Seth

Appreciate it Brandon!

Does the new Lakemaster chip with the high def Tablerock maps go very far up the James? That's the only arm of Tablerock I ever fish and usually always above the 76 bridge.

Depending on your software version, there was an issue where the 83khz got very pixelated and didn't look very good on the side imaging units. I'm not sure what version that is or anything though, just read a lot of people griping about it.

Are you using the down image or 2D screen on your 798? If you are running dual transducers at the same time up front, I'm surprised you don't have really bad interference.

How deep of water are you fishing and do you run 200/83khz for 2D? 83khz will give you a bigger cone and makes it easier to find your bait. It isn't as sharply detailed as the 200khz beam though. I've just got a Humminbird 728 black and white unit on the bow of my boat and I have no trouble watching my crappie jigs head towards brush directly underneath my trolling motor. What I usually do is run my graph in split screen mode with 200khz on one side and 83khz on the other. When I see something on the 83khz side, but not the 200khz side then I know I'm close to where I want to be, but not exact until it shows on both screens.

LOL...no worries about that! I now understand why I caught some grief during some of those forum discussions. I'll admit that I was a bit ignorant on some of the stuff, but you live and you learn! I look forward to meeting you, Mitch and the other smallmouth crazies.

Hopefully long enough to melt the ice bergs off of the Gasconade River!

I plan on driving down for this with a buddy or two. Those craws look amazing! Can't wait to see them in person.

I hadn't heard about that, but I know the storms you are referring to. I'd sure hate to get that phone call being told my $500k boat just flipped over or sank!

Sure would be a bad deal if a really bad storm came and wiped them out in the off season! Ouch!

Still just a fraction of what a lot of those cruiser on LoZ cost. I'm sure there are plenty of rich folks that enjoy bass fishing that will purchase something like this. In a few years when they want to upgrade, you can buy there barely used left overs for MUCH less than what I cost new. Besides, it's a free market and if they didn't feel they would sell this type of rig, they wouldn't be making them to sell unless they wanted their business to fail. Regardless of how expensive boats get, I'm not really sure why people complain about the price of high end rigs. If you can't afford a brand new rig, then go buy something used and just enjoy your time on the water. Everybody is too worried about keeping up with the Joneses instead of just buying what they can afford and enjoying themselves. I know I personally had just as much fun fishing from first little 16' jet boat as I do with my new boat. Sure the new boat has some really nice features that I really enjoy but if something happened and I had to go back to a small boat like my first one to get on the water, you can bet I would do it in a heart beat.

13 Fishing Omen Black 6'7" medium. It will run you around $100. If you have bear paws for hands, you may not like it. Folks with large hands tend to not favor the 13 fishing grips because they are too thin for their taste.

Maybe I will bite the bullet and order me a 4-6" wake bait when I get my income tax return. Watching this video and others has peaked my interest. I don't know anybody that I fish against in my bass club that uses these types of baits. It might pay off big to try something different........or just look good in my tacklebox if I can't convince myself to toss it.

I was under the impression that air boats were illegal in Missouri. When Jon Paul Morris organized the first big bow fishing tourney at Tablerock a few years ago, he had to get special permission from the state for anglers from the south who ran air boats to participate. It was only a one or two day exemption to the rule though.

Jet's may be loud and obnoxious, but when you need to cover a lot of water with a lot of shallow water in between your holes, it's the right tool for the job without a doubt! If you can make due with a prop, then by all means stick with the prop. They are far more efficient and easier to drive at low speeds than a jet. If you are serious about fishing a lot of rivers, I'd highly recommend the jet though. You can cover 20 miles of river in a day no problem with a jet setup versus a couple miles if you were constantly dragging a prop rig. I'd be lost without my jet boat! The biggest annoyance with jet boats is the pleasure jetters that swarm the rivers during the warm months. As a jet boat loving fishermen, that drives me crazy! They are equivalent us river rats as the cruisers are to the lake anglers on LoZ.

Awesome! There is a guy who has been night fishing for crappie on LoZ and doing well too. You all are some die hards and deserve some nice fish!

1) Check how many shims are below the impeller and the lock nut. If there are several, then your impeller has a lot of life left in it. There should be 1/32" of clearance between the liner and the impeller. Pulling the impeller and sharpening is easy. Outboard jets recommends sharpening from the bottom (as it sits in the motor) but I've had better luck sharpening from the top (as it sits in the motor). A guy on tinboats.net who tweaks smaller jets for peak performance recommended this method and it worked great! 2) Give the grease fitting on the jet a few squirts of lube (the owner should have some handy if they use this boat at all) and make sure water doesn't come out. If so, the bearing seals are wore out and will need replaced soon. My first boat leaked a little and I just greased it up after every trip on the water for a few years and it held up fine. As long as the water doesn't sit in there for extended periods of time you should be ok. Greasing it after each trip purges any water. Jets are very simple to maintain. The hardest part about driving one is when you are idling around. You learn to compensate when steering at slow speeds like when loading a boat. After you do it a few times, you won't think anything of it but you will probably look like you've never driven a boat before the first few times. I run an 1860 semi V Legend SS with a 150/105 Evinrude Etec and I love my jet rig for river fishing!

I tried them last year on the rivers and had so-so luck. In my mind, I figured I would slay the smallies in the warmer months when they are in the riffles but it didn't produce nearly as well as I had hoped. Beavers, chigger craws, paca craws and small brush hogs are what I had attached. The brush hog seemed to produce the best for me.

I gave it a whirl yesterday evening for the last few hours of light. Caught a nice kentucky on a black rabbit jig right away and then missed several others. It was a bit windy and I set the hook on one with too much slack and it came unbuttoned after a few seconds. It felt pretty decent for what little it was on. I'm not sure if I was on small fish or my jig tails are too lng but they just didn't seem to get the bait far enough in their mouth. For those who fish these cold temps, don't unhook your boat from the bow until the boat is in the water. I almost dumped my boat off on the ramp while backng down. Luckily, it just slowly slid back enough to dip down and set on the lower jet grate so nothing was hurt other than my pride. My bunks were solid ice so I was able yo winch it back up fairly easy and finished backing it down in to the water. My heart definitely skipped a few beats when it first happened! I guess that is what it would be like if a guy was using those ultimate bunkboards.

Al, I bought a Humminbird 998 SI last spring and it really shined when finding brush piles for crappie and graphing spoonbill during snagging season. However, after spring was over and I switched over to river bass fishing, I flipped up the transducer due to low river levels and used it as more of a mapping system. When the water get's really low like that, it's handy to be able to mark a waypoint with a little note to remind you which part of the river to take. Besides that, side imaging and sonar in general doesn't serve much purpose on small rivers for me.

I personally would have stayed home if I was had to make the call but he pulled the boat so I wasn't going to say no. My buddy doesn't get the chance to gig much anymore since he lives in northern MO so he was a lot more determined to go than me. When the water isn't choppy and you can see better, you can kill all the fish you want. This was one of the slowest trips we've had up there, but also the worst conditions too. We didn't see many game fish. I think we saw two paddlefish below the bridge, but they were thick up around the islands by the dam.

Mid March around Flat Creek is the only time I have had luck catching decent crappie down there. You just have to hope Duane left a few for you to catch!

I wish the weather was cold and nasty be ause it was busy! Fishing wasnt nearly as good for me as the first couple trips. I caught twenty something fish but fished longer than the previous trips. I'd say the biggest reason is the extra pressure on these nice days. Caught several on a white thread jig and brown micro jig below a float. Also caught several on my old stand by, a 3/32oz sculpin orange marabou jig. The upper half of the park has a lot more fish in it too. The lower half didnt leodice much at all and I didnt see near the fish.

Im heading down in the morning. I'll post how I do when I get back.

I used to throw spinnners a lot. They would produce a few fish, but not nearly as many as a jig.