jeb

Why specifically do you say to avoid 4 strokes? When I got my skeeter, I had them pull off the Vmax and install the 4 stroke (not the SHO). I bought it for the quietness, much better fuel economy, no constant cost of 2 stroke oil and long term durability. Like the OP, this is my retirement boat and I was much more concerned with cost of operation and durability than I was with anything else, and I've been very happy with my decision. 450+ hours on it now and it runs as good as the day I bought it. The Yamaha website says Rainbow Marine, Cableas and Roger Outdoor Sports are all Yamaha dealers, so I'd guess/hope one of them would have a good service dept. I've not had to get any Yamaha service since Waymack has closed, so I don't know for sure. I guess I'd hit Rainbow first, though, if I needed service on something I couldn't handle.

Happens a ton in the Prarire Creek area, too. I hate those wake board boats. Their entire purpose in life is to produce the very thing that is so hard on shorelines, docks, fishermen and moored boats. But $50K would only get you a used one. I peeked at the price tag of some at the Rogers Boat Show last year out of curiosity and most were close to 6 figures or higher. Top one I saw was nearly $120k!

You could tell the females were still just holding waiting to go in and spawn. I'd have to doubt they've done that yet with all the rain the last couple of days. Should be soon, though. Then all those big girls will go back to their deep water haunts and be much harder to come by.

I've seen a couple of wake boarders in wet suits already, on Beaver and TR. Surf's up!

That double rig does seem to be showing up in lots of pictures lately. Has to be awful to throw all day.

Had a good afternoon/evening on Beaver today. Fished from 3pm-6pm in the PC area and put 23 black bass in the boat. All legals, several over 3lbs, almost all very pregnant females. One nice smallie in there, too. They were no where close to backs of coves. Water temp was in the 55-56 range, water was fairly stained, but clearing. Mostly c-rigging 10-20 FOW. I did check the back of a couple of coves, but the fish were more active outside the cove mouths.

I fished that same area Fri and Sat. Did okay on c and t rigs mostly. Over 20 fish a day for 2 guys. Debris was awful in the Big M to Eagle Rock area! Had to crawl through several large fields of floating trees and crap.

Sounds like most of the teams had a very tough day. Congrats to ULM!

PC cove has a distinct mudline against the south shore. Sticks out about 1/3 of the way across the bay. Kind of an odd mudline as they are normally across the bay, not along one shore.

Wow, 6+ inches? Here in the PC area, it stopped at 3.5". I live on top of a hill and never went into town yesterday, but I hear the lower areas down the hill by the lake got pretty good runoff damage.

We've got 3" in the rain gauge by PC so far from this storm. And it's not over yet. The lake was already rising, so this out to make it jump up. TR was already near normal pool, so there will be lots of buck brush in the water there now. And lots of debris floating in the lake, no doubt.

Good points, Champ. Thanks for your thoughts on this one.

Me, too! It's not unusual to have a 20-30 bass day on TR and then turn around and get almost blanked on Beaver the next day, even with the same conditions. TR is much friendlier in giving up the fish, there's no question in my mind about that. And the size does run bigger on them.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Sorry it didn't go a little better for you, but maybe you'll get 'em next year.

The co-angler didn't spill any details about how Christie was fishing, which is to his credit, IMO. He just said something like "Wait until Christie gets on stage in a while. Then the fireworks will start.". I did not go to the last day weigh in, so don't know if Christie talked about his pattern after winning or not. EDIT: Looks like it was mostly A-rigs for Christie's fish. http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/flw/tournament/2013/6945/beaver-lake-headline-story/154763/christie-gets-redemption-on-beaver/

Thanks for the link motoman. Wow, 9 daytime tourney on the same day, 4/20, on TR! Holy cow, that lake gets hammered, too. I'd be launching out of Big M, so maybe Friday wouldn't be too bad up there.

Does not surprise me. He had an ear-to-ear grin during the weigh in yesterday. Beaver is not usually kind to over confident fishermen, but it looks like he had the fish pretty well patterned. Thanks for posting the results!

No, that is exactly what the co-angler said Christie told him. Co-angler said he liked Christie and learned some stuff, but that his prediction came true.

My buddy from MN is coming to town later this week and he always likes to go fishing while here. But Beaver is getting bombed with tourneys, next week is a big college one. So wondering if anyone knows if TR has any big events next weekend? Thanks.

I'm an FLW member so the wife and I got VIP passes and a backstage tour yesterday. We were able to sit on the front row at weigh in and just could not be happier for Steve. He's a friend of the family as my wife used to work with him at Arvest. He's been nice enough to give me fishing advice, but I've never fished with him (despite me pestering him about it ). He was so pumped. You could tell when his bag was weighed with one angler left to weigh, that he knew he had it won. He had a great bag for the day. Talked with him afterwards for a minute, and he was still on an adrenaline high. He has worked hard to win this and it was a thrill to be there to see him win it. Here's a shot of a very happy man: The co-angler that fished with Christie didn't catch a fish, and he said Christie had told him the night before that was going to be the case. Said he enjoyed fishing with him, but a tough draw for a co-angler apparently. They were pretty tight lipped about how they caught them, of course.

To get back to the subject, I was at the FLW weigh in from Beaver Lake yesterday and some of the pro's had some monster smallies. 4+ pounders. The smallies seem to be doing very well on Beaver right now!

Fun day for sure. The wind was a little too strong at times, but at least the sun was warming things up quicker than yesterday! Water is pretty clear. Could see down pretty easy to 10' or more in a lot of areas. Surprised we didn't run into a few nicer fish, but it's hard to be disappointed with the numbers. Pretty steady fishing all day.

LOL! Good stuff.

I'd like to go, but unsure if I'll be back from White Rock Mt early enough to make it. Thanks for bringing this up.

That is good news. Thanks for sharing it. 3% is a lot lower increase than if they'd have had to build a new plant!