senile1

Morton, welcome to the forums from another Missouri angler. Congratulations on your new PB!

Nice fish! Glad you let her go to fight another day.

I think that fish ate a turtle.

It looks like you and the family had a great day!

Congratulations on your child. Nice pics on the fish as well.

Congratulations. That is a very nice bass! She will be at least 9 - 10 pounds in the prespawn next year.

Fish_Whisperer, you wax poetic. Very nice metaphor.

"Treat others as you would want to be treated." That is just simple common sense. In my state I am allowed to fish docks so I just make sure I don't hit someone's boat. If I am an inaccurate caster that means I don't cast near the boat at all. If the dock owner tells me he or she doesn't allow anyone to fish his dock, I respectfully move along. Ethical actions and the law often do not walk hand in hand. Just because the law states that I am allowed to do it, doesn't mean I should do it. Just be nice to people and try to see things from their perspective. If you really strive to do this, you may find out that some of your most strongly held convictions are not as accurate as you thought.

I always prepare to go. The day of the trip I wake up early and check the radar and the percentages. By then, you should be able to tell by the radar when a thunderstorm will hit and if you will get caught in it. If the radar shows nothing I always go. If the future radar shows nothing or very spotty I go as well. I only stay home when the radar shows no chance of avoiding lightning. My grandson and I woke up at 4:00 AM a couple of weeks ago to go fishing and the weather channel app showed a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms which isn't much; however, the radar showed that the location where we were going to fish would get hit in about 30 minutes and the future radar function showed that it would last until mid-morning. I kept checking the radar for an hour and a half, and looked for other areas but all appeared to be in the path of the storm or were already getting hit by it so we cancelled. It turned out to be the right decision as some very strong winds and lightning hit the lake where we had planned to go.

Good post. This is a bit off the subject but is still relevant to the OP's search for a boat. I want to add something about the Evinrude Ficht engines. Any Ficht still running in 2014 probably was a Ficht built in the good years, or it is a Ficht that had the recall work done for the bad years. There were specific years that had problems ('98 and '99 were very bad with engines that blew up and caught fire). I bought a 2000 Stratos 295 Pro Elite in 2007 with a year 2000 Ficht 200 HP motor but I researched the heck out of it before I made the purchase. The motor on mine either had the recall work done or it was incorporated into that year's motors because I checked it for the specific fixes. It is still running like a champ giving me 68 - 70 mph top speed at 5800 rpm depending on what I am carrying. From the reading that I did, if you buy a Ficht from the bad years but it had the recall work done they are solid motors. Run it at higher rpm often and use Evinrude XD 50 synthetic oil and you won't have any problems, or at least no more than you would have with any other motor from that time period. The easiest way to see if a Ficht motor has been updated is to look at the spark plug recessed area on a cylinder head. If you see what looks like an allen screw next to a spark plug hole, you have the newer "deflector" heads. The gray EPA label should say to use Champion XC12PEP plugs. There is an injector hold-down upgrade that was done as recall work on the bad motors. The easy way to tell is to look at the bolts holding the injector flange to the cylinder head. If they have a 1/2" head, they are the new ones. Bolts with a 3/8" head are the bad ones and resulted in cracks, leaking gas, and motors that went kaboom! A high percentage of the '98 and '99 FICHT's without the factory fix, were very problematic. The 2000 and later series were the next generation FICHT Ram and they have a good reputation. If you find one of these with the recall work or the factory fixes, you may be able to get a good boat with a good motor at a very good price because of the reputation of the 1998 - 1999 motors.

He is hustling you. You believe his stories about how little he fishes for bass.

I think they will have a hard time topping their Timax line from last year. If you haven't checked one out you should. I wrote a review on mine a couple of weeks ago. See below. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/140696-powell-timax-review/#entry1565760

There you go. I do think you will notice an improvement in the breakage. Let us know if you see an improvement. If Vanish still has a brittleness problem after all these years, Berkley should be kicking themselves.

I used Berkley Vanish a few years back and swore off of it rather quickly. I had a lot of issues with brittleness and breakage. I read a number of complaints from others about it back then. I switched to BassPro and Cabelas FC lines at the time and eventually worked my way to Seaguar which is mostly what I use for fluorocarbon applications now. I assumed Berkley would have corrected the issues with Vanish since that time. You probably already do this, but make sure you wet the FC knot profusely before pulling it tight. It can cut into itself if you aren't careful.

Oh, as for the original question, I like fluorocarbon in some situations that require abrasion resistance and deep diving crankbaits. I am also a bit hesitant to discount the use of it in clear water. I visit Table Rock lake a few times a year and there are places near the dam where I have been able to see the bottom in 30 feet of water. There isn't a guide on that lake that doesn't recommend fluorocarbon or at least fluorocarbon leaders due to line visibility. I have had instances where it seemed to help the bite, but the jury is still out on that for me. I need to gather more evidence.

That is a typical way to load line on a baitcaster. I can't imagine how the line would just leap off of a baitcasting reel for you. I have never had any issues with fluorocarbon on a baitcaster. Spinning reels are another matter, though I still use light fluorocarbon on my dropshot rod. Are you referring to getting bird's nests with it? I'm not trying to be flippant, but you might read this thread to make sure you have it set up properly. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/92295-how-to-set-up-a-baitcaster/

I tell people what I am doing, though in a smaller lake with numerous anglers, I probably wouldn't provide absolute specific detail like I would with my friends and family. Keep in mind, though, that a pattern can last for a few days or it can change from day to day and hour to hour. The pattern that worked this morning could be history. Also, if one or two details is left out a person may still be looking in the wrong place for the fish. Someone might say they were catching bass by pitching jigs to trees. Only some trees will hold bass so in a lake with thousands of acres of trees where do you look? The trees could be on a channel bend, on a shallow flat, next to a roadbed, etc. but there usually has to be some kind of structure the bass would use to be on a particular tree. You still have to think and experiment to figure out the details of any pattern provided.

Nice write-up, Kent! That sounds like some great times on the water.

. . . . unless it is a 5 or 6 string bass.

The Ulterra is equipped with Universal Sonar 2 where the cables are routed inside the shaft and the transducer is integrated in the lower unit of the motor.

True and that is obviously the best solution. I suspect the fact that he labeled the post, "High Banks Shore Fishing Question," means he wants an answer that would suffice when fishing from the bank.

I see some possible options above, but how deep is the water at the bottom of the wall and is the bottom clean enough to land on safely? When I was younger I would jump down off just such a wall to grab fish. My knees aren't quite what they were then, so I wouldn't do it now. Of course there are other things to consider. You said the wall was rough so would you be able to climb back up? Also, you would probably want to leave your rod at the top and hold the line when you jump down as it might be difficult to climb back up with the rod. And you would need your phone/camera and a scale in your pockets if it were a worthy fish. It might be more trouble than it is worth but it could be doable.

That is a beauty!

Belcher Branch isn't bad for bass. There are some bigger bass in it but over the last couple of years it has received a lot more pressure. It is only a 55 acre lake and quite a bit of the eastern side of the lake is extremely shallow. During the summer, I have had my best luck at the dam and on the ledges of the creek channel that runs down the west side of the lake. I suspect the lake is pretty muddy right now as that area has received most of the rain over the last two weeks in this area. It tends to be highly stained anyway. The link below provides a contour map. http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/5628_3538.pdf

Good point. Congratulations to the OP on a pair of nice looking smallies!