Tblrock

Howdy Dutch, Likewise fished Stockton since impoundment. But, was in grade school. Honestly haven't been up there much lately. Seem to have trouble getting my normal parking spots and it takes a long time to load at the ramps.... For myself, above and below the bridges - x-mas tree or blue minnow spook. Mostly the x-mas tree. Recommend focusing much shallower than TR. I sometimes can pull a few on a blk buzz over standing cover in color.

Five lead w/soft plastic head availabe in 3 sizes at Hannah's in Fair Play - Can also find on ebay - search Mo. Outlaw "Duracinch" You +1'd this publicly. Undo

Well said cs...Having grown up in Stockton, My wish would be that MDC & COA enact efforts to restore quail habitat equal to what it was when COA "aquired" the ground back in the 60s.

Stan Sloan -- 17 or heavier flo. Stren or BPS excel if you respool often.. Growing up in Stockton. My skills fishing docks lighted, or otherwise never matured. My distaste of being saturated in bugs resulted in life long indiffernce to any type of glow/moon or white light in the boat. Fortunately, I still managed to embrace a passion and preference for chasing the blacks or to be politically correct "line sides" after dusk . With that passion came several vices, one them being line watching. The summation of all above led to a great appreciation towards a quality black light. With my night fishing experience being limited to a short 30 years(27 and counting on T/R). I've owned the best and worst in black lights. I'll readily endorse any black light will work well with flourscent line. Provided it's a moon less night in Needmore branch on Stockton. The challenge presented, Ambient light from other sources diminish reflective illumination of objects in the path of the black light. In other words, A bright full moon, brightly lit docks or lights from structures on shore adversley affect how well you will see your line or other objects using a black light. It amazes me how much ambient light from Branson is reflected on a night with low cloud cover in the Indian Point area. In my simple mind, a brighter black light is the answer. Being a line watcher, I like seeing that sweet 45 degree bow in the line take just that millisecond pause on the initial cast. Additionally, there is so much mineral content along with who knows what else in our lakes water that any object previously submerged is encased in a phosphorous like substance which will slightly illuminate with a good black light. In otherwords, you can see that tree and every limb above the water line and several below. Even when I throw the blade I still use a black light as I like seeing my line angle to the water and trolling motor. Concerning the bugs, they still hit the black light but usually stay relative to the light source. Meaning placement of the light to the center of the boat usually allows relative bug free areas at either end of the boat. Rarely are bugs a problem on T/R when using a black light. Back when Ronald Reagan was president and later Bush and Clinton, I got to make frequent donations on Friday and Saturday nights at the 13 boat ramp for a little while and later Mill Creek to toad harvesters. Seemed like all of them had a Stan Sloan black light. Through my employer at the time, every now and then I was able to speak with Mr. Sloan, Jeff and Tracy down at Zorro Bait Co. I felt his lights was brighter than any others and wanted to know why. Never mind that there was something about his blades that was different as well . After several years of asking Stan about everyhing I could think of, two key factors was unique to his lights. His ballast circuit was domestic with capacitors much larger than others and his bulbs were GE. I tried the LED lights last year and they seem to perform like the other import lights. Meaning they work but are not nearly as bright the old standby a Sloan. A good friend of mine had access to GE and Phillips black light bulbs and used them in the imported units. It made them brighter, but still didn't match the Sloan. The downside to the Sloans is in the 90's the cap of our boats became rounded and I lost more lights than I want to admit while running down the lake. Unfortuantely, I've learned that Stan passed away last July and I think Zorro is still closed. So it's tough to get one of his lights. You can pick up used ones, just check the bubs and make sure they're GE or Phillips. Even worse, I never got to take Stan out on T/R on an April night like I promised him so many times. I apologize for the long windness. I sitting here this new year with 9 month grandson hoping the man upstairs will let the boy and I take a few solid sacks of toads up the Mill Creek Ramp along with the next weeks donation. Any way, Stan Sloan light - Stren or BPS Excel respooled often. Line test dicated mainly by how fast I want the bait to drop. But in late June and July probably won't be less than 25lb. Sawed off way to many times......

Broke the transducer for my eagle 480 clean off @ McGee Creek last March.. Had an old one from a 320 with the cable cut in two. Spliced , soldered, wraped each wire with foil and electrical tape. Both signal and temp has worked for 14 months See this link for detail. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=63807