zipstick

I doubt I could get this add on for my 987SI. This was the original SI unit and it's just about been forgotten by Humminbird.

Please sign us up for your upcoming hockey camp.

In a way I started this thread when I told Al about the good smallies that were gigged my best wintering hole about a month ago. I should have taken pics also. In that hole I was catching on average, more than 15 good smallies 15-21 inches each trip this Sept-early Dec. over 8-10 trips. On the week after I caught three gig wounded smallies, my catch went to one fish combined on the next two trips. I don't think I forgot how to catch them, they just disappeared. Like Al, I'm thinkiing the two tied gig boats about 1/2 mile above the spot were responsible, but I couldn't be sure. Interestingly, both of these boats pulled out about two weeks after I couldn't get any more bites in that honey hole. Maybe they couldn't find any more bass to stick. My plan next year is to post a sign(s) on gravel bars warning the illegal giggers not to take bass from the river. At least they will know that they are being scrutinized. I expect my signs will be shot at and destroyed. More can be made. I may even sit out a few evening in holes where I know big bass live just to keep an eye on things. I'm not against legal gigging, just against the morons who abuse the privelege. Also, I seriously doubt that our frustration with illegal gigging has even been heard of by some on the Directors of Conservation. If anyone wants to try to bend their ears a little, I'll get involved. First, we can bring up this issue at any of the board's public meetings, and that wouldn't be a bad idea. The season is too long, and the rules are nearly impossible to enforce. I do not think anyone in the state has documented the demise of the sucker population either. If this is true, some control of gigging would seem like the sensible approach to take.

Spooning is a great way to fish deep in shad laden, clear impoundments. I've spooned from Canada to Arkansas, and if yuou are around fish, it can be very satisfying. The times I've gone on Table Rock, it was with the legend, Dave Barker. He's done it for about 30 years staring his season when the water temps hit the lower 50's. He idles around looking for the major bait concentrations which are usually found in the deep guts of the major coves or creek arms. Generally, he'll start looking for balls that cover his entire depthfinder in 35-60 feet of water and he may be fishing from the bottom or for suspended bass. He may not see bass arches on his graph, but occasionally he will. Using a 2x magnification on his Lowrance, he can follow the spoon down to the bait schools and stop his spoon just in or over the top of the school. He will usually snap his rod from 9-11 o'clock, and let it tumble back on a semislack line to give it some action on the fall. If he gets a tick or a thump, he sets the hook. He favors a white 3/4 oz. spoon that was made locally by Hawg Jaw which may or may not be in business. He attaches a swivel to the eyelet to stop twist, and may put an extra treble on the ring eye. He will fish a school of bait for 15 minutes or so moving his boat to position it around another ball of shad. He simply releases the spool on his baitcaster and drops the lure down freespool always watching it's descent on his graph. I think he uses 15 pound test. Occasionally, he will see a bass come up to tag the spoon as it descends, so tuning the depthfinder is key here. Over the course of many years, he's pretty confident where to look for shad balls, but each year the bass can act a little differently. (That's fishing!) In a given short winter day, he will ususally try to hit about 6 spots and often catches 15-50 bass. Of course he catches all three species for TR doing this. By the way do release these deep caught bass quickly unless you are adept at fizzing them or they will often die from the bends. I don't know Rick LaPointm but he ius known as a very good spoon man as well. Maybe someone will unveil a few of his secrets on this thread. And one last thing, if crappie fishing around brushy impoundments like Truman or Twain, going to a slightly smaller jigging spoon can be extra deadly. I guided several years on Twain and never used a minnow to catch crappie. If Twain gets two or more feet of vis starting in June, a silver spoon bouced in and around the trees just off the channels from 8-20 feet deep using 15 pound test will prove deadly; and bonus bass, cats, and walleye are always welcomed.

Slider, I also gave myself a bad case of tennis elbow this summer on my casting arm srewing hundreds of screwsin a subfloor , and 6 months later it's just as tender. I can't spinfish, nor can I pitch or backhand worth a darn, but I can still cast underhand and overhand cast the baitcaster. I have researched this ailment on the web and talked to people who should know what to do. On one hand, rest is definitely required, but stretching and massaging the elbow is also recommended. I have noticed that if I go a week without casting, the imflamation and pain are reduced!

Thnaks fro teh awnswre.

I did the same thing on a 987, and the replacement 'ducer is expensive! Couldn't fix it.

No, just misspelled.

A coup0le of years ago, I thought the same thing. Temps had moderated after a real cold spell in '08. When we got to the river, my accurate temp gauge read 31 degrees. and I'm not making this up. I saw a rim of ice protruding off most of the shorelines about four to six feet wide, but the ramp was clear. Since the air temp that day was into the mid 50's, I thought it was still possible to catch a bass. Directly I motored my 18 ft. jet up to the first warm water vent (spring) and was very pleased at what I saw. Perhaps as many as 6 or 7 really nice largemouth were holding around and disappearing up into the vent. These fish, I figured would be easy to catch. I could hold my boat 10-15 feet away from them without spooking the bass in the least. The water temp at this distance from the opening was a "balmy" 34 degrees. We went through just about every piece of hair and plastic I had in my tackle boxes in in sizes from 1/4 oz. down to 1/64 oz. and couldn't get a response regardless of the type of retrieve we used. I settled on my trusty little black jig and actually bumped one of the larger bass over a dozen times on the snout with no luck at all. Frustrated, we decided to eat lunch right there with my maribou jig dangling about a foot down and about 3 feet from the boat in the crystal clear water. During my last sip of coffee, one of those rascal largehead bass, about 19 inches long, slowly swam up about 5 feet from the bottom and gently engulfed my stationairy black crappie jig. Quickly, I handed the rod to my partner to set the hook. He yanked with too much gusto breaking the 4 pound test. The large bass slowly submerged to the bottom just a few feet from us wearing his maribou mustache. There, the fish remained for at least the next hour as we could get no more bites. Now this story gets even more pathetic. I decided to motor up to another hole to try out our luck. After another 2 hours of fruitless casting in the second hole, we decided to call it quits. On the 3 mile ride downstream, I noticed lots of floating ice, and it occurred to me that my wake created going upstream had dislodged many shoreline chunks sending them into the stream. I could run pretty fast downstream dodging a few here and there thinking to myself, "Oh, what fun this is! My glee didn't last long as ahead of me and only about a mile from the ramp, lots of those big ice chunks clumped together to form an impenetrable dam. I saw the mess in plenty of time to slow down. First, I tried to butt the iceberg with my jon boat, but many of the chunks were nearly half the size of my boat and really stuck together. This blockage rached about 40 yards down, and totally coverd the entire width of the river. I nad unintentianally set the perfect trap for myself by dislodging all that shoreline ice. I needed a way to get downstream past the blockage before dark. For the next 15 minutes my partner and I tried one thing and then another. Finally I got the boat headed toward the shallow shoreline by punching holes in the floe with my wooden paddle. I got on my belly with my shoulders off the square-lipped bow and delivered as many overhead jabbing thrusts as I could with that blade. What a workout! I decided if I had to get out of the boat to break the ice, at least I would be in safer,shallow water instead of the deep hole out in the middle where most of the ice had collected. Blessedly as we neared the shoreline, the ice thinned out substantailly and every "thwack" of the paddle brought us a few inches closer to freedom. Relentlessly, I pushed on. We did make that 50 yard trek through the ice and returned to the ramp before dark. My wood paddle was missing about an inch of its tip, but I was thankful that I had it with me. There's a good lesson here on motoring with ice around the shoreline, and my foolishness about wanting to catch a bass in very frigid waters. Deep, deep wintertime is best for reading about fishing and not actually doing it.

Any reports today or recently on the water temps and how much ice is on the lake? Thanks.