Seth

I'm REALLY hoping I can upgrade to one of those bad dudes this summer. I figured it would be awesome on the rivers.

I don't know why you buy anything fishing related. You're too busy to fish these days and now you got foozball added to your plate.

Definitely no yellow shirts in turkey hunting!

Hunted the first two days and couldn't get anything to work in. Yesterday I setup on one end of the farm with some decoys in hopes that this one bird did the same thing he had done the previous two days. Well he was no where to be found. At around 7, a bird started hammering away on the other side of the farm so I went after him with just a mouth call and the shotgun. The bird was about 150 yards in to the woods and just over the lip of the oak flat I was on. I slipped in to within 100 yards, tucked up against a tree and let out some some putts and purrs every 5-10 minutes. The bird would gobble, but wasn't moving. Finally after about 40 minutes of that, I got real excited with cutting and got a response from all three birds in the group. After that, I just shut up and waited them out. About 20 minutes later, I could tell they were moving a little bit and noticed a couple red heads coming through the brush towards me. The lead bird got to about 30 yards, let out an head rattling gobble right at me and then took a load of #5 Winchester Longbeard XR's to his face. He ended up weighing 18.5#, had 1" and 1 1/16" spurs and a 10.5" beard.

Most just put in at Jerome and run up. It's a little over 10 miles up to the 28 bridge, but there is a lot of really good water to fish throughout that entire stretch.

I've never heard of that knot. I'll have to learn it and give it a try. It seems to be a bit stronger than even the Alberto based on the video I just watched.

I'm a big fan of the Alberto/improved Albright as well. On the hook side, I either use a uni knot or (preferably) the Braid and Fluorocarbon knot. With 6-8#, I usually just go with a Uni knot. Any fluorocarbon 10# and stronger gets the knot pictured below.

WeekendWarrior just posted pics of kentuckies on the bed by a walkway a few days ago......just sayin.

Well I was really doing well after the first day, but things tailed off a bit. I still made up some ground though.

We fished in a little snagging tournament this weekend out of Wigwam to help raise money for a family who are expecting a new son in May that has a rare heart defect. Several fish hit the deck, but we never found any big ones. Our best was a 50 pounder and it took 68 pounds to win. It didn't matter on this day though since we had all pretty well agreed to donate back anything if we did win. *** YouTube dinged me for having Led Zeppelin playing in the background. They don't allow anybody to use their material in videos, so I had to remove all sound and pick one of the free to use songs that were available on YouTube.

I can relate. Figuring out he pattern that puts the fish in the boat is what I enjoy the most. Once that part is done, I like to try and get others in the boat to catch them. That's when I am fun fishing. If it's a tourney, then I get mad at them and beat on them hard myself.

Looking good so far. Hopefully my guys don't bomb the next few days.

10 gauge is overkill, but you definitely won't be doing any harm by using it. I'd think 12 or even 14 gauge would suffice for a graph.

That's because people can't think on their own and have to do things the way they are told on TV. They are called sheep! If you have the ability to pay attention and learn, you can become decent at catching fish and just about any hobby that doesn't require god given talent. That would be like me picking up a paint brush and expecting to produce an Al Agnew masterpiece on my first try. Heck, I can barely sign my own name legibly! If you think fishermen are bad about this type of thing, you should be around a group of deer hunters! They take the stinking cake. The guys on TV are hunting prime ground that is strictly managed for large deer. They somehow convince the average Joe who hunts a small piece of private ground or even public ground that they can go out and do the same thing. If a new hunter goes out and kills a "sub standard" buck, you get the guys who do have really good ground and years of experience talking down on them. You just gotta have thick skin and do your own thing if you want to be an outdoorsman these days.

It's hard to beat the jig or pink worm under a float down there on Taney though! If Tablerock ever gets high enough to make them actualy generate water, I'd like to go down and throw some jerkbaits. I never did worth a darn on the jerkbait this winter since the water was always off.

Just keep the wires away from the trolling motor wiring as much as possible. That includes the steering head and steering cables. If possible, run the sonar power for the bow on the side opposite of where the trolling motor wires are ran. There is no need to split the positive and negative since they are part of the same circuit. Run your sonar power to the cranking battery. Leave the trolling batteries connected to just the trolling motor and your charger. This is how I route the transducer cable on my trolling motor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3l1fWytO6Q

Depends on what metrics you use to determine if your day on the water was a success. Some people just like to go out, relax, have a beer and catching anything is just a bonus. Others, such as myself, go out with the sole purpose of catching fish. The quantity and/or quality of the fish we catch is the metric that we use for judging the success of a trip. There is nothing wrong with either method. Just don't be the first guy I described and then complain to the second one about how the fishing stinks, even though the other guy caught plenty.

The first time I bass fished Table Rock was last year for the Cops for Kids tourney. I'd been reading on here about how the water around the darn was so "dirty". When we got to ramp and I could see 4', I thought to myself "What the heck are they talking about?". I guess it makes sense though since Taneycomo is usually really clear and it gets it water from Tablerock.

This is the type of rig a lot of the guys I fish against run. My 150 is low man on the totem pole in most tourneys. Being slower has never cost me a tourney so I'm not all that worried about it though. Some of these guys feel like they have to run 30 miles one way to catch fish. This is about as high end as you get for an outboard jet bassing rig. As for the tandem trailer, that is just what they ordered it with. There are many that just run a single axle. Mine is only a single axle. If I didn't have to wrestle my boat in to where I store it by hand, I would love to have the tandem axle trailer simply for the peace of mind in case a tire goes bad.

That's the part about tournament fishing that I enjoy the most. Even when you struggle, somebody else always catches them. In my opinion, if you know how river bass function, you can go catch fish without a problem on any of the rivers in our area. I know some guys who go prefish and all that jazz for tourneys, but I never have bothered with it. I go fishing and try to figure out a pattern and then hop around and try to replicate it. I think going in a with a plan hurts guys a lot because they spend all day trying to chase that pattern and it just never works out for them. They aren't that complicated usually, just go fishing and put the pieces together as you go. That's how I approach all types of fishing. The only time I'm dead set on how I am fishing is when the water gets really clear. It boggles my mind that guys hate fishing clear water so much. That's my favorite time to fish.

This one has a 300 on it.

Troutt and Sons in St. James. There are rigs like this running around all over the place. I could take my 1860 Legend SS to Cowtown tomorrow and they would slap on a 225HO Etec for me if I wanted to pay for it. Troutt's will throw a Mercury 300xs stroker if you wanted. Joe Troutt, the owner, runs a 300 on his Alweld 1856 jc jet. It's a mid 50's rig. That's about as much as you are going to get out of a fully decked out fishing rig. There are guys running empty tin cans with 250-300's that will break 60mph, but they aren't good for anything other than joy riding and racing.

Listing for a buddy. Contact the number listed below if interested. 2014 mercury pro xs 250 jet with 57 hours on new power head warranty till 2019 2016 Alweld Semi-V 1860 with built in flipping deck 2014 Rivercraft tandem axle trailer 29 gallon fuel cell Minnkota Fortrex 24v 80lb trolling motor Recessed foot pedal tray Aerated side opening livewell with timer and recirculator Center rod Box Plenty of storage Mercury smart craft gauge custom cover JBL PRV-175 head unit with four marine grade speakers Runs and drives like a dream. Few scratches nothing major 25,000 obo call or text Jesse @ 573-789-8688

Dang right it was!

I haven't ran one on my rig either, but I also have trim tabs on each transom corner and ai believe they serve the same purpose of helping you plane out easier. Troutt and Son is a big seller of them.