steveearle

--Money is going to play no matter what, whether its directly or indirectly. There are industries that count on fisherman (tournament and otherwise) such as lodging, tackle etc. These tournaments pump money into these business at an exponential level, compared to leisure-level fishing. --Tournaments can be an easy targets, as there is "visible' mortality. I am much more concerned with "non-tournament" meat eaters damaging a fishery than tournament anglers. Most of this is simply not visible. --Spawn tournaments, I believe, are an emotional issue, not a conservation issue. I believe a lake will have a similar recruitment of young, with or without spawn tournaments...There is a stress level invloved, but from my personal experience, post-spawn, warm water fish are much mrore stressed than spawn fish. --Many or most of today lakes are at a peak, even a tournament fihsing is at an all-time high. For the lakes that are not, it is mosly due to envirnomental factors and human factors not associated with fishing. Droughts, grass-removal (even though much of it is non-native), etc. --Many (not saying you) anti-tournament people, that I have run across, usually have their opinions based on a "perception" of tournament anglers, not a reality. --Killing an 8-pounder (over 21" obviously) is, in most cases, much less detrimental to a fishery than killing a 3lber, that is at its peak with many more spawn season to go. BTW, I don't advise doing either. --The majority of fisherman are still recreational and not tournament fisherman. Once again, this is a visibility issue that can distort reality. These are just a few of my thoughts, with some being a little outside the scope of your original post...

I bet it was cumbersome with those Storm swimbaits. They are not light.

Good thing about the 110s is that they slow float and this makes them very "tweakable" with paint, hooks, etc...til the water gets warm anyway..

Yep. I've cut tons of crappie in the early fall with eggs. Should be small and almost rock hard..Wouldn't know about the bass though as I havent put a knife to one in a while... lol

Cyclone actually did a very good job with his recommendation with the CI4 or Patriarch rigged on a Cumara...but I will say this, as I have fished all of the above mentioned...The St. Croix Avid ($170-ish retail) 6'6" M-F has much more backbone than the M Cumara or Loomis SJR 782 and may be your choice for draggin a small c-rig/split shot type rig where a hook set is necessary. Will also chuck a grub or a stick further and great for a deep shakey head. The Cumara and Loomis are better for drop shot or smaller/shallower shakey, where a soft rod is at a premium.. If you don't have a "connection" for tackle, get on the ball and get the wife ready for the "Black Friday" sales at Tackle Warehouse, Bass TAckle Depot, The Hook up Tackle, etc. as most will have 20% off starting Friday (Hook-up already does). Ads will say certain brands are excluded but if you pick up the phone and call, they will give you the discount...It is simply that some brands have a "minimum advertised price"...but if you call you get the discount...

Exactly. A treble hook is one hook, not 3...

It took 45 pages of reading to get past the 33 hooks/50 hooks(Miss. River)regarding trotlines, etc....but for "pole and line"... Pole and Line: Fishing methods using tackle normally held in the hand, such as a cane pole, casting rod, spinning rod or fly rod, or ice fishing tackle commonly known as a tip-up, to which not more than 3 hooks with bait or lures are attached. Does not include snagging, snaring, grabbing, trotlines, juglines or other tackle normally attached in a fixed position.

The tackle industry is a very copy cat business, but for some reason Luck e Strike strikes a nerve with me...Been a while since they had an original idea..Oh well..Very irritating that they copied the Scrounger head and then TM'ed the Scrounger name so Aaron Martens/Davis baits can't even use the name....not that he was the inventor of the bait anyway...just bugs me.

Got into them a couple of times in April on the grub. Big ones and fun to catch...Irritating if its during a tourney. Spanked them really good out in front of the Mill Creek ramp (the one SW of Kimberling)...

Cheaper to do this with a calculated mortality rate that raise them themselves for a year in the hatcheries...That's my guess anyway. I saw some very nice walleye (my uncle caught) that showed up in some unexpected parts of T-Rock this year. I saw the pics and first assumed he had been over to Bull...

Looking for any pointers for my trip. Specific questions would be, I guess...Key drop shot depth? Any fish in the 25-35ft, or have they really headed deep? Any topwater bite in the morning/schooling? Have the SMB started to pull up shallow(er) in the morning at all, to where they can be caught in that 10-20 ft on the FB Jig under lower light? Just looking for any tidbits that might narrow down my spots and get me pointed in the right direction. For what its worth, I'll post a detailed report of the Thursday mid-day thru Sunday morning fishing that we do. Thanks. PS--Any whites by the dam/spillway like last year...or any schoolers showing up?

I have 2 of the Steez 100 SHAs on the NRX 873 CRRs..and Core 50 Mg7s on a NRX 853 and 893 JW...Um..they are not bad... Highly recommended, to say the least My dream scenario...here goes...OK...so I'm at Lake of the Ozarks instead of Table Rock..We idle around a dock and there is a 20-ish year old girl on a swim ladder with her legs spread, bikini pulled to the side, and her boyfriend........OH WAIT!!!!..that actually happened last weekend...I miss the relative peacefullness of TRock.

A KY/LM double to boot....even cooler.

That Slim Senko is an awesome little bait, but man its gets pricey when they are really biting...

Shimano Senislite 1500Mg (Japanese version of Stadic Mg 2000). Reel is 9.5/10 across the board with just a couple of tiny surface marks on the spool that you can barely see. Smooth as a baby's butt. 220 g (7.8 oz.)weight. 8 lb./120m line. Has 40mm finesse handle. Spooled with brand new Stren Sonic braid 3/14. I have 2 and simply need one as I have more reels than rods. Please email searle21@charter.net if interested $130 shipped TYD. PayPal preferred but not mandatory.

-10 degrees is a good goal for temp. 1/3 cup NON-iodized salt per 5 gallons of livewell water. 1 oz. of hydrogen peroxide per 3-5 gallons livewell water. Pump-out livewell, re-fill and repeat exact solution/ice every 4-6 hours (1 time during tourney) and keep livewell vented. This process rids the livewell of waste and potentially harmful gases. Plug livewell and set on recirculate to keep cool and chemicals in--do not add new water until you are flushing everything. Regarding ICE--Fact is, molecularly, most, if not all of the chlorine is eliminated when the water is frozen. If there is any left, it is not enough to harm fish when put in the livewell. I have been using this method for 4 years at 11 hour, LOZ night tournaments and it works. Anything you find on the topic by Gene Gilliland is awesome--although he doesn't recommend hydrogen peroxide because too many people think if a little is good, a lot is better (human nature). I was lucky enough to swap a few emails with him and he set me straight on a couple of things mentioned above. He also will not promote brand-name additives, as they are usually not FDA approved and there is a possibility that those fish will one day be eaten...although I do use a pinch of Rejuvenade... I tried the weighted clips and gave up as they fell of multiple times and I am confident fizzing a fish. Summertime fish at LOZ will "swell up" at comes coming out of 10 feet of water (don't ask me why).

IMO, more like 14 lb. braid to 6-8 lb. fluoro...for the first 4 baits mention...could go heavier with Fluke..

The Alberto knot/modified Albright is really unbeatable for line to line. I can't argue with your zero failures...just another option. Awesome because it is whip-finished and not truly a knot, which gives you incredible break strength if done right.

Thought you might find this interesting...

When you say 7+ ft. GLX, is it the BSR 852? If so, the recoil guides amplify the braid noise because of the lack of an insert...

Its already at 926.4 and coming up 4" per hour...Based on today's pace, I thought you might see 933 all over again.

The first time we saw the fox it was in the back of the pocket, then the south side of the pocket, then the third time she was trotting north on the bluff coming from the south end. Guessing she has a den somewhere above the bluff. She ran south with her kill. I'm sure it's probably the same one.

Came down for Easter weekend with the intension of getting some of the best night fhishing of the year in...Didnt happen. Got out daylight Friday and fished til 1:00-ish. Caught somewhere in the low 20s, numbers wise with 7 keepers. Big was an even 3lb. spot. 4 KYs, 2 SM, 1 LM on Redfin, Buckeye Wake-up, grub, and shakey head. Probably could have caught a ton on the shakey head but once the wind started blowing, we went out on the main trying to catch a big smallmouth...and got our butts kicked. Got back out fron noon-3pm, in between massive storms on Saturday. Started slow but 2 cool things happened. First we were fishing a pocket and my bro-in-law said "Hey look at that." It was a fox with 3 babies. The momma was carry some food (rabbit maybe) and ran 50mph across the back of the pocket and left the youngins basically in some house's backyards. They started crying and chirpin and I told him to go see if he could catch one. They must have been 4-6 weeks old and about 3 lbs. He jumped out and two ran into another yard while the other one walked right up to him and sniffed a little. I jumped out with my phone and shot a bunch of pics. It finally wondered off and we saw momma 2 more times. Anyone that frequents the right hand pocket of State Park just inside the main lake point may have seen her before--she wasn't shy. We only caught 4 shorts and 2 keepers, but right before we decided to go in, I chucked the Buckeye Wake-up across a grove of sunken cedar that were about 10 feet under the water and BAM! She weighed 4lb. 14 oz. and we called it a day. BTW, I like the hook-up with the Wake-up and its 3 #4 trebles. Are you guys putting 2's on you Redfin?

Any other pics? Vertical?

Sent my brother in law down over the weekend and gave him 4 spots. There were fish on 2 of them and they caught their 45 (3 people) pretty easy, but they are stacked up so there is a lot of dead water.When that water is 55-62 is when they will be "easy" to catch, if there is such a thing.