lmoore

That was my biggest problem. I'm normally not a person to "waste" time looking for 5 average keepers if I know a spot with good fish. Much more likely to bring 2 good fish to the weigh in than 5 small ones. Being a points race though, I may approach this one differently. Either way, we're a couple weeks from tournament time yet so I'll probably (hopefully?) have a better overall idea of what my plan is as I get a little more time on the water.

I agree with this, so use whichever brand of 65# braid you are most comfortable with

Couple things I'd like to add: 1) Mechanic was probably making an assumption with the VRO. They did have some problems (as some on here could tell you) but often it was an easy item to blame for a much larger issue. He probably looked at it as an easy scapegoat for what was wrong, rather than taking time to really find out. 2) Even if there was a VRO issue, the mechanic seriously overcharged to replace it. Evinrude cost for pump is $451.79 and replacing the VRO pump requires no extra parts, and at most 1 hour labor. I replaced mine when I bought my boat and it literally took 10-15 minutes. I would ask for a detailed description of charges. If an Evinrude certified mechanic did the work, they should have a specific labor time to follow and should have a more accurate cost for parts.

sort of hypothetical, since a lot will change between now and tournament time, but wanted to get the views of some of the knowledgable people on the board. I have a tournament in a couple weeks on the Mississippi River and was out prefishing this weekend and also went out one day the weekend before. Had some really good success, but got myself to a point that I don't know how I would approach tournament day. Think it will take about 14 lbs/day for 2 days to win, unless someone has 2 exceptional days in a row (very possile), so that is my goal. That being said, I reaaaally need to have limits both days to have a chance in the final standings. Prefishing I found one area with the right fish and had 13-14 lbs on my best 5 (out of 6 keepers) from that area, but I fished it pretty hard to get those fish and I don't think I could pull a limit out of there 2 days in a row. I found one other spot with lots of fish, but mostly the aggrevating kind (1/4-1/2 inch short of a keeper) and a few nicer ones mixed in. This second spot is a little ditch next to a flat thats full of bait fish, with a deep hole right next to it. I had 8-10 fish (3 keepers) in 20-30 minutes the first time I fished it, but only one keeper and one short when I fished it for about an hour this weekend. To add to the confusion, I caught 2 1/2- 3 pound fish in 6 or so other spots, but they were the only keeper fish I could get in those areas. Like i said, a lot will chnge between now and then, and I plan to get back out once or twice more and look at some new water/check to see if those fish are around. Assuming the tournament was this coming weekend, how would you approach? My thoughts were that day 1 starting in the first spot is an absolute must and hopefully the same number and kind of fish are there day 1, but what to do on day 2? Do you grind it out and hope for the good bites in the creek, or start there and abandon the spot to run and gun the others, knowing that most of them are not hidden or in unusual spots, so many of those areas may have been fished hard on day 1? I'm sure there would be other ways to approach it, but those are the 2 options that crossed my mind as I was thinking about it yesterday.

Iowa allows culling for tournaments, but doesn't change the length and/or bag limits. For registered tournaments, I think this year they extend the tournament time past the 1 pm they used to have during the summer, but not sure on that. PS. Fishing the fall state tournament at Dubuque?

That's odd since I've had the exact opposite experience. Tried one from the MTB one month and it seemed to come through cover better and more consistent than the KVDs. I've picked up about a dozen of them over the last couple weeks and had some great fishing days on the Mississippi. Haven't had any issues at all, even boat flipped a couple 3s and a 4 this weekend on them. Wonder if they had a bad batch of them go out? It's either those or the KVDs for me. Get a little tired of the KVDs because some of them seem to snag up REALLY easy if you don't replace with a short shank trebel, although I would say the majoirty of them run true and work nice right out of the box.

I'm more of a flipping guy. Probably 75% of my fish on 11/12 come on a beaver or a brush hog. I've had good luck with a senko in frentress and actually prefer a senko early in the year on most of the river, but I flip that with weight.

Wanted to try these rigs, but didn't see a reason to spend 4 bucks a piece on a screw in blade. Made a mold with POP and this is the result. Just a blade and swivel attached to braid with a lure collar molded into the bait. Haven't taken time to trim excess off yet because they were still cooling a little. What do you think? Any better way to do it?

http://www.crowleymarine.com/omc_parts.html Here's a link to the OMC part diagrams. Edit: You can also buy the parts right from Crowley. Click the part number you want from the list at bottom and it will bring up a page with aftermarket options also. Crowley sells the Johnnyrude ign coil for 43, another aftermarket company has them for 37. I always buy Johnson/Evinrude parts because they will guarantee most of them for 1 year if you keep.receipts. went through 4 trim switches last year and only paid for one. May want to check to be sure they will do that for a 78 and also if they want it dealer installed or not.

You have an Evinrude motor, Johnson motors use hp then letters instead of numbers like the Evinrude. Many parts are the same, ignition coil for a 78 is part number 0584561 for both makes. Crowley Marine website has part numbers and diagrams for most Johnnyrudes if you ever need one.

Are you shifting really slowly into gear or trying to "ease" it in?

Depends how well you can paddle, and how much you like to.

Forgot to tie boat up when launching by myself and ended up swimming naked to get it (long story). Had a big raccoon get into the boat one night while I had it outside ready to go for the morning, was taking my mom for a boat ride the next day and it chose to exit the boat doing about 30 in 3' rollers. Turned out to be funny in hindsight. Trolling motor died on me last weekend out in the middle of a flooded marsh on the Mississippi, had to walk it through trees and brush and backwater muck out to a main slough. Had all sorts of creepy crawlies on me when I got back in the boat.

Not sure about FLW, but I know at the last tournament I was at, there were several guys that lost fish and the weigh-in officials collected all of them and the DNR came to pick them up. Not sure what the DNR did with them though.

Not sure what the Merc alarms are, but I believe short beeps in succession on my Johnson is the oil/fuel, and a long continuous is overheating. If you have oil injection, be sure the level is good in the tank and that it is working. Also, change the fuel/water seperator to be sure there isn't water getting into the fuel lines and setting off the sensor.

I don't remember what group did it, but I saw a study from a BASS Nation state tournament several years ago where they tagged all day one fish. Not only did they find a high survival rate over the next several days, but something like 20% of the bass weighed in on day 2 were tagged. Really surprising stuff, as I always assumed a bass caught today won't bite tomorrow. Of course, safety/mortality rates will always depend on fish handling. Things happen when you hook fish and you can't always control how deep/where a fish gets stuck, but you can always control how you handle it once you have it out of the water until you release it. Just my opinion.

Chatterbait was a big one at one time too. Creme's worms have to be up there, basically the first guy to make hand-poured plastics. If I remember right, there was actually a patent out on a rubber worm in the 1800's (!) but Creme was the first one to make a popular and successful model of one. Creme can take some small responsibility for those Senkos you mentioned.

BASS decides all the tournaments, but cities on major lakes do come forward and offer various things in order to get them to come to town and bring all of the business with them. At least thats how it works at the local (BASS Nation) level.

The quickest way I've found to get pike going is fish for bass with a lure you only have 1 of and don't tie a leader on.

Celena RV Park on the Okiboji chain in NW Iowa has dockside hookups. Top 100 lake. http://www.okobojicamping.com/ Kalbus Country Harbor on Lake Winnebago also has them. not sure if it was a top 100 lake or not, but the fishing can be excellent and it's a really neat area. We were there last June/July and found some both deep and up in the muck throwing frogs. http://kalbuscountryharbor.com/

That's it, thanks guys!

Online episodes where the 3 competitors were given a "challenge" for each round. The challenege would be getting a bag of baits and having to use one of each type for their keepers (one on a beaver, one on a chatterbait, etc). I think Luke Clausen was one of the anglers, but I can't remember what the show was called. Not sure if they even have all the episodes out yet so it isn't an old show.

Looking forward to seeing these

This x10! I was a ziplock bag guy up until the end of last year. Got tired of dumping a whole ziplock bag out, sorting through a dozen or more smaller bags, and realizing I was out of whatever I was looking for. Boxes have been much more efficient for me this season and I can always tell when it's time to restock.

In some ways, spawning bass are like people. I won't elaborate too much, but thats why males hang around through hell or high water and females take the first excuse they get to leave.