krux5506

To answer your question I would say to not target bedding bass like some people seem to do. Yes, I know just by casting around you can pick a bass off it's bed without knowing, but we know there's people who specifically sight fish beds. Also, not all of these fish are spawning at the exact same times either, you can sight them out in shallow water on the lake and see this for yourself during those times. Many also go into the bays where gobies aren't as much of an issue if at all. 

I'm not much of a bass tournament fisherman at all and go back and forth on how much those guys actually care about conservation vs their little payouts so I won't really defend their practices much, I'm only speaking from a C&R perspective. I think I said in another thread that I believe tournaments are more detrimental to these populations than our current C&R regs.

Sorry man. I'd be sick to my stomach too. 

The older I get, the more stupid fireworks seem. 

Leave the regulations as is. Gobies have been in the lake for years now and as a result the bass have only gotten bigger, and maybe moved to deeper water here and there. I don't agree with targeting bedding bass specifically, I think they should be left to do their thing. The smallmouth are still in the lake, but the techniques have changed drastically since I was a kid. I don't see there being a huge decline in population when most bass tournaments on the bays around here that include Lake O are in fact won with smallmouth, tenfold. 

Very cool video, thank you for sharing. 

Anything Raven is a decent start. I like their rods better than their reels because I think theres comparably priced reels that are way better...like Islander. 

You could have two units but it's more room/weight and two plugs...but yes you could do it. Personally I'd try and get a 4 bank. I recently got a 3 bank Minn Kota Precision charger and I like it a lot. I know they make them in 4 bank also.

On 6/26/2018 at 3:51 PM, Bosun Cowboy said:

Yeah For storage. Not for driving down the road.


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Yeah usually I tow with no cover but if the weather is bad or early season with salt still around on roads it's nice to not have the inside of the boat get crapped up

Ummmm I never take my trolling motor off my Lund...Luckily the travel cover fits over most of it, then I just bungee it down good. 

I use a travel cover as a mooring cover because I keep the boat on a hoist at our cottage. I bungee it down by the loops. What's not to understand about why someone would need a travel cover?

Wow thats a slob.

I'm 99% catch and release but I kept a smallie this past weekend for a solo dinner, kinda for the heck of it. Right around the 3lb range, maybe 3.25.  First time I've eaten one in probably 20 years and I must say it was pretty dang good. Very mild flavor. 

Nice job, it was a great day to be out Saturday. 

I also just had a bunch of work done at Seager's and was very pleased with the work. I will try South Bay next time, if they have since figured out there's such a thing as a 24v trolling motor and what a battery series is then I'd probably trust them to do my end of year maintenance. 

Seems the general rule of thumb is buy the biggest you can afford. That's what I did when I upgraded, although more so bought the biggest within the 24v range because I don't have room for 3 trolling motor batteries + cranking battery.

Depends how fast you wanna go! My 17' Lund came with a 46# Motorguide which moved the boat OK but I've sinced upgraded to something way better. I would think a bow mount 46# would be more than enough for your boat, but the extra thrust comes in especially handy on those windy days. 

I also had a transom mount minn kota (36# I think...) on an old 12ft aluminum that pushed it good. 

I'm big into bass fishing but not tournament fishing. Fished a tournament last year (first bass tournament) on my home port and left feeling pretty discouraged due to the obvious neglect put on most of the 5+lb smallies weighed in that were likely caught in deep water, "released" just to float around belly up. 20+ boats in this tournament all with limits caught most of which were great sized fish. A few guys were properly "fizzing" the fish but plenty of these nearly trophy sized smallies definitely died despite fizzing efforts. I left that tournament having a hard time picturing myself entering another one due to that along with many of those guys obviously not caring. 

My point is I have a hard time picturing C&R being more detrimental to healthy bass populations than the constant tournament pressure that many lakes get. 

Nice fish, gotta love when they smack a chatterbait.

It's always a bummer encountering fishing jerks on the water who do inconsiderate and downright stupid stuff like that. I don't troll like most of you guys in here, mostly stick to bass fishing but I swear "those" guys can be even worse. I like to keep a good distance between anyone else fishing, but I can't tell you how many times I've had people come up on me 20ft away or so and pretend like I'm not even there. 

Got my boat in this past Sunday and it felt great to be back down there after a long winter. Looks like we aren't going to have a repeat of last year's water levels either. 

5 hours ago, mrclean said:

Hey guys I have a sidebar question...Does anyone know of a place in "Blind Sodus Bay" that I can launch a kayak or small paddle boat. Or do I have to use one of the marinas in their. I thought there was a place us locals could dump in...thanks

Pretty sure you'd have to go to one of the marinas. I tried to do the same a couple years ago but couldn't find anything. I ended up at that really nice cottage on the point and the owner was outside. the small road ends pretty much at his driveway. I asked him if there was a public launch around and he didn't know of one.

Is it not the two twins in their mid 20's who own it anymore? One of them was there about 3 weeks ago when I went in. 

Again, I like those guys and their shop, but that instance is what made me look elsewhere for rigging. For simple service I would consider them because they are a 5 minute drive from my house. 

On 4/16/2018 at 2:05 PM, kstitan8 said:

When was this?


About 3 years ago. 

I thought about bringing my boat there for some rigging but after talking to them and realizing they didn't know there was such a thing as a 24 volt trolling motor (requiring two 12v batteries hooked into a series) and arguing with them briefly that this is in fact how it's done, and NOT by hooking into a "24 volt battery" as they put it.....I figured I'd go elsewhere for service/other misc rigging.

All that aside, I like that shop and buy tackle from there sometimes,  and the two guys who run it are pretty cool. That discrepancy though showed me they didn't really know what they were talking about, so why trust them with other electrical rigging?

Can't wait to get down there in a couple weeks, mid to end of April is just about my favorite time of year to fish. 

Any news on the ice breaking up? Last I heard was it was about 75% gone last weekend from where we are on Hadcock Dr. Wouldn't mind dumping the boat in mid March.

btw pikefreak, that's a beauty of a smallie

Seems ironic to me that it's becoming more likely to get into the 6# smallie range than the same range for largemouth.