lmoore

Forage meaning food, not foliage

Depending on the lake/forage, bass spend much more time near cover than in open water. Ambush predators.

It seems like most people start fishing because of their parents. I know the reason I started fishing was my dad and my grandpa(s), so I was wondering if the fishing nuts here rubbed off on their kids. So, for the guys/gals with kids, do they love fishing as much as you?

Keep It Simple Stupid Oops, skimmed right over scorchers post.

If you accidentally scare a mother duck and her young across a bay with 3# plus LM in it, that would answer your question convincingly.

Good luck. If you don't find a partner and need one for anything on the eastern side of the state, let me know. I've got a pretty full schedule most weekends this summer, but I'd gladly fish with you if I have time.

They always have more cos than boaters this time of year, at least for the Great Lakes. There are lots of locals that fish those along the river and usually they wait til the last week to sign up

Stuck a doe, but hit her low. Decided to come back the next morning and track her down. It rained like 2 inches and had 20 mph winds that night, so any sign of her was covered up/washed away. Felt so bad, I decided to consider my tag filled and never went out again.

Boy was I feeling argumentative when I posted in this last spring?!? Hard to tell I'd been cooped up inside all winter. :/ Some of what I posted was hard to read without flinching....sorry guys!

Wow, I can't even imagine how excited you must be! I looked at some pics of the Tracker. Nice boat, but the before/after pics of your boating situation are pretty amazing. Congrats!

Nice boat einstein. Do you mind me asking what you upgraded from?

Here are a couple of options for IBFN clubs in your area: Hawkeye Bass Anglers, their meetings are at Bass Pro in Altoona http://hawkeyebassanglers.com/ Mid Iowa Bassmasters, I think they are out of Des Moines http://www.midiowabassmasters.org/ If you contact either of those clubs, they could tell you if they had guys who needed a boater. Other than that, have you looked at what circuit you'd like to fish? Plenty of partner circuits in Iowa if you want to do it that way. Otherwise, take a look at the BFLs. Draw format so you'll have a co-angler in the back of your boat, but it's boater vs. boater and co vs co. Then you don't have to worry about finding a decent partner.

You pretty much described major league fishing. 15 minutes of practice and they all use the same boat with the same electronics (only GPS and sonar)

A lot of the younger guys will be popular picks, but my top 2 would be Denny Brauer and Shaw Grigsby. Both have tons of years of experience to share, and both of them are great teachers. Shaw would top my list of those 2, just because he's sooo good at explaining things while he fishes.

Loking out my window, I believe the warmest water this time of year is 39 degrees and at the bottom. As a general rule, the NW corner of lakes/resevoirs (or SE facing coves in rivers) will recieve the best afternon sun, therefore being the warmest. As mentioned above, rocks heat up faster than other structure/cover (wood, vegetations, etc). Slightly muddied water will warm faster than clear water.

If you have one available, definitely link with someone. Being this early, you'll get into all of them unless there was about 100 cos in that division that signed up really early. Still, it's nice to have that piece of mind.

I'm not sure when Okie starts, but youll know before the meeting, more than likely. You'll be on the waiting list until enough boaters sign up. There's a lot of people that sign up the week before, so that's about when you'll hear (again, more than likely).

Big Shaw fan too. I was really happy with all 4 anglers that made it through.

No problem. As you get closer to the tourneys, feel free to pm me with questions.

It was common knowledge....in the 80s.

You'll be fine. I did the same thing last year, they'll send you a confirmation about a week before each tournament. Are you really from green bay? Pretty long drive to fish most of the GL Division.

I've always really admired Ike and his passion for the sport. That being said, I realized while I was watching that, if I was involved with the Elites, there would be several times a year when I would much rather give him a punch to the face than recieve an autograph. Still one of my favorite anglers though and an extremely talented fisherman.

7'5" kistler custom zbone Chronarch 200e7 65# power pro

The navionics app I bought doesn't appear to have several of the pools of the Mississippi in it's topo maps. Needless to say, I was disappointed with it.

It seems like we had a similiar thread last year about this time that turned into a multi-page slugfest of baitcaster vs. spinning. If I remember correctly, I even tried to use "science." In the end, myself as well as several others ended up looking rather foolish, and we came up with this: 1) there are advantages to both 2) it's largely a matter of personal preference. I think any fisherman limits himself to some extent if he only fishes one or the other, but by no means does using both techniques make you a better fisherman than the guy who only uses one. If you think you might like to try baitcasting, find a willing (and patient) buddy to help you out using one of his. At the end of the day, pay him for all the line you ruined in birdsnests, and decide if you like it enough to give it a try.