edwin

We see gizzard shad schooling as you mention...just my guess as well. I even snagged one the other day on the A-rig!

I enjoy learning new techniques, so I'm happy to throw the rig. My #1 beef is that it's a pain laying on the deck of the boat...seems it will grab every rod / line within 5 feet!

Great info Bill, as always. FWIW, after the 11am slow down you mention, I was able to put together a pretty decent pattern mid- afternoon on the drop shot. 45 deg chunk banks, deep water fairly close by, little bit of wind helped, and wood didn't hurt. I caught 23 this afternoon with 8 keeps, lots of solid, fat 13.5 - 14.5" spots...all holding close to the bottom in 26-32' deep. Was able to duplicate it in 4 diff't spots up the James. My big fish of the day came right at noon on a jig is similar depth as mentioned above. The spots sure don't carry weight like a LM, but a 3.1lb spot was a pretty big fish

Fixing to be a great time of the year to upgrade to a new rig...hope the Z8 works out for you. I have a great friend in TX that has an older 929. What a nice boat to fish from. More storage room than you could ever want, huge decks front and back, comfortable seating, etc. Nice rig for sure...

Great fish...congrats!

We've had a few 10x20 slips in our dock sell for the mid to high teens in the last couple years. I paid $6500 for my 10x24 slip back in 1999.

I got out today with my kids for a few hours in the morning, few more late afternoon. Got the kids bundled up but surprisingly not too chilly out there. Patience isn't my strongest virtue, so we got into the wind...then hid for a bit...then hit the wind, etc. There were a few fish caught out of the wind on a grub and dropshot, but the wind blown banks / blade were working great for me. Most of the blade fish came in 9-15' of water along chunk rock banks with wind either blowing along or onto them. More than a few lost baits but worth the price for sure!

I need to find my CD I burned with Bill's jerk bait talk...great listening on the way to the lake.

Bill - great info on the comparison between the two. I used to catch lots and lots of fish on the Rogue, but really prefer fishing the McStick for one reason - it casts better for me in the wind. I catch about the same numbers on each but there's no comparison between how they fly through the air.

I'm heading down Sunday - Tuesday...hope you're right.

These reports are gonna force me to pull the boat home and head to more fertile waters! That said, I'll let everyone know when I pull my boat out....as that's all it will take for the bite to take off

Great info, Champ. I was always throwing them in the cedar trees...able to see them hung up 10' under the surface.

Aside from a strong buzzbait or spook bite, the blade bite is about as exciting as it gets. I don't throw it enough as I'm too cheap to toss it where it really needs to be thrown. Great input Champ.

this is getting some legs...great to see! I'll check the wife's calendar and toss out some dates on my end. Sounds like we have some ringers here...I'll need some strokes

Great input, will do some reading and adjust the depth range as suggested. Thanks!!!! edit - just read the manual...setting the upper and lower ranges will give me exactly what I want. Truly appreciate the help.

I'm not certain there's a firm number on the minimum number of players. Having 40+ certainly helps if you play a scramble, but we can figure something out whatever the number comes to. I normally tee it up at Branson Creek when I get to thwack the ball down that way...that said, I'll play anywhere..

I recently upgraded my bow unit from a larger size Lowrance LCX to an HB 1198. One feature that I used all the time on my Lowrance was the zoom, allowing me to zoom into a specific depth range. This was super helpful when dropshot fishing. I'd zoom that guy in so the screen would only contain the 'relevant' portion of the water column. I don't think the HB has the ability to do this, forcing me to show 0-the bottom at all times. Not a huge deal but the zoom really made for clearer viewing of what's going on. I figured I'd throw it out there for the smarter-than-me folks on the board....anyone know if this is a possibility on a HB? I'm open to any / all suggestions. tnx! edwin

I'm definitely in for an Ozark Anglers golf tourney....I'll gladly help set it up.

Great fishing on golf course ponds. Not uncommon for me to have a travel rod in the golf bag

Never too hot to play golf!

Only difference between the two - I'm way better at golf than I am at fishing

I understand the co-angler's grief with certain situations they encounter, but couldn't agree more with Champ. The front guy in in front for a reason - he's made the investment to be the front guy and has the 'fun' that goes along with it. Being the anal-retentive b@sshole (you've all met me, I'm 'that guy'), I generally enjoy choosing who's going in the back of my boat. I paid a fair sum for my boat...I had enough folks that I wouldn't choose be in the back give me the "it's just a boat" answer when they F-up something. Heck with that, it's just MY boat. I give folks credit for even allowing co-anglers in their boat. Raises the question - are the folks in the BASS, FLW, Central Pro-Am required to have a co-angler with them? Forgive the ignorance...I'm not a derby fisherman.

the folks out West cast a drop shot, normally with only 12-18" from the swivel...not the vertical presentation that's prevalent at TR. Sorry to hear about RM..."Son!"

I caught em pretty good yesterday on the dropshot right at off a gravel point. Boat in apprx 45-63' of water, most of the shad balls were either at 20' or right off the bottom. There were more fish down near the bottom bait balls, but none of them would take the bait. I had 13 (no keeps but 5 that were 14 and change) all from the 20' shad balls. Also had 4 more on a topwater whenever they'd break loose on the surface. If you enlarge the pic, you see how I worked the area between two GPS waypoints back and forth. One thing I noticed - being in 60' of water put me about a cast and half off the bank. Lots and lots of power pole'd rigs came awful close to me at 50+ mph, some really packing the mail. Even had 2 that went between me and the bank . The funny part was the look on the dudes faces that had come past as many as 3 times in the 3 hours I was camped out there. The look of "that guy is still there?" was cracking me up. I was really pleased with yesterday's catch. My success in finding fish was attributed to taking my dog out with me. He can't stand the wind when you're going fast, so I had to slow while running. It's amazing how many surface blow ups I saw running at 30-32mph than the normal 45-50mph. I saw some activity around a pocket near the point..stopped to take a look and ended up catching some fish as a result. Great weather, a couple cold beers, and the company of a guard dog! Only 3 shorts early this am before I had to pack it up and head back to STL.

I was able to catch 11 this morning, 9 of them on topwater before the fog lifted around 9:30. 8 of the 9 were on a Sammy, the other was on a Redfin. 3 of them were keepers but probably wouldn't have weighed 5.5lbs total. Gravel banks pretty close to docks were where I had success. Two shakey fish after the fog was gone...tough most of the day once it was sunny. I was around Pt 10, seemed to be about 9:45 or so before I heard the BASS guys come my way. I embarrassed to attach a pic of barely keeper, but Bill asked for it