jeb

I'm real curious to see if they work again, too. But you're sure right, it's almost funny that all of that hate and discontent about that new lure all came to nothing. It's just another lure to use and understand. I've only lost one A-rig. I use 65lb braid and fairly light wire jigs. I may loose the occasional big fish on a bent hook, but I always get my rig back from tree tops. That's a good trade for me, since I don't fish tourneys. I've found a bunch of striper umbrella rigs on Beaver, but no a-rigs so far.

Could be. But I'm thinking more A-rigs reeled fast enough to keep them up near the surface. It was about this time last year I started throwing the A-rig and it was awesome. So it'll be interesting to see how it works this year. Of course, it's a much different lake than it was last year too, with the low water. Suspending jerk baits will start showing up on my deck too, as the water continues to cool.

Fished from PC and Avoca coves up to Ventris today from 7am to 10am. Did pretty well. 18 black bass, 3 over 2lbs, a few more legals. All casting and winding. The fish are all over the place. Some came on main lake areas, some in the back of coves, some mid-cove. The biggest concentration of shad I saw was in the middle of the Avoca Cove in front of the docks, but not close to the docks. More in the middle. I watched a few boats come through and fish the docks while I was pulling them in behind them. Water temps anywhere from 60 to 66. Swim jigs, drop shot and jigging spoons where the big hits.

I remember when Scheels was just a little MN set of stores. I lived in Mn for 35 years, and Scheels had a great rep up there where they started. Good to see they are expanding. I have not shopped at one in a few years now, but they sure had a great rep for quality stuff, good prices and great service.

Thanks for dragging me out there, Jeff! Had a great time. Nice to see a couple of nicer fish come over the side, too! I thought we had a great day for cold front, big NW wind blowing kind of day.

Sure. None of these are perfect. The 898, 997 and 998, for example, don't have very bright screen backlighting and can be a little hard to see in direct sunlight. I put a Raptor Cap on mine, and it helps a lot. HB has announced that the 998's and 898's coming out next year will have a brighter screen. Otherwise, not much. Mine have been very good units. I have 1400 hours on the 798 in 3 years and it's been rock solid. My 997 has been equally reliable, but it does not have nearly as many hours. Not to be a net nanny, but there is no "g" in the Humminbird brand name. Common mistake, for obvious reasons. I think I'd steer well clear of the gen1 HDS's. I'd be concerned about quality issues with those.

I use HB. I have a 798 on the front and a 997 at the console. Both have Side Imaging and Down Imaging, as well as GPS. Great units that for sure help me catch more fish. I think Low makes a good product now too (they had horrible QC and customer service issues a couple of years back). But I think the HB's are a better bang for the buck since you don't have to spend extra to get the SI and DI features and you only have to mount one transducer per unit instead of two like the Low's. HB's customer support has an outstanding rep, too. HB also regularly rolls out free updates for the units. When I got both of mine, there was no such thing as down imaging. But when it came out, all I had to do was download an update from the HB website and update my unit. Voila, instant down imaging, for free! No additional hardware. Gotta' love that kind of support.

We were trolling with lead line on the upper Mississippi starting back in the 70's or 80's. Great technique for 'eyes.

Good story! Glad you got the jacket back.

I lived in MN for 35 years. Walleye is king up there, no doubt. As a dedicated non-walleye guy, I had to mail order most of my tackle!

Sounds like a good day, Jeff! Wish I could've gone with.

Sorry to hear about your dad, Phil. That is indeed where you should be spending your energy. I was not suggesting you create a politcal forum here. I was only talking about what worked on another board. May work here as well, though. I'd be happy to help in any way you need.

Sorry about that. I meant the 1st amendment, of course. It's not that easy, though. Calm rebuttals to cloesly held ideals here, and pretty much any forum, cause passionate responses from some. So it's often not anything posted to de-rail a discussion, it's that some folks just do not want to acknowledge anything but their own viewpoint that lead to most meltdowns, in my experience. But Phil did make a rule about this. And I like to respect forum owners rules. I'm an Admin on a large forum and have over 60K posts on that forum alone. We struggled with this same issue for years, but we were hard and fast. Political stuff got nuked immediately. We finally made a politics forum, and it takes fair amount of moderation to keep it in line. But it's what the users wanted, so it is what it is. Point being, I know politics can be volatile on any board. That's why I read and understand a forums rules. I don't mind talking politics at all. But I like to have clear rules in which to do it. Even Phil admits he made a rule and then allowed it to be violated. So I guess we are left to feel our way along on this one. Not putting Phil down, just still a bit confused.

Many people have this confusion about forums. They are not protected by the 1st amendment. So you have to depend on the posted rules to see what is allowed. And those are, at best, a bit confusing on this front.

I kind of doubt that, unless he has some other ties to this area besides coaching. It was in it's present form before he ever took the job at the U of A.

I'm confused, Phil. I, like others here I'm sure, tend to not post in these political threads out of respect for your pinned request to not start or participate in any political or GW threads. I figure they're going to get nuked and the thread starter put on vacation for a while. But then I see this were you say it's okay. Can you please define this more for me? I'm sure if more folks didn't feel compelled to follow the rules here, these discussions would be a lot more spirited!

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I agree with Spahog. You're on the wrong side of the main channel with that circle.

That was Coose Hollow where those condo's were suppose to go up. That's the one between Ventris and the PC Marina.

Caught a couple more on it today. Out on main lake points and humps. Not a magic technique yet or anything, but it's catching fish again. Good to see.

I've started throwing it again on Beaver. Caught my biggest fish on it the other day. But that was the only fish I caught on it. Still, with the water starting to cool a little, it seems like a good thing to have on the deck.

I was confused about Roger's Sporting Goods when I first heard about a couple of years ago. I thought it was in or near Rogers, AR. Turns out it's in MO and owned by a guy named Roger. I've heard nothing but good about them, though.

Unfortunately, there are not many lakes in the Rochester area. Zero natural ones. Lake Zumbro is the closest. Also known as Rochester's settling pond. We usually ran down to "The River" (Mississippi), about 50 minutes away. Most of the lakes in MN (close to 15,000 of them) are from the Twin Cities on up.

Your finance must be a great nurse. Mayo only calls on the best folks to come and work for them. Rochester is where I lived for 30 years before moving here 7 years ago. Not close to the Upper Mississippi, but it is close to the trout areas I linked to above. Roch is a great place to live. Great parks and bike trail systems. Very good roads, nice people, well run city. Plus the health care cannot be beat. Of course, the winters suck. Ski areas are close by (Welch Village) to help pass the winter. PM me if you want to chat more in depth about it. I really like Rochester, and would still live there if it were not for the winters the upper midwest gets.

I would not expect much on pricing changes. Like I said early in this thread, Cabela's is almost always MSRP. I guess having spent so much time in Cabela's stores over the years, I just assume that's what I'll find now.