skeetermike

T-rig a Berkley Redshad worm on a 2 ot owner wide gap hook with about a quarter to 3/8oz wt. I'd have a 1/4 oz spinnerbait in white ready also. The 1/4 or maybe smaller for big bream and small bass.

The driver of the boat that lost it is reaching :'( bc he couldn't control his boat!!! Afterall, those of us that have fell outa a bass boat know that the aid of another boat isn't going to help much. I always boarded mine from the back cause you can use the motor to get in. I'm sure the Marshal knew that. Is there a penalty for whining!

Nope I wouldn't have given them the fish. I've put them in quickly before they have had the chance to ask many times before. Was this guys name MR. DumBa** or what? Most older guys that are any kinda of fisherman have the old tackle box full of jitterbugs, rapala's ect.

(you could have saved the life of a poor baby starving turtle) Right on! Right on! It probably won't be the last though.... Wait till you do it in a tourn. Now that sucks!!!

I put a post on here about how good the bass pro extremes are and got no replies. They are only 79$ and right now you can get the combo for only 109 as my buddy bought 2 more at bass pro a couple days back. I'm telling ya I have some expensive ones, but why pay more when you get the same quality for a whole lot less. Super super smooth. I got one and he's now got 3 of them.

Really awsome underwater pics! Man those red ear were just pigs! Pigs I tell ya! I told someone that I had caught a red ear the other day 12" and they said I'm not sure about that. Well you have the proof, they get that big easily. Were they spawing, those R.E.?

Fish looks awfull healthy to be post spawn. I'm not sure that tail might not just be another accident. She is a stocky thing thats 4 sure. Bet she put up a fight? It's really hard for me to judge the wt. on those stocky ones cause you can't always go by length. The shorter ones will weigh heavier than u think. I caught a fish back a month or so ago here that was 23" but I bet it didn't weigh 4.5lbs. Just spawned out, sux! That fish's tail looked like it had been put through a papershredder!

Well me and a buddy decided to hit the water for the 1st night trip last night. We had our problems. He has a newer Triton, but I've fished more at night than he so we decided to take the ol Skeeter of mine. Keep in mind my boat is a 90 model....want a new one but can't budget it right now. I had my blk light and he even brought one. I explained I only have one cig. outlet and to bring a splitter. His blk light had gator clips to hook directly to the battery. I tested my cig. lighter the day before to make sure my blk light would work and all. Then, everything was a go. Well it decided not to work once we got out there, which means my spotlight for navagation wouldn't work either! So we are out here in the dark after we had ran 2 min or so to a drop-off around an island to fish buzzbaits before it had gotten dark. I had my small hand flashlight, and the boat lights worked... but it was looking like an idled ride back to the ramp and no fishing for the night. I jiggled some wires and got it to working. It took a lot of jiggling all throughout the night, an electrician i'm not! We fished from dark till around 3 this morning and I only caught 1 3lber+ hooked another on a 12" worm. Scotty my buddy got skunked! It was tough. We tried C-rig brushhogs, buzzbaits in blk and white, jigs in blk/blue, and he threw a couple crankbaits. Water temp. was 83 and they didn't seem to be doing much. My Mercury 150 motor took the floodedness on us and it took a lil to get her going at times. I pre-mixed a lot less oil this time but she still smoked a lot and well flooded out a lot. We both talked about when we get to be old men and can afford to drive new boats we would probably look back and laugh. I've had good times outa my skeeter but she's getting older now. Dream boat: 8-) Grn/Silver 20.5 skeeter zx loaded out, with a 225 or 250 given boat length/restrictions. Economy sucks right now!!! :'( So what could we have fished differently last nigtht, any suggestions? I hope it isn't this tough come Sat. for a tourn. I plan to fish.

I could sure use that big one come this Sat. I have a tourn. myself. It's a 1600 big fish tournament. Usually takes High 6's to 7 to win the big one. But hey, I'd settle to win just one hour of it ($100). Good fish man!

Has anyone used the green 79$ bass pro extremes. I love those... all the smoothness, it's got like 7+ ball bearings to boot. I really liked the Shimano Curduros but they were 120+ when 1st out now close to 200$. I also like my 7'3" Carrot stix... and hey its got a lifetime warrenty for those problems, reel seat, guides, ect. As good as they are my next rod for the money probably be a Falcon Cara. Super sensitive and light rod. Sucks they are 175ish though. Let me know what u guys think??

I've fished over flooded house places down in Southern Ark. Caught 4 in the driveway and 2 outa the front yard. We also caught one off the old well house too. However, this takes the cake! probably not a slave grave though. Way too elaberate for that. I would have pitched that jig up against it and if that didn't work maybe throw a spook ! He He He!

Ok my ? is what would be the best things to sink in the ol lake to draw and catch fish? I've tried a few things but not had any great success with anything. Here's what I've tried: cedars for crappie but too much to hang up on for bass cover. Pallets are big and bulky, hard to sink sometimes and it takes several of them to make a differance. Rocks I like but really hard work, need several of them, mess your boat carpet up. Buckets of cement with pvc sticking up are supposed to draw crappie but I tried that and never caught a fish off them. I'm mainly looking for something to bass fish around. Any ideas? If I had my river barge I could always take half the forest out there 8-)

Yes, those small lakes, ponds, have good fish in them. Fish was very stocky. I guessed at least 7lb maybe 7 and a half due to the stockyness. Was the other line yours or someone else's? I caught about a 6lber last winter that i'd hooked 5 or 6 casts before and then brought her in with my new twine and hook still in her. Hopefully she still resides in the lake someplace close to there. I told her to come back to me ;Dnext tourn. hope she listened!!

Understandable guys... but this time of yr in ARK especially with the temps calling for low to mid 90's all this next week there are only a few things that may work. My ideas of what to throw were pretty much the same as most of the other tourn. guys. Big bulky topwater for the 1st hour, then either c.rig or Texas rig something in deep water preferable around structure. I may throw a deep diving c.bait some or pitch a few stums with a big bulky jig too. Now if the weather is rainy all day this could obviously all change. On this lake the name of the game is patience cause it gets the pressure. Lake is around 1100 acres and will have around 100 boats on it. Tourn. is from 6a-2p. Then as if thats not enough it has a club tourn. on it that night from 6p-midnight. Day tourn. is a big fish tourn. hourly.

Something else to keep in mind everyone else will probably be looking for slack water. Any structure that breaks up the current, downside of trees, rock ect. Also try the upside of those structures some but don't count on that upside depending on how swift that water is! Anything that slows the water. Ditches are good also, check out the pts on each end of the ditches. All the baits they said are good. I probably wouldn't throw a light color anything though! Maybe bright, not light. I like the tube idea, but take like a green pumpkin or blk/red flake. You should be able to work it fairly fast a couple of pulls and move on. If they are there they should hit. I do like the bright colors for spinnerbaits with gold blades for dark water. The wiggle wart in bright and dark colors is good around rock piles if you can bump that structure. Hard to go wrong with the jig. Keep in mind where u have success during ur pre-fishing and think of spots like that to return too. Brushhogs are my fav. so keep them in mind. Remember smell, noise and flash are on ur side with that stained water! Good luck. 8-)

Good one Paul. I bet he put up a fight on that small equipment! I've got a 6-6" spinning rod with 6-20 braid that I use to catfish with sometimes. With the right hook u can really bow up on em. I'm going to say that fish is a good 7lber easily. I haven't seen too many big ones lately since the pressure is so bad here in AR. It deff. has the length but could be fatter and the eyes are not just overly large. I'm curious though about that wt?

Yes the bigger boat is a good idea, but I know due to cost thats not always possible. I started out in a 14' Aluminum boat myself and had some windy days out there. I put 3/4" decking down and that really made the vessel more stable. Course it made it heavier too! Closest I ever came to capsizing it was while carrying a load of rock to make a fishing place. Large load of rock in small aluminum boat....NOT GOOD! I got rid of my load asap to say the least. Wind does suck though sometimes.

The question is would u recomend pre-fishing for a tournament or not? I've done both in the past but most of the time I pre-fish. Course the down side is catching the fish u might not catch come the tournament. I've got a local tourn. coming up and know the lake well enough, feel like I know what I'm going to throw most all day long. So why would I need to pre-fish for it? Truth is there will be plenty of pressure before hand. How bout u low_budget I know u used to catch some real pigs?

Way to go, can't always be 1st. I happen to like the big worm myself for night fishin. What was the big fish 4 the tourny anyways???

5200 RPM'S GOOD GOD! My 18.7 skeeter with a 150 merc. and a 23 pitch prop. won't turn out but like 5700 or so. I used to have a 14' alumaweld jon boat with all that heavy 3/4 plywood for decking, a built in live well, and me and my buddies fat a** and we could still hit 20mph!! I had a 20 mariner motor on the back. You might check and see if your boat is maxed out with that 40 horse on it. I know my skeeter is lil slower but it is rated for a 175 also. I did used to sink rocks for cover and when I would load it down and head to my spot to sink those rocks the extra wt. really slowed me down too. I even tried pulling my gf's lil sister behind it on a tube and it pulled the engine way down. Those small motors just ain't made to pull heavy loads like that.

In response to your ? is it better to buy older or wait for newer. I blowed a piston in my 90 model skeeter earlier this yr. and it cost me 2600 to fix! Mechanic told me you did nothing wrong..... those things just happen sometimes on older boats and early to mid 90's mercs are bad to do this. I'm back on the water now and maybe if I can find the money I'll move into a newer boat myself in a few more yrs.