tkoglin

They sure do... My Lab lays on the back seat until he hears a bass jumping out of the water then he runs over next to me and watches the fish.

I had a little bit of luck this past weekend using poppers during the mid-day over top of some heavy Mil Foil. I couldn't get them to hit any buzz-baits or weightless plastic worms so I grabbed the rod I was using the night before, that still had a popper attached, and gave it a cast. After a couple of twitches, a bass just attacked the lure almost jumping out of the water I had better luck if I just used small twitches instead of the big noisy pops. There wasn't any wind so the lake was really calm, I'm guessing that's why the little twitches seemed to work the best. Here's a picture of the first Bass I caught that day with a popper: Here's another Bass I caught with my trusty Yellow Lab checking out the action

I removed the propeller and thrust washer from my 25hp Yamaha this weekend for a general inspection and I have a couple of questions about re-installing the thrust washer. The inside of the thrust washer is beveled and it fits up against the beveled section on the shaft. I'm assuming that the thrust washer turns with the propeller shaft? The reason I'm asking is that I know to lube the splines where the prop slides on but do I lube the inside of the thrust washer and the section of shaft where the trust washer installs on? If the thrust washer turns with the shaft then I wouldn't think that you should lube the section of the shaft where the bearing seats. Do I lube the ends of the thrust washer that ride against the seal of the lower unit and the o-ring seal at the end of the propeller? One more question: Why is there a recessed section around the end of the thrust washer that fits against the lower end seal? It almost looks like an o-ring or a seal should fit into that recess but there wasn't one when I pulled it out. If it doesn't require a seal then why is the recess there? Thanks for your help

Anyone ever done this and is it worth it? : I have a pontoon boat that we use on an inland lake mainly for swimming off and tooling around the lake. I also like to go out fishing on it but constantly starting and stopping the motor while fishing around the shoreline becomes a hassle. I was wondering if anyone has ever added a trolling motor to their pontoon boat. The only problem I could see would be where to mount it. There's not enough room on the transom to mount it next to the outboard and if I mount it to the front, it would have to be easily removed so that it wouldn't interfere with the swim ladder or foot traffic walking around the front of the boat. Any suggestions?

I second the previous posters suggestion about using a nice spinning combination for casting soft plastics. I struggled with the same thing you are in that I could throw a stick bait all day without a backlash but I would often backlash when throwing a worm. Now I have a spinning combo rigged for soft plastics and couldn't be happier...

;D LOL ;D Funny stuff

The lake I fish on is called Stylus Lake and it's located in Northern Michigan. It's 200 acres in size with the deepest part being 30' and has lot's of drop-offs, Mil Foil and Lilly Pads...

Here are a couple of pics I took this weekend of a few of the bass I caught and one picture of the nice Rainbow over the lake. I'm guessing the first bass was in the 2 1/2 to 3lb range and the other two were in the 1 1/2 to 2lb range. I release every Bass I catch Caught this beauty by speed reeling a Willow leaf spinnerbait with a white/red bleeding skirt over the top of a mil foil bed. This guy is now my new profile picture... Got this guy on a Berkly Frenzy firetiger diving minnow. I was fishing it parallel to a drop-off. This guy was in about 2' of water under a patch of lilly pads. I used a melon colored Sizmic Toad and skipped it across the top of the pads. A couple of smaller bass literally came out of the water trying to grab it. The Sizmic Toad is my favorite frog lure Here is a neat picture of a rainbow I took this morning right after the rain stopped. There was a double rainbow for a short time but the first rainbow was gone by the time I got the camera.

What deep diving crankbaits do you recommend for SmallMouth?

Anyone make their own or know of a place to get a nice one? I was looking for something along the lines of a vertical rod mount with maybe a small drawer at the bottom to hold excess fishing line.