cart7t

I've never fished Long Branch and it looks good on a map and google earth, unfortunately, if you read the MDC fishing prospectus on LB the bass population there is always poor and overloaded with smaller fish that never seem to grow. Thomas Hill is an OK lake. Most popular in the winter due to the warm water discharge from the power plant. Can't help you with the hybrids.

Here, here. I used that Lowes/HD stuff. If a hook even looked at it it was snagged and removing the hook wound up ripping the loops which wound up with a long runner. The stuff didn't hold up too well in high traffic areas either. If you're looking for carpet as cheap as you can get, will hold up and NOT snag hooks look at BPS or Cabela's for their 16oz. boat carpet.

I just sold my Champion for $4k. It had been completely redone. There are good deals to be found in this economy. Especially from guys like me needing the cash or others trying to get out from under a boat payment. Don't wish about owning that boat, go out and get one.

You took your little problem (which you won't even explain leaving it to our imagination) onto a public forum. How smart or mature is that? Stop your whining. Grow up and take your lumps.

The old popcorn trick. ;D Would that be the old "Pee Wee Herman Popcorn Bucket" trick ? No, see the movie "Diner"

The old popcorn trick. ;D

I suppose you're lucky it was just some "gills"

Storm wiggle wart. Color SP/SV 53. Crawfish, olive back, chart sides, orange belly.

Throw that mangled up rod away and buy another one. Then quit fishing. That should solve the dinged up gear problem and save you a lot of money in the long run.

Honestly, you really don't need a locator to "find" brushpiles at LOZ. Simple observation will suffice. Look for boat docks that have one or more of the following. Lights pointed down towards the water at the ends and sides of the dock. Fishing poles in rod holders or rod holders period. Fish cleaning stations. Chairs set up along the sides of the dock. (not always a true indicator.) Docks that have bass boats on hoists, aluminum fishing boats on hoists or Tracker marine pontoons (for some reason, brushpile kind of people own tracker pontoons.) You can easily cruise into a cove and eliminate a lot of unproductive docks by simple observation. Typical brushpile locations are: In the stalls, off the end of the dock, off the sides sometimes a lob cast away from the side, straight down along the sides, along the back edge between the bank and the dock. Definitely use your locator to find those brushpiles that may be inbetween docks or way off the ends. While most people just drop some piles right around their dock, it's often the BP's that were dropped way off the sides or ends that many don't ever find and rarely get fished unless you know about them. They can be real honey holes. 1 10" plastic worm (my personal color is Junebug when it's light out and black/neon at night) 3/8 or 1/2 oz slip sinker pegged. Best to peg or you'll get hung up often. 5/0 or 6/0 hook. Start casting and dragging. You'll find the brush piles. This time of year the deep summer pattern starts setting in down there. Find brushpiles off the ends of the docks where water depth is sitting in 20-28' of water. You'll be sitting a cast away from the outside end of the dock, perhaps in 35+ feet of water. Work the worms s-l-o-w-l-y through the brush. The fish at LOZ start relating strongly to the thermocline this time of year. Check with local tackle shops down there to get an idea what depth it's at or at what depth the bulk of the bass are being caught in to give you an idea on which docks with brush you want to key on. (In other words, fishing brushpiles off docks in the back end of coves in only 10-15' of water is a waste of time if the thermocline is running at 25') Another pattern is straight T-rigging or C-rigging the same size worms and working main lake points in the same depths.

You're kidding yourself if you think a women scores a man any more than 1 point on anything. Buy her a nice car for her BD = 1 point. Buy her a little tricket for her BD she happened to mention while you were out browsing in a store one day a month ago = 1 point. Diamond ring = 1 point. etc, etc..... The negative points accumulate rapidly and are scored at a much higher rate. It's takes a while to level up the scorecard if you happen to pull some stupid boneheaded move like buying tickets to a monster truck bash at the state fairgrounds which just so happens to fall on her birthday and SHE HATES MONSTER TRUCKS.

What you two did, was it like a multi-state, drunken melee involving a stolen car, lots of liquor and finally getting caught in some sleeze bag motel, both passed out on the floor naked??? If not I wouldn't worry about it.

Be vewy, vewy caweful on the ramps. Only unhook the winch strap when your boat can safely slide off the end of the trailer into the water and make sure the boat is locked on when pulling from the water.

True. The machining of the reels is identical even if the ergonomics are slightly different. The parts inside though, may be of a different quality. BTW, this does NOT include the JM line of reels. Those reels are built slightly different than the Extremes or PQ's and don't have parts interchangable with other Pure fishing reels.

Back when I had a boat....... :-[ yes, I'm boatless now. I fished a local lake that had a ramp so shallow that the truck was half into the lake and winching was still a real pain. Firing up the OB there was a no-no. TM's only. It really depends on the ramp itself and the angle. Steep ramps can be every bit as bad as ramps way too shallow. I guess in Wisconsin there's no such thing as a "drive on" trailer any more.

yes

I would also go with the Lowrider. Falcon makes great rods.

If a spot looks good to you it probably looks good to many, many other guys. There may be fish holding there but they'll be tougher to catch. Try looking for less conspicuous places.

How many boaters are there in Virginia needing training? Just who are you to teach anyone? (no offense but what are your qualifications as far as safe boating?)

Those are just the ones he picked up off the road on the way to his hunting ground.

HB Mike! Mike is so old his birth certificate is etched on a stone tablet.

Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, is well known for it's rather violent water conditions on a summer weekend. I've seen folks go out in 30' day cruisers for a day jaunt on the lake and come back in with passengers suffering everything from dislocated joints, bruised up faces & ribs to concussions after they were thrown around in the seating area of the boat running really bad water.

You can spend a bunch of $$ and have a custom cover made but unless you're really planning on trailering the boat with the cover on it's not necessary. A few tips I've learned over the years. In a fully exposed to the enviroment storage situation, one of those cheaper boat covers will probably last anywhere from 3-5 years. That's IF you keep a tarp over the top of the cover and keep the cover elevated for proper water run-off and check on the boat during longer periods of storage to make sure no water has gotten under the tarps and pooled on the cover. I also strongly recommend the heavy duty tarps. These are most often found in stores with silver on one side and brown on the other. Standard, regular tarps just don't hold up and you'll be replacing them up to 3 times a year if the boat is stored outside all the time. Once you get that boat under a pole barn the need for tarps is moot. You're still going to want to buy or build a system for keeping the cover propped up off the boat along with providing for water runoff. With the cover propped up, it also helps with air flow through the boat underneath.

Cart, you aren't allowed to use a jet in FLW or BASS, Real freakin stupid rule, ain't it? Well, if you're feeling frisky you could've put the hammer down and launched those FB rigs over the top of the beaver dams. Of course you stand the chance of punching a hole in the bottom of the boat or ripping the engine off the transom but what the heck.

I watched that video in the other thread and never saw them using the so-called pulley system. If all it was doing was making it easier to cross over the beaver dams I don't see what the issue is, if, OTOH, they were using it to transport their boat across dry ground to enter a section of the water way not accessible due to low water then I think there's a problem. If you allow that you open things up to the imagination of the anglers which could push the interpretation of the rule book to the limits.