Dutch

With a neck and shoulders like that he doesn’t need the biggest rack.

Ken how much rain did you get? We were at the farm in Hurley yesterday evening and had water running across the hay field in some places but I don’t know what the totals were.

They are winning but it was ugly. Mahomes wasn’t going through his reads. He was picking one guy and telegraphing his intentions much of the time. I did see moves from Kelsey that I didn’t know he had.

They are getting smaller, deeper, and harder to find. We struggled Thursday morning. We hit places that have been giving up fish. Very few would play. Some were as deep as 20’. None were shallow even though the surface temp was a tad warmer (56°). We couldn’t get them to eat anything but a Zero. Coppertruse and purple haze were the best colors. We wound up catching 14 with only 2 keepers. We are catching a few smallmouth which is very unusual for me in this part of the lake.

I’ve never done either but we used to catch the biggest ones that I have ever seen at night bass fishing in Schooner Creek about 30’ deep they were at least 10” long. We catch some on shaky in the upper James bigger than any I ever caught out of a stream but nothing like the ones in Schooner.

For guys who have not had custom rods this is a whole new world as far as I am concerned. The thing about a custom rod for me is having it built exactly the way I want it. I had gotten away from them until recently. If any of you are looking for a specialty rod I think this is the way to go.

How do you spoil line?

I’m glad to hear about the tubes. I’ve been thinking about them but haven’t used one yet. They were my go to bait before I started using Elaztech worms. I just haven’t been able to put them down but I am going to go to the garage and tie a tube on right now for tomorrow’s trip. I believe that I will tie on a white one. Thanks for the confidence factor.

My grandson has put in a food plot that is less than an acre at the edge of some timber. His cameras have shown lots of deer and turkeys using it. This is its first year and he and his wife took a couple of good bucks in it and saw several others.

I’m sure there will be days in January and February that I will wish for a day like that.

If you don’t have cedars don’t plant them. They spread like wildfire. We have a constant battle with them. Those little berries are seed cones. Birds eat them then poop and wallah you have more crdars where you don’t want them.

I took my neighbor to Cape Fair today. We caught the same number as last Wednesday (24). Today we only had two keepers and 22 shorts. We fished from 9-2:30. Any color Zero worked with watermelon candy best. They were more scattered and took more places to catch them. Some were in timber and some were in the middle of a cove near brush in 20 fow. Wind was light. The water was 54° and the air range was 39° to 69°. One beautiful sunny day for mid December.

A couple of nice fish there. We used to go down there quite a bit. I never saw any of them surfacing. I must have been in the wrong place.

I was not aware of Mercury having that problem. I’ve never had to do that except to the Johnrudes that I had.

Take it down to Branson West and have one of Kelly’s guys find out what’s wrong.

I don’t claim to be a mechanic, however, I had a similar experience twice in the 14 years that I had an Optimax. Both times it was something in the upper oil tank. A new tank fixed the issue.

Humpf I figured a bunch of Stone County go getters would be fishing all year, at least up to 2 o’clock.

I thought it was on Wednesday. I fished out of there Wednesday and was the only rig on the lot and only saw 3 or 4 other boats all day. Is it on another day?

It doesn’t look that large. Is that a 3/0 hook?

Yes they were in full sun. I’m sure the water color is a lot different than down where you guys are located. I was mostly above Ken’s place.

Nice catching there. How heavy is the head on that grub.

Thanks. Even a blind sow gets an acorn every now and then.

We got a late start cause I’m a sissy. I waited for 32° at my house before heading to Cape Fair. When we got there it was 29° and sunny. I had a jerker, a Ned and a shaky tied on. I went to a narly timbered point and threw the jerker. The surface temp was 54° and I just knew I would get bit there. My son in law was throwing Ned. Frustrated I picked up my watermelon red Zero and threw it where I had been working the jerk bait. On the first cast I caught a keeper spot. I started down the bank throwing the shaky. Real quick I had a keeper greenie. By then my son in law was throwing his shaky. We stayed on this bank for 2 hours and boated 18 bass with 5 nice keepers. A dozen or so places later we had caught 6 more bass. We hit lots of unproductive water and what spots produced only gave up 2 per place. I’m guessing it was a morning bite. The fish were from right on the bank to no deeper than about 15 feet.

I’d recommend going to a custom rod builder. Tell him exactly what you are looking for and have him build you one exactly the way you want it. That’s what I did last time. The guy even wanted the reel so he could get the balance like I wanted. I don’t think I will ever buy another rod off the shelf.

Wal Mart had quoted me $90 for both.