32251

Randall. I want to fish Varner in the next few weeks. In your plastic worm selection do you have a favorite color and size that seems to work best for you.

Hey, you are getting bites! Look at it that way. Next time you go, the experience you had will pay off in lessons learned. Sounds like you are a bank fisherman. I fished from the bank for a while. I learned a couple of things. Don't fish with light line and when the fish burys in the weeds, you cannot pull him out. You have to just wait until he starts to move. I have waited them out sometimes for 30 minutes. Just set your rod down and open the bail so the line is slack and pretty soon the fish will move. Move up to 10 or 12 lb line so you can horse the fish out of the weeds or grass. Also never fish with your best expensive lures from the bank. You get hung up, you can't move over them with a lure knocker like you can with a boat. Go on Craigslist. Find you a cheap jon boat. You will be one happy camper!

Your visualization was indeed my reality!

Tennis dept it is! Thanks for the tip.

Good article on smaller lakes for bass growth. Catch and release over a long period of time will stunt the growth of bass. Not a problem on huge lakes. http://www.americansportfish.com/?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=78

It would be a good idea to check your state law about transporting game fish. You don't want to get into any trouble that might cause your fishing license to be revoked. If you have a private lake to release them in, then maybe no problem. That is a good idea though. The lake mangement folks do a shock count every so many years and after they analyze the fish population they write up a report. They did not say exactly how many to cull, they just suggested that if the lake objective is a trophy size bass lake then whenever anyone catches a smaller bass in the 1 1/2-2 1/2lb range that they should consider keeping these or throwing them on the bank for the critters to eat. This lake has been there since the mid 50s and started out with small cabins around it. Now the cabins have been added onto and some newer small homes built...maybe 50 or 60 homes around it. Not a lot of folks fish there. About 12 years ago the bass were very stunted so a management company was hired to get the lake back in good balance. They came in and shocked up a large number of fish, culled out the correct number and gave them away to anyone who wanted them....seems like the residents would take the free fish, but don't want to go to the trouble to actually work to catch them!!. Then they introduced threadfin shad as a baitfish and started to fertilize the lake for correct PH balances and also stocked a Fla. strain of bass. Now the lake is full of beautiful bass and the best thing to do is to now cull out some of the smaller fish. About 9 years ago a catfish pond that was on the north end of the lake had a dam failure and the catfish in the pond ran down a creek and into the lake. Just the other day the next door neighbor to my brother was going out in his boat and saw a comotion on the water and thought it was an otter thrashing around. Turned out to be a big cat with a 2lb bass stuck in his throat. They got the cat and it weight 48lbs!!! Guy took it home for food. There have been numerous 20 and 30+lb catfish caught there. It is a great little lake to fish. The Fla. strain of bass after about a 10 year period start to become harder to catch on lures..so the studies have shown, but at night with plastics I have had good luck. If you can find the bass herding up the shad and busting through them, you can throw about anything through the shad and get a bite. This is the first time in the years that I have fished this lake that I have kept any fish. All were released. It was a little strange at first to take the fish, but after taking into consideration the management test it was better clear to me that in some cases catch and release can actually degrade the fishing over a period of time. Same thing with the deer population. If you don't cull some of them now that there are not enough natural predators they will starve as the population grows and outeats the food source. Speaking of food source, my brother in law cooked them up and we had a family dinner. They were VERY tasty and he is a salt water only fish eater and I don't think he thought he was going to care much for bass, but when he tasted them he was surprised how good they were.

Need to increase the size of some of my spinning rod handles. There is probably some expensive do-dah at Bass Pro to do this, but what have some of you guys used that might work just as well and be cheaper. I was thinking maybe there is some kind of wrap for tennis racquets that might work. Cork and EVA foam handles. Any other ideas?? Thanks

75 acre lake I fish at where my brother lives has too many bass in it. The lake management company that takes care of it sent out a notice that since folks that live at the lake don't really fish it enough and usually throw everything back that they catch, that it would be better if they would keep some fish or just throw them up on the bank and let the turtles and raccoons have them so the bass population won't start to get stunted in growth. I went out and fished from about 9PM till 3:30AM and caught a bunch. I released all the fish over 5 pounds and kept 6 of the smaller fish which were just so beautiful and healthy. The lake is spring fed with no pollutants that run into it. I found that I had much better luck night fishing than day fishing. Used plastic worms. Lake seems to come alive at night. Tough during the day. I felt like a kid again with a stringer of fish. First time in many years I have kept a few to enjoy with my family at a meal and they were so good.

Here is a Cabelas product for a canoe. The gunwales on my boat would not support this and it is too expensive anyway. http://www.cabelas.com/p-0001670014526a.shtml I would rather have a side mount. Small boat, light weight, small trolling motor. Would not need a massive mount.

I have a nice old 12' vhull that I want to use when I fish by myself. Want to move to the middle seat to help with weight distribution. Don't have a front platform, just the bench seats. How could I mount a small trolling motor to the side of this boat? Anyone have an idea for a mount that would let me just clamp the motor on the side of the boat under the gunwale rim. It would be just a few feet back from the bow. Can you take a trolling motor and reverse the head 180 degrees so it could be operated in front of you rather than behind as it is when it is bolted to the back transom? Any ideas. Right now I don't want to build a front casting platform even though that would probably be the ideal thing. The center seat would be just fine.

What's her name? 8-)

Thank you I have caught AND snagged big carp in the lake I was fishing...20-30+ pounds, so I know they are in there.

I was fishing yesterday with a Norman DD12 plug and this was on the rear treble hook when I reeled it in. The only thing in the lake I was fishing that is big enough to have a scale this size is a bass or a carp. The carp in the lake do not have the green color like this scale has. If it is a bass, is it as big as I think it might have been. Anybody know?

I am rethinking my casting distances. I have always worked my setup for the longest possible casts mostly with 10lb line, I can make, but I am losing some fish due to not being able to get a good hook set when throwing big plugs long distances. Is it really necessary to throw long casts or would I be just as well off going to a 12lb line and moving the boat more and throwing medium distances.

You have $6500 in repair expense in that old Glastron......?!? You looked on Craigslist and see what you can get for $6500? That is a cool old boat, but I would never have invested that much money in it at a time when boat prices are at just about give away in most of the country. You can buy a heck of a boat a lot newer for that much money that needs nothing.

I would not start it without checking out the impeller and cleaning out the carb first. The impeller provides the water to cool the engine. Don't risk it not pumping water. It only cost $10-15. Change the lube in the lower end. Look for any water mixed in. If you see that the lube is a milky color then replace the oil seals in the lower end. A carb gasket kit...maybe another $10. Clean the plugs. Squirt a couple of hits of Marvel Mystery oil into the cylinders to lube up the rings real good a few days before you start it. Let the oil soak into them to make sure they are free. Clean the plugs.....nah, just get some new ones...couple bucks each, ground them to the motor and see if you see any spark when slowly pulling the start rope. If you do then your in business. If you use any starting fluid, make sure it has some top oil lube built in. Mix a can of Sea Foam in with the gas/oil. Let us know what happens. I just did this to an old $50 9.8hp Mercury I came across that had not been cranked in longer time than yours. Ran like a top. I have had the motor out three times now fishing with no problems.

I watched a guy fishing in one of those one day. VERY light wind was blowing, and he spent more time rowing than fishing. I would not buy one of those myself. If you go on Craigslist you can find all sorts of 10' jon boats with a trailer for $600 and less. Go that route. You can fish in the winter and not get wet in a small jon. If you have been using a yak' then moving up to a 10' jon will be a luxury! For one person this would be easy to manage and very roomy. Just my opinion, but you ask for it.:-)

Thanks so much for the opinions. This will be pleasure/cruising first and fishing way second. I just saw some of these on Craigslist and thought that it might make for a dual purpose investment in the $1k-$1500 zone that would be better than putting the money in to a bowrider/cruiser with much less fish potential. I would really like to get one that my wife can just ride around in when she wants to do that with no fishing going on, but then when I want to take it out at least I will have some fishing potential. I have a couple of simple aluminum dedicated fishing boats, but they offer very little in the way of fun/comfort for the family. Trying to get a situation where they will enjoy going to the lake also. I don't have the tow vehicle for a pontoon and really don't want to get one, even though she would probably like that the best.

Looking for a boat that can double as a fishing boat and something that the family can enjoy just riding around in. Came across lots of ads for Procraft Fish/Ski boats from the 1980s and up for some very good prices. Anyone have any opinions of these they would share. Pros and cons. Thanks.

I just changed three impellers on some of my motors. None were stuck to the shaft. The impeller did not come off with the housing because the center of it is fused to the shaft. You need to determine if the center of the impeller is metal or plastic. If it is plastic you can just hacksaw it just about through and finish by tapping in the cut with a chisel. If it is metal then you can still hacksaw it and crack it the same way. Be VERY careful splitting it. You do not want to be pounding on the drive shaft if it is not supported or on the surface of the lower unit around the impeller. There will be a key on the shaft that drives the impeller. Don't let that get lost. Check the inner surfaces on the impeller/water pump housing. If it is all scratched up you either need to sand with fine sandpaper until if is smooth or replace. If the inner surface is rough, it will immediately chew up your new impeller. If you take the rubber off, it will not loosen up any. The part of the impeller that is stuck to the shaft does not have any rubber on it. If you are not sure about this, take the lower unit back to your mechanic and let him do it. Better to spend a little than a whole lot. Did you drain the gear lube from the lower unit? Just as important as the impeller. If the lube is a creamy light color then you have water leaking into the lube and you will need to replace the seals around the drive shaft upper and lower. Also replace the seals on the drain/vent screws. You refill the lube from the bottom up. Don't just stick the nozzel of the refil bottle in the top vent hole. Air pockets will form and you will not get the right amount to the gears. You say the impeller was in bad shape and your mechanic says it was not pumping....who had the boat before you and do you know if the motor has overheated. If so, there might be head gasket damage. Do a compression test. Just because the motor runs does not mean it might not need further testing.

Great find.

Yes I feel that metal tank need....it fits behind the seat perfectly!. Thanks for your tip. Should I remove the fuel guage/line connector before filling it up with rocks and such and doing all the shaking?

Found a 6 gal Mercury tank that matches up perfect with a 9.8 Mercury I have. The tank has a light coat of corrosion in it...NO flaking at all.. just light surface stuff. What would be the best approach to cleaning this tank out. thanks

I was at Bass Pro the other day buying some parts and asked about the labor cost on motors.....$99.80 per hour..... Get a manual. Learn to do it yourself.

Picked this up for $650 a few days ago. Sylvan Classic Fisherman. Got to get the motor in trustworthy shape. 40HP Force. Cranks, but is overheating. I like Vhull boats. I also have an Alumacraft 14" V. Good in choppy water.