OzarkFishman

I am wanting to convert my small transom mount trolling motor to a bow mount. I have a nice bow mount trolling motor, but I have decided to put it on my dad's boat to save myself the hassle of adding an extra platform at the front of my jon to secure the mount to. I have heard that you can just switch the head, so that the transom mount trolling motor would effectively be a bow mount. Is this as simple as it sounds? Does anyone know how to do this? Hopefully this works, so I can just add an extended handle and be able to fish from the front of the boat. I know I would be sacrificing the break away feature, but it seems like it would be worth the sacrifice. Any advice would be great. OzarkFishman

Present

Alright, I gotta ask these questions. Do you all cast your spoons? What about presentation?

Maybe one response is all this topic will get, but I figured I would bump it to the top anyway. Tight lines, OzarkFishman

2 crappie are not enough to please me, but when they hit while chasing bass it is a nice surprise. Especially when they have some quality. No offense about the momma thing. She wouldn't want anything to do with an old cripple like you anyway.

Buckshot, There are enough good crappie just about anywhere you fish. The 2 black crappie were caught this spring on Finley from the same structure on consecutive casts. It had wood and water and there was a snake on a tree that was lying next to the split after the riffle before the waterfall . The 3rd crappie is just to make your mouth water. I caught it at LOZ this spring. Good luck, OzarkFishman PS - I stared at your avatar CrappieMagnet and nothing happened ... whats up with that .

What is your favorite lure for stained water? The replies to the previous 2 threads have been great. OzarkFishman

Go to the home page and click on Lilley's Tackle Store.

RS, Always great reading your posts, especially for a decent fisherman at best. I never thought to put the bullet weight inside. Thanks a million. OzarkFishman

Alright boys and girls let your butt cheeks loosen and give all your secrets . In all seriousness, there are lot of you out there that are masters at fishing gin clear water (pros and guides on Table Rock as well as other layman masters). No need to include your presentation ... unless you want to. What is your favorite lure for gin clear water? This could be in a river or a lake. OzarkFishman

Wayne SW/MO, I have a charger that has a 2, 10 and 15 AMP setting (Schumacher Portable). Are you saying that setting it at 2 Amps will yeild a longer battery life? Since I go fishing at most once a week in my boat, I can use the slower charge rate if it will add to my battery life. Any money saving tips are awesome. OzarkFishman

I thought it would be fun to start a new topic every so often talking about different water conditions ... What is your favorite lure for muddy water? Tightlines, OzarkFishman (If this topic takes off, then I will start new topics for different water conditions later)

That was my thinking. If they worked, more people would use them. Thanks, OzarkFishman

Has anyone used the No-Knot Fas-Snaps? They seem like they would be really good for flies, but since I don't trout fish as of now I am really interested in the medium to large size for bass and panfish. They look like a great idea, but great ideas aren't always great in realworld applications. I found them on the Bass Pro website. OzarkFishman

Actually I use Floroclear two ways (check the spelling, small detail but it is Floroclear). I envy you guys that can just throw a difficult knot together on the fly like that (I know a blood knot is nothing more than two clinch knots, but I only have two not so nimble hands). I will stick with pre-rigging a uni knot for braid or use a palomar knot on the go for braid. For the Floroclear, I will stick with the improved clinch knot. When I get into trout fishing in the future, I am sure I will get comfortable with all the knots. With my spin reel that I have Power Pro on, I tie a small swivel and then a 2 - 4 foot leader of floroclear. This would be for weightless worms, soft jerkbaits and shakey head to prevent twist. Actually, the swivel acts sort of like a drop shot with the worms and I have had a lot of success with this set-up. I also just spool up my other spin reel (I have more than two, but only two are quality combos). I keep 1 spool with 10 to 12 pound and another spare spool with 4 pound. Have I said I really like Floroclear!!! OzarkFishman

If I am wading, I would rather not have to use glue. If I pre-rig for big cats, then I will look into the Albright. On a side note, I like P-Line Floroclear for both baitcasters and spinning reels. An improved clinch knot works well. But for heavier test on my spinning gear, I would rather have the small diameter that Power Pro offers. Thanks for the advice, OzarkFishman

This is somewhat off topic. I love using Power Pro on my spinning reels (less line twist AND no memory), but I use a Uni knot. I can tie a mean Uni at home when I pre-rig, but once on the water it is not an easy knot. Does anyone see a loss in knot strength when using a palomar knot with braid?

Alright, here is what I know about ponds. Since I spend every weekend for 4 months either preparing to open or running my cornmaze in Lowry City (It is a family owned business and my wife and I are part owners), I do A LOT of pond fishing. I don't have time or money to go to big lakes very often. If I am not fishing a pond up around Lowry, then I am fishing Finley River or Springfield Lake. My point being that I know quite a bit about a large variety of ponds. The following will be my synopsis of what I have PERSONALLY seen in multiple ponds. Pond 1: (1 acre) I fish this pond as much as possible because it is within walking distance of where I stay when I go up there. There are lots of small to medium sized bluegill and green sunfish (mostly on swimming minnow or small BPS squirmin shad). Also, there are lots of small bass and some good sized bass for a pond of this size (I have caught multiple bass between 1 - 2 pounds and one that was pushing 3). It is very shallow (average depth less than 4 feet, with a deeper center) and the only way to fish it in the summer is a weightless worm (senko or finesse worm). There have been a few catfish and crappie put in there. Pond 2 (THE PIT): (5 acres) This is my favorite place to fish from Fall through Spring and is also the pit I talked about in my previous post. I have caught my 2 biggest bass ever out of this pit. It has a good variety of sizes of all species. The bigger bass do show signs of being stunted (big head), but also have fairly good girth and feed on the bigger crappie. Like I said before, I believe it is the depth that helps this pond. This pond also offers quality duck hunting throughout winter. I also deer hunt on this land (YES, I AM LUCKY). It is not uncommon to see turkey as well. Pond 3: (3 - 4 acres) This pond is on the same land that pond 2 is. I have fished this pond a lot. It offers the best quality bass fishing. I HAVEN'T caught any crappie and I always fish this pond with a 3 and 4 inch swim bait on a jig head (1/8 - 1/4). I fished this pond 2 weekends ago and caught 30 bass in a 2 and 1/2 hour period. The average weight was 2 pounds (and yes I did have my digital scale with me). The biggest 2 were 3 lbs 6 oz and 3 lbs 5 oz. For fun bass fishing I go here. It is important to note that no crappie are present (at least to my knowledge) in this pond. There are baitfish in this pond. Pond 4: (3 - 4 acres) This pond is also a great bass fishery. It has bluegill, green sunfish, and bass. I fish this with either a 2 inch or 3 inch shad on a jighead (do you see a pattern to my pond fishing technique). Usually I stick with the 2 inch because it allows me to catch quality bluegill and sunfish and well as big bass. Biggest bass caught here is 3 and 1/2 pounds with the average probably being 1 and 1/2 pounds (that is the average I catch, not the actual average which I can't tell unless I was to fish this pond a lot more). Pond 5: (1 - 1.5 acres) This is a very shallow pond and offers amazing bluegill fishing. It is rather muddy, which is not usually conducive to big bluegill. Like I have said, every pond is different. There are also smaller bass, but the bluegill dominate this pond. Pond 6: (1/2 acre, maybe closer to 1/4) This was a surprise. A family member wanted me to fish this pond to see if any bass survived from his intial stocking of 4 or 5 bass. He had stocked these bass 4 or 5 years earlier. I threw my normal 2 inch BPS shad and caught a bass (SMALL) almost every cast. It was a fun day, because I was able to help his 3 year old daughter catch her first ever fish. The biggest bass I have caught there is probably 3/4 of a pound. I did catch I VERY thick bluegill, which were not stocked there. Isn't nature grand. Pond 7: (2 - 3 acres) From what I have heard this pond used to have a good population of good sized bass, but some of the Amish around were allowed to fish there and took a lot of bass out (nothing against the Amish). I have only fished this pond once. I did catch a couple of good bass (both over 2 pounds). I also caught multiple crappie, bluegill and green sunfish. Conclusion: Everything is different for every body of water. The MDC does know what they are talking about, but I recommend talking to as many people with personal experience with ponds. Since your goal is fun fishing, it really doesn't matter IMO. I still think smallmouth will not survive and the flathead will not breed. The reason MDC recommends the big 3 for stocking (largemouth, bluegill and channel) is ease of record keeping and ease of management (not that it is easy). I hope other people speak up and offer opinions. I try to just offer any knowledge that I have gained throughout my life in a logical manner, because many people on this forum have helped me become a better fisherman. Best of luck to everyone on the water, OzarkFishman

You are exactly right Lilley. MDC has many free pamphlets that will help you with everything from Pond Management to Proper Record Keeping. They also will offer free advice via telephone and will even come out to your pond if you get on the waiting list. The fish and keep day is my idea that I plan on implementing if I ever get a chance to be a land owner with a nice pond (The neighborhood that I live in won't let me put a pond on my 1/3 acre lot , wonder why). In the end, listen to Lilley. I am just a person that likes to learn and put in lots of time studying pond management this spring. Every pond is different, so MDC is definately the way to go. OzarkFishman

Usually ponds aren't stocked with that many different species. Probably because it is easier to keep an eye on the "balance" of the pond with only three or four species. The smallmouth probably won't make it. They like cooler, swifter water than a pond offers. Many people have tried to stock ponds with smallmouth, but they simply can't survive in ponds this far south. The flatheads have a big "roaming" area, so there lifestyle is not conducive to a pond. They may survive, but probably will not reproduce. Channels need to be restocked every so often (2-3 years). The panfish will overpopulate quick (especially the green sunfish). Most articles suggest anywhere from a 3:1 all the way up to a 5:1 harvest rate. That is 3 pounds of panfish harvested to every 1 pound of largemouth harvested. You may be thinking that the largemouth should not be harvested, but in a pond you want new genetics coming through. Obviously, throw back the big ones. If you are managing this pond, then you could set up a "fish and keep" day once a year. Have kids come and fish, record and keep what ever amount of fish you deem necessary. Harvest is best done in the fall to ensure that reproduction is through for the year. If you do this, I better be invited (I am a kid at heart, which is why I teach).

Buckshot, I think the reason crappie are not good in a pond is the mouth to length ratio (The same goes for green sunfish). Since a 9 inch crappie has a bigger mouth than a 9 inch bluegill or longear, the crappie can eat bigger bait fish and competes more with the bass for food. Like all panfish, crappie breed like wildfire so no matter what, there will end up being big crappie that sometimes outcompete the bass in a pond. If you don't care about bass fishing, then I guess it really doesn't matter. If you just want to catch fish, then stock crappie (they will be small if it is a small body of water). On a side note, my buddy has a old 5 acre pit/pond (I call it a pit because it has some places that are as deep as 30 feet). It was stocked over 25 years ago with largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill and others (catfish and others). I went fishing this past spring and caught many bass in the 3 - 4 pound range and 2 around 6 pounds (one just under and one just over). Two of these bass had big crappie tails sticking out of there mouth when I landed them. I also caught a good number of quality crappie (10 - 13 inches). Everything I have ever read says that 5 acres is not big enough to support this type of mixture of species (at least not with this quality). I think the reason is the depth, but then again the articles I read say depth has little to do with things as long as the average depth is at least 8 feet (they say it is all based on surface area). I guess it really depends on the body of water. A shallow 10 acre pond may be less conducive to a mixture of bass and crappie than a deep 5 acre pit. Tight Lines, OzarkFishman

Thank you Dutch. I probably messed my battery up by keeping it on the charger for the past month (I have used it 6 times during that period), but at least it is a small battery that is inexpensive for a deep cycle.

Thanks Dutch, but I really want someone to tell me if I should keep it on the charger at all times or just charge it to 100% and then top it off if I don't use it for a few weeks. I have the Ship-n-Shore charger from Wal-mart. It is a deep cycle charger and has a 15 Amp charge rate (also has a 10 amp and 2 amp setting). It has a maintainer stage. Is this maintenance stage meant to be a short-term maintenance or a long-term maintenance? My battery is just a 75 Ah (maintenance free) because I only use it for my 30 lb thrust trolling motor. I know you all are the masters of all spectrums of fishing. Fill me in, I am ignorant when it comes to boating and battery maintenance. OzarkFishman

They are very spooky, that is why I had to make long casts. I can go up fairly far, but with a 1953 14 ft jon dragging is not fun (HEAVY!!!!). I have been picking up between 3 and 5 each trip to the park and my trips are at most 3 hours and more like 1.5 to 2 usually. I have a couple things to add to the jon and then I will be in the market for a kayak. Too much stuff, too little money. OzarkFishman

I went to the park today from 3:30 to about 5:15 (had to be home at 5:30 to hang out with the fam). I took my jon boat and worked my way up the west side. I threw a 3 inch Stik-O on a slider (dark green), a 6 inch Strike King Shim-E Stik on a 1/4 football jig (also tried weightless). Nothing, no bites. Tried the 6 inch Shim-E casting parallel to the lilypads fishing it like a jerk bait, only one bite. It was about 4:55 and time was getting scarce. I switched back to the 1/4 football, but put a purple Berkley 7 inch powerworm on. I cast from the lilypads to the bluff side (as close as possible). I would work it slowly out and when it would fall off the ledge ... BAM. 1st cast, 2nd cast and 5th cast had a bass on. All three bass were between 13 and 14 inches. Nothing huge, but these 3 bass definately saved my night. I must note that all 3 fish came just as it started to sprinkle and I was in the right place at the right time. I was really surprised that I didn't get any on my Senko style baits (I never use Senko, too expensive for my taste). My previous 2 trips to the park all my bass came off of Senko style baits. OzarkFishman