Ellesar

Let me know anytime you are down this way and I will take you to a sure fire spot that has some monster 2lb bass! ;D Hold up. Burley only catches bass that are under 14" and under so taking him to a hole full of 2 pounders probably wouldn't do him any good. He's worked hard to earn the title of Dinkmaster. Well, I might be able to find some dinks too, if he's not up to sitting at the grown up table. How bout this :

You definately need to give it a shot some day. As the temp's continue to rise swimming a 10" anaconda through the grass is going to be a very effective way to catch some fatties!

Thats actually not far from where I caught several of the fish in the other thread. Instead of throwing cranks on the ledges, I 'd focus more on the edges of the grass flats. This is especially true if TVA is pulling current. The ledges can hold bass when there is no current, but it can be hard to get them to bite a lot of the time. The ones that are roaming the grass flats and the edges of the grass are generally far more aggressive and likely to bite. I've had a lot more success fishing the grass edges than I have the ledges in the past couple of weeks. I know that everyone saw the Bassmaster guys throwing crankbaits like crazy and catching fish but the shad spawn is almost (if not totally) over and that bite is changing. Topwater can be really good early in the morning, but its still hit or miss. Some mornings spooks and pop-r's tear them up, some mornings you can't get them to hit those for anything. I usually start off with topwater's and spinnerbaits and see what they like. Once that bite slows down a bit, I move to some different grass flats either out in the main channel or on the edge of it and start throwing worms, senkos, and spinnerbaits. Usually one of those three will work in most anyplace I fish, but not always the same one. If I don't get fairly consistent bites with one of those three, I will move to a different place. Some days I hardly move at all, some days I do have to move around a bit to find some consistent bites. And ofcourse, the number of boats out there can play a factor in that too. There is a good place across the main channel from Goosepond that is a good grass flat to start from. There are lots of good grass flats both upriver and down river from Goosepond. I usually launch out of a place close to there called Camp Maranatha.

Let me know anytime you are down this way and I will take you to a sure fire spot that has some monster 2lb bass! ;D

Yep, bought it new about 3 months ago. Been a great boat so far, except for a blown compression fitting in the engine and some tearing in the seats that will be replaced.

Fish the edge of the grass in the main channel. Spinnerbaits are good right now, especially if you see the shad following the bait back to the boat. Worms worked over the top of the grass are good too. If that bite doesn't heat up, senko's wacky rigged still work as well. Truth is right now you can catch fish on all kinds of things, some work better than others, but the fishing has been great over the past month or so. Its not a question of if you are going to catch fish, it's really more about which bite is working on a given day. Some days you can catch lots of fish, but few large ones (large being over 5 lbs). Some days you don't catch as many but the big boys and girls come out to play. Some days its both. As of this past weekend they haven't schooled up by size yet so you never know when a big one will hit. They are all mixed in together still.

These days I count my blessings in being close enough to Guntesville to be able to fish this amazing lake every weekend. The fishing this year is off the charts, I can't remember ever having this kind of fishing. Took my dad out Saturday and had an amazing trip. We lost count of how many fish we landed, but it was in the 70-80 range. Our best 5 was around 29 pounds, which ofcourse was possible because I wasn't in a tournament this weekend. Had I been in a tournament, I'm sure that my best 5 would've been around 3 pounds! Here are a few pics of the fish we caught. Seeing my dad land a couple 5-6 pounders made this trip one that I won't ever forget. His health isn't all that good and he doesn't have the chance to get out and fish like this much anymore. He was like a kid in a candy store as he caught fish after fish. Wanted to add that the biggest fish (except 1) we landed all came on 10" Rage Tail Anacondas with a little dip in some JJ's magic! The biggest of the day (6.9 lbs) came on an AB 5" ***. We caught a lot using *** and spinnerbaits. At one point my dad caught 8 fish in a row on a spinnerbait at first light. I stuck with topwaters at first because its so much fun. Watching 3-4 lb bass getting airborne as they nail your bait is something that just doesn't get old!

I fish Guntersville every weekend, its such an amazing bass lake. If you go again soon try a spinnerbait in the grass. When you get your spinnerbait back to the boat look and see if the shad are following it. If they are, you are in the right area and hold on. Right now you can pull up on just about any grass edge in the main channel and catch lots of fish.

I was usually successful using the tactic of asking the girl out. If you have to do something to get her to go out with you, then she isn't into you and you are kidding yourself. If she actually wants to go out with you, just ask. If she doesn't, there isn't anything you can do, you might be stuck in friend-land.

I read an article by Boyd about the whole ordeal and saw wehre Langill has been DQ'd from all elite series events for the season. If half of what Boyd said was true, he more than deserves a season long ban. I get frustrated and ticked off as fast ( or faster) than the next guy, but Langill had plenty of time to cool off. This was definately more than just getting angry and reacting. As for Iaconelli, we saw him at a gas station the saturday of the event and my daughter walked up to him and stood about 10 feet away and just stared at him. ( She doesn't follow fishing, she only knew he was an Elite guy cause I said he was). He was talking on his phone as he was filling up his boat. He kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye. He was probably wondering why this crazy girl was staring at him like he was a museum display piece. Then when she got done with that and went in and out of the store, she crossed where his boat was hooked to his truck and was looking in his truck. I was a tad bit embarassed!

I'd be sure to have the motor checked out by a mechanic, atleast a compression test, but a leakdown test is better. You really don't want to buy someone elses problem.

I would NOT put one of the FF on the cranking battery. When you crank your main engine it will draw down the battery temporarily as its starting the motor, that takes a good bit of current. The FF has a minimum voltage required to run and will power off if the power drops below that, even temporarily. This can damage the unit. This is generally why you don't see fishfinders and gps units attached to the cranking battery from dealerships, its not a good idea and can result in damage to the unit.

So I had an extra red LED left over from my bluewater install and decided that the rod holder that holds the butt of the rods in my passenger side rod holder might look cool lit up. So I installed the led in there and think it looks pretty nice.

I have a X135 on the bow and a 520 at the console and they are networked. All that I really get out of it is that I can see the temp sensor when the TM is in the water on my console unit via the network. Since the X135 isn't a GPS unit, I can't get any real GPS info at the bow from the 520.

A lot of motors don't have a strong stream of water coming out of the tell tale until the engine comes up to temperature. In cold weather/water there may be no water coming out of the tell tale until the thermostats open fully as the engine comes up to operating temp. Never heard of anyone redirecting the tell tale. If you are concerned I'd get a water pressure gauge or an engine temp gauge, water coming out of the tell tale may or may not signal a problem. No water pressure or an excessively hot engine are always a problem.

Well it's a two stroke so its going to smoke, even more so since its 19 years old. You're seeing smoke in the water tank because its in the exhaust which vents through the prop. That's to be expected. Its hard to say if it's normal because your idea of alot and my idea of alot may be very different. Best advice I can give you is if you are concerned have a mechanic check it out. Truth is, you really needed to do that before you bought it. There are certain tests you should always have done on a used motor to make sure that you are buying a big paper weight. Things like compression tests or leak down tests can tell you a lot about the the condition of the motor and tell you if the engine has problems that might cost you money.

I hooked the power wire to an accessory switch and ran into from the console into the right rod locker. In my boat there was a hole underneath the console that led to an open area behind the back panel of the rod locker. I was able to "fish" the wire so that I didn't need to drill anything there. I made to small holes in the fiberglass next to the led strip that was just big enough for the wires to fit through and pulled them into the rod box. I tapped the power wire and ran the additional power wire to the other rod locker. I had to make 2 small holes in my center compartment and run the wire through there. I grounded the left deck light to the ground for the courtesy lights in the rod locker, and used the power wire I pulled across. It wasn't hard to hide the wires from view. It was actually easier than I thought it might be because the lockers are more open than they appear.

I think it depends somewhat on how you are going to use it. I had HB on my boat I had last year and the 2D sonar wasn't very good. I had Lowrance put on my new boat and the 2D sonar is far better and I see alot more detail and get more accurate readings than I did with the HB units I used last year. But, on Lake Guntersville, 2D is only marginally useful. As long as I know how deep the water is and can see that there is some grass down there, I don't need a whole lot more. Some of the other places I fish I do use it alot more. I'm holding off on buy the new HDS unit for my bow until the Lowrance SI comes out and I can see what its really like. If I like it I will replace my X-135 with an HDS unit. If not, I will get a HB SI unit.

The hardest part was fishing the wires from the switches to the led's. The compartments are pretty easy since they already had courtesy lights in them that I could splice into. All in all it was fairly easy, just have to take your time and plan out what you are doing so that you don't miss something. I spent ~30 min trying to figure out why one of the deck lights wasn't working, just to realize that I hadnt spliced the power wire into the live wire under the console.

Got more if my bluewater led's installed. I have one acc switch wired to control the deck lights and the receessed TM light. The other acc switch turns on the stock white courtesy console light, plus two other green led's that are located under the console. The courtesy light switch turns on all the red led's in the boxes, plus the stock courtesy lights in the boxes, a white led in my middle compartment, and a red led strip under the console. When I hit just the courtesy lights I can get stuff out of my boxes easily and I only have red lights in the console area. The led's put out alot more light, but because its red it doesn't hurt my night vision. IF I don't care about night vision and just want better light to see, I can hit the green/white lights in the console area. And if I want light on the deck while I'm fishing, I can turn those on seperately as well. I still have the passenger side rod holder and the back compartments to do, but this is what it looks like so far.

Its not just the elites that are whcking them on Guntersville. The fishing right now is unreal. I caught over 50 yesterday morning and another 60 yesterday afternoon. And alot of these are not small fish. Yesterday morning we had over 20 lbs by 8 am. We started looking around for a tournament to compete in. Its been like this for a couple of weeks now. The best part is that they are starting to destroy top water baits, most of the fish we caught yesterday evening were on top water baits. Talking to some of the elites in and around Guntersville over the past few days, they all are amazed at the fishing on Guntersville right now. The combination of numbers and size is just unbelievable.

The side imaging of the HB is nice, but the regular sonar is inferior to the Lowrance sonar. With lowrance coming out with their own version, you might want to wait and see what that's like before making your purchase. If you want to use the Lowrance verison, you will need to buy one of their new HD units. Problem with those is that they are new and all the bugs haven't been worked out. There have been a number of issues with them. They will be great units, but if you buy one now you may have some growing pains.

One transducer can interfere with the other, regardless of brand. How much it does depends on where they are mounted and other conditions. Usually if I'm getting feedback from one, I just turn off the one I'm not using.

I have Bluewater led's and they're great. Lifetime warranty and they make sure the lights are up to snuff before sending them out. Easy to install and they even have a video for $4.00 that shows you how to install the lights in various compartments. Would highly recommend them.

There's a lot of variables that go into figuring out the right setup. I'm running a 23 pitch prop on my motor, I am a little suprised you are able to turn a 25 with a 150hp motor. Usually you see those on 225's. You might ask why you are running a prop with that much pitch. It could be that you are only turning 5100 rpm because you are running too much prop for the motor, and that's bad because you can lug the motor. You can be putting too much load on the engine because its trying to turn a prop that takes too much effort, which can damage your engine. Its definately worth asking your dealer and seeing what they say. And make sure that what your dealer is telling you is right. some of the guys here are amazing to listen to, its fun just because they really know their stuff.