Champ188

Just be glad you don't have to spend them in a Caymas. 😆 Hey, we knew something had to be up when Johnny hadn't already bought em out. Makes you wonder how long Clouse will hold out before he gets sucked into the vortex that is the White River Marine Group. Pretty sure Rick Pierce would never consider it.

With boats costing $100 grand apiece, could the market finally be pricing itself into big trouble, as we've all been predicting for decades?

Ditto on appreciate the reports. May come up Wednesday myself.

Truman has plenty of places with sufficient light for fish to spawn. But they do it shallow Shallow. The dirtier the water, the shallower the nests will be. The following was taken from Field & Stream, a very old and very reputable source of fishing/hunting information.

Gotta agree with you there, Mitch. And congrats Possum on doing a fine job of raising your girls. Yes, I did generalize for emphasis, and glad yours don't fit into the group of "gimme more, gimme more" types that are sitting waiting on YOU AND I to repay their student loans.

Crappie often move back in the fall into the same shallow areas where they spawned in the spring. Whether they actually spawn there in the fall I can't say, but my grandfather was a crappie guru on Lake Ouachita (much like TR, a clear, highland, flood-control reservoir) and he caught em shallow in both spring and fall.

And therein lies the reason we have so many "adults" out there who just don't get how things work in the real world of blood, sweat and tears. They've never had to figure out how to make things work with $2000 a month in income and $2500 in bills. The older generation immediately begins thinking, "I better get a part-time job for awhile." The younger generation just falls back on their entitled backsides and pressures family or friends to "be kind" and give them a hand. Not a blanket truth, but widespread enough to be a real societal problem in the works.

Been heading that way for a long time. How's anything gonna last if you spend $100,000 for a boat, another $100K for a truck to pull it, and fish for $10,000 MAX in the average regional tournament? Meaning the winner goes home with $10,000 and second place won't usually pay even half of that. Say you have a field of 100 boats ... that means only 2% make their expenses back after spending $1,500 minimum on traveling gas, boat gas and oil, incidental lure/tackle purchases, food and lodging. You'd have to WIN 20 of those $10K tournaments to even pay for your truck and boat. Talking about the regional level here. And the higher levels don't vary a lot. Still a very low percentage of guys even making back their expenses.

I spent my first 38 years fishing one of the cleanest lakes in the country ... Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. I've seen bass bed with the naked eye at depths of 18-22 feet on the edge of hydrilla/elodea/milfoil beds. That's a heckuva lot clearer water than Ivie but the grass stopped growing short of 25 feet because there wasn't sufficient light penetration for it to grow deeper. So, if grass won't grow down there, how can I dbass spawn? Sounds to me like someone is seriously trying to justify their spend on livescope equipment. How do they know they're looking at bass? They don't. How can this guide see a spawning bed on livescope? Why is this only happening at Ivie? Why not TR, Beaver or Bull Shoals? All three have much clearer water and therefore much better light penetration. I'm a little surprised that Texas largemouth will even go that deep for any reason, but I won't argue the point. But I will argue that (a) they can't spawn that deep and (b) that guide is full of goose hockey if he's telling people they are catching bedding fish out there. Nothing personal, Travis. I understand that you are just relaying information. But in this case, seems to me it is misinformation.

It was far more primarily retirement when we moved here in 2001 than now. I'm done giving them money to whiz away. They kicked ol' Papa Mike outta his spot at the Kingswood/Berksdale complex and are putting in a POA-owned and operated BBQ place. Huh? We already have Bubba's BBQ at the state line and Smokin' Joe's to the south. And word is, this new BBQ will be oven cooked and not even smoked. Typical POA ... stop short of doing things right because we can't afford it if we are gonna keep paying management ridiculous salaries and bonuses. Done here. Already pre-shopping for homes in Hot Springs Village. Turns out, you CAN go back home.

I've always been a big fan of spots, especially the big ones that roam the lower ends of TR and Beaver lakes. I'm also a fan of eating a mess of them when they are overly populated, as they used to be in the big lake in Hot Springs Village. Just can't bring myself to whack the sides off a 15-inch or bigger spot ... as for some reason, that remains the size limit in TR. Spots seem far more prolific than LM to me, and in some cases I've read they will beat down the LM population by monopolizing the forage supply.

Travis, there are people here a lot wiser than me, but there's no way a bass can bed 50 feet deep. Bass move shallow to spawn because their eggs need sunlight penetration to hatch and that ain't gonna happen at 50 feet.

Nailed it, snagged ... as you frequently do. And yes, I do feel better momentarily ... thanks. Hard to swallow that $300K for a budget no bigger than he manages. Then there's the restaurants manager who is making somewhere near $200K, then the golf agronomist, the aforementioned golf director, the recreation director (for pursuits other than golf) and on and on. Precariously top heavy and not in the sense us gentlemen normally prefer.

Hybrids are no longer "efficient" enough for our big-city transplant yups down in NW Arkansas. They're going full-blown EV's or bicycles. Oughta try to get around Bella Vista these days ... very common to run into a big line of cars and wonder, Flowers? Then find out there's a single bicycle taking up the middle of the lane up ahead and refusing to move the heck over to the side of the road. Because it's their "right" to impede traffic. Exactly the reason that Donna and I are 2 years from packing up and moving home to Hot Springs Village, where we used to live. Eleven lakes to fish ranging from 33 to 930 acres in size --- all with concrete boat ramps and managed primarily for fishing. There are also nine immaculate golf courses and 24-hour manned gates at the main entrances. Property owners use a computer chip card to enter after-hours at q couple of additional unmanned gates. And practically NO bicycles. Heck no, those old folks aren't gonna pedal around on bicycles when they can ride like kings in their golf carts, this guy included. Might be a few younger yups there but not many, and the ones who actually are there spend 3 hours a day or so commuting to Little Rock and back for work, which doesn't leave a lot of time to jam up traffic with their bicycle buddies. Oh yeah, rather than $165 a year or whatever the ridiculous boat registration fees are up to now in BV (I don't support the BV POA unless i absolutely must, at least not until they stop paying the general manager over $300K a year and the golf director 175K) the Hot Springs Village annual registration fee for my 20-foot Ranger is $79. And despite not being able to launch without a lake ranger showing up to quiz you on what you're fishing for, what you're throwing, how deep --- i.e., everything but his JOB --- there are unregistered trailers and boats on these lakes that are supposed to be property owners only. Of course, the BV golf courses are wide open to the general public and it shows. Property owners get no preference for tee times, instead getting bumped by all manner of society (dress code is totally ignored and there are no marshals on the course anymore) just out to ride around the course getting drunk, hitting wildly into other groups on other holes and tearing up property that is paid for by our monthly dues (which, of course, our "guests" don't pay). Less than half the price for some stupid-good fishing (the biggest lake, Balboa, also has a very healthy population of spotted bass, which the lakes management folks down there encourage folks to keep a mess of for eating so that a healthy balance remains between largemouth and spots. I realize a lot of this is of no interest to you folks in Missouri, but others have a vested interest in Bella Vista and its mounting issues with our $300K a year POA "leader" allowing the Walton grandsons to tear up 50+ years of a lovely place to retire and turning it into a bicycle/yuppy-palooza.

I know I'm late but happy Veterans Day to each and every one of my fellow vets. I don't care how big a mess this country may be in, it's still the USA and we still love her dearly. Don't believe it? Come screw with us and see. Bet today's military feels every bit as proud as we did and is every bit as ready to defend our freedom as we were during our days in uniform.

I have proven this many times while attempting to take a leak on winter fishing trips.

We are headed into winter. This was good practice for some of our winter Franken-threads that tend to provide maximum humor (depending on number of bong hits ingested) but minimum useful information. Well worth the price of admission most days.

It's all about the pressure --- and the rapid change --- as I understand it.

Let it be noted today that I was no part of this heinous attack on wrench, just in case I might want some friendly advice someday on a DIY project involving my boat.

It should be a shootout. GO HOGS!!

Absolutely true. Can name several from Arkansas alone who either struggled financially late in life or dropped out along the way and got regular jobs.

Wish I could like this post 1000 times.

If you're past 40 and even that's probably too high, you are gonna struggle to compete these days. These kids are far better at running computers than they are at fishing. They aren't old enough to have much appreciable time on the water but they can dang sure turn on that computer, dial it in and let it do the hard work for them. No sour grapes for me ... don't want to fish that way, ain't gonna fish that way and had my fill of watching SOME of these local wannabe kids run all over each other and everyone else on the lake. There are literally some out there who believe their mission to win money outranks the importance of whatever I might be doing if I'm someplace they want to be. We've all heard the old, "Yeah, but I'm fishing a tournament!" when we tell one of them they are intruding. And if we say anything to them that isn't sugar coated with rainbow sprinkles, we are being non-woke selfish meanies.

THIS!!! ^^^ Nice post. You should come around the warm-water forums more often.

Had to be an old show. They don't bite spinnerbaits anymore. Been told that by multiple folks ... gotta be true. LOL