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If he's any kind of bass fisherman, the pond is that close to your houses and it's on a public use facility like a golf course that would merely require asking permission for access to fish, than I seriously doubt you telling him the fishing was bad would stop him. In fact, if it were me, as you were downplaying the fishing and how difficult it was to fish due to the weeds I'd be thinking... "Ha! This guy doesn't have a clue, I'll go over there and clean house and show this schmuck how to fish."

Here's a few things I've found concerning clubs. Yes, there are "types" of clubs. Avoid any club that affiliates itself with any major Bass tournament organization. These clubs tend to focus their own tournaments around the schedule of said organizations schedule and give guys reasons to pre-fish major tournament lakes in a club atmosphere. These guys aren't likely to help a newbie or even encourage their participation. Avoid clubs that schedule themselves around independant, local Buddy tournaments for the same reason as the clubs above. You'll get a few more guys in these clubs that will help you though but again, the reason for these clubs is to have little mini tournaments that also allow the members the opportunity to pre-fish Buddy tourney's that are coming up the next weekend. Here's an example of a club geared towards learning anglers. http://www.hawghawlers.com/ Granted, the club is nowhere near you but looking over their website you can see that these guys are family oriented, make tournaments more of a fellowship and fun type of deal and most importantly, aren't tied to any tournament trail or Buddy tournament events. Good luck, I attribute more knowledge gained from belonging to a club in my first 10 years of bass fishing than anything else.

Why are you on this message board instead of on the water? Get out there and tell us about all the hawgs you pulled in later!! Yes, I'd be on the water. Fresh, cooler, off-colored water coming into the lake dragging all kinds of little creatures with it that fish love to feed on. A good all night soaker can mean great fishing the next day.

uhh.... My house sat in about 4 feet of water in the flood of 1993. Yep, there was sewage back up but guess what? Sewage won't penetrate rubber boots or waders and unless you're going to fill a canteen up and drink it, I'm not sure what you're going to be doing fishing that would jeapordize your life fishing in water that may have contaminants in it. If the fish are still in the water alive and kicking I'd say it's more than safe to fish. Just don't go swimming and keep any open wounds covered and above the water. I remember wading through my yard and seeing schools of LM bass swimming around. I never knew the Meramec river had that many bass in it before.

As long as the boats in question check out. For $2500 you can get a pretty decent aluminum that won't need a lot of work or an older fiberglass rig that will.

I can remember pre-fishing for tourney's and then on Friday before the big day, whammo, a front comes through and all my fish pulled off feeding patterns along structure and/or cover and were suddenly just sitting in open water off that structure (usually). You could see them on the graph. I'd use various methods of trying to put a bait in front of them to no avail. John Hope did a pretty extensive study in the late 80's on big bass that included radio tagging, scuba diving to actually verify where those radio tagged bass were at and also attempting to recatch those fish. Most large bass have a home base, usually off points and very close to the nest site where they were initially hatched from. They'll have pretty specific cruising patterns when they're in a feeding mode. That feeding mode usually involves the fish cruising banks around that home area in 5 - 12 feet of water. They move up shallower when they detect something of interest like a possible prey source. The rest of the time they generally suspend on their home area. Hope determined by visual observation while scuba diving and watching as an angler above dropped various baits in front of their nose, that these fish were virtually impossible to catch. They were in a complete negative feeding mode. Now, a smaller minority of large bass spend most of their life in shallow water. These fish rarely venture into deeper water. These fish are harder to catch than the deep water fish since they're exposed to more lures throughout the year but they can be caught. As for your idea. If you're thinking that you'll tap into these suspended bass and fill the livewell while other anglers flog the bank and or structure without success I'm afraid it just won't happen. Yes, suspended fish can be caught but not easily and in most cases, not at all. I'd be spending my time finding different ways of coaxing bass relating to structure or cover into biting by offering up different baits or presentations.

That is an trim kill switch that wouldn't let you trim the motor up too high when you're running. Once the motor reached the height where the switch disengaged you were forced to use the tilt switch to continue bringing the motor up. Either the wire broke or it was purposefully eliminated. Some guys would disable and jump it out so they could trim their motor out beyond the max or others did it that were running in super shallow water and wanted to get the motor way out of the water when running. My old Tower of Power 150 Merc had one of those, I disabled it as well.

I run Garmin 160's at the front and at the console.

For starters you'll need to post a little more info: Current prop type and pitch. Your boat length or exact model. (Elite was merely a styling package) Are you using a jackplate and where is it set at? If your motor is flush mounted on the transom, you'll need to get a measurement on where the motor is sitting according to the bottom of the pad. You should be running a 25p Tempest prop. Right now it sounds like you're running to high of a pitch prop with that 4 blade.

It depends on how this summer weather goes and how long it lasts. I've been on the brushpile bite off the boat docks that far into September if the summer heat lasted, though you can start targeting shallower brushpiles then and a little further back in the coves. There's usually a pretty good topwater bite worth trying too. Try prop baits or lunker lures off the points or around docks on the points. Usually the 1st or 2nd secondary points in the bigger coves are the ones to target. Oops, sorry to derail. :-?

Step one: If the LCD depthfinder has the fish ID feature, TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY! Even the instruction manuals will state the finder can't distinguish between branches, air bubbles, debris and fish. The listed articles will give you an idea on how to read a true fish arch and BTW, the advertisements showing those brillantly arched fish hanging over structure are more fiction than fact. Most of the time you don't arch fish as wonderfully as the manuals or advertisements show. Reading a old style spinning type depthfinder is more difficult. That takes time on the water to truely understand what you're seeing on the dial.

L & S torque shifter props have been around for a number of years. Do they work? Yes. Are they the answer to the question "What's the best prop that gives maximum top end with a neck-snapping holeshot?" Well, NO. There's more to a prop than just the pitch (which is the only big difference with this prop, the pitch varies according to engine torque applied). They're not the fastest nor the slowest. While they'll certainly provide outstanding holeshot, it's the mid - to very upper end where they tend to have a problem. Since most guys are looking for the maximum they can get out of the upper end of their boat, the torque shifters have pretty much been ignored since the props really can't be modified properly.

For this time of year, I'd suggest Lake of the Ozarks in my area. It has a very reliable nite-time 10-12" plastic worm bite on brushpiles off boat docks in 20-30 ft. of water. Average fish will probably run 2 1/2 to 4 lbs. Not bad for July/Aug.

I've heard nothing but glowing reports on the new E-tecs. A couple big pluses. There is no break-in time at all! STICK THE DANG THING IN THE WATER RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX AND GO!!! No maintenance for like the first 500 hours, or some ungodly long period. Now check the competition. Most maintenance, even routine anymore requires factory trained mechanics to perform it for the warranty to continue. That's a few hundred $$ everytime you take it in. The 4 strokes are the worst for factory required maintenance.

Why that's never, ever happened to me.. : Congradulations on the new boat.

Hmm... MO. lakes: Tablerock Truman Lake of the Ozarks (numerous) Little Dixie Perry County No named farm ponds (numerous) Illinois lakes: Rend Washington County (numerous) KY lakes: Kentucky Lake

Jet drive.

Put it on a stand, hook up the muffs and crank 'er over. I wouldn't give you $50 if I you couldn't tell me whether it ran or not.

El Salto for bass, Central or South America for Peacocks.

Now I've sunk some big crappie beds before but....... HOLEY MOLEY!!! USS Oriskany being sunk off the coast of Pensacola FL as an artificial fish attractor. Here's the entire sequence: http://www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm

If the engine is sound (at least as sound as it can be at that age) then $2500 is a great price IF it's structurally sound as well. I can see some trailer rust which isn't a big deal and it appears he's got a bracket on the back for a little kicker motor which would need to come off if you buy. The biggie is the transom and stringers and their integrity. You'll want to check the steering system as well. That boat probably has a dual cable system (hopefully with that size of a motor). You need to have your engine mechanic take a quick look at that for stiffness or slop and play. New dual cable systems will run you around $300 - 400 if you install them yourself. If that system is original or hasn't been replaced in the past 10 years you need to replace it. Steering systems are one of the biggest reasons for boating accidents. The last thing you want is to be cruising down the lake at WOT and have a cable fail.

I tried flippin a worm at that one aerator that had all the tree tops around it. Figured the bass might be suspended in the trees and coming out to feed on the shad. Jigging spoons can be used in winter or summer. I've caught fish with them but they're not a favorite bait. If you can find some I'd suggest waiting till those shad are tight in those aerators and looking for the fish down below them. I'd drop that spoon down and just raise it and let it flutter back down like a dying shad. As for the finger, I had a large tree branch come down in the backyard on Sunday night. Was out chainsawing and got it slammed between branches. I figure I'll be ready to go back out next weekend.

Not that problem but my Yammie, along with many others had a problem with the oil ECU. It would fail to detect the OB oil reservoir was full and would continue to pump oil into the OB reservoir until it popped the top off and then began dumping oil intp the inside of the ob which eventually made it's way into the lake. I remember fishing one day, looking back and seeing an oil slick down the entire bank I had just fished. ;D Pulled the cowling and found the problem. $180 for the ECU seemed kinda steep though.

I could tell you some stories about Nitro and BPS but I won't. Personally, If you're not interested in a Champion (my choice) then definitely do yourself a favor and look at a Stratos before you make up your mind. Great riding boats, very well laid out and quality construction.

As with any boat of that age, it's what you can't see that I'd be concerned about. Boats of that vintage are nothing but fiberglass wrapped around a lot of wood. Unfortunately, once water penetrates that wood, it starts to rot and there's nothing to stop it. You have to be concerned with the transom and stringers primarily. If the floor has any soft spots that's often a warning flag of deeper problems. Wood repairs on fiberglass boats normally required the complete removal of the top cap of the boat. Not a job for the light-hearted and not economically feasible for you to take a boat that old to have it done. The motor will also have to be thoroughly checked out. Those old V6 rudes and Johnsons were fairly dependable but they were gas hogs.