Mitch f

I agree Old Plug, We'll see what happens when gas goes up to $10 per gallon, maybe less pleasure boaters

With a jet boat you have the ability to zoom past unproductive water, which becomes more important the colder the water temps get. Another factor is you feel less fatigued during the day, which improves your attitude and resolve to keep fishing. And for me, since I'm mostly a jig fisherman, I can fish standing and pitch a jig into a spot and have the jig land softly, which is nearly impossible for me from a sitting position.

FWIW, I'm not totally stuck on a Fish and Ski, but with a wife and 2 young girls I need to think of them too.

F&F, even though I will end up buying a Fish n Ski for the family (love the windshield sometimes), I'm still curious which brand you guys like the best for consistent quality/features?

Love watching that video!, curious, what is your best guess at the water temp that day?

No bias here, If you wanted to buy the best fiberglass bass boat for the lakes we have around here, which one would you choose? considering dry ride, best rod storage, fit and finish, great live well system, strong transom, resale value. First question is which one would you choose if money was not an object? second, which would you consider the best bang for the buck?

Found a pic of the Clark Water Scout

Talked with "Lure Man" Steve White, who is an antique lure collector. He said there was a great lure back in the 40's was made in Springfield, Mo that was called the Clark Water Scout.

Under 3" diameter red/white bobbers.

Good advice

I'm by no means an expert, but I have been serious about using them for 5 years pretty steady and am still trying to perfect the presentation. Here are the things I know... When I use them on the river I try to never move the bait forward more than 1 foot at a time. When the water temps get colder, I move them even less and hesitate even longer between twitches/jerks...up to 3 or 4 seconds. But it (the water temp) has to be pretty darn cold (45) to wait that long. They seem to work best when the water temp is over 45 and less than 52 or so. I like the DD78 pointers in Chartreuse shad, or any clearish natural minnow pattern. The standard 78 works well too in shallower water. Al Agnew is an excellent jerk bait fisherman, maybe he can chime in and offer his 2 cents.

LC pointers are my staple on the river, but when I tied on a Megabass 110 the catch ratio went up. Can't speak to the robustness though. As far as pink jerkbaits... I use a pink fluke occasionally, but I would hesitate to sell my jerkbaits and buy only Rapalas in pink IMO Rapalas quality control is sub par and no 2 run alike.

The only other boat we saw yesterday was a guy in a jet boat that passed us. As he passed he waved and we waved back....I noticed he had a little yapper type doggie in the boat with him. Five minutes later we heard him coming back. As he passed we waved again and he was going full tilt upstream and was pointing down to the middle of his boat. I noticed a nice little fountain rising up from the center of the boat. Apparently he nailed a big rock and ripped a hole in his boat! Ouch

Did she finish the sentence when you said "I want a .........................

Yes, such a pleasure to see as opposed to self portraits with an iPhone making a duck face and trying to spruce up the photo with Instagram special effects! All these new Michael Angelos out there! The last pic is more like a Monet painting

Worked at McDonnell Douglas for 14 years.....F-15 Eagle

Nice Pics!

Great topic! I know when I used to tie the double uni for this application, you had to double the braid because of the dissimilar diameters of the lines. So...Has anyone ever heard of a knot that actually holds up to 100% of the tensile strength of the line?

That's hilarious!!

Just one extra knot to fail when the big one is on, but like Ham said, to each his own

In theory, the combination of braid with a fluoro leader is the perfect combination...the sensitivity of braid combined the abrasion resistance and stealthiness of fluoro. Since braid lasts so long and you only use a small section of leader, it's also a very inexpensive alternative. I went thru a stage about 5 years ago with this combo. I now just use straight hybrid line because the re-tying of the leader with a double uni. It was just too much of a hassle and waste of time. Since my fishing time is limited anymore, I'm all about maximizing time on the water.

Yes, without a jet prop the long john is really a good choice for a river. With a jet, the wider flat bottom is the better choice, especially if the water is very shallow. My buddy was infatuated with the long john for his jet, and although his ability to turn is much better than mine (my back end slides) he can't go near as shallow as I can.....so it's a trade off.

Your little girl will remember things like this forever....good job

I only use braid for 1 application......for a bigger spinnerbait to flip in log jams/ root wads, or in murky water. Other than that it's hybrid mono for everything else.

Those will tug your line!