merc1997 Bo

found a few. bites were 15 to 25, had 6 keeper brownies from 16" to 3 lbs. over a dozen shorts. caught most on a doodle. a couple on a tube on a 1/4 GrassJig head, and a couple on a 5" zinker on a 1/4 GrassJig head. caught the bulk of them on one spot. talked to several boats that were jerk baiting, but no bites. my sonar looks like the goby desert. why would one think that a jerk bait would be good to throw?? just throwing that out there for discussion. bo

well, that is what we called them for years, but now they are referred to as neds. bo

yep, spot lock is sure nice. back in the old days of table rock, our spot lock was the next tree. i am really glad that i waited to get the motor guide tour pro. it just has a lot of pluses over the other brands that i like. much better bracket and break away being one of them. very quiet steering. only time will tell now about how long it will be trouble free. one nice feature is the fact that you can still fish if the steering servos quit. you are done with the others. bo

went today. opposite wind. just two shorts, but did not get to the lake until 11. i believe what bite there is, is right at daylight to about 9. graph still looks like the goby desert. not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. bo

well, where i was fishing, never saw a sign of a shad anywhere. the electronics basically looked like the desert. no suspended fish. pretty good indication, they were laying flat to the bottom doing nothing. threw a jerk bait quite a bit, but no takers. many times when there is an abnormal cold winter, many bass simply go dormant. given this is one of those times, i believe many bass are laying on the bottom somewhere pretty much dormant. to get one of these bass to bite, you have to fish a very small bait and painstakingly SLOW. this is also where the area of the lake you choose can make or break you. i was tickled to catch what i caught today because the conditions are not in the favor for catching at all. bo

got out and did some fishing today. 3 keeps an 4 shorts. no love on a jerkbait. all bites were 25 to 30 ft. deep on a doodle. 2 lmg's and 1 k on the keeps. all three were 16 to 17 inches, and nice and fat. had to fish a lot with the spot lock on and go fish off the back deck. bo

my knee replacement was 10 years ago, and the device they used was somewhat experimental. but allowed some knee twist, which is nice when you run a trolling motor all the time. it is also had a replaceable wear plate and the life expectancy was only lab test. at my 10 year check up, the wear plate was still 100%. that means this one should take me to the grave. i understand they have newer technology that is way less painful. the pain part is what was difficult for me, but there were some underlying issues that had a lot to due with the pain and energy to get back on my feet getting around. the day that i was to be released to go home, my leg blew up to three time bigger than it was from the present swelling. worst pain i have ever dealt with. they never did figure out what caused that, and i believe this was the start of my ra. way too much inflamation for my immune system to deal with. but, it sure is nice to be able to get around. i know bill will sure be able to enjoy fishing a lot more now. bo

good deal bill. if you work at your knee flex some more, i believe you can still get a few more degrees. it took a while, but i have nearly complete flex in mine. isn't it great to not have that pain any longer? sure glad you got along well with yours. bo

i kinda long for the good old days of everyone just having a 14 ft. aluminum boat with a 10 horse. it was much more peaceful. bo

got started about noon. just kept plinking around and came up with 8 keepers. just keepers mostly. did have one around 3. of the 8 keepers one came on a jerkbait, 2 on a crank bait, and the other 5 o a doodle, and 4 of those came off one spot. and with the 4 keeps caught 5 shorts. i caught all of those with the spot lock. never moved. if you get a bite, you better soak the heck out of that spot. the doodle bass were 20 ft deep in mud no less. cold mud is relative to whether the water warmed any or dropped in temp. a 2 to 4 degree raise is enough to put some bass active. so, you might be dealing with a 42 degree water temp, but if it warmed to 42 from 38, don't let the color bother you. flip flop that and you better go elsewhere. bo

better check the water temps before you discard it. just sayin'. bo

a 4" tube is pretty standard bed fare. now if you were talking about putting a 10" worm in there? forget i mentioned anything about a big worm for bed fishing. bo

exactly! right now, slow is good and a heavier line can be an aid. but, another factor is the size of bait the bass are keying on. smaller baits are great right now. if one would want to go really old school, our primary lure for this time of the year was a crappie jig with maribou. wind can really dictate what you can effectively fish. on days when the wind is really bad, i will add a 1/32 or a 1/16 bullet weight on the line above the 1/8 head i have the doodle on. this will help get it to depth and compensate for the wind drag on the line. one other thing to think about is how the blade or blades on a spinner bait not only factor into bait size, but actually speed too. vibration can be a factor of speed perception. there is so much more to spinner bait fishing than meets the eye, and i believe you would be a good pick to expound on some of the nuances of spinner bait fishing. bo

i have caught a bunch of them. even small mouth in the creek. most creeks are pretty darn clear. i've caught plenty of bass off the bed using braid. here is another case in point. i guided a feller from tx that was here to fish a b.a.s.s. tournament. there was a nice 3 1/2 lb. k sitting on a bed. he had on 4 lb. floro and messed with that bass for 20 minutes with various baits and never even go it to commit at all. i had on 50# hi-vis yellow braid tied straight to a 1/4 oz. NuJig with a 4 in. tube. i asked him to let me show him that the bass could be caught. i put that tube in there and caught that bass right off. so, there went the whole aspect that line shys a fish away. it had everything to do with using the right lure and putting it in the right spot in the bed. we fished jerk baits most of the day. he used 8# floro, and i used hi-vis 15# braid tied straight to the lure. i caught 5 or 6 to his everyone. i just have never seen that a visual line was a detriment to catching or not catching a fish. i have seen that a visual line is an aid to me in fishing and catching fish though. bo

mitch, there are many videos out with a camera attached to the a-rig, and they put to rest the whole reaction bite theory. bass are filmed following an a-rig for quite some time before they finally commit to biting one of the baits. bass follow crankbaits a long time also. it is all about fishing the correct depth at the correct speed to trigger a bite. as time goes along, those with the new live scope technology will learn, it is way more that just putting a lure in front of a fish. if the fish are truly active, correct speed is not as much of a factor. when they are neutral, which is most of the time while we are fishing, speed is much more critical to make a fish strike at out offering. i keep reels in the boat with different line sizes for a reason. fishing a jig on a really windy day will cause me in many instances to use a much smaller line to eliminate the wind drag on the line and to maintain the sink rate that is needed to trigger a bite. many figure out that speed of retrieve is critical on a crankbait. they speed up or slow down or stop and start until the right speed is found. problem is, most do not use that same info for fishing things like a jig or worm or other soft plastics. spoons can be included to. line size is critical in speed variances. bo

one thing you did not factor in though champ, and that is the fact you never changed your weight to match his fall rate on the thinner line. i believe he caught more because he sped up his sink rate with the thinner line. here is a case in point. we were fishing a tree way out in the lake during the day. i was putting a whacking on them from the back of the boat. i was using 14 lb. mono and a 5/16 sinker and a 8 " worm. my buddy was using same setup but was using 20 lb. mono. he asked me what sinker i was using, which i confirmed, but did not mention that i was using 14#. about the 3rd 6 lber. he lipped for me, he discovered my line size. he moved up to a 3/8 sinker to match my sink rate, and immediately went to whacking them with me. so, it had nothing to do with line visibility, but everything to do with line drag. think it over for a bit, and it will begin to make sense. ricky's setup was sinking way faster than your setup. the right speed is always crucial in making a bass strike, or any game fish for that matter. bo

i don't operate very well when cold, and that wind was cold all day. bo

yep, on a doodle. bo

been out the last two days doing some snooping. yesterday was a 20" walter and 3 keeper lmg. 5 or 6 shorts. that kind of zeroed me in a bit, and i fine tuned that today. 10 keeps, one lmg over 6 and a 5lb.+ walter. several shorts. kind of bo-garted onto a spot they were piled up on. sometimes many years of fishing will help you kind of know a small spot that needs to be sampled. was fishing crystal clear water with hi-vis yellow braid tied straight to the lure. most bites were at dead rest. bites were 10 to 15ft. these bass are really nearly asleep, and you just have to have the patience to keep lure in a spot for a while. i see way too many folks that do not their lure with enough speed in the summer, and then turn around and fish way too fast in the winter. sure, there are always exceptions to the rule, but not often. i did catch both picture fish. taylor wanted a pic of the walter so he photoed himself. bo

tried to post some pics, but they did not go, or at least i can't see them. bo

glad i have some people fooled. went from deep fishing to a bit shallower, 15 to 30 ft. went over to the kings. your favorite colored water. thought might get them on a crankbait. but, that did not work out for me. picked up the old doodle. bits were from 15 to 30 ft. deep very maticulous fishing in all the wind. this is were the spot lock is really nice! bo

yes, it does have a remote, but i have not taken time to get it linked up. there would be times that it would be very useful. bo

i burned up about twenty gallons of fuel looking deep yesterday, and that bite seems to be fading. shad for the most part all seemed to have moved out into the main lake. all scattered 60 to 80 feet deep. put it on the trailer and went to eagle rock. got out the doodle and caught bass all afternoon. no keepers, but plenty of action. all were fat as ticks and mostly k's, but did have few lmg's in the mix. it was hard to pattern the depth a bite might occur. some 8 to 10 and some out as deep as 25. did catch 2 short walters. catching something is certainly better than not getting your rod bent. caught most of them on watermelon red. bo

might to take a listen to this. https://www.bitchute.com/video/9FD0SZShGoOf/. link would not embed, so you will have to copy and paste it. bo

do what you wish to do, but there is way too much coming out about bad outcomes for many that have taken the vaccine. case in point, the last time that i took a flu shot, which was back in high school, i ended up in the hospital for three days. i have not had one since, and in that many decades have had the flu twice. there are also several studies that verify that asymptomatic people do not spread the virus. do you actually know what is in the vaccine shots?? do you have any recourse if you have a bad outcome from the vaccine, and that would include death? no. the actual death count for 2020 was less than that of 2019. no one has the flu now. tamiflu sales were down 75% from 2019. if you think a mask does any good, then strap one over your butt and cut one, and you will find it did not block the stink. one thing for sure, if everyone observes the 6 ft. rule of social distancing, it will end population increase, and there would not be any need to fund planned parenthood. bo