Doug Weston

I'll see ya there Donna, and I'll show you a parasite clip

Tpierce, Did you find out about me fishing with you guys? I took it I needed to be at the meeting? Give me a call so I can work it out with you. I caught a big one that day while you were out. Congratulations too. Doug

I noticed when I was shopping, the 798's screen is also a little bit larger than the 797, and it has an internal GPS antennae. That helps if you don't want to put another hole in your boat. They are the same price at Bass Pro so I'd get the 798 if getting one new. I want ahead and forked out the dough for the 997, but it seemed the 798 would be great too. It was a hard choice though I made the family crazy while trying to decide at the electronics counter... Doug

I don't mind telling. I actually caught it on a JDC Gibroni, watermelon (like a Senko) Texas rigged with a Parasite clip and 3/8 ox tungsten weight. I am sponsored by JDC and Parasite, but I promise I really did catch her with their stuff. I know its cliche' but I swear its true. The guy I bought my boat from taught me to do something very similar when I took a test drive in his boat, so I had that texas rig tied on. I don't want to say exactly what he does ,but that's what I did. It was an isolated laydown on a pea gravel bank, about 20 ft deep about 4 casts offshore. Want the GPS coordinates?? (kidding of course) Doug

Guys I'll be there too promoting the National Guard. We sponsor the FLW tournaments and so I will help with the boat show. I recently joined the Ranger family myself, so come on down and I can tell you about my new boat...you know everyone wants to brag a little... Doug

Jay, I had the picture thing turned off when I marked it. The only difference between the two models (besides size) is the 997 has 800 MHZ side imaging and 450 Mhz. Your has 450 but not 800. Frankly you generally get a better picture with the 450, and thats what I leave mine on. but if there were something shallow that I wanted to count the branches on, I would use the 800 Mhz. It only makes it come out with more definition, but it seems it has to be shallow to work, or I haven't played enough settings yet. But you bet I will stop and fish again, if I see the fish down there. Doug

Thanks so much for your comments. Don, and Jay bird, I saw a laydown quite a distance offshore that appeared to have a couple of fish lying beside it. I marked it and came back later to see if it works. I couldn't see the fish this time, so I really thought it was fish then. I put the trolling motor down to see if I could catch one, and this is what I got. Yeah I really felt like it was gonna be worth the money and trouble installing. I'm completely sold on the humminbird SI. I bet I had idled for 6 hours before I finally decided to fish. Doug

You won't believe it, but I went out yesterday (Sunday). Yeah it was cold, but I had a new (to me) boat, and a new graph, Humminbird 997, That I was itching to take out. I caught this fish within the first 5 casts, of the first spot I tried. Talk about building confidence in your equipment!!! I tried to take measurements the best way I had and the best I can figure this is a 8 lb class fish. She was caught in the Roaring River Arm. In case you are wondering I bought a 2004 Ranger 520 VX, 225 Opti. My ranger bump board is nearly 18.5 inches long and you can see she is several inches longer. By the piece of rope I tried to mark with her measurements about 23 inches long, and 19 or 20 inches around (not real sure about the girth as I was trying to hurry with the measurements). My scale was in my old boat and I won't make that mistake again... She was released and swam away. Doug sorry 'bout the pics but they were with my phone...and I had to prop it in the butt seat and use the timer to get the first picture..

Fisherman, I live in Exeter, and I was on the School board for a couple of terms, until this May at least. My name is Doug (yeah its my real name on this site) and I'm always looking for some new fishing partners. I am buying a boat this winter to replace my old aluminum model. I have fished out of the back of the boat for several years and I think I'm ready to take my own boat out a little. I realize you don't probably know me, but if you ever need a partner, please let me know. I currently work full time for the Missouri Army National Guard so I work crazy hours. I also have a little freedom to take days off when I need to. I have fished with a club out of Joplin for several years, but I would like to fish with some guys that are a little more local for me. If nothinng else, I'd just like to meet some good fishermen around Cassville. I can be reached at doug.weston @mchsi.com or PM me... Doug

great news and May God continue to wrap his healing hands around you. Doug Weston

Thank you for the information. I have been looking for a club in this area that fishes like this. I am very interested. Even if I can't make it to the meeting, I wold like to talk to someone about possibly joining. Doug Weston

actually keeping your head and neck warm will help keep your feet warm too. Your body will throttle down your blood to the extremities when your body temp goes down. Your main arteries suppling blood to your brain are fairly close to the surface, so they can cool down when not covered up. if you keep your neck covered, then you will get more blood to your feet...

Before you say it, I'll tell you that it may seem wierd, but it works. With the cold weather upon us I thought I would pass along this old trick for keeping your feet warm. Usually your feet will sweat when you are on them, and either have multiple pair of socks, or insulated boots. This causes your socks to get soaked and eventually your feet get very cold. A simple solution is to put antiperspirant deodorant on your feet before you put your socks on. It must be antiperspirant, not just deodorant. The best kind is usually the white stuff. just rub it all over your feet, including between your toes and you will be amazed at how it works. I know, I know, you feel stupid doing it the first time. I guarantee, that you won't care how stupid you feel after you try it. It also helps prevent blisters on long ruck marches, even better than foot powder, for that same reason. This helps the little tikes as well, and if you are like me I am trying to get my kids involved in the outdoors. It makes the experience more enjoyable for them when they are more comfortable and they want to go out again with dad! Let me know when you are suprised at how well it works....

what are the details on the boat? if you don't want to post it here, send a pm please?

I am just curious about this. This is not in my immediate future, but I would like to know how most people become guides? I think I understand the license requirements from a previous post. I am more concerned with, how to actually do it. Do most guides just help out another guide? How do you learn the trade? I understand you must spend lots of time on the water, and I'm sure thats an understatement. How many guide trips do most guides take, say per week on average. How do most supplement their imcome while getting started, or while building a client list. I have thousands of questions, but if anyone would be willing to give me a dose of reality, let me have it. I think I have a decent grip, but I've only been on a few guided trips and I'd like to know how some of you guys got started. Also it seems like there is several guides on Table rock. Is there room for more? Like I said, I'm not looking to do this anytime soon, but I would like to investigate this as a possible job/business for me when I retire from the military... Doug

the temp when we started was about 54, and we seen 58-59 by the end of the day. mostly around 56 though

I agree with Dutch. Some of the satellites are low on the horizon and the trolling motor, or bracket could be part of the problem. Also it does make a difference if the antennae is very close to the receiver. I would say a foot or closer could cause interference, maybe even a little further if the power is high while transmitting(to the sonar transducer). the magnetic fields inside the actual 26c unit can cause enough interference that the processor filters out the real signal from the satellites when its trying to filter the interference. If there is an update, try and get it installed. I'm sure that if there is a problem, Lowrance is very good about fixing things in their updates. I have known some people that mounted their transducer under their console, and this has caused problems with reception so the bracket could easily cause some reception problems. I thought it sounded like you had a hand made cable and I was gonna suggest that was part of the problem, but if its a new antennae, i'm sure that is not the issue.

I fished a small club tournament yesterday (Sunday). One of the fish my partner caught was a big fish, that looked to have a loose belly and had dumped some eggs. I'm no expert, but it seemed to us that this particular fish had at least dumped some of her eggs. This was around the Big creek area.

where do you have the antennae mounted? It can make a difference, also how long is your cable? it could make a difference, especially if it was hand made. I am not an expert on this particular model, but I have dealt with electronics for many years. The GPS system is really pretty fragile in terms of everything seems to have to be just right for it to work properly. I have been told even that the units that have the antennae built in to them loses signal quite often.

As Promised I thought I would post how I did yesterday. I caught 3 fish, all shorts. My partner however caught 6. His bag weight was 16lbs 6oz. The fish were exactly where I found them Saturday. The biggest fish were "yard fish" meaning we caught them out of someones yard. I didn't weigh a fish, but I really did put my partner on fish. I fished as a non boater and we couldn't get more than one fish off any single piece of structure. The fish we found were in backs of creeks, where the water had a foot or more visibility. The active fish seemed to be roaming the flats in the very back of the creek, and when not feeding, they seemed to relate to the old creek channel dropoff. All the fish came with spinnerbaits. Interesting though, I tried a swimbait 4.5", used it as a trailer on a chatterbait type of bait, and caught several fish over the weekend, including the 4.6 lber I caught on Saturday. Even the small fish took this bait deep in their mouth. The type of bait was not hollow and very flimsy, or soft with lots of tail action. I was able to catch several fish with one bait though, it didn't tear up. Has anyone explored this? It seemed to give away some fish locations too, as some would follow it. Curtis Walker was my partner from Joplin, he won the tournament and won big bass also with one that was exactly 5 lbs. He caught the only limit for the day. Doug

I went out yesterday. Boat on every point, far as the eye could see. I don't know how they did, but I can tell you what I found. I was able to reproduce fish with of course a spinnerbait, in the very backs of creeks. on Flats and the fish seemed to be hanging around the old shore line. I fished from about baxter to Roaring river. I could not get a bite in roaring river. The water is extremely clear up there, and no one I talked too admitted to catching anything. Seems to be not the area to go. I wonder how the BFL boys did? There sure were a lot of boats out. I'm off this morning to fish a small club tourney with 5 boats. Maybe I can reproduce some from yesterday. I wanted to thank Bill and the others for posting this information, so I will try and post a little when I go out. Bill I called your lodge to find out about the Big Bay launch ramp. I knew people were launching there, but I just wanted to know how exactly a club could do there. We ended up picking the bridge, but If I bothered you by calling I apologize. I did not want fishing information and I did not use your 800 num. I think that takes some balls to act like that. I also had no idea that people would be doing that. I hope to come back on with a big report of lots of fish caught. Doug

I went out yesterday. I went up Roaring river arm. The water there had a nice green tint and about 2-3 foot visibility depending on how far back you went. I was able to catch 2 kentuckys neither one a keeper. both were about 14 inches. I caught them both flipping a jig near "stuff". Water temp was 54 from the mouth to the back, and I mean the back. I went all the way to the 86 bridge in Eagle Rock. For right now it is still pretty safe to navigate back there. There are some floaters but the depth is enough to go all the way back. I wanted my boys to catch some white bass, but no luck with them.

had a tournament up there I guess 10 days ago now. That was before the rain, but the 50 degree water then was up the Niangua. Jig bite up there 2 ft of water, mixed rock banks. At the time they were no further back than the 1st secondary point for most people. Have no idea where or what they are doing now, but I thought it might help to know where the warmer water was. I think this was the same weekend lefty was talking about. Hope this helps.

Not super familiar with Bull Shoals, but our club is supposed to have a tournament this weekend. Tomorrow is the planning meeting and just wanted to know if anyone could share some ramps we could launch at. It is supposed to be at Lead Hill, but have no idea if we can launch there or not.. Any help would be really appreciated.

The only standard is, take the hooks and hardware off before sending them in. the Mailman likes it better that way, and you can get by cheaper sending it. That way we dont' have to try and keep track of your hooks after we take them off. That would we about the only thing that everyone will want you to do. Any other questions and you want to talk offline, I could send my phone number to you on a PM if interested?