jeb

Wife and I were up to Springfield this weekend, and can never go there without stopping at Bass Pro, of course. The outlet store had a 20% of sale going on all reels in the store. If you've not been there, it's a building just to the south of the main store and they carry a few new reels and lots of returned reels. All the reels in there are already discounted, so an additional 20% is pretty good usually. I picked up another 2010 Revo Premier for $160! It was a return. Only has a 30 day in store warranty and came with no paperwork or box, but I already have 2 I bought new, so I don't need more boxes or manuals. I pulled it apart when I got home and cleaned it all up and gave it a proper lube job, just as I do with all my new reels. Everything is in pristine shape and it's ready to go rip some lips now.

How's the diving visibility down that way? I haven't seen any big bass while diving yet, but I just got certified this spring, so not a lot of hours under water yet. Are there cool things to see up that way?

Been a while since I've seen much striper activity, or at least that I know about. I figure most of the lazy boils I'm seeing are gar right now. Some more pictures, from this morning: 2.73 pound spotted bass: Another picture of it: 19 inch walleye:

Thanks for confirming it. First one I'd caught like that. As always, had a fun day fishing with you, Jeff.

Thanks Jeff. I should have taken a picture of him sideways. WIDE LOAD! He was puking up shad as I was fighting him. Almost all the fish I caught had several followers. At one point, I bet I caught 10 spots in 20 casts. They were after it for a while this morning! Lost a top water plug to another nice one. Just about in the boat and he took one more run and popped the line. It was only 6lb test, but fresh line. My fault for not loosening up the drag more.

There sure are a lot of gar up top back in the Avoca Cove lately, too. I went out this morning and did well on big spots on mid-lake, main channel humps/rock piles. Caught several 2+ lbers, with the big one at 2.57lbs, according to my digital scale, at least. That one was quite the chunky football! I attached a couple of pictures of it. Not huge, but a dandy spot. Mostly topwater stuff for the spots. Looks like there was some kind of tourney this morning, blasting off out of PC Marina at 7am.

Same deal going under the Hwy 12 bridge. If you didn't know those were no wake zones, you'd never have a chance to cut the motor before you were through them. I fish around and go through PC a LOT since I live near, and launch in, Sunset Bay. So I see a lot of "violations" through the no wake zone. The other day, I saw a guy on full plane before coming out of the no wake zone there. It was obvious he'd come from the ramp area. After I got over the shock of it, I realized what may have happened. There are no "no wake" signs at the launch at PC that I'm aware of. So if you didn't already know you were in a no wake zone at the launch (first time launching there, etc), it'd be reasonable to idle away from the ramp a little bit and then let 'er go.

I got a "wake in a no wake zone" ticket way back in March of this year in the Prarire Creek no wake zone. Got waved over to the end of a dock where the AGFC guys were busy busting bass boats for wakes. Really odd deal. I remember wondering why were they not in boats? At first, since there was a big bass tourney there that weekend, I figured they were just checking limits or safety stuff. I was doing just above idle so was blown away when he said I was putting out too much wake. Long story short, he said "no wake means idle speed". Since I'd already admitted I was not at idle, I took the ticket and left. I looked up the no wake law both in the boating handbook and on the AGFC website, and it says no wake means no more than 5mph. Nothing about idle. Which makes sense. I could turn the idle up on my boat to 10mph and claim I was just doing idle, right? But I figured I'd be able to beat the ticket based on that. First, the dude was flat wrong in what he'd told me. Second, how's he going to prove I was doing more than 5mph? He certainly did not have a radar gun with him. So I decided to fight it. The story gets mired down here because I had to open a complaint against the district court baliff after he exploded on me as I was in there trying to change the date of my hearing (I was going up north for 2 months, so couldn't make the court date). So then I got assigned a different judge, blah, blah. Pled not guilty a while back and the "trial" date was set for yesterday. The AGFC guy didn't show, so it was probably a given I was going to get off. And that's what the prosecutor suggested. But the judge was curious about it since he'd never heard, or heard of, a no wake zone violation. So I presented my case quickly anyway. He was not even aware that there were no wake zones on the lake! But he said that unless the AGFC guy had been able to prove that I was doing more than 5mph instead of idle (as he'd incorrectly told me), I'd have won it anyway. Judge said it was a clever defense. Said he'd remember that in case it came up in the future. So if you ever get hassled about a no wake zone violation, ask to see their radar gun. IMO, unless they do get radar guns accurate at that low speed level, the current law is basically unenforceable. Unless you were up on plane or something, I guess.

I finally caught some legal eyes last week on Beaver. And 18" and a 20". Good eating! Sure take a big one to be legal on this lake, though!

Thanks for the report. Must have been rough out there in a canoe with all the wind and boat traffic this weekend!

Thanks. Got 'er done.

Congrats to your son. Hope they do well! I just saw this thread that would be worth pursuing: Bass Board Central thread It might also be worth hitting up the good folks at Hook, Line and Sinker and/or Southtown to see if they can donate or give discounts, etc.

I was fishing near Prarire Creek yesterday morning about 5:30. I could see flashing lights on the bridge side of the marina. I watched them on and off while I was up there, and it was clear they were searching the waters. I assume it was for a body. Hard to believe they'd be searching that hard at that time of day for anything else. So did anyone hear of a boat accident on Beaver in the wee hours of Saturday morning?

Yeah, I was out there today. Didn't I see you there, too? It was fun fishing with you today. Sure be nice to put more of those fish we're finding on the depth finders in the boat, though. Been finding tons of fish on the depth finders lately, and seeing lots of activity on the surface and on the finders. But the bite is pretty slow. The cloud cover and wind made the day decent, but we still got off the water a little after noon. Started at 4:30am.

A buddy was down from MN this spring and I had him fishing up in Ventris with suspending crankbaits. He did the same thing, running a hook into his finger with a fish still on the lure. I got the lure stabilized first and got the fish off. In our case, the hook had gone all the way through. So it was an easy fix. I clipped off the end of the hook, he pulled it back through, put a bandaid on and went back to fishing. So to hear yours needed a visit to the ER.

Good advice. I recently put some money into Mustang self-inflating/manual PFD's so I could wear them 100% of the time I'm in the boat. I'm a very strong swimmer, but that doesn't do you much good if you're knocked out or disoriented from a crash. Buy 'em, wear 'em!

Hey, I got to meet your dad and your boy, at least. I don't think your son wanted that rod to go, though. I hope to catch my first bass up here in Wisconsin on it today. Just need to get the boat launched, and a sweatshirt on. It's chilly up here in the mornings. Kind of a nice change compared to the temps when we left Ark Thursday, though! Anyway, thanks again. And I hope you did well at your tourney Weds night.

Thanks for the great deal on the IMX. Pleasure doing business with you!

I was headed out of the Prairie Creek/Sunset Bay cove to go down to Coos Thursday about 8am, and the whites were blowing up the water near the mouth. At least I assume they were whites as there were like 10-20 swirls at a time. I didn't stop to fish them as I'm not much of a white bass fisherperson. Have also seen a lot of big fish jumping action kind of mid-cove, main channel in Sunset Bay in the early mornings, too. But hard to say what they are. Carp, black bass, stripers, who knows? Caught another 5+ lb largemouth Thursday morning. I've sure pulled more than my fair share of big black bass from Beaver so far this year. It's been fun.

I'm certainly not saying they should not be there. Just that they should relax the size limit. Is there any proof to show the 18" rule makes any difference in the spawning success?

Yeah, I wonder that, too. But nothing we can do about it, I guess. I think they should make a 15" a keeper, though. I lived in MN for 35 years and Walleye is king up there, and the min was 15". It would maybe keep some of the food source competition down if we could pull more of them out of the lake. Great eating fish.

They were stopping folks on the water, too. But most of that activity that I saw was in the PC area, too. I've never been checked for fishing license on Beaver, either. Seems the AGFC is more interested in other areas of the law.

Wife wanted to go boating yesterday, so we headed out around 4pm to see if we could find any Sunny's. We launched out of PC, which was busy, of course. When we came in at 8pm, they had a sobriety check point at the top of the hill, just before you get to Hwy 12. Sheriff's everywhere! They had several assumed inebriates doing the whole 9 yards in a parking lot close by. We were chatted at and quickly waved through. I'm sure they were looking for the odor of alcohol. First one of those I'd ever been through. Not too painful really, at least if you were not drinking. Oh, we found a few sunny's but not a mess of big ones or anything. Just worm fishing with slip bobbers. We were out today again. Fishing, wife skiing and me scuba. I had to flip over about 100 rocks to find a crawfish. He was pretty small and kind of a pumpkin green color. I was face to face with a nice 3lb or so smallie for a while. Kind of cool. Hope y'all have a great Memorial Day. And many thanks to all the Vet's out there! Hook, Line and Sinker has a Memorial Day sale going on for vets. 10% off anything, I think.

My pleasure, Jeff. I had a great day fishing with you, as always. Just wish you could've gotten some of your big fish all the way into the boat. And thanks for the expert netting job on that last 3lber! He was all hung up in that bush, so it was sure great to have you there to bag him up. I also caught a Walleye (15-16 inch) and had a Gar follow a jig part of the way back to the boat. Never seen one do that before.

Water was pretty dingy today mid-lake today. Not sure why as it was not as bad after the big rains last week. Up at least a foot since last week, too. Can still see down 2-4 feet, depending on where you are, but not as clear as it was. Changed my fishing pattern, too. Now I have to figure them out again.