codogs

Former Marine. 91-95. Haven't been on the site for about 10-11 years. Roadwarrior - I'm pretty sure your profile pic is the same as when I left. I see Glenn and Flukemaster have big YouTube channels now. I took a hiatus from fishing after having kids and sold my old Skeeter around 2009/2010. Fast forward about a decade, and my son starts high school this fall. I'll be a boat captain on the high school fishing team that he wants to be a part of. I'm getting back into tournament fishing and started fishing MLF BFL's in the Ozark division this year. Semper Fi, Cody

That's a nice little chunk. If it's full of those, then it certainly looks like I need to put my boat on there. 10 in one evening is pretty good in my books. Thanks.

Hey folks, haven't posted in a while, mainly because I haven't fished in a while! ;D My 2 1/2 year old son and 6 week old daughter consume most of my time these days. With any luck I'll put on my fishing hat a little more next year. Anyway, the reason I'm posting is to ask Skunked_Again about Cedar lake. How's the bass fishing there these days? I probably haven't fished Cedar in 4 years, and have never put my boat on it. I was never really impressed with the results I got in the past, but then again it was all from the bank. Sounds like it might be worth checking out. I live in Gardner, so it's pretty close. Also, regarding this thread itself, I've only fished Leavenworth once and thought it was a really nice bass lake. We caught a bunch, nothing big, but the numbers were good which in my opinion make it a pretty good bass lake for Kansas. The only thing that's kept me from going back is there are a few lakes closer that I like just as well. I also like Lone Star, and have not only caught numbers there, but the quality (size) of the fish seemed to be bigger than what I caught out of Leavenworth. It's hard for me to make a fair comparison since I've only fished Leavenworth once, but I don't think you can go wrong on either lake from a LM bass perspective.

Thanks for the compliments. Now I just need to make time to actually get the boat out and fish! Maybe I can catch a new PB like Sean with the new decals? ;D

I've been meaning to head back over there. I went out there about a month or so ago on one of our 70 degree Saturday's (between the 30-40 degree days we'd been having). Water temp was 43, no nibbles. I'm sure it's picking up now though.

1986 Skeeter Strada F-80 w/ a 40hp Yamaha. Love it.

I've been kicking the idea around on purchasing a vinyl cutter, and finally took the plunge a few weeks ago. It'll most likely be a hobby for me, picking up a few side jobs here and there. It's just something I used to do when I worked in signs and really enjoyed doing. So, my first project was to re-do all of the graphics on my boat (1986 Skeeter Strada F-80). It had the original decals, and most were pretty beat up. Tracing the graphics from pictures and turning them into cuttable vectors took a good bit of time, mainly due to the learning curve. Here are some pictures. The first picture is an example of what the the vinyl looked like before. The other pictures are of the new vinyl. Thanks, Cody

Nice fish Sean! Hope all is going well. Cody

I go down to Taneycomo every year a for trout fishing trip. My trip this year is the last weekend in July. For trout, you can usually do very well with powerbaits (dough bait) and lures like cleo's or small spoons on spinning gear. If you're looking to bass fish taneycomo, I can't offer much advice. My feable attempt throwing bass lures have yet to yield a bass on Taneycomo. Granted, I spend 99.9% of my time trout fishing while there since it's a trout fishery. My advice would be to fish Table Rock (even without a guide) before fishing Taneycomo if you're looking for bass. Good luck, and I hope you have fun on your trip.

I'm interested. Any thoughts on when this might happen? I sold my truck about two months ago and probably won't buy a replacement until spring to tow my boat. Never fished bone creek, but it looks like a great lake for a for-fun tournament.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry KU, it was Osage. The water was muddy there too, maybe a foot of visibilty but probably more like 6-8 inches. Osage is probably about 2 feet higher than normal. I heard some of the bigger lakes are way up; anywhere from 10-18 feet high. Osage has the snot weed problem like Lonestar. It was getting pretty bad last year and it doesn't look like this year will be any better. Some of the coves are really hard to fish because of it.

Finally got out for a few hours this morning. I haven't had much time to fish this year so it was nice to get out. I caught 8 on a top water frog during the first 1 1/2 hours. As the sun rose and wind picked up I switched to a spinnerbait for the remainder of the morning and caught 5 more. The best two went 4lbs 3oz and 6lbs 8oz and both where caught slow rolling a white/chart spinnerbait with Colorado blades and a red trailer hook. Without a trailer hook I'm pretty sure I would have lost both fish. Here's a picture of the bigger one. Sorry I didn't get her tail in the pic. My camera wasn't ready when I hooked her so I was juggling things around pretty quick so I could get her back in the water. She was 23.5 inches long. 05/19/2007

I just quit cold turkey on Feb 18th after chewing for 17 years. It's been a tough 11 days so far, but it really is getting better. The first 2-3 days were really rough. I've been leaning on sun flower seeds (I recommend the jalapeno one's), mint snuff and gum. This weekend I'm firing up the dehydrator and making jerky. My 5 month old son is my motivation. When it gets tough, I think of him having a dad without a lower jaw, or worse, not having a dad at all. That keeps me on track...

My dad, but probably more credit would go to my grandfather. He'd take me out to his honey holes on his farm. It was always a great time. We're expecting our first child (a boy) September 26th. I can't wait to introduce him to fishing.

Dang, I can't believe the vegetation now. It looks like they've built up some rock piles too. I was out there during a snow storm in Feb but haven't been back since. I GPS'd several spots (bridges, a house foundation, a well, humps, etc...) Did you go over to the other side of the lake where they were digging? They dug out some really nice trenches that I hope they leave.

Cool vid KU. Osage State Fishing Lake - Sunday 6/18/06 (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Went straight over to the dam after putting the boat in. Threw a Bandit 200 (Spring Crawfish Yellow) down the dam and they were hitting it like crazy. I caught 10 bass in the first 15 minutes, mostly dinks though but it was fun. Around vegetation I was getting them on wacky and t-rigged tiki sticks (wacky produced better). In all I wound up catching 20 over the course of the day. Not bad. I probably wasted too much time on it, but I tried like crazy to get the topwater going with sizmic and zoom frogs. I got 3 real good hits but they were just popping it. Letting it sit and sink didn't seem to entice them to come back. Gardner - Saturday 6/25/06 (7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.) Tried cranking the dam with Bandit 200's but no takers. Went to a Norman DD22 and couldn't get anything with it either. Finally got a decent one on a white spinnerbait w/ red trailer hook in about 8 feet of water toward the west end of the dam. Fished the spinner for a bit longer with no takers. Switched to a green pumpkin lizzard t-rigged with a 1/8 oz bullet weight. Caught a few on it. Switched up to a purple power worm t-rigged w/ 1/8 oz bullet weight and picked up a few more. Mainly fished the lizzards and worms off the banks in about 12-15 feet of water. In all I caught 5 bass (and 5 feisty bluegill). Next weekend I'll be at Taneycomo doing a little trout fishing.

This is a repost of mine from another thread. Thought I'd add my experience from Gardner last Saturday. Hopefully it'll help those of you considering fishing it. 6/3/06 I got on the water around 5:30am and fished until noon. Caught 8 in all, but nothing over 2 lbs. Most of the one's I caught were in 3-5 feet on a bleeding bait tube. I started the morning out with a top water frog but no takers. Around 10:00am I started c-rigging a lizard on some deeper structure (10-20 feet). Although I did get quite a few hits, I couldn't get them to hook up. Knowing now how the day went, I wish I would have spent more time fishing deeper structure. The one's I caught on a tube in 3-5 feet were dinks for the most part. I'd recommend getting off the banks and fishing c-rigs, deep-diver cranks (10-16 feet) and jig-head worms. Gardner Lake is seeing pressure like it hasn't seen in many years and the banks are getting pounded. I'm undecided on where I'll go this weekend. I'm actually considering my taking my annual beat-down at Hillsdale. I'd like to fish the points and creek channels. If I don't go there, I'll probalby hit Lone Star or Osage.

I generally fish them texas rigged (1/8 to 1/4 oz bullet weight). I also like to carolina rig them too.

I saw the same thing on a Bill Dance episode a week or two ago. I believe he said basically what phisher_d/kenndammit said; 7 mph for the first 12 inches, then another 7 mph for the next 12 inches. After that he said a bass can swim an additional mph for every inch. So a 27" bass could swim roughly 17 mph.

Aluminum isn't that difficult to weld, it just takes some practice and making sure you get everything dialed in just right for the gauge of material. I did metal fab for several years and 90% of the welding I did was aluminum. If you do decide to let him weld your boat, I highly recommend buying some scrap aluminum the same gauge as your boat. Let him practice on it before he touches your boat.

I agree Benzo, I'd go with the Skeeter as my first choice. BTW, that's a very nice bike!

Here's what I've gathered from various sources. I'm not a biologist or an ophthalmologist, so I don't know if this is all factual. Someone please straighten me out if you know otherwise. I don't think it comes as any surprise, but bass see color (very well), known by the cones in the photo sensory cells of their retina. They see black/white/shades of gray, known by the rods in the photo sensory cells in their retina. Their eyes allow 5 times more light to enter compared to a human eye. The extra light gives them sensory advantages over a human eye when it comes to distinguishing shapes, movement, etc... Their field of vision is a full 180 degrees in each eye. Where the vision overlaps in front of a bass, they have 'bonocular' vision. This plays an important role in the 'strike zone' of a bass. Their blind spots are behind their side fins back and underneath their belly. As a bass get older, their vision actually gets better (wouldn't that be nice for us!). Bass have day and night vision, but it takes upwards of two hours for the cones and rods to switch positions in the retina. For humans, it takes about 30 minutes. This is the period it takes eyes to adjust to changing light conditions going from dark to light, and light to dark. You would think that it would have an adverse effect on catching bass at dusk and dawn, but as we've probably all experienced, this two hour adjustment doesn't seem to have a negative impact during these times. In terms of a bass' ability to see through certain water conditions, I've always heard the general rule is 3-5 times further than what we see. If you put your lure in the water and it disappears around 2 feet down, a bass can probably see that lure 6-10 feet.

Congrats, that's a nice pontoon! I take a trip down to Tanneycomo (other side of the dam of Table Rock) every year to trout fish with a few buddies. My bass boat is a little small for 3 guys, so we rent a pontoon for fishing. I think they are an excellent fishing rig. I'm sure you and your wife will enjoy it.

It's about 180 surface acres when full. Here's a link with more info on the lake: http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/fishing/where_to_fish_in_kansas/fishing_locations_public_waters/region_2/douglas_state_fishing_lake

Thanks for posting the pics KU! I'm going to go out there sometime this weekend or next with my GPS to mark spots and take some pics. Now I'll be anxious for the lake to fill back up so I can compare my boat electronics with the pics. Should be a good learning experience.