TheBossT127

In a recent article I read about bass boats, some top pros were polled asking them what they'd like to see in the way of innovations with boats. I believe it was Shaw Grigsby who said that he'd like to see a onboard cooling system for livewells. I found this product called Keep'em Cool last night that may do the trick. I'd like to know if anyone here has tried the product.

It is being strongly considered.

Wouldn't have been a long video, but it may have taken the prize.

Thank you! That is a great idea. It will now become part of my regular routine.

Usually I do that so I can grab the rope. Stupid :

Well, yesterday I finally got out on the lake, but not before driving INTO the lake. I was backing the boat down the ramp, I had the door to the Mountaineer open as usual, with one foot on the running board. My foot slipped off the brake, my left foot hit the ground and I fell out of the truck! Needless to say, the truck kept going, right into the drink. Of course it filled up with water--about 4 inches into the driving compartment. The boat floated off but I wasn't worried about that. I managed to get back in, and pulled the truck out of the water. I think that if not for the lake itself I would have had at least one leg run over. I was okay except for bruises on my legs and a sore back/neck. I'm pretty lucky overall. My wife is not happy with me since it is her Mountaineer and she doesn't like me fishing alone, but what's a fisherman to do? The next step is to let everyone know if and when I have an open seat in my boat. I still went out on the lake for a while but I got skunked. Post-cold front conditions, storms, 20-30 mph winds didn't help. Now if I can get the flashbacks to stop...

We talk a lot on these forums about tackle, boats, techniques, weather, lakes, and so on. I am very curious about what you all wear on your feet during long days on the water. I'm a big guy, and foot comfort is very important to me. I'm trying to get a read on this by watching the pros, and they wear everything from sneakers to flip-flops. Let's see what the replies look like...

Absolutely! Send me an email with your address. I'll even cover the stamp!

I don't think that'll be happening since I'm not paid for this, only points toward National Team sponsorship. I'd love to do this for a living though. Thanks

Hey everyone! If you live or travel in the Harrisburg PA area this weekend, I have some news for you. I will be working Friday afternoon/evening at the Harrisburg Bass Pro Shops. If you see me, I might be able to get you a good deal! Also, I will be working at Hawhead Baits in Wellsville, PA on Saturday. Free food and drink too! ;D

Hey everyone! If you live or travel in the Harrisburg PA area this weekend, I have some news for you. I will be working Friday afternoon/evening at the Harrisburg Bass Pro Shops. Hope to see you there!

Great New! TBF is coming to NY!! I am involved with the creation of The Bass Federation (TBF) in New York. I have been in communication with the gentleman heading up the efforts, so if you have a club interested in becoming a member, please go to http://www.tbfwebservices.com or contact me and I will see that you get the help and information you need. thank you

Saturday August 25th was the second stop at these lakes for Tioga County Bass Anglers. After the rotten showing I had on Waneta last time, and with the top bags coming from Lamoka, I made my decision early on to go out on that water despite being somewhat less familiar with it. At the 7am takeoff, everyone left the area except me as I had made a determined effort to fish deeper than I usually do. I was alternating between working the outside edge of the weedline in 12 ft of water with a silver and black Shad Rap, pitching into the pads with a Maniac Salt Stick, and throwing a Scum Frog across the pads. The Shad Rap was the first to pay off with a nice 2lb. fish not 10 minutes into the tournament. It was a solid bite and it left me very hopeful for the rest of the day. I stayed around the island in that area combing with the crankbait and also jigging off the southwest point. No other takers, so after another tournament boat left the south side of the island I worked my way shallow around to the west side. I had a couple of huge blowups on a green pumpkin Yum Wooly Hawgtail that I was flipping into the pads but I couldn't get a hook into one. I headed south east to try the shady docks that I'd had luck with in the past but that was worthless. Lots of wind out of the south made navigation quite a shore. I moved up the east shore toward a point and as I got into about 8ft the fish finder lit up like the night sky druing the Gulf War! I quickly got a drop shot with a pearl/silver fluke and before I could close the bail a 3lb. largemouth nearly ripped the rod from my hands! I thought I'd be there the rest of the day as I was sure I'd hit the mother lode on this point. When it was all said and done I don't know if I could have gotten another fish from that point if I had M-80's. I tried in vain to work the pattern in other areas, staying deep with the drop shot along what few points that Lamoka offers, as well as working deeper weed edges. As it turned out, the winning weights came from Waneta, flipping docks of all things (my specialty). It's amazing that two lakes so similar and connected by a canal (if you wanna call it that) could perform so differently. If the State DEC ever gets their head out of the sand and builds the bridge that will allow boats to pass under the road, the possibilities on this water will really open up. Apparently the money is all set aside and no one seems to know what the hold up is.

Anyone know where I can get a livewell divider that will fit my 02 Procraft 210 superpro?

Cookin' on Cayuga Category: Sports I fished the Bassmaster Weekend Series New York Central Division event on Cayuga Lake, NY 8/12/07. Boy do I remember what this lake used to be! Time was that you could go out on this lake at the north end and pretty much pick how you wanted to catch largemouth and go do it. Not any more. I don't know what happened to this place, but ever since they had a big die-off about 5, 6 years ago the water just doesn't fish the same. My partner for the day, Roy Tucker, and I had to work really hard for our fish after I caught a keeper early. I think the trick here is to get into the marinas early, be quiet, and catch fish before the marina witches chase you out. We went into Hibiscus Harbor and both hooked up at the same time along the wall at the entrance. We made our way back, swung and missed at a couple more until we got back to where the pads and matted weeds were. We both missed big fish back there using topwater baits. Nobody was awake back in there except us and the fish. By the time 9am rolled around the Madam of the Marina told us we couldn't fish back in there. In the interest of goodwill and the fact that we'd covered what we wanted, we left peacefully. Marina operators have this notion that they own the water. We didn't argue. We went virtually fishless for an hour or so working our way in the shade of boat docks up the east side. We found a rocky point a ways up and the action heated up as fast as the mercury in the barometer was climbing. Again we doubled up, both of us with keepers this time. I boated a 3lb. fish on a Maniac Lures Salt Stick in changeable craw color, while Roy got a 2lb-er on a purple Senko. We made several passes on this shoreline and missed a couple more each. We decided to give it a rest and headed up near the railroad bridge and worked around that marina. Roy got a surprise fish on a jig and pig as he was reeling in the bait, but nothing else happened there despite finding some thick vegetation with pockets adjacent to deep water that we both thought surely would have fish. The area had probably been pounded hard though. We went back to the rocky shoreline and both missed a couple of more fish there. As the tourney day wound down we went over to the west side to find gin clear water, a big difference from the cloudy water on the windward eastside, and no more fish. I finished the day with 3 fish for 5.40 lbs. with a 1/4 lb penalty for a dead bass that had the hook in its gullet. I finished 32nd of 45 boaters in my first Bassmaster event. I was surprised to see only this many boaters compared to the 160 boat field in the BFL on the same lake last year. of course, I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that ESPN basically washed its hands of the Weekend Series and farmed it out to ABA? Nothing against ABA as they ran a fine tournament. It's just maybe lost some of its luster now that it isn't tied to BASS anymore.

Thank you for the best wishes for my dog. He is home now, and he doesn't know he's sick.

7/14/07--Yesterday's bad fortune continues. Friday the 13th and we learned that our 2yr old lab mix, Hobie, likely has leukemia. Talk about a bummer. He's the first dog I've ever had that was truly MINE. Now I have to face the likelihood that he won't be with us long. To say the least, I needed something to distract me, and that would be fishing. My club, Tioga County Bass Anglers, set out on Waneta/Lamoka lakes in Schuyler county, NY this morning. These two lakes are connected by a canal but it is not possible to move from one to the other without re-trailering your boat and launching on the other side of the road. I chose to go out on Waneta as I am a bit more familiar with that lake and the trip up the very shallow canal is much shorter. As it turned out, it was not the right decision. I couldn't scare up a bite if a gun was held to my head. This lake is primarily mud bottom with basically one type of weed growth--eurasian milfoil, with some sporadic lily pads. Furthermore, the milfoil doesn't even appear healthy. It is brown and looks silt covered. A couple of years ago the state treated this lake, but mother Nature prevailed and it is back. Being that there hasn't been much rain of note in this region in at least a couple of months save July 4th, water levels are quite low. I spent the entire day trying to get a bite. I threw spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, salt sticks, tubes, worms, jigs, topwater--nothing, except for when my jig got slammed while I was flipping a dock about 20 minutes before the tournament ended. I set the hook on nothing. I couldn't believe I didn't stick that fish! It might have saved the day! Oh, and did I mention that both transducer cables on my brand-new-to-me 02 ProCraft Super Pro 210 were broken? Kinda hard to find a deeper bite in the muck with no eyes beneath the surface.

6/17/07 and bass season is finally here. The first tournament of the season is at Hammond Lake, an Army COE lake located in Tioga County, PA. It's unfortunate that when they made these lakes they only thought of flood control and didn't think of the recreational opportunity that would present itself for years to come. This lake is as boring to look at as a grass-growing festival, and nearly as boring to fish. I could go on to detail my every move on this water, but suffice it to say I didn't weigh a fish, my partner weighed one that barely made the legal limit and only 2 limits were caught in a field of 30 anglers. My lone bit of excitement/frustration came after over 4 hours of fishing I finally hooked a bass on a spinnerbait. It ran right toward the boat so I didn't think it was very big and by the time I saw it and called for the net, it was off the hook. This largemouth could have pushed for the lunker prize but I will never know

I've never seen so many boats at the Penn Yan launch. Our club, a club from up near Buffalo, and an open tourney were all launching at pretty much the same time. The canal leading out to the lake looked like Times Square! Luckily our group blasted off first. It was a cool morning so there wasn't the usual array of jet skis and pleasure boaters on the water as is custom for this lake in summer. It was sunny with a strong northwest wind which made navigating the trolling motor quite a chore. That plus not having a working depth finder made locating fish nearly impossible. My partner and I worked a point just north of Keuka College where I nearly always find fish on the locator. No luck there, so down in front of the college we went. We caught a few short fish around here and started to put something together with pontoon boats and shade. We shot across to the east side where the shadows were still on the water but couldn't scare up a keeper. Along about 10 am I set the hook into a 3.5lb. smallmouth that ate my Fission Lures Max React 8 that I was digging into the chunk rock in front of some docks on a point. I gotta say that felt really good!! I started getting a fair amount of action doing this but they were all short fish. I wish I could have stayed on that spot longer but navigating in the wind was really difficult. So my partner, Pat, and I just kept moving. I probably spent too much time in the coves between the points. I should have ran around more. I did manage to put another fish in the livewell that gave me a 2-fish total of 5.1 lbs. for the tournament and an 8th place finish. At least I put some points in the basket toward the angler of the year title. I'm already ahead of last year.

Cowanesque Lake 6/30/07, site of tournament #3. As usual, I arrived with much anticipation. I was primed. I felt I had all the right lures tied on to start the day given the water temp, weather, and look of the lake. My problem, as usual, is where to start. I went down lake to a place I'd had success before. I was looking for flats that led to a dropoff, or points. I can start off by saying that the bass were not in any shallow water that I covered on this day. I worked my way around the first point alternating between a crankbait, lipless crank, and Maniac salt stick, with nothing happening. As I ducked into the cove there was a fair amount of surface activity. I started with the XPS version of a Lucky Craft Sammy in Ghost minnow pattern. I really liked the action of this lure. I say "liked" because of what happened in the ensuing half hour. I caught a couple of small bass, too short to weigh in. I was making long casts and drawing plenty of interest from the fish. I was sitting in 10 ft. throwing in to 3 ft toward the sparse weedline. I started walking the bait back when I saw a flash of green and heard what could only be described as what sounded like the plug on the lake being pulled! "Whommmp!" Chills covered my body as I thought I'd hooked the lunker bass of the lake! As I got the fish in closer, I discovered it was a musky that was around 3ft. long! Heck of a catch, but not in a bass tourney! My biggest concern was not losing the lure. I managed to free it successfully without bringing the fish in the boat and went about my business. Not a half dozen casts later, I hooked another one! "Fish of 1000 Casts" my butt! This one was smaller, but the toothy SOB managed to take my lure with him. I was without a replacement. I switched to a black Zara Spook, but this didn't draw much interest and is a lot more difficult to work than the XPS bait. I went throughout the day without landing or even seeing another fish and ended up zeroing for the tournament. Only one limit of fish was caught and a number of others failed to weigh a fish as well.

Is it ok to promote sponsor products in this forum?

RoLo, I am not sure that they are still in production. As I said, I've owned it since the late 70's.

I have a Skyline 100% graphite 6 ft. pistol grip baitcasting rod from around 1978 and I am wondering where I can go to determine the value of it. It is in great condition, with only some slight fraying on one of the eyelet wraps. It hasn't been used in at least 20 years.