Bird Watcher

Hammer?...meet nail.

He's not Nolan, but I think he will be an improvement.

Here's a cross word hint for their location: British Vacation / Fantasy Land that gave us tattoo. Caught two keeps, a couple shorts. They were out on the ledge beside the submerged islands. I was drifting a 1/4 oz. roadrunner head with a nightcrawler down the river with the wind about 1 mph, if I saw a good school on the sonar I would turn back to them and cast a swimming minnow on a road runner head to them. If I reeled it S-L-O-W, I could get them to bite. I was having the best luck putting the boat up in about 9' and throwing out into about 16' and dragging the lure back up the drop off. I missed a lot of short bites and really wish I would have had a stinger hook on my jig. All in all I was happy with the results. I've never fished TR for walleye before and was happy just getting into a few. Water temps were in the 52-53 degree range all day. Went way up the river early and worked my way back down. Saw a guy catch one walleye in a hole way up river, about 3 miles above Beaver town, before I started fishing my way back down river. On a side note, I also saw a lot of white bass caught on the rocky shallow banks around HI. Kept thinking I would see RPS since I was in his hood, but it looks like I missed him by a day.

I don't need no school. I'm like a cross between John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Christopher Walken and Beyonce. I got mad skilz...Could probably teach you a thing or two. I feel sorry for the suckas that do though. good luck on gaining new clients from this forum. I think the closest they come to dancing is "shuffling" on Taneycomo.

Works like a charm. Been doing it 5 years on my own after spending time and money at the mechanic every year before that. You'll save a lot of both doing it yourself every spring.

I can't speak for your motor, but I can offer this, after a certain year and depending on motor, they quit making floats out of foam and went to hard plastic. The hard plastic ones do not deteriorate and therefore do not need to be replaced. I ran into the same issue one time on a 98 Mercury. For what it's worth, I would bet ethanol residue has your needle vavles gummed up, but that's just a guess. PM fishinwrench on this forum. I think he's a marine mechanic from his posts.

I have the exact same set up, but the hds 5 is on my console. I often have to 2x zoom and put my nose on the screen to see what I am looking for. The side scan is all about how big a picture you can make out of the image. The bigger you get the picture, the more you can see. I can see the best in side scan if I set it to look one side, Right or left, and zoom once. This is on the 5 though. A 8 or 10 would show the image in that much more detail. I guess this is a long way of saying, no, I don't think it would do you any good to have the monitor up by your trolling motor if you are hoping to drive down the lake looking at it. Maybe when you are stopped and up on the front deck, but then again you need to be moving to get good images out of the structure scan. I don't know if this makes sense or not. I'm kind of typing in a hurry.

http://www.steepandcheap.com/steepcheap/sac

I think our difference in opinion must come from the implied statement within your response that MDC stocks Paddlefish. If they do, kill em all, they are no different than tailrace trout. My only experience with them are the naturally sustaining populations in OK. Young paddlefish grow quickly, reaching up to 20 inches at age-1. After age-5, growth rate slows to about 2 inches per year. Maximum age is around 40 years. I guess you meant they grow relatively fast? Those big fish people are killing are 25-40 years old. I'm 33. The thought of killing a fish as old as me is kind of sad, to me at least. They also only spawn every other year. Seems a lot less prolific than a lot of fish I can think of. If MDC stocks them, so be it. That's a different story. Oklahoma does not to the best of my knowledge. If they did, I might have a different opinion. I know they did away with the three fish per day season in OK. years ago because the numbers were declining. Just last year they made Spring River a refuge to try and protect numbers in Grand. I would just as soon they close the whole thing for 10 or 15 years and let them recover, but they won't because they are way too valuable of a tourism resource to Oklahoma. That's straight from the biologists working the paddlefish check station at Twin Bridges two years ago. Like I said, we are probably discussing two different scenarios. If they are put and take, take them.

I used to snag them like they were going out of style down on Grand Lake. Back in the glory days I can remember 4 of us in the boat with our three fish limit tied up along side. We wouldn't keep them unless they were 60#. Then I found out how slow they reproduce and how old those fish are. Now I think it's kind of sad to kill one. to each their own, i guess. It's legal...enjoy yourselves.

Thanks for the report. I've done well in that cove just about every time I've fished it.

those are beautiful fish. I love the colors.

Sorry Ollie, I was planning on bringing my daughter downt there for a little bit, but I think that the weather forecast is a little too cold for a 2.5 year old. Thanks for communicating it though.

I don't know where any are that are closer than a 2hr drive for you. I was just looking at one last weekend and they were starting to colonize it for spring. Not all the nests were claimed yet, but the best locations in the heart of the colony had two birds standing in each one I will say this, they are easy to spot from a long distance this time of year. If you just drive some creek bottoms, look for all the nests,(usually 20-30+) congregated in the tops of the tallest grove of trees.

Brave man. Better take a big anchor on Stockton with this wind. Good luck.

Couldn't agree more. One bass boat does put out less wake than a cruiser. 100 bass boats though? that's a different story. But rudimentally, is there any difference between chasing around the bobber drops or chasing around 5 green fish? In both cases a large group of boats are running around the lake trying to beat other competitors to the treasure? The big cruisers? Every lake deals with them between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Not much you can do except fish at night, Fish at dawn, fish a part of the lake they can't get to safely, or go fish a water supply lake if you want to get away from them. Doesn't make a rip to me either way. I change where and how I fish to avoid both the bass tourneys and the pleasure boaters, but I disagree there is much difference between pleasure boaters and a 100 boat bass tournament as far as commotion and rough water are concerned. Add in two or three tourneys on the same weekend=Madhouse, NASCAR race. If it's any consolation to you, the story on the news last week said that part of the above mentioned "damage" is in the form of sunken boats at Melody Point Marina. The roof collapsed and sank multiple Million dollar yachts on the bottom of the lake, so at least this "41 ft Sea Ray" won't be laying down any wicked rollers anytime soon.

I guess the GRDA pulled all the permits for bass tournaments for the month of March due to safety concerns over damage and debris in the lake. Should be a really good month for fishing weekends without the glitter boat jockeys flying around all day.

There were a few being caught over the weekend up in the rivers. I talked to 2 different boats that had some. One guy had 5, One guy had three, but that was at noon and they were still fishing. Spring River was flowing and muddy. 46 degrees.

Yeah, I hear ya. I actually would rather have a picture of it and it still swimmming, but a picture of a fish that was dying just to say I released it seemed like a waste. Wish I would have caught it on a stouter rod. Catching it on a 7' UL took too long. The fish was spent when I could finally get it to the net. That being said, killing them doesn't bother me as much fundamentally as say a LM, SM, or even a crappie. I mean after all, a sterile hybrid pretty much defines "put and take" resource. Or at least that's what I was telling myself. I don't know about the eating of them...not for me anyway. I've cleaned the red out of them before...they are still pretty greasy when they get big. Maybe a small one, but I let all of them go to get bigger.

Looks like a muskrat to me too...but I didn't see it first hand and the OP did.

FT, thanks for the reply, and that is a nice mount, but I'm looking for Stripers and Hybrids, AKA, Temperate Bass. Nice mount though..

I caught a good fish over the weekend. I ended up catching it on my UL, fishing for white bass. It took too long to get it in and I just couldn't revive it enought that I thought it would live. Since it died and I don't like eating them, I think I would like to get it mounted. I did a quick google image search online, but I can't find any pictures of mounts that look "right" to me. If anyone has pictures of their own mounts by local taxidermists that they are satisfied with, I would appreciate seeing them. Thank you,

Thanks for the report. Good to hear the size is right this year. I was expecting that after last fall.

Looks like Milwaukees Best light to me.

Frankie's Marine. He's got about 100 acres of boats and motors sitting out there. Might be worth calling if you don't find it, Dr. Better hurry up, those hybrids aren't going to wait forever.