merc1997 Bo

that is a really good one in this day and age. bo

very interesting looking at what was weighed in. it goes right along with what has been weighed in in tournaments so far this year, and further backs up my opinion about any numbers of big bass being in table rock right now. just hope those 3 lbers. get a chance at being 5 lbers. better get those 3's weighed in and collect a check. bo

great trip!! bo

first thing that comes to mind with your problem is what size wires or cables do you have running from the batteries to the front. overheating like that is most often caused from too much resistance. you need at least a fine strand 6 gauge wire running from your troller batteries to the front plug. as already questioned, do you have at least 40 amp circuit breakers in your line. as for your replacement plug, you will need to discover if the 24v is made in the troller plug or at your batteries. to know which yours is, look at your trolling batteries and see if there is a jumper going from the positive to the negative from one battery to the other. if like this, your 24v are made at your batteries. some boats run all four battery wires to the front panel connection and the 24v are made by a jumper in the plug. most replacement plugs accomodate either setup, but may require moving the jumper bar inside the plug. hope this will help. bo

the slime dies, but still leaves behind the brown sludge. it is covering the bottom of the lake and has coated all the wood left. bo

well, terriermanm, what you said may be true, but the fact still remains that the big cedar cove looks like a sewer pond. how is it that areas of the lake that have very little close up housing do not look like the big cedar cove? it is hard to deny what is seen. bo

alex the spring time tournament weights still bear out what i have said. 15 to 18 pounds won every tournament. there are a few more blacks in the dam area showing up every year now, but when you can fish all night in the dam area and only see a few all night tells a pretty good story of what the fish population is. there are other areas of the lake that do have a decent lmg population now. having all the browines in the dam area can turn bad nights into good ones because you can almost always find some biting brownies, and they are so fun to catch. i find many areas in the dam area that in "yester years" were big black holes. now they produce nothing but brownies. bo

blacks in the dam area have been very scarce for a number of years now. they have never repopulated much to speak of after the fish kill. they are starting to show up a little more, but the dam area, at least for me, still is more of a brownie kentucky area. sure can not depend of the blacks you need to fish a tournament. bo

we have never had grass growing in the lake. we used to have a clean lake bottom. now ever pebble is covered in sludge, and every tree left is covered with the same brown sludge. this can be directly related to the near lake population growth and the septic systems that go with them that will not work in any way shape or form when you are dealing with mostly rock. ever really take a look at farm ponds that livestock uses. this same slimy moss is common in every one. the mdc will not stock a pond that is not fenced off from livestock for a reason. hey!! wonder if that is why the mdc refuses to do any stocking programs on table rock??? spring branch on table rock has little to no homes near the lake. it is one of the few areas of table rock that will not have the green slimy moss growing right now. there most definitely is a connection of lake housing population and the sewer moss in the lake, in my opinion. bo

interesting, but i can't help but put my observation of what i saw a couple of days ago, and see what others opinion is. i was visiting friend staying at big cedar. looking from their porch i was looking down on the big cedar cove, and that thing was solid , what i call, sewer moss. a good portion of the water had big floating mats of it. the bottom was cover with it, which in itself would make fishing any bottom contact lure impossible. now, i know we have this issue on a good portion of the lake, but not to this magnitude. i feel it is directly related to sewage going into the lake. question is how is big cedar taking care of sewage?? i questioned someone that lives in the area is familiar with big cedar and they stated they only knew of two small sewage ponds on the property. same question can be asked about all the condos, and any housing lake side. do any of them have any where near adequate sewage treatment. when build a house on a lot that is all rock like we have here, there is not anyway that enough lateral line could be installed to take care of sewage. you could cover the entire lot with line and not have an adequate drain field. sure, this green mess we have growing somewhat goes away with hot weather, but it leaves a brown sludge all over everything, and when this brown sludge is all over every rock, there are never any crawdads around in that sludge. it is easy to witness this by shining a light along the banks at night and see if you see many crawdads around. you will not. my observation is we have many nutrients going into the lake that are really not good. bo

not too bad of a trip for just poking around in unknown places! bo

darn good day of catching! seems to fish in all stages of spawning. i still think there is another big wave to come. bo

great job. there are some bass up cruising right now, but in the daytime especially, the majority of the bass are suspended feeding on shad, and the needle nose minnow, which are still in abundance this year too. i would expect to see any larger arm or cove to have a fairly big group of shad and bass in the back half. this is where you will see them any year before spawn. this is one of the times and places that the holy rogue can really be effective. it can fished at depth and you can cover lots of water in a hurry with it. looks like the bulk of the spawn is now going to be at the new moon or at the end of the month and first of june. bo

i see some very happy boys!! bo

i am thinking that the bass are biting later now. monday and tuesday the bite started right at dark, but the moon is coming up later now and not as high until much later. plus, monday and tuesday, there was quite a bit of cloud cover. hopefully, the 50+ degree nights that are supposed to happen will get them on a feed again. bo

nice job! we fished in the upper white last night with pretty close to the same results. we fished from dark to midnight and had eight keepers. a couple of them were three pounders. depth of bite was close to the same, but we did catch some right on the bank. the bite was definitely slower than on monday and tuesday, but i expected that because of the passing of the front and washed out skies. with the warmer nights coming, i would expect the bite to be really good again. bo

since you work on boat motors, what is your advice on the frequency to change lower unit lube on motors that have powder poured gears in the lower unit?? powder poured gears' life span is directly linked to lube changes even in vehicles. bo

that is why all chargers are not equal to each other. a good charger that is made to leave on the battery will actually shut off. the bps might say something about charger quality. bo

bud if the charger is truly depleting water by leaving it plugged, then the charger is not truly shutting off and is charging all the time. normal draining and recharging a wet cell deep cycle battery is going to deplete some of the water in the battery. some brands of batteries gas worse than others and will need water more often. that is why wet cell deep cycle batteries are not sealed and still have caps. bo

i have used a dual pro charger for years. i plug it in when i get in, and it stays plugged in until i go the next time. it absolutely shuts down when the batteries are fully charged. it also kicks on and checks the batteries periodically and will kick back on if needed. if you do not trust your fully automatic charger, then you just need to get a manual and go disconnect it when you think your batteries are done. these newer auto chargers will extend your battery life. i read about chris lanes boat fire, but was the problem actually with the charger, or was it because of bad battery connections that made the charger overheat??? i will go with the latter. all battery connections need routine cleaning to maintain proper contact. any corrosion will travel up wiring causing resistance which in turn causes over heating and voltage loss. boats need a maintaining schedule just as your car does. i bet fishwrench could write a book about how many repairs could be avoided with proper scheduled maintaining. how many change the lower unit lube at least once a year, and if you fish a lot, it should be done twice, especially with the new powder poured gears. how many change the water pump impellar at least every two years?? when is the last time you cleaned all of your battery connections??? how often do you clean and lube your reels?? enough said. bo

nothing like having not a numbers day, but a quality day!! really nice nice, and all very healthy, big and fat! bo

dang, i had an entire book written to reply to your question and it disappeared. so, here goes again. early spring to after spawn bass respond better to a more horizontal type retrieve. many bassers get in a bad rut and fish a jig one way and one way only, and this is exactly why they do not get all the benefits of a jig that is there. i know many that just drag a jig and there are times this works but not the majority of the time, at least for me. from early spring until summer patterns start, a coasting type of retrieve with jigs or plastic works better, most of the time. to coast your jig, simply lift it up off the bottom and let it pendelum back to you until it reaches bottom. of course on steeper banks, you have to learn to follow your lure with your rod to get back on bottom. flatter banks, you can give the jig more lift to start with, and on steep banks less lift. remember to fish parallel with your strike zone when possible. this gets your lure in front of more bass. coasting a jig is somewhat like swimming one, but different. you are just off the bottom following the contour and touching down say in 6 to 8 feet. vertical dropping any lure demands keeping a belly in your line from the rod tip to where the line enters the water. this allows the lure to drop vertically unimpeded, but you are still in contact with the bait and able to detect the bite. if you have slack on the water, you will miss many or all bites and never know they happened. to properly fish a falling spoon, even vertically, one needs to learn how to maintain the belly in the line. to tight to the spoon and it quits its fluttering and is just swinging and sliding. slack line laying on the water, and you are going to have lots of fish hit the spoon and never know it. you will get some just because you happened to start your next lift before they eject it. dragging is pretty self explanatory. and, right here is where everything vanished a while ago!! grrrr!!!! keep the lure on the bottom. now, we get to speed. even when dragging, speed is a key factor in triggering strikes. never be afraid to experiment with the weight you are using to find the correct speed. if you have a buddy fishing with you, it is always a good idea to be fishing different weights to start out with to more quickly define what is going to be the correct speed. so, speed factors into all three catagories of retrieves - coasting, vertical drop, and dragging. for me, i catch way more bass using the coasting retrieve or a vertical drop retrieve. there are those few times, that it requires keeping the jig on the bottom and just drag it, but just not that often for me. hope this will make sense and is not confusing. if it is still not clear, just give me a call. bo

champ there is a funny thing about kings river. it can be lights out when you have it to yourself, but can shut down instantly when the boat traffic starts up. it has always been that way, and for that reason, i have never depended or planned on fishing the kings for a tournament. but, during the week and you have it to yourself, it can be some great fishing. warning about moving around at night there, it is advisable to just idle because there are some monster trees that are moving from the bank the the middle after dark and the wind dies. another reason that i avoid the kings for tournaments, especially this time of the year. navigation is usually very dangerous after dark, other than being on idle. bo

had to give it another shot last night, even though it was a little bit cool. hard to believe, but it was better than the night before. 15 keepers with several 3's and one 5 lber in the mix. steep banks were still the best. 1/2 brown and blue with blue trailer still best lure. one thing that did change was the fact that the bigger bass were right on the bank. but, when the moon hazed over that quit. fished from dark to 11:45, but the bite seemed to be pretty much over by 10:45. i think if we got a warm night and the moon out, it would really be good. not a one of these bass showed a hint of trying to spawn. even the small kentuckies looked like pot bellied stoves. water temps were about half of a degree colder than on monday night, and from the time we started to quitting, the temps had dropped a full half degree. bo

champ hope the bass will stay put for you, but this time of the year, can pack up and move overnight. hopefully, the cooler weather will help, but there is supposed to be warmer temps on friday and saturday. bo