Stein

Mine was a 90. Not sure on hooks - didn't really pay attention. They were just purchased from Tackle Warehouse a month ago and I think they turn over inventory pretty well so I didn't even consider the snap rings. I thought they had the problems worked out by now.

Not hazardous but recent - when we had the big storm Friday night/Saturday morning in Bull Shoals the lightning hit the transformer right behind the house. Both my buddy and I saw the flash while sleeping through our eyelids and it was incredibly loud. Lost power for a few hours. Unfortunately it killed my well pump motor controller. Had to meet the well driller in Mt. Home to get another one. Good thing he had one on the truck. $165 later I'm in business again. Just as well happen the one week I'm down there otherwise who knows how long it would have taken to diagnose the problem. Smelled very ozone-y in the basement that morning. No other damage, fortunately, but we did lose the entire morning's fishing.

I just got some and lost the rear hook on the 5th or 6th fish I fished it on. None of them were over 13" either.

Karla and I set out with great aspirations from the state part boat dock at 8:00 Saturday just as the last few drops of rain fell. Went straight across the river and I caught a 13" rainbow on the first cast with a zig jig. Smugly I tell my wife, "see, we are on for a 50 fish day". Little did I know how wrong I was. About 9:30 I frantically text Ham asking for advice as that one first-cast fish was the entire action for the first hour and a half. He did his level best to text-coach us onto more fish. "fish the riffles, those are active fish" first riffle results in a fish for Karla. Again a drought. All told we put five trout in the boat, all 12-14" stockers. It was very surreal having a blanket of fog covering the river morning, noon and afternoon. There were a few breaks here an there but it was fairly consistent. I did see a guide put his clients onto two nice browns, one about 24" and the other maybe a couple inches shorter. They looked to be dragging some sort of prepared bait. We spoke to several other boats. People were very friendly even though it was very crowded. Most indicated that the morning was good but they hadn't caught anything past 10:00 or 11:00. Weather started threatening and some lightning nearby put us off the water at 2:30 and we just hung it up early since the afternoon was a bust. I caught one rainbow after lunch on a small floating rapala jerk bait. The rest were caught on zig jigs. Had to head home today for the 4th but will be back down the 5th through the 10th and will try again.

Do I need a boat ramp permit to launch on Bull Shoals? I googled it but didn't find anything. I did find reference to a day use pass. Is that what I need?

It does legitimize the CWR format. I think for them it makes people watch the live feed as results will be instantly updated. I do wonder if they will stop updating at some point during the day. Could lose viewer interest if the guy someone doesn't like is running away with it. I don't know. I've never watched bass fishing tournaments on TV.

Thanks for the heads-up David. Just called to reserve one at state park marina.

Heading down this weekend and my wife wants to do some trout fishing on Saturday. We would have waded but she had ACL surgery about a year ago and her knee still isn't up to par so wading would be risky. Where would you suggest renting a boat on the upper end below BS dam?

So there IS hope for those of us who can't pinpoint cast. I can still just try to cast directly at the target! Great writeup.

One could say I'm pretty anti-tournament but the way I look at it is I'm "pro-fishery resource" so my feelings cloud my opinion. I'd love to see an immediate "weigh, document and release" format if people continue to insist on spending hundreds to win 50.

Great trip and video! Some nice slimers at the end.

Knew there were some big ones in there. I live about 15 minutes from that lake.

That's just flat-out cool. When I think of flies I think of "flies" like I assume most people do. Someday when I'm retired and living down there there WILL be a fly tying room. In the meantime I need to start doing some streamers for pike fishing.

Trooper for sure! That said, if I told my wife "hold it, I need a picture for OA" I'd likely be wearing a spook for an earring! Let's face it, you knew it would be posted before you even took it, didn't ya? LOL

Congrats. I've only seen one happen. I took a client golfing and he got one. I met my current wife on that very round of golf. We played through a group of 5 females after that hole in one. Went to the bar afterwards and sat at the table next to the only table bigger than a four topper so we knew where they would end up. He was hitting on my future wife. I was hitting on her friend. LOL. It all worked out in the end! That was 18 years ago.

In the last 20+ years of going to Canada I've gone on three week-long trips with "forum friends" that I had never met before that trip. My wife was initially skeptical that I would risk a once-a- year trip with "some guy that I met on the internet" LOL that I hadn't met but it always worked out. She just didn't realize that bonds formed on many forums can be as real as in-person relationships. Fishing, rock crawling, motorcycles, it doesn't matter which forum. You meet this guy that you have talked with on the forum for the first time and you are laughing and talking about things like old friends since you both know the same people and stories from the forum. You also have a pretty good idea of their thought process by their posts and how they treat others on the forum. Usually holds pretty true.

Got it handled. Asked the realtor we dealt with if he knew of anyone and he said no problem, he'd do it. Unexpected customer service right there.

Sounds like a plan. I'm going to ask my real estate agent as well if he knows anyone.

There is a reduction gear drive attached to the motor where the transmission bell housing would bolt. Re-drives are generally around a 2:1 ratio. Propellers can't be run over 2200-2500 RPM depending on diameter. If they do exceed that RPM the tips go supersonic and the props disintegrate very quickly. So, they are reduced to stay below that range and pitched to maximize thrust vs the given HP available. They are very good at creating noise. Not good at creating usable propulsion.

I know this is an odd question on a fishing board but I don't know anyone else to ask from the area. We are moving a load of furniture down to my new place the end of the month. Much will be too heavy for my wife to handle. It's not a lot - couple of couches, bedroom set and dining room set, but too much to ask for a freebie hand to move. Around here you can often stop by the Home Depot and there are always some "day laborers" standing around available to hire. Is there something like this around Mountain Home? If not, where could I hire a guy or two to help for an hour?

I would also like to see podcast or youtube. No way I can make it to Springfield for this.

I almost want to stop reading trip reports. Sounds like a good outing. Today my wife asked me if I bought a boat the other day...had to tell her it sold.

I have so much to learn for clear water. After fishing in muddy water my whole life, if it wasn't June Bug it wasn't worth throwing. Those look dang good.

I could see picking up a Whopper Plopper 130 and changing out heavier hooks/split rings for pike fishing. For the ultimate split rings, Bucher super split rings are super, super tough. I use them on my muskie lures. I just don't know if even the #5 rings would be too big for the bait.https://www.muskytackleonline.com/joe-bucher-outdoors/bucher-split-rings

I didn't know what a Whopper Plopper was until I googled it. Been hearing about it on Bassboat Central as well. Now I know. I've fished with essentially the same thing but much larger versions for years for muskie. These are all about 8" overall length bodies with 5/0 hooks. What goes around comes around. I bought my first Topraider probably 15 years ago. I assume a Topraider or Rumbler would be about the same as a Whopper Plopper 190, assuming that it is 190mm or around 7.5".