J-Doc

Depends on where you spend more time. Helm or bow? Before I got two graphs, I chose to put mine at the helm for safety reasons. I didn't want to damage my prop or hit something while on plane. I also bought a RAM mount so I could swing the sonar around and see it from the bow. Others have bought an extra transducer and mounted it to the bow and swap the unit back and forth. A lot of work in my mind. If you troll.....definately the helm. If you bass fish or fish from the bow, you could mount it at the bow. In all honesty, I've learned more this year by watching my fish finder at the helm than bow. I only use the bow unit now for depth, activity, and when I jig a spoon or drop shot.

And that's why the bite is tough. All that bait is making the fish "snack" sporadically and therefor, they are not terribly "hungry" or actively feeding. The instinctual food competition of "MINE!!" is not in affect yet. (MINE meaning.....like the seagulls from Finding Nemo) That will change coming in the fall though and the fish will become more competitive feeders. (I hope)

Party Barge strapped down with ratchet straps..........sure. My boat? Nope. :-)

HORRIBLE!! TERRIBLE EVEN! lol! I advised him to fish what he knows/comfortable with first. Then try the "clear water". Lugging an a-rig on this lake this time of year is enough to make a preacher cuss. I'm sure it could work but it's not always been a numbers bait for me. Could be......given the right conditions. All of the FLW guys were throwing the rigs with the little blades like a spinnerbait and the smallest Kietechs they could find. You can get Kietechs at Hook Line & Sinker.

He said bass but not limited to only bass. I didn't ask how big his boat was.........that's getting too personal!

I'd say........find the fish and fish them. I say that with a smile but it's true. I have learned the more I plan, the less I'm right. I go out now with a half-baked idea of what I expect and then I watch my graph to see if I'm correct. I may start near a ramp if I know there are typically fish there and if I don't get a bite in less than 10-15mins and not much topwater activity or fish on the graph, I leave the entire area and it tells me they are not shallow in that cove. Make sense? This time of year, points humps, ledges, drops, holes, etc. Anything that's different and not visually seen above water is what you look for. Try this............since you're new. Buy and download the NAVIONICS app to your phone. It's a far better contour map than anything you can buy in a paper map and it's SKADS cheaper than the same map available on your GPS sonar (if you have one). Look at the map and find some spots that you're used to looking for this time of year and give that a shot. I posted a report a few weeks ago and found fish stacked on a steeply sloped gravel bank because they had schooled the bait into that area (or followed them there). I caught some nice bass on a big Fat Free shad in a shad color. I stumbled upon the spot by accident. My advice is to get the app, look for some spots, put the trolling motor on high and find some fish. When you find them, leave quietly and come back in about 10-15mins and creep in there with a game plan. C-rigs, crankbaits, t-rigs, drop shot would be my bet. Especially the c-rig. Something as simple as a Rage Tail Craw.

Welcome to NWA! Now to answer your questions. How much time do you want to spend reading? Lol! That's what it will take. This time of year can be tough but the bite is picking up. Depending on your skill/experience and access to boat and or fishing equipment, drop shot is a good standard along with deep crankbait if you're REALLY good with crankbaits. I just learned about trolling this year and its taught me a good bit. Fish are offshore and moving around. Not so much on shorelines except steey sloped banks and at dusk. I suggest reading various topics with "report" in the subject. Feathers&Fins typically posts a weekly report but he trolls pretty much most of the time. That maunot be what you're looking for. Be sure and look up JT Crappie Guide and Hook Line and Sinker on Facebook. They typically provide a fishing report weekly as well. Gives you a rough idea. Also, where to fish. Well if it were easy.....it wouldn't be a challenge right? Water will clear up above the Hwy 12 bridge past Prarie Creek. It will become stained the further south you go up river towards Hwy 412. Further up north towards the darn is deeper and clearer water. Fish what your used to. If stained go south. If clear, go north. You'll have to fish what you know and what you're comfortable with starting out. Beaver Lake is known on the FLW tour as a "pattern by the hour" lake. Meaning it changes frequently. I do know that the bait population is astounding this year and Beaver is will be one of the healthiest fisheries in the country in the next few years. Hang out here. There's a lot of us that share things openly here.

I can transport my grill to the back of my truck and travel. As Doc Holiday said.... "Say when......" Lol!

Have Holland grill........ With wheels...... Will travel. :-)

"I won't be pawed at Wyatt" -Doc Holiday Can't trick me a into revealing my sauce that easy. OK......so I almost did post it here as I was going to anyway but now.......the gloves are off. :-)

It wasn't easy. My Holland grill has a rack that uses stainless steel expanded metal vs traditional grill racks. Even then, it stuck to the rack a little bit. I think I'll use aluminum foil with some PAM sprayed on the aluminum next time to help hold it together.

You supply the fish, I'll grill any day of the week. Be forewarned F&F......I'm the current "Grill-off Champion" at my office. Just sayin'....

Well this thread died a bit soon.... So here is a kick shot to re-start the discussion. I was out testing some motor issues and decided to play with my structure scan settings while idling around in Little Ventris on Beaver Lake. Here are some strange findings I found just by turning the surface clarity from "LOW" to "OFF". I found it really odd that it dramatically increased what I was picking up below the surface and not just "cleaning up the screen". No matter what unit you have, play with your surface clarity settings. You may be surprised at what you're missing out. The two screenshots on the bottom show a "LOW" and "OFF". With the clarity turned "OFF", I saw trees that the "LOW" setting did not pick up. I have problems using 800khz because I usually don't pickup bottom or anything at all. Here are some shots using these setings: - 800khz - Contrast 80% - Surface Clarity OFF - Color (White Background) - Depth (Auto) Here are two comparison shots using 455khz (what I typically use due to the wider sonar zone vs. the narrow 800khz The first image Surface Clarity "LOW". The second image shows Surface Clarity "OFF" In my mind, there is a dramatic difference in just those two settings. If I turned it to "MED", I wouldn't even get as much as I was getting on "LOW". Depth range also plays a big factor in this. The deeper the water, the less surface clarity you need. If I did this in 20ft of water, I'd probably have a very busy screen and just pick up a lot of debris and such thus the "LOW" setting is preferred depending on water clarity. Settings were: - 455khz - Contrast 68% - Surface Clarity OFF - Color (White Background) - Depth (Auto) Surface Clarity "LOW" Surface Clarity "OFF"

That stuff is brown and it's my own mixture of sauces. If you've never tried A1 on grilled seafood.....you're missing out. Goes great with grilled shrimp! I took a few things and mixed them together for a grilling sauce.

What about grilled walleye??

Yep, that was my boy Jacob. (12). We were fishing crappie minnows for "anything that would bite" to give my boy and my nephew a chance at some fish. We were finding a few fish on graph but nothing was boating. I don't think the boys were keeping their bait on the bottom where the fish were like I advised. Hard to explain experience of feel and knowing what your bait is doing and where it is to novices. Even I struggle sometimes and I've been doing this for about 8yrs now. Jacob sets the hook on a 4ft needle-nose gar with an extra cheap $18-20 Walmart rod/reel combo and he's about to come unglued! I thought he was just being dramatic. Lol. He had been claiming "bite" all morning! Lol So he gets this thing up to the boat and to my shock....the length on it was nice. Jacob thinks he caught the Beaver Lake/Loch Ness Monster and before I can grab the net, it dives under the boat and breaks the line. Needless to say, the boy is all about chasing gar now. One fish busted the surface (bass) and he sprang into a cast with a T-tigged worm and said "Ooooooooo! I want me a gar!!" Lol!!!! That boy! Sometimes he is a mess. We ended up with a squeaker walleye that I will post later with a recipe, a few small bass and a white at Beaver Shores. He's right......the bait is thick and the fish are too. I graphed a lot of fish. Just not many would bite. Or at least what I had (Rapala SR9's) The squeaker.... My nephew's bass Any day fishing is better than a great day at work! Lol:p

It was 80-82 as the sun rose high at Rocky Branch. Water clarity up to 4ft. A bit stained for that area. Fish weren't biting much at all until later around noon. Every bite was hard earned or luck.

You are correct. The bait population has been astounding this year. Its almost made fishing harder because they just "snack" all day I think. They only want a very particular forage and become picky on other baits. I myself have caught more 14 largemouth than I have 12" and under spotted bass this year. Darn fish must have read my earlier posts supporting the decision and now they are boycotting me!! Lol!! Seriously, I haven't caught a lot of short ones this year. Mostly nice spotted bass up to 15" or short larelgemouth. In previous years however, its always 12" or less spotted bass. I personally do not think they are a nuisance fish as advertised. I'm just glad to see Tue chance for some of the smaller ones to be thinned out a bit. Maybe 1-2yrs tops and then observe the findings scientifically throughout the 1-2yrs.

Well now that you said that......I feel like you just became a new member. Welcome! :-) Now I'll go take a look at the link you posted earlier. Now that I know you're a real person and willing to post an apology. Most wouldn't and would just move on or post more random sales pitches. I think it just came across as "spam". You did after just join this forum.

Original inspiration of "SPAMALOT"!! Yep, Spam. A lot of it too.

Good news for anglers/kids.... Bad news if you're a spotted bass!

Nice mess. Jigs? Live bait?

Wife and kid?????? Oh feel terrible now. For the wife and kid that is. Sounds like they definitely found him and discovered what happened. This is terrible. People that set out trot lines need to remove them when done. It makes the rest of us look bad. I've snagged quite a few over the years but from a boat. Poor guy was doing what he enjoyed and someone's ignorance/neglect cost him his life. It was an accident but still.....

Here is a nice shot of the sun going down though while I was trolling. ANY day on the water is still better than nothing at all.... (well unless your boat sinks) :-)

Sorry for the late report but...................................................there's nothing to report. I went out for a little while and trolled the Rocky Branch area. Water is very stained and the South East wind was pretty strong late Saturday afternoon. I say strong........anything ove 10-15mph is a bit more than I like but I'm a fair-weather guy! lol So I snagged every piece of trash drug up by the influxed current and water rise. I told someone that I got hung up on more than Roy D Mercer. I had both lines hung at the same time and had to go back to get the baits (I don't pull till they break as my trolling box is not as deep as F&F's....LOL! Fighint two rods and a trolling motor in the wind was no fun. Oh.........and my motor saga continues. After spending the last 2hrs reading my repair manual, I think I have it down and can finally fix what's been plauging me since March. I've had a pre-existing issue that decided to show up again Saturday which told me it was electrical and not solely a carb issue. These old OMC's are a great motor but can be as contankerous as old man at a bingo game. I'm hoping to get my remaining motor issues resolved and get back to fishing. Nothing major....just has a hard time idling after it's warmed up. So between being distracted by the motor, hanging up about 10 times and not a single bite even after I jigged a spoon and a bucktail jig over a MASSIVE school of bait and deep fish without a bite..........I called it a day.