merc1997 Bo

i totally agree bill. the trip is all about the customer catching fish, not the guide. sometimes, you do have to find a technique that matches up with the particular client's fishing capabilities. ever have to cast a clients rod each cast??? i have been there. but, you just try to make the best of it and they catch a fish or two. bo

sometimes just as with what is going on in the country, there are people that you just have to show them. bo

bill this brings up a good time to remind all of we fisherman to keep some first aid things in the boat. hydrogen peroxide would be good in the case of sticking your self in dealing with a hooked bass. with the bad water conditions it would help keep you from getting a bacterial infection. sad, but growing up, we just took a tin cup on a string and drank from the lake while out fishing. and to think, beaver is used for drinking water. it is not good at all. thanks for the heads up. bo

was fishing the other night sitting out off a point. was not completely dark and the water patrol passed by out in the lake. there had not been any other traffic at that time, just the patrol boat. the wake from that boat washed over the side of my pantera. i put a call in to complain that it is pretty bad when the patrol boats are part of the problem. talked to some lt. at troop d. he told me they were fixing to go to a 32ft. some kind of boat. when i said well that is good just increase the problem, he hung up. i remember when one was perfectly safe out on table rock in a 14ft. aluminum boat. this is just insame. rant over. don't even have to comment. bo

i hear you about boat traffic and other dummies. bs is a great place to get away from a lot of hoopla, but right now, it would be very challenging to find a place to launch and park. bo

bill to me getting a bass to bite, it all boils down to depth and speed. waaaaaaaay back, i broke the mold on summer fishing. way back, we were all throwing worms. most were using a 1/4 or a great big 5/16. me, i used the biggest weight i could get by with. sometimes it is just crazy the amount of speed it takes to make a bass hit, even in the winter. what do most do with a square bill. that is right, crank the pud out of it and crash it into stuff. so, what would be wrong with doing the same thing, just deeper??? the magic behind the 1 oz. Elite Mega Blade, and the 1 oz. Black Widow is to be able to put more speed on the retrieve and trigger bites. if summer bass are biting a jig, you will often find me throwing a 1 oz. GrassJig, and i will be smoking that rascal across the bottom. maybe crazy speed will not work all the time, but there are just times that it does. there is not a reel made that will crank faster than a bass can swim. this is why i always harp on depth and speed control to make a bass hit rather than beg one. now, there are times that bass want a bait just sitting there, but that is still a speed. so, there is my two cents worth. bo

awesome! bo

would not go without one. i have to 8" led table rock nite lights. they have both green and uv . i had jerry make mine with a single suction cup. that way to can swivel them in the direction you need them. i catch a whole lot of bass because i see the bite. there are lots of bites that can be seen but not felt. bo

got out to enjoy the not to be seen moon. had a total of 5 bites. one an hour. they were the right kind of bites. 3 came on 1/2 GrassJig brown and blue with blue trailer. 2 came on 1 oz. Black Widow with June Bug skirt. bites were 10 to 15 ft. deep. made my mind up to stay totally on the main lake. seemed to work for quality. bo

i am with you bill. i have even heard a competitor say, he is going to drive around and see where the leader is fishing. now if someone showed up with not prior knowledge that would be one thing. but, knowing who is catching them is a problem that needs to be addressed. bo

since i own a tour pro, i might have a thought or two about a servo breaking a cable. a friend of mine has the 36v model, and to begin with, his foot pedal was just about impossible to use. jack hammer could hardly move it. on the underneath of the foot pedal is an adjusting screw for pedal tension. adjusted that and the pedal turns easy as can be. what i might tend to think is that those that have broken a cable, might not have ever adjusted the tension and it took too much pressure to move the cables. just throwing some common sense to what is going on. so, perhaps motor guide would do well to make sure there is not too much tension on the foot pedal to begin with. mine worked perfect right out of the box. my buddy's did not, but instead of just using it that way, we looked at adjusting the tension. got to remember that not all workers on the line are actually mechanically inclined or give a hoot about their work. bo

6 ft. fenwick, three line guides deep. that was your depth finder for the day. bo

i bought a motor guide tour pro. the bracket is way better. i have looked at the others and their brackets and locking system is not on par. the steering system in the tour pro is fully cable. if the servos would happen to quit, you can still steer the trolling motor. the others, you can not. the tour pro has the pinpoint gps system. it will keep you on a dime, even in the middle of a 20 mph wind. the steering is very quiet. never even hear it with normal movement. i have it on a pantera II and have the 24v model, which is 82 lb. thrust. two people, 50 gal. of fuel, and livewells full, it does 2.7 mph gps. i've run mine 3 trips without charging, and could not tell a bit of difference on the 3rd trip from the first. no electronic interference. it deploys and parks like a tinker toy. i ran minn kota's for years and this is a way better troller. bo

surface temps might be right, but the water not far down is still cold. at least the feel of my lure coming out of the water feels cold. guess time will tell. bass just have the survival instinct to wait until conditions are stable. bo

yep bill, i think they all drowned. after the tourney that i fished, the weather turned cold, some cold rain. no sun. it certainly moved the bass out into the lake. at least, that is my story and i am sticking to it. now the water level is falling, which will sure enough make many of them go out and suspend. if i had a chartreuse hand grenade, i would not know where to throw it. i think what few fish are up are finicky about what you are putting in front of them. happens every year around spawn. i too have seen some signs that some have spawned. with the weather water and so forth, i still do not believe the big wave has ever got here. just mho. bo

the new skirts will be a filtering in process. they will filter in as they sell the older stock. if you are around the area, sportmens corner here in cassville, and hook and catch at shell knob have them, but i believe hook and catch does have some of the new skirts. or they will, when i take their order down to replace what has been sold. bo

what a difference a day makes. disappeared like ghosts. i think the cloudy weather did not help either. bo

with the lake not dropping, and water temps not really on the rise, it could be some great fishing during the day. there will be many ways to skin the cat, but i could put a rod with a jig on the deck and that is it. i like simple fishing. bo

you do not catch them often as one does in grand, loz, or even bull shoals. i've caught a few over the years out of table rock. they are in the lake because you can hear them at night quite often. bo

a buddy of mine begged me to come out of retirement and fish a benefit tournament out of h highway. i was not really enthused about it, but the benefit was for a good cause. well, we won first and i had big bass with a 6.34. caught about a dozen keepers total. caught all of them on a 1/2 Elite GrassJig with out new PB&J skirt buzz cut. for a trailer, you had to have something with flapping legs. caught everything on dead gravel flats that had submerged brush in 5 to 8 ft. of water. these bass are hanging the top of the bushes waiting ambush shad. with that said, one would think spinner bait, but over the years, i have found a jig crashing through the bush and then dropping it will get them to just knock slack in your line. this technique of course requires a jig that will come right through the cover without hanging up. it also will catch better quality. even if you can see the bush, dabbing in it to not get snagged will not get them. you have to smack the bush. and, as i stated the bass are not at the bottom of the bushes, but hanging in the tops of them. i think i will go back into retirement while on top😀. bo

yeah! i can see pics again. and, i did nothing to my computer. dave's pics all were visible. nice ones! bo

driving on land is much different than on water. on land, there are things that illuminate, such as the road, ditches, lines on the road, and you both have lights that are lighting things up for each. water just absorbs light. so, when you are getting hit in the eyes with those lights, you only see that light with no sense of anything else that might be there. that is why some folks a long time ago, smarter than you and i, wrote the rules of night time navigation. by the way, my vision is 20-15, and my night vision is way better than anybody that i have been around. bright lights on the road do not bother me at all. there are still things being lit up to keep it between the lines. bo

it is fine for them to be out, but what t's me off is they run up and down the lake with their portable sun on. anyone else motoring in their vicinity can not see anything. that is why, you are to have only your navigation lights on when underway. wish we could buy a stamp of something to shoot those darn things out, or maybe stick them where the sun does not shine. one of those idiots were running in an area i was fishing and actually ran up on the bank. you can't teach stupid. bo

flat creek! bo

here is big plus for the motor guide tour pro. even if you lose the servos for some reason, you can still fish because it is still fully cable steer. might have to wait for parts as you are doing, but you can still fish in the meantime. bo