p-funk

Bowlers Mill is getting more and more pressure each year it seems. I haven't fished much in the past 2 years but before that I used to go there 2-3 times a week in the evenings and not see a soul on the lake. Spring time has always been bad for fishing pressure there but this spring seemed worse than normal. When arriving there, on two separate times this spring, I counted over 15 trucks/trailers in the field each time. I hear there are weekly tournaments there as well now. Too much pressure for such a small lake in my opinion even though the pressure does slack up in the hot days of summer. Anyway, Wayne I'm sure pointed you in the right direction. I've found Bowlers to be a very tough lake to fish at times. Most of our luck has came on spro type frogs in the pads, senkos/flukes/worms thrown into the pads, shallow cranks, and topwater used to be deadly in the evening, but not so much anymore.

We were there on the weekend of the 19th. We noticed at least 6-7 dead fish in different areas of the lake as well. I've never seen this before at Briery??? As for catching, we caught about the same amount of fish as we normally do on trips down there.

I've fished there a couple of times, I agree with Wayne though it can get crowded. What's the weight of the fish in the picture?

I went Saturday as well. Highest water temp I found was just a little over 51. We caught ours on Rattletraps and shallow cranks in 2-6ft of water. Biggest was only 3 1/2 lbs. Warmest water we found was against the wind blown points.

I had a problem with a new Rat-L-Trap last year. I called and they provided me with an address to mail it to. I sent it to them, and around 2 weeks later I received the exchange plus 3 other brand new ones free of charge. My one and only experience was great.

Hey George, do you know what happened to Worminator? I tried to go to their website the other day and it's not there anymore. Do you have a phone number that I could contact them directly?

www.worminatorlures.com Click on the lunker lure section. They are in VA Beach area. They can custom match colors or make any color combo you want. All baits have megastrike mixed in the plastic already. They have a bunch of other products not listed on their website either. The big downside is price, but give them a call.

Take a look at the Jerry Rago Rats as well. Nice wake bait plus it can be cranked down a foot or two. I've caught a lot of fish on mine here in VA biggest being 6lbs 6oz. Also of course, don't forget the Mattlures baby bass. Another option is the Mini Slammer. For the big baits like a Hudd, Spro BBZ, 3:16 Wake Baits, Slammer, etc, you are going to need a swimbait rod. Most of them are 5oz or so in weight.

I use them. They are a bit pricey compared to normal plastics. I just ordered some 10" Lunker Sized Lizards a couple weeks ago. $7.50 a bag for 5 lizards. Here is a pic of a Wormianator lizard compared to a zoom magnum lizard. Without weight they almost float. They are super soft which means they do tear fairly easy, and they scent is quite strong. There website is www.worminatorlures.com . That site only has a handfull of their products though. They sent me some samples with a swimbait, 3-4 different sized lizards and quite a few other things that are not on the site. Also they will match colors for you. If you have color that is not produced anymore, send it to them and they'll match it as close as possible. The other downside to me is you have to call in to order. Which isn't bad, but there is no color chart on their website so you really don't know exactly what the colors look like. And again, they have a lot of different products that aren't listed on their site. If they had them where I could see them, I'd probably order more. The other kicker is shipping. It cost me almost $10 to have 4 packs of lizards shipped to me from VA Beach area to Central VA. (About 2 1/2 hours away). I thought that was a little steep. This came on a 10" Watermelon Purple Lunker Lizard.

50lb braid is about the same diameter as 12lb mono so it's not really that big.

Give me the trophy hunter over the tournament fisherman. It's all about personal preference but I personally would rather have one 10lb bass over 100 12" - 15" bass. Just my preference.

Thanks for the info guys. I went ahead and sent an email to Lowrance to see if they could help as well. They are saying it's possibly something bad in the transducer so they are sending me a new one to try out. I'll let everyone know if that works or not in case anyone runs across it in the future. And just so everyone knows, it's not a consistent straight line or anything. Sometimes it's darker, sometimes lighter and it bounces around from 5-6'. Sometimes lower, sometimes higher. I'll keep you all updated.

I've got a 102C Lowarance depth finder on the front of my 14' jon boat. The transducer is mounted to the MinnKota trolling motor up front. Now, when the depth finder is on I'm getting noise/interference/something at the 5' to 6' depth constantly. It shows up whether the trolling motor is on or not, and no matter what depth. Both the motor and depthfinder run to separate power sources. Can anyone shed any light on what may be causing this noise to be there. I looked at the transducer and it looks fine other than some scratches. Could this be causing it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Pick up a BuckSaver or Valley Trader. There are a few of them in there. Any local convience store will have them. I just got one of each last night and I know there are a few listed.

I already have one of the 1001MGs and when I saw that deal a couple weeks ago, I purchased another as well. I also got 2 of the regular scorpion 1001s as well. Should be here in the next day or so.