sodaksker

Right now is the time to get after them in my part of the world. (upper midwest, Iowa, nebraskaa, south dakota). I have recently switched my efforts from bass to Musky after catching a 48" 3 weeks ago on Matts baby bass. My knees were shaking for 2 hours after that beast. Me and my buddy were so ill-prepared we couldn't get him in the boat. We both panicked, no net, my buddy finally tried to gil plate him and he toothed the line with a head shake. Last weekend I saw 9 muskies with one follow that was a 50 plus incher. Just watching that log float by made my knees shake for 15 minutes. I am mainly fishing 7-8 fow over submerged vegetation, with swim baits and top water. They have the feed bag on right now. Get out there and throw the big baits. I see one caught almost every day I am out. Most reports in my area say they are catching them on big spinnerbaits called "cowgirls". They feel like you have a brick tied to the end of your line, they pull so hard.

I think there are better braids out there. I have used fireline crystal and my belief is that it does not hold up as well as other braids like suffix,power pro or spider wire. The only thing it has that the others don't is "white" coloring. I may be a little bit biased right now as I lost a possible state record musky 4 days ago. I was using fireline crystal braid. That is the second time I have lost a fish due to line breakage on crystal. You will only find it as backing on my reels from now on.

They located it in some prime shelf space.

Wow, that is impressive. Heck, I am just happy to weigh in a limit in my tournies. Maybe I should re-evaluate my goals. Congrats on a great win.

The bleeding bait skirts have not produced for me but, the red hook...now that I am starting to like.

I have used them in lakes and rivers with good success. When I asked the GY representative what the difference was, they could not tell me anything other than the color scheme. That is what drew me to them, is that they have the split colors, (dark body, chartruese skirt). The other difference is they only come 5 to pack, and they might be a little spendier.

Awesome job guys! Congratulations.

RWhusker, come on up. It would do you good to get a little familiar with the river up here. The sand bars definitely move around up here. I truly believe that a guy has a better chance of catching quality fish the further north and west you go on the river. The problem is it can get a little hairy on the navigation. On another note, the guys who took 2nd had 15.66 lbs are from Omaha. They fish this tourney most years and usually finish in the money. They also fish the with the ABA group out of Lincoln. The guys who took first are pros. Combs brothers or cousins, they are out of SD somewhere. Come on up in the fall, the fishing only gets better, and make sure your tm batteries are fully charged. sodak

I fished my second tournament of the year this last sunday. It was 2 man team event. We blasted off from Sioux City Iowa are able to fish the Missouri River from Omaha Nebraska to Yankton South Dakota, approximately 175 miles of river. Thirty boats total which is a little lower than years past. You fish for a 7 fish team limit. We ended up taking 13th with a limit of fish and 10.36 pounds, which was little disappointing. I was really thinking we had a shot at winning this tourney. We just couldn't catch any quality fish, we must have boated 80 fish that day but, nothing big. The winning team had 16.06 lbs and second had 15.6 lbs. These are all mainly smallies that are being caught. The biggest smallie caught was 3.6. It can be pretty tough fishing. My partner lost his trolling motor with about 2 hours left to fish which certainly hurt us. We were losing battery anyway but, then he rammed a log and bent it pretty good, right after I caught a nice fish to cull with. We couldn't do anything after that. Anyway, I was happy with the limit but, I thought we would be in the money. > 11.76 pound was money. We caught fish on everything, from tubes, Ikas, beavers, spinnerbaits and cranks, fishing wing dikes and trail dikes.

Awesome fish!!! There is nothing like catching those river smallies. I believe they fight harder than smallies caught in a lake or reservoir. There is no quit in them, and they love to go airborne. Congratualtions on that catch. I have my river tourney coming up in 2 weeks. I hope to catch one like that.

Then the very next cast I catch a little largemouth, and then about 5 minutes later I got this one. Not bad for 10 minutes on the way to work. It helps me get through the day

very next cast with the Mepps Aglia #4 with brass blade

Caught these this morning in less than 10 minutes. Nothing big, but they are fun. I don't even know why I fish for lm anymore. These river smallies just don't give in.

When fishing pads I prefer to use braided line and the yum buzzfrog. I let it sink a little and then make it climb up on the pads. If that doesn't work, I will go to a worm trigged weightless working across the top, if no luck then I will use a kreature bait trigged and weightless if not too deep (3 ft or less) if deeper, I will weight it with the screw in bullet wieght.

I don't own one but, I bet one of these pistol grip rods would fit the bill very well. http://www.rod-crafting.com/for-sale.html Sorry, I just broke down and bought one of them but, there is still one left. He made a "spinnerbait" rod for me last winter and I like it more every time I use it. It is so light compared to my other rods. It is a dream to use. Caught 4 smallies on it over lunch today and 6 last night. I will be going out tonight again. I will post pics tomorrow.

I know I found some used perko ones on ebay for 25% of new price. I would look there.

RW, What did it cost to have it installed?

What?!! Are you calling me fat? ;D I obviously need to get an updated photo in my avatar. I mean..I got a lot of shirts on in this pic. " I'm a g d dam good looking man" ;D ;D Anybody recognize that?

Nitro, What are you doing to your co-anglers that they treat you and your boat like that? In all seriousness though. The "angler" is the guy who is fishing out of his boat, "co-angler" is the a guy who is assigned to fish with the angler in the anglers boat. Non boater and co-angler are more or less the same thing.

I hope it was scripted, for everyones sake involved. Otherwise it is just a blackeye to umf and everyone involved.

I have been busy with work,baseball,softball,teeball and basketball camps. Finally got out to do some fishing in late July. Topwater action was great about 4 mornings in a row. We would catch 15 to 20 fish in about an hour. I was catching them on the sammy and my daughter on the popper. Nothing big but, the numbers were great and wow...that topwater action is exciting!! Here is my eldest with one of her nicer ones. It is great to be back on the water.

Those darn jitterbugs have me jinxed too. I am going to break through it this year though.

Thanks for the replies thus far. I think he is in agreement that he needs a 50 plus thrust, but the dilema is where to put it front or back. Dealing with that much current, I would think it would be awful hard to control a jon with the tm on the back. It would be a lot easier to mount on the back and would eliminate moving around so mcuh, if there were just one guy in the boat. All my boats had them on the bow, so it is hard for me to say how it will perform from the back.

Guys, I am doing a little research for a friend of mine who just bought a 16 ft jon boat. He has a 30 horse merc on the back and wants to put a trolling motor on it. He will be fishing in the missouri river where the current is 5 to 7 mph. Typically 300 to 400 lbs of people and gear in the boat. What size of tm and should it be mounted in the front or back? I have told him that I would put it in the front but, I thought I would get some input from all the great experiences hear. So what say you? Tia for your help Rob

Leo, Don't worry, in 6 months from now you will be able to tell the story to friends and laugh about it( with just a little pain in the side) Last year I banged my 3 month old tm up pretty bad while trying to run it into the lift with my big motor while I had forgot the tm was down. Da ohp! It was only $3honeybees to fix. But see, now I can laugh about it. > ;D > ;D Just be thankful no one got hurt.