Champ188

Hey Dock, for a guy (ME) who bashes Johnny as much as I do, I just can't find a light mono line that outperforms that BPS Excel. I use their 6-pound a LOT of spinning rod applications and love that stuff. And when I'm not in the mood to drag it behind the boat (without a lure) to remove the twists, it's cheap enough to just strip it off and respool, sometimes right there in the boat. Thanks for a great report and congrats on getting in on the fast action. I admire your skills.

Funny how God designed the ecosystem like that, huh?

PRADCO in my opinion has never improved any lure company they have acquired and certainly hasn't done anything to enhance the lure selection. War Eagle is the latest example. Not a PRADCO fan whatsoever.

Shuffield and I fished quite a bit together. Did the first color sports pics with him ever published in the old Arkansas Gazette during a trip on DeGray. That guy was just made to fish grass.

Thanks for the tip, buddy! Good to see you here. Don't be a stranger!

Hey Gabe, I still have a bunch of the old Rogues and still use them ... mostly in the original clown or Table Rock Shad colors. Even the newer suspending models generally require a little tweaking but they are worth the trouble.

Thanks, Snagged. My dietician has had me on 2,500 calories a day max -- spread out over three meals and a couple of snacks -- plus a lot of water, which fortunately I like. The reason for spreading out your intake is that when you go a long time without eating and then over-indulge, the body wants to hang onto all of those calories because it's afraid you're going to deprive it again. Try to keep protein a priority with both meals and snacks ... you'll last longer before getting hungry again. And finally, 20-30 minutes of moderate exercise a day ... walking, recumbent bike, etc.

Thanks, guys ... been working on it! Was down 100 lbs at one point, gained about 10 back during my parents' illnesses/deaths, but am back on the decline now. Hope to lose 180 when all is said and done. About halfway there. Sure can feel the difference, which motivates me to get on down to goal.

I would ask why you aren't out there yourself but I know the answer: You're just not that mad at em. One of my favorite Babler-isms ever.

There's a lot of meat in this post right here. A lot to think about. Well said, Devan. Quillback makes a good point, too, for those of us old enough to appreciate the pomp and circumstance of the bowl games in their heyday. Heck, players didn't THINK about sitting until signing bonuses became so large that a guy could never play a down in the NFL and still have enough money to live on the rest of his life if he plays his cards right. As usual, it all comes down to money. Make no mistake, there are a TON of college student/athletes who still love the game more than life itself. But then enter the agents and their focus is redirected to the almighty dollar.

Back atcha, Gabe. Hope all is well over there in the Sooner state. Or the Cowpokes state. Whichever you prefer.

Saturday was actually pretty tolerable until the cold front hit. Good rainsuits were a must, though. We went to Beaver but did not fish the Polar Bear. Actually didn't get on the water until 9:45 and were off at 1:45. Kinda wonder how we'd have done if we'd fished a full day in the derby. Oh well, we had a great time and that's the main goal for us these days. Rock Crawler and a soft-plastic creation that shan't be named on chunk rock banks like the one behind Donna were the ticket.

Hello and happy fishing back atcha, my friend! And Donna returns the greetings. We went to Beaver yesterday and actually caught some pretty decent fish down near the dam. Crank bait and her beloved Senko. Water temp was 54 pretty much everywhere we went.

Same here with my Birds, Mike. In fact, my front unit is a 958 (same as 998 but without sidescan). Pretty sure I do have downscan on the front, though.

The 1-ounce baits that we slow-rolled over deep grass as described above had nothing bigger than a No. 5 willow main blade. Usually a #4 main blade and a #2 kicker.

Back in the old "national championship by polls" days, the bowl games meant something because the voters rewarded the winners and penalized the losers, as it should have been. I like Bill's idea for expanding the playoffs. Right now, there is too much emphasis strictly on W-L records ... evidence Cincy, who had no business being there. These non-SEC folks can squawk all they want but the South truly does play football on an entirely different level. Big 10 isn't going to produce a much better team than Michigan and they were convincingly defeated by Georgia.

Talking about Bama vs. Georgia? Hard to bet against Saban's record vs. former assistants. 5-1 might be skewed by other factors. Shoot, even 10-1 might be affected by outliers. But 25-1? Yeah, that's real stuff. The man is a doggone postseason genius without peer. On the other hand, Georgia has a great team and is capable of winning under the right circumstances. Dominant win over Michigan in every way. I just hope for an old-fashioned, rock em-sock em, smashmouth SEC football game where it is obvious the kids are playing for all the marbles. And that we don't have an officiating crew running around out there with cranial-rectal syndrome. Tennessee got totally hosed out of a win the other night because apparently the entire crew, including the replay officials, couldn't see that the Vols' star running back reached the ball across the goal line before his knee was down.

Good report, Dock. Thanks for sharing. I'm going back to Lowrance just as soon as I can. My Humminbird 998s don't show HALF of the detail of those Lowrance units. I run the bow unit on 2D 99% of the time coz I'm just old fashioned that way. I do wonder if the built-in transducer in my 8-year-old Fortrex trolling motor has become weak or damaged over the years.

Hope the Targa sells quickly and you can get into the new rig in time for early spring fishing. It'll be here soon. I hope.

OK, I'll bite. Serious question ... not being a smarty pants ... but why weight a spinnerbait? You can buy them all day in any weight you want up to 1 ounce or heavier. Is it being able to make it perform differently? Back before the Corps killed every stalk of aquatic grass (it was a mixture of hydrilla, coontail and elodea) out of lakes Ouachita and DeGray in west-central Arkansas, we would slow-roll a 1-ounce Arkansas Hawg Caller spinnerbait over the deep grass (20-25 feet) in the winter. Best places were midlake humps, but long, tapering points were good, too. Caught some darn big fish doing that and for some reason, they would hit that bait so hard it would nearly take the rod out of your hands. Kinda like a big TR smallmouth hitting a Whopper Plopper, except 20 feet deep. Here's a little tip about fishing deep grass in the winter ... if your lure comes back with stringy, smelly, dead-looking grass, pick up the troller and go elsewhere. Where you will catch them is in the greenest grass you can find. The bait comes thru the green stuff very easily and comes back to the boat mostly clean on every cast. You'll even find that it feels different coming thru the good green stuff. I've also done very well in deep winter grass on an old Storm crank bait called a Lightning Shad. My buddy David Ashcraft in Bismarck, AR, played a big role in its development. With its flat-sided design, it ticks the top of the grass just right and comes back to the boat clean nearly every time. Don't look for them in tackle shops ... they didn't catch on very well. Might find a few on eBay. We now return you to our regulary scheduled programming.

Good point, BassPastor, and my thoughts on the subject are this: Light doesn't penetrate as well in muddy water and bass are primarily sight feeders (Nomolite, please "enlighten" me here if I'm wrong ). So, I think they tend to live shallower so they can see their prey.

I like mine pan-fried to a crisp. With just a light coating of cornmeal. Not a big fan of the heavy batter that many folks use when frying.

I'm even later but like Hunter53, hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Vernon is one of those people who may not be DIRECTLY responsible when bad weather arrives, but he's always in the neighborhood. 😁

That's a lot of info, Bill. And well presented. I read every word. I'm definitely going full Lowrance whenever these old Humminbirds of mine bite the dust.