jeb

I've seen the water temps from 38-42 the last few days in the mid-lake area. Finding fish on the 'birds, but can't get them to bite. Been skunked on two trips in a row now since the snow melted. Kind of frustrating! But most I've heard are doing the same on Beaver right now.

Not sure about the boat world, but I'd recommend researching the company you're looking at buying from on the 'net. BBB site from the city they are based in is a good place to start. As far as the value, that's a personal call. They're basically gambling you won't have issues, and you're gambling you will. Sometimes I've lost that gamble, sometimes I've won. I'd guess I'm about even over the years.

I agree they did it because of abuse by some customers. However, it is very insulting to be punished for something someone else did. They should have found a better way to deal with the abuse, like limiting the number of times a year a person could use the service. Or requiring reciepts and it being original owners only.

Yes, they changed it retroactively. But they claim they did not change the "warranty". The lifetime warranty part is still there, and pretty much the same as it was. They changed the Expediter "service". They are now claiming that was never part of the warranty, and subject to change. But that rubs a lot of us the wrong way as it was always billed as part of the warranty in most of our minds, and a big part of reason we picked Loomis over other brands. I had never used the expediter before the change, but still considered it one of the reasons I bought Loomis. Well, shortly after the changes went it, sure enough I finally break one of my rods while fishing with Quillback one day. Call in and they were very hardline about it. I said to a supervisor at the end "Do you realize you're going to lose a long time customer over this?". He said "Yes, we understand that.". Nice.

Wife and I took a little tour of some of the ramps today. Hickory Creek is all iced up, all the way across the channel. That kind of surprised me. And the public ramp is for sure closed, as mentioned before. Prarire Creek road and parking lot are still very snowy and not plowed at all. There is solid ice in the ramp area. Most of the no wake zone is ice free, though. Horseshoe Bend ramp area was pretty snowed over and not plowed either, with some ice out from the ramp. But the channel just in front was free of ice. Hwy 12 bridge ramp was open, and busy! Probably a dozen trailers parked there, and several guys fishing right around the ramp and bridge. Saw a pro pulling in with Folgers wrap all of his boat and truck as we went by. I imagine all of them will be open quickly given the warmup. Got a bunch of good pictures. Hopefully, this is a once in a lifetime occurance.

I don't know where they measured the 22" for Rogers, but we live very close to the lake and measured a lot of our deeper spots around the house. We got 14-15". I think they were measuring snow drifts of something. Still, a big time snowfall, no question. Hope most of the meltoff gets down to the lake.

The doubling of the expiditor service has a LOT of us long time Loomis buyers pretty unhappy. This bait and switch by Loomis has had me buying Dobyn's Extreme rods now. HLS can order those in too, BTW.

The expedited service deal has doubled in price recently. So it's $100, plus shipping, to get that done now. But if you're not in a hurry, their normal warranty usually works out pretty well, like you experienced. I've had to have two of my Loomis rods replaced/repaired. First was a broken rod guide, 2nd was one I snapped while fishing. I buy most of my rods through my local dealer (Hook, Line and Sinker here in Rogers). So I took the rods to them and they handled the sending them into Loomis and getting them back to me for free. All I was out was 2 weeks of not being able to use the rods, a small price to pay.

So still more than 15' to go. I hope we don't get there!

There were several pictures in the book I just read on Monte Ne from back in 77 when the lake was the lowest it had been since the flooded it. They did not list the lake level in the article, but it was very low in the Monte Ne area. The entire amphitheater was out of the water.

That may be true on some units and some lakes. The NVB bundle of maps on the HB products is the same as the Navionics Hotmaps Premium + Hotmaps Gold, but from 2006. I have the NVB maps in my 798 and bought newer Hotmaps Premium chips for my 997. There is no difference between the maps on the lakes I fish, Beaver and TR around here. But each year, Navionics adds maps or makes more maps HD (which means better detail and one foot topo bars when you zoom in). So there may be an advantage to going non-NVB, depending on the lakes you fish. Also, you can usually save a lot of money on the cards if you're willing to buy year old ones from BPS outlet store in Springfield, ebay, Cableas Bargain Cave, etc.

Probably possible if you don't want the newest technology, like side and down imaging. But here's what I'd advise. I had this setup on my Skeeter for the first 6 months I owned it. Find a good deal on a Humminbird 798CI SI. Then put a mount for it on the front of the boat and the console. The 798 is unique in the HB SI DI lineup in that it has a one hand, quick disconnect mount. So it's super easy to move it from one place to the other. You'd also have to buy an extra mount (about $30), an extra power cable (about $10) and an extra SI transducer, which would be the pricey part. You may be able to find a deal on one on ebay. The one to get is the XHS 9 HDSI 180 T. I see one on ebay for $50 right now. The CI part is important as the I means it has an internal GPS antenna. That way you don't have to buy a 2nd GPS antenna. You may even be able to find one with the NVB package of maps out there, which would probably save you money by not having to buy a map chip. HB is coming out with a slightly different 798 right now. The only real difference is it has an ethernet port built in. So there are good deals to be had on the "older" 798's right now. Side Imaging is such a valuable tool. You can find structure, schools of fish, channels, etc way off to the side of the boat w/o having to run right over the top of them. I'd drive right by a lot of my best spots if I had not found them with SI. Couple that with the GPS and you can go right back to the same exact spot everytime you go out. I now have a 997C SI at the console and the 798 lives full time up front. I have over 900 hours of use on the 798 and it's been as solid as a rock. It has a very bright screen that is easy to see in direct sun, unlike the bigger units. It also has the highest pixel density of any HB SI DI unit. It's really a great unit.

I like their Flouroclear product for my spinning reels. It's a coated flourocarbon. I've never had good luck with pure FC on spinning reels. I use pretty much all FC on my baitcasters, but have not tried Pline on them. I'd guess it's a good product though, based on my experience with the Flouroclear.

Hey, while you're spending imaginary money, get me a plane ticket too, Jeff!!

I have not left the property since the first snow flake fell. No sense fishing in this kind of weather. Guides would freeze solid constantly. After living in MN for 35 years, I'm kind of hard core when it comes to winter fishing. But there comes a point....

Shoot, it'd be nice if the air temps got up into the 50's by then! I'm betting jerk baits are big producers this year.

Also make sure you have all the required safety equipment. Throwable life preserver/cushion, life jackets, horn, fire extinguisher, etc. Each state seems to have different rules. Some states require an anchor to be on board, for example.

Thanks Doug. But I don't see this update available for my 997 when I log onto HB's support website, only for my 798. Are you saying it should be available for all of the units you listed right now, or soon, or ??

Pure Fishing owns several brands of reels, like Abu and Pflueger. I'm pretty sure they make the better of the BPS low profile baitcast reels.

I was out of the area for a bit over a week, and could really tell the level is still headed down when I got home. Some of the bigger docks in the PC cove are close to being on the dirt again, like they were a few years ago. And more trees are sticking out of the water in a lot of the coves. I guess I don't care much one way or the other on lake levels. I've had a great winter of fishing so far, so I'm not complaining at this point. But I am being more cautious boating.

The shad are even more piled up at the bridge than the last time I was there. I could hardly retrieve my lure w/o hooking at least one of them. I caught one nice spot there today, but as thick as the shad are, I'm surprised it could even find my lure!

I've been traveling for a little over a week, but before I left the shad were stacked up around the bridge. So no surprise to hear they are still there. Huge schools of them the last time I was there about a week and half ago, too. But we were catching black bass around them. No cats or stripers that trip. Glad to hear you caught at least some fish!

Thanks for the link. I'm reading a book on Monte Ne right now, so great timing!

I saw an RV parked in the campground at Praririe Creek last weekend. Looked to me like the upper gate for spots 1-7 was open. I'd call the COE and ask how to use the camp sites.

LOL! I guess that's being kind of general about the area they fished. There's only what, like 100 miles of banks between PC and the dam?