Seth

It will be hard to top that one!

I’m gonna try to do some more winter bass fishing this year. My issue is choosing them over crappie and trout.

The last time I fished for crappie with a float was when they were spawning in weed pockets on a local lake near where I live. I'd just drop a 1/32oz jig with a 2" BG slab slayer and float in the openings and if it didn't go down within 10 seconds, I'd move it a little and just let it sit. I couldn't tell you the last time I fished minnows under a float for crappie. I'm either shooting docks and swimming a jig back or vertical jigging with the long rod these days depending on the body of water I am fishing.

People get far too careless with firearms. It blows my mind. Heck, I got mad at myself when my rifle slid on my back a bit and pointed towards my buddy for a split second as we were getting ready to get down out of the blind. The gun was unloaded and the safety was on, but the #1 rule is always point the muzzle in a safe direction. Even if the gun goes off, you won't hit anybody if it isn't pointing towards anything that can be hurt in the first place.

Replace your lights with LED versions and replace any of those quick splice connectors with some good waterproof butt connectors and then coat the connectors with some liquid electrical tape after they cool down and you shouldn't have any lighting issues for a long while. Also, make sure your ground wire is mounted to the solid frame of the trailer and not the swing away tongue, if your trailer has one. I did this to my new boat trailer shortly after I got it in the summer of 2014 and the only issues I've had was I had to replace a couple running lights once the bulbs burned out. They are also LED now so I should be good for VERY long time as long as I don't beat them on anything to break them.

I don't bobber fish for crappie much, but I do for trout. I've grown fond of those 3/4" weighted round clip on floats. It doesn't take much to pull one under so they are great for light biters. Crappie will typically make the float swim versus taking it under when they bite.

It was a great opening weekend for us. Me and a buddy sat dark to almost dark (had to track deer) Saturday and saw over 30 deer. Movement was great all day long. Mostly fawns and young bucks chasing does. I shot a young doe and a nice 4.5 year old 8 pointer and my buddy got a large doe. Dad was hunting on the south end of the property and saw 25 deer himself and shot a large doe that evening. On Sunday morning, dad hunted the same spot and shot a 3.5 year old buck shortly after 7. We didn't sit all day, but saw 9 deer Sunday morning and passed on a few nice does. That evening was more of the same with does and small bucks till 4:30. Four slick heads busted up on to the field 300 yards away to the north followed by what looked like a really tall racked buck. He was chasing them hard and with little time to react, my buddy took the first crack at him when stopped. It ended up being an awesome 2.5 year old up and come. We were doing our best to avoid shooting 2.5 year olds, but this one really fooled us due to his smaller body. He looked huge 200 yards away chasing those does! Oh well, it was still an extremely exciting hunt! I've got one more firearm antlerless tag left for my county so I may go out and try to fill it this weekend just to get back out there. I'm sure I will see an freakin monster since I have no buck tag.

Hard to beat main lake bluff docks with big swim decks from fall till spring IMO for crappie. If you have side imaging, you can keep scanning docks until you find fish before making a cast. Otherwise, just find as many of those docks as you can, stop, shoot jig under them a few times, and move on if you aren't bit with in 10 casts. Start shallow and work your way down every few casts if you don't get bit.

Deer were going bonkers up in Linn County this past Tuesday and Wednesday. I've never seen so much chasing in the woods in such a short period of time. Actually got to watch a buck breed a doe, which was a first for me. Between Monday evening and Wednesday morning, we killed two button heads, a fawn doe, a big doe and a 3.5 year old 8 pointer. I had a chance at a 130 class 8 pointer before I shot the buck, but a big doe was staring right at me and I had to move slow to try and get turned for a shot and the buck got through my opening before I was ready. We tried to call him back with grunts and wheezes, but he made a scrape and then took off after some other does. The buck I shot came cruising right to us around 8:30 and I shot him at 12 steps. My buddy and I decided to give the deer a break Wednesday evening and get in a couple limits of crappie as well. The redneck grocery store was very giving this week!

I’m on year six with my Minnkota 210. I plug my batteries in as soon as I get home and unplug them the next day after they are juiced up. My last set of Everstart 29dc’s from Walmart lasted nearly 5 years. They still worked, but I noticed they weren’t quite as strong at the end of the day.

Things have gone off today in this are the way it sounds. My boss is hunting and has been covered up in young bucks this morning and also spotted a giant cruising through around 11am. His brother killed a nice buck earlier this morning. Another guy camping near them killed a nice buck. That's all on public ground too. Normally I go with them, but I figured I would skip out this year and cover things here at work since I will be gone most of next week hunting up north.

Went out this evening and saw threedoes and two fawns. No bucks ever showed up to bother the does though. I didn’t feel like messing with cleaning a deer so i let them all walk.

Good luck! Don't forget the orange since it's also youth rifle season this weekend. The bucks are starting to look for love!

It should be a pretty easy hunt for the lucky few who draw that first tag. Those elk act tamer than some of the cattle I've been around.

The elk are a bit of a nuisance down there when you are trying to deer hunt. They have messed up several hunts for us by showing up at the worst times when deer were heading our way and spooking them off. It's about time it actually HELPED for once. Deer act very similar around cattle here around home too. They aren't afraid of them, but they don't like up close and personal with them either.

Me, dad and four others were drawn for the Peck Ranch managed archery hunt again this year. Overall, the hunting was slow, but I did finally harvest a doe Sunday evening. Just in case you aren't familiar with Peck Ranch, this is where MDC reintroduced elk several years ago. I've seen plenty of them over the years while putting in for the managed hunts down there, but this is the first time I actually saw a couple big bulls. I had two feeding in front of me along with another bugling down in the timber just before I shot the doe. Some elk actually spooked her right to me.

I will start hunting this weekend and hit it gard tihrough rifle season. Our managed bow hunt at Peck Ranch is this weekend and I have high hopes of success with the forecast they are calling for. We haven’t had anything worth getting excited for on the cams yet. That shoukd start changing any time now though.

I just dropped my lure off for its destination today during lunch. It should arrive on Friday. Sorry for being a slacker.

He has it all on film and is making a video to document his Big Bass Bash weekend. We'll be able to see how he caught it. Apparently he had another one hooked that was even bigger than his winning fish, but it got off. I'm curious to see if he was just swimming those swimbaits along docks or fishing open water.

I'm hoping he got that fish on video and will be making a video of his LoZ BBB trip. I'd love to see if he caught that fish swimming that big swimbait along a dock or in open water.

@JestersHK sounds like you have about the same luck as me when it comes to catching those browns. My scent must repel them or something.

Top four fish awards start around the 45 minute mark.

**duplicate**

All four big money fish were weighed at Alhonna. I think two were caught up the Gravois somewhere, one around Shawnee Bend and the winner didn't even really know the lake and said just around the bend from the weigh in site (Alhonna).

Good job! I fished the Niangua arm during the bash and couldn't even hardly catch a fish this weekend. Best I caught was a 3.15 kentucky on a 130 plopper just inside a main lake point. I'm more familiar with the Gravois arm, but that area is just way to rough for an aluminum jet rig during the Bash. It liked to of killed me running from the Gravois to Alhonna to weigh a fish last year. That is the only time I've truly been scared to be in a boat.