abkeenan

Previous owner said he got it up to around 72. I'll probably never find out if that's true. I like to just cruise around 45-50 from spot to spot. Maybe an early morning or later in the evening when the water is like glass I would open her up. But that's the only time I'd ever run her to the max.

For sure. My brother and I weren't initially looking at Rangers. Were actually looking more at Tritons more than anything else. But saw this rig and thought it was priced fairly. Which I can tell you almost NO USED BOATS ARE PRICED ACCORDINGLY IN THE CURRENT MARKET. Everyone and their brother is asking 20-30% over NADA Book prices. And just about getting it. It's crazy. But we are VERY happy with it. Very comfortable ride plus you know it's a Ranger and built to last. We aren't speed demons so to the folks that say Rangers are heavy and slow, that's fine. Going 70 with the 250 is more than enough and doubt I'll ever even push it to that. Guys might beat us to the spot but I'll catch the fish behind them. No big deal. 😁

She's a Pre-Johnny Morris Takeover model. So hopefully I can still keep what little respect I had to begin with.

Wouldn't you like to know. I'm keeping it a secret so I can stealthily fish a dock on Pt. 2 without hindrance. 2009 Z520.

I bring it out for giggles mostly. I throw it a handful of times when I think the situation presents itself to go for a monster. I haven't ever really committed to it or big swimbaits in general. The one in the pic is a Savage Gear Shine Glide in the 9" magnum model designed for musky I believe. I've never caught anything on it but have only had it about a year or so and only have probably 20 casts on it. I threw it for about 5 casts that day in the clear water with no followers.

Came down last weekend to pick up a new rig with the brother from Bull. Fished just Saturday 3/20 around the dam and just past the 86 bridge into long creek. Long creek is about as muddy as I've ever seen it. Might have cleared up some by now but it was straight chocolate milk and maybe 4" of visibility. Up around the dam the water is still pretty clear. Rock snot is really bad in the clear section of the lake around the dam. Makes throwing a wart or any bottom bouncer a nuisance if not impossible. Broke the bill off my favorite wiggle wart by being lazy and slapping the water to get the green snot off. Wind blew pretty good for most of the day. Tried some main lake stuff around the dam with A-Rig and a Jerk. Didn't catch anything. Moved a little back into creeks and picked up a couple on a jerk. One nice LM about 3.5. Also one nice healthy brownie on a wart that went 3.70 on the scale later in the day. Went down into Long for the afternoon and flipped a jig right up on the bank on bluff walls with the sawdust debris clumps and had some better action. One went 5.10 on the scale on one of Bo's NuTech and as always stuck perfectly in the top of the head. Threw a spinner and bladed jig but didn't get a sniff on either. Water temps were 48-50. Should be getting really good here shortly. Fish all looked really thick and healthy. The big one looked like she'd never been stuck before and was a pretty fish.

That's not what actually happened. He didn't turn into the bank. Well, not intentionally anyway. He caught the wake of the boats ahead of him and it kicked his bow to the left . When the hull came back down it dug in and at that speed there was no way to correct and sealed his fate with the bank. He's probably lucky he kept it mashed down so he had enough juice to jump the bank and reenter the water. He is one lucky SOB. I'd love to see the bottom of that hull. The fact that it didn't immediately start sinking is astounding. Guess Ranger is still making great boats. Wonder how much he wants for the "totaled" boat? I know a guy that has screen doors he installs on leaky/destroyed hulls. He seals them over with a magic paste and in 30 minutes could make that thing like new.

Elites back at it this week. Reminder to get those rosters filled out. Good luck!

And to think just a few weeks ago the Tigers were ranked 10th! Way overrated at that time. Had we kept that ranking it would have been another 1st round exit as a 2 or 3 seed against a 14 or 15 seed come Dance time. Par for the Columbia course. Been playing pretty poorly the last few weeks. Offense just really can't do anything or create good shots when opponents close down Tilmon or get him in foul trouble. But hey, it's better than being in the NIT or worse like we've been in for what seems like an eternity. Relevancy is all that I'm happy for at this point. Winning is just icing on the cake.

Heads up that the Elites fire back up on Thursday on the Tennessee River. Get those lineups set.

Champ, I just picked up a pack of the Yum Ned Craws and they are indeed TINY. I think you'd be happy with them. They have enough meat on the body of the bait to where they should hold up for a few fish. Decently detailed and a good match for what TR bass belch up on the deck carpet regularly upon capture.

Guys, Everyone has now paid their entry fee. Thanks to all of you for quickly doing so and making things easy. Most appreciated! We have 21 participants which brings the prize pool to $210. I figured it would be fair to payout the top 4 finishers. If agreeable by the group the Tackle Warehouse Gift Card payout shall be: 1st = $100 2nd = $60 3rd = $30 4th = $20 Let me know if anyone has a problem with that scale. Thanks again guys!

Last day to enter ladies and gents. Season fires up tomorrow bright and early. Good luck!

Just a heads up that there is now less than a week til the season starts and registration for the league is closed. Thank you all who have signed up and who have already paid. Nice work! I can already tell it's going to be different this year with a better field of anglers to choose from instead of usual 4 or 5 guys that everyone picks. Good luck on the year.

We catch flatheads on TR when we set out trotlines every now and then. Biggest we've ever caught were a couple around 30-35lbs. With a rod and reel I've only caught one on a magnum wiggle wart and it was about 5lbs.

I made up like 8 of the cigar shaped bobbers to the specs of Mike Bucca. He has quite a few videos on YouTube of him fishing the FnF and of him giving tutorials of the how-to's including the specific bobber so that you can detect a "lift bite". I took them, cut them in half, created a cavity to transplant the weight in the middle instead of at the ends and then epoxied them back together. I did this like 4 years ago and HAVE YET TO TRY THE FnF. I have all the jigs and everything.

Boy, I don't know if you could ever find a better mouse trap set up than that.

Just a heads up that it's about 2 weeks until the Elites start the season. So still time to join for anyone else interested. Have 15 guys so far. Also a reminder to those already signed up don't wait til last minute to set your teams. Good luck all!

Yeah. Strike King is maybe the biggest, shall I say Culprit, of just copying in soft plastics. Berkley is just as bad but actually probably WORSE in their hardbait lineup. Basically anything they've come out with the last 5 years is an exact replica of another makers design. It kinda bothers me and I haven't bought any of them even though they are cheaper and people seem to do well on them.

All of these. Only one I'd add to the list is the Yum Crawbug. Pretty tiny but good representation in at 2.5".

Got it. Keeping people off my annexed dock over there on Point 2?

Got it.

Got it brother. Thanks.

I don't believe this to be true. I can't say where all of those brands got their blanks but I don't think they were from the Rock Springs facility in Harrison. A lot of the American Made blanks were produced by Rock Springs which then could go on to be private labeled or whatever. Which includes Falcon and I also believe Hammer Rods. There are only a handful of companies that roll their blanks (Loomis, St. Croix, Rock Spring) in the US. Shimano bought out Loomis a while ago and used their production facilities either here or abroad. Not sure where Lew's gets their blanks? I'm guessing wherever Bass Pro does? Quantum rods/reels come from the annual spring Bass Pro Rod/Reel trade-in event combined with Duckett defect and warranty rods that are ground up, glued together and repurposed as fishing products.

Who told you that? The first rule of my platinum membership is that we don't talk about the platinum membership.