I replaced them both about a month ago with these Fish Hunter HD27 marine batteries, so my batteries are both brand new. Since the change, the Humminbird freezes up most every time when I start the outboard. Thing is, I ASKED the guy at the battery shop (who seemed to be an expert) if I shouldn't be running a cranking battery on the main circuit and a deep-cycle marine battery on the trolling motor circuit. He said no - it was fine the way I had it, and besides, running identical marine batteries allows me to switch them if I need to. I believed him. So, since I hate to replace a brand-new $90. marine battery right now with a cranking battery, I've got a whole 'nother question: What if I put the trolling motor on a circuit all its' own with one deep-cycle battery serving it? I know that needs to be done, and this battery would be charged at home between trips with a battery charger. Second circuit = everything else on the boat EXCEPT the two depthfinders. This would start the outboard motor and power the lights and livewell and bilge pumps. For now, this would be the second deep-cycle marine battery and I know that's not ideal - I'll replace that one with a cranking battery in 3 years or so when it needs replacement. But this is a NEW battery and I'd like to get my use out of it. Marine batteries have worked fine for me in the past for starting, etc. as my outboard is only 50 hp. This battery gets charged when the outboard is running, of course - the alternator always shows 13/14 volts on the gauge even at low rpm's. THIRD circuit. What if I get a third, small, auto-type battery to power the two depthfinders only? I don't have room where my batteries are at the back of the boat, but I could easily put a plastic battery box in a front-deck compartment and reach both depthfinders with short wire runs under the front deck (with in-line fuses in both, of course). This battery would get charged separately at home between trips. The question: How much battery would it take to power only those two depthfinders for about 12 hours? Not much, I'm guessing. If there's still such a thing as a $35-$40 12-volt battery for small tractors and such, I bet that would do it. Does anybody here know? Thanks.

Help me figure out my electrical set-up, please. I've got a 17' aluminum bass boat with a 50 hp Suzuki 4-stroke outboard and a 40 lb. thrust Minn-Kota trolling motor. On the console I've got a Humminbird 597ci depthfinder (wired to the main battery circuit), and up front I've got a Eagle Fish Mark 320 depthfinder (wired to the trolling motor circuit). I run two deep-cycle marine batteries, both brand-new. They're both the same, "Fish Hunter" HD27DC, 845 CA, 675 CCA. One battery starts the main motor and powers the instrument panel, boat lights, livewell and bilge pumps, and the Humminbird on the console. The main battery gets charged by the outboard motor when I'm running. The other battery gets charged only at home and it runs the trolling motor and the Eagle depthfinder up front. My problem is that the Humminbird apparently has a feature that causes it to freeze up when there's a drop in voltage. About 3/4 of the time when I start the outboard motor, the Humminbird freezes. It doesn't just turn itself off (which wouldn't be so bad). It looks like it's off but there's actually a little bit of light coming from the screen and all the buttons, including the Power button, quit working. Then I have to pull the depthfinder from the mount, put it back on, and go through the start-up routine. Next time I start the outboard, same thing. It's a real pain to have to stop, stand up from the driver's seat, press the release bar, pull the depthfinder from the mount, then stick it back on. Sometimes the boat is bouncing around in waves or I'm in some kind of boat-handling situation that needs my attention, and having to do this - sooner or later I'm gonna accidentally drop that depthfinder in the lake. Both batteries have plenty of power, it's just the power drop when I start the motor that causes this. The obvious solution would be to connect the Humminbird to the other battery's circuit, but I think that would be even worse. My Eagle depthfinder up front dims when I use the trolling motor on the higher speeds. In fact late in a fishing trip if I've been on the trolling motor a lot and that battery's getting low, the Eagle depthfinder quits working. That's not a big problem, as it takes a long fishing trip and a lot of trolling motor use to cause that - but since the Humminbird is so sensitive to power fluctuation, I think it would act even worse on that trolling motor circuit. I don't have room to add a third battery for depthfinders only, so that's not an option. Does anyone here know how to fix this? Thanks.

aarchdale, you can tell male crappie from females when you clean them, even if they've spawned out. Females always have a few yellow eggs left, or if a fish has a pair of bright white internal parts, those are male gear. I was there last week and fished from Bridgeport to Ashercane. All the big black crappie we caught were males, and the only females we had were two smaller, barely-legal white crappie caught near Bridgeport. Further up the river it was all male black crappie. The female white crappie were suspended in deep water and their eggs were nowhere near ready. We're still on the leading edge of the spawn, I think, with probably some getting on nests by now. Since then I had a good trip for white bass at Galena, and tomorrow I'm going again after both crappie and w.b.

My go-to is a pearl swimming minnow, usually with the tail dipped in chartreuse soft-lure dye. I keep all the colors with me though and change frequently - if something's not working there's often another color that will.

My longtime fishing partner passed away last summer. He was "set in his ways" to say the least - he just didn't go for new fishing innovations that happened after 1978 or so. But - with that said, some of what he knew and did worked real well on Tablerock. His favorite warm-weather lure that he caught many a Tablerock "hawg" on - a Texas-rigged 11" ribbon-tail worm, motor oil with red flake.