senile1

I posted this in another thread. My latest addition is this 2000 19' 6" Stratos 295 Pro Elite with 200 HP Evinrude Ficht in the top picture. The one in the foreground in the bottom picture is my older boat under the tan cover. (I was preparing the new boat for Spring and too lazy to remove the cover on my old boat.) It's a 1987 15 1/2 foot Starcraft Magnum 150 with an '89 Johnson 70 HP outboard. I'll probably be selling it soon if my wife has anything to do with it. I'd kind of like to keep it because I can take it into every nook and cranny on a lake.

For you Kansas guys south of KC, La Cygne is where I would go first, due to the warm water discharge. Up here north of Kansas City on the Missouri side, we still had a lot of ice last week, but the warmer temperatures this week should make a dent in the ice. Smithville still had a lot of ice in the large coves last week.

Hello to you, bassfisherjk. Welcome.

And a quality rod designer! Flechero stated: Absolutely. This is definitely a lesson learned for me. I rarely wear my PFD in the summer.

1)I would start with a spinnerbait or square-billed crankbait banging off the wood. 2)I would then try a t-rigged plastic (weightless and weighted) or a jig and trailer in the Cypress knees. (As an aside, when I was a kid I fished a lake that had a bunch of Cypress trees. I wasn't familiar with too many lures, so I used mainly floating rapalas, countdown rapalas, and t-rigged worms. I had a great deal of success casting countdown rapalas near the Cypress trees and letting them sink down to the Cypress knees, and then reeling them back in at a moderate pace. I loved fishing those Cypress trees.)

Sam, you and I would fish this in very similar fashion with minor variations. 1) I would throw the spinnerbait, but I would also try a Rat'l'trap on the weedline before I try number 2. 2)Flip or pitch a jig, tube, or t-rigged craw or worm into the pockets and variations in terrain beneath the pads. 3)Drag a frog or worm across the tops of pads allowing it to fall into open areas.

I agree with the two statements above in your post. My experience has been completely different from yours in the other aspects you mention. With PowerPro, if you get a bad backlash, you fray the line when you pick it out. Otherwise, I see no difference in picking out backlashes. As for the Sufix breaking, I've never experienced that either. If you fail to remove a slight overrun or backlash completely and make another cast with a lure that has a lot of mass, the line can sometimes catch itself and then the mass of the lure will break it. That will happen with any line, even 20 lb braid. Could this be what is occurring with your Sufix line? I really like PowerPro. I switched to Sufix Performance Braid about a year and a half ago, and I believe it is a notch above PowerPro. Both are good braids. But you know what they say about opinions . . .

Good question. I've never used them and I don't have an answer but I thought I would move this to the top of the section so someone else on the forum might see it and provide an answer.

. . . . and another one. After staking out that perfect structure and determining the perfect lure for the situation, your wife catches the biggest bass with a crappie tube.

Glad to have you on the forum.

Welcome, TappanSM and VTechHokie.

In addition to all of the above, I would recommend spending the money to have the compression and the lower end checked out before purchasing a used boat. Depending on how extensively they check out the lower end, we're talking about maybe $100. That's nothing compared to buying a boat, and then, discovering it needs a new powerhead, etc.

I don't use a bead, but I could see that it might be helpful in very muddy conditions.

Catt, I know you were looking at boats too. Are you still shopping or have you settled on one that you are going to purchase?

This was the weight of his best five fish for each day.

I have two of the 200Ds and one DVP. The DVP is limited in its use as RW suggests, but it works great for deeper cranking with Norman DD22s and Bomber Fat Free Shads in the 8 - 14 and 14 - 18 depths.

Thanks, huskertko. I was looking for a review from someone who used this line. It doesn't sound good.

Funny. ;D

Ronnie is on target. Bass will eat anything that looks good. Gobies are a good example. They weren't introduced into the Great Lakes region until around 1990 via contaminated ballast water from transoceanic ships. They are now a main forage of smallmouth bass in the region.

In a word, women. I like the groupies.

I use two hands whenever I can. Distance and accuracy are the benefits.

Practice, practice, practice . . . . FRUSTRATION :'( . . . practice, practice, practice some more. Once you get it, you wonder why you couldn't do it in the first place. I have always heard recommendations that you should turn off as many brakes as possible and loosen your cast control knob for pitching. I found that for me, I use 2 brakes and loosen the cast control knob only a little. I can pitch 40 feet or so with no backlashes using this setup. Different strokes for different folks.

Carp7, your advice was indispensable regarding this purchase. Thanks, again.

Many people say that cold and muddy water is one of the most difficult environments to fish. I would agree. You need a noisy lure that can be seen in the turbid water, yet, because of the cold temperature, the bass aren't very active which may require a slow presentation. The warmer rains should have raised the temperature of your pond water, somewhat. I would begin by trying darker colored jigs with rattles or a rattlin' jerkbait with orange, chartreuse, or multiple bright colors. Fish your baits tight to the cover.

During a sabbatical I took from the forum this winter I purchased another boat. I had promised to post a picture, but, due to the snow and ice, and the fact that my boat is stored outside 21 miles from my home, I had been unable to do so. Yesterday, I was making preparations for spring and I finally took that picture. The boat is a 2000 Stratos 295 Pro Elite with a 200 HP Ficht. (For you engine afficionados, recall work has been done on the fuel injector retainers.) The boat runs like a champ. When I took her out for a test she hit 68 mph at 5800 rpm and I could have trimmed her up a little higher.