Seth

I messed with one for a while this morning before work, but ended up leaving him gobbling so I could get to work. Suck sat in one spot all morning about 150-200 yards away so I decided to try and circle him and get better positioning. Once I got around him to where I wanted, I realized that he had finally moved and went down to where I had been sitting. Go figure! If he's in the same area, I should be able to get him killed next time.

@fishinwrench with friends like @BilletHead you don't need any enemies!

I'll be up around the 66-55mm snagging tomorrow. I can give you and updated number after our trip. I'm betting crappie are on the banks spawning by now if it's in the 60's. They were in full blown spawn mode yesterday evening here at a lake near my house. Water temp was 62 and stained.

I think some people go way over board for sure. If you got the $$$ then more power to you. I'm sure those types pay a lot of your bills and put a lot of fuel in your boat. It's not like I have anything crazy. My console graph is an 8 year old Humminbird 998c hdsi. It has side imaging, GPS and a mapping chip. I'm able to scan a large area in minutes and find all of the cover with it as well as find suspended fish, but the pictures are nearly as pretty as the newer units. You can find my unit used online for $300-400 all the time these days. Panoptix is pretty awesome, but I'm not sure if I will ever actually invest in it because I don't know if it would be worth it like the side imaging was. Sure I can pin point fish and get a live view of them, but if I'm on fish then I'm going to catch them anyways. My fancy 5" black and white graph on the bow works for staying on brush piles and that's the main thing I need out of it.

This link will tell you the current generation numbers. Each unit is roughly 50mwh. Anything over 1 unit is pretty iffy for wade fishing. You can always fish the outlets regardless of generation as long as they aren't full of people before you arrive. http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/data/tabular/htm/tabrock.htm This link gives you an estimated generation pattern for the following day. https://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Now don't go proving fishinwrench wrong! Everybody knows bass only live in less than 10' of water and you don't need a graph to catch those fish! Lakes are where graphs shine. I'll use my graph for GPS purposes on the rivers, but I flip the transducer up and disable sonar on the unit. Doesn't serve much purpose on a shallow river.

My guess is they don't know how to put them to good use. Plenty of guys out there who have fancy graphs that don't know how to use them properly. I'd bet far more guys who rule the LoZ tournament scene are good with sonar than those who aren't, especially when it comes to summer time. The best angler I know doesn't even bother fishing outside of winter and spring simply because he knows he can't compete in the summer time against guys who are good with electronics. He can' barely turn a graph on. I as on the Gravois a few weeks ago to chase crappie. We had a half dozen guys come up to us while getting the boat ready and told us they barely caught anything all day. We put the water in, graphed a few of my go to spots and they were void of fish. Went to a new area I'd never been and found a mega school in a matter of minutes and we limited out. Sure glad I had my electronics because I wouldn't have caught jack squat with out them. Some of those guys had some decent graphs too, but apparently they suck at using them.

So fish the way you want and let others do the same. Electronics make guys who already understand fish habits better anglers. If you don't understand the fish, chances are you pretty high that the fancy electronics are not a magic pill to turn you in to Kevin Vandam over night. Crappie is one fish that I rely heavily on my electronics. Finding paddlefish is second. After that, I really don't rely on them a whole lot.

If the water is off, definitely hit Taneycomo. If it's still heavy generation, then I'd say Montauk.

I've never worked so hard in my life to catch 10-12" fish. If I didn't have Ipilot, I wouldn't have come close to putting up the numbers that I did. In that fast current, I could set my heading and speed and the boat would handle itself while I dealt with fish. Without Ipilot, the drift would have been over as soon as I landed a fish and had to measure it in that fast current. I'm sure it looked about like a cat with a hot stove poker up it's rear end was trying to fish with the way I bouncing between the front deck and the drivers seat. Poor DJ even got dumped on to the floor when a wave hit us just right as I was about to take off and bummed up his shoulder a bit. It sure made me wish I had enough room in my bilge for one more battery so I could rock a 36v 112# pound thrust trolling motor. I could have just stayed put out in that current then!

That 20" brown is going to fall sooner than later. I'm starting to have more and more encounters with them. I might have to start fishing by myself so my co-anglers don't get first dibs though!

That net is pretty sweet. It's plenty big for big fish, but doesn't constantly get in the way like my long handle nets.

Here's footage of @JestersHK's big brown that he landed Sunday morning before we headed back home.

Looks like I get to add another check mark to the "co-angler that caught a 20"+ brown and not me" board! Before long, that board is going to start looking like the 11" portion of my CAM score card.

Good brown @Travis Swift! The nice browns were definitely active this weekend. Several thumpers followed our stuff to the boat, but only one actually bit. I think I have brown repellent on my hands or something. @JestersHK caught like 8 browns this weekend and I only managed a whopping 1! Had another hooked this morning on a jerkbait, but it threw the hook. It wasn't much anyways. At least the nice bows had some pity on me and wanted to play ball.

I know Joe Bass was at Pomme, but haven't seen the results anywhere online yet.

All Ultrex trolling motors come with Ipilot. The possible differences are whether it has with I-pilot link or not. I-pilot link allows you to connect it to your Humminbird graphs. There is also a version that comes with a built in mega down imaging transducer instead of the standard US2 2D version, but I doubt that is the case on this one since that is a fairly new feature.

I know they are pricey, but that setup with lithium deep cycle would be incredible!

One of my favorite ways to catch a bass! Watching that worm vanish isn't quite as exciting a monster top water blow up, but it still gets me fired up!

Dad burn Google! They see everything!

I plann on being down for CAM again this year. You’re welcome to play around with my Ultrex as well Phil.

Only if you're after deep fish. Nobody is forcing you to use electronics and video game it up out deep. There will always be bass up shallow where no electronics are needed at all, especially this time of year.

The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are extremely high right now and that limits how much water they can push down the White River, which dumps in to the Mississippi. Keep that in mind.

You mean there is actually more to it than just tying one on and fishing it in any random spot? I'd have never guessed based on what these other guys say about it. 😄😄

MLF also has marshals in every boat to weigh fish, penalize anglers, verify that they aren't lying, etc. How do you pull that one off in a lower level tournament with your average Joe fishing it? Total length would work, but I doubt many are going to go for that when it comes to bass. A 20" female full of eggs will go much farther than a 20" male this time of year.