cbass12

I guess I'm out for Thursday. Wife has a girl's night planned that she forgot to tell me about.

Basspro makes a regular replacement handle and a power handle that is just a little bigger. They run about ten bucks, if you have to buy one for some reason. If you really need one I have 3 or 4 PQ handles laying around that I have replaced with the power handles.

I'll be there. Olathe?

I had this happen down there in an almost identical spot that you're describing. Dragging a jig off the drop near about 15' and felt that hard tick. Set the hook and thought for about ten seconds I had a big "meanie" or a monster spot. Started telling my wife who was reading on the back deck that I had something big, then the head shakes and the rolling started.....was still a fun fight.

They have a few trees. Looks like a pretty cool lake

Yes they have!!!!

I might not have a partner if you want to tag along with me. I'll find out later today whether or not he's able to go.

For my beagle it's thunder. He never used to mind it but a couple years ago there was a terrible thunderstorm that rolled through one spring night. Some of the loudest thunder I've ever heard, knocked out the power for a couple hours. Ever since then he's a basket case whenever he hears a loud noise. The worst is on Friday nights during high school football season. They shoot off a big cannon at 7 pm on the dot for home games and it drives him nuts, stadium is a mile from our house.

A little late for you Ondrejka since you're probably on the water right now....... But melvern was pretty good to us on Wednesday. Didn't catch any big fish but caught plenty of 14-16's. Probably caught 60-75 fish between the 3 of us, didn't really keep track though. Most came on Ned, with a couple each being caught on a spook and shakyhead. Biggest was just shy of 3 pounds and had several at around 2 1/2 pounds. Aside from getting rained on from about 0530-1200 it was a pretty good day. Had a bit of a flurry at the end of the day. I was reeling in a dink and had two 4+ pound smallies trying to take the bait away from the fish. The surface activity even picked up around 2:00. I had already caught a couple small fish shallow and as I was walking my spook away from the rocks another small one kept hitting it. I was getting a laugh watching this fish play with the bait and as I did, another 4 pound class fish came clear out of the water and slapped the bait several feet away. That was a little disappointing..... 2.5 2.4 Another 2.5

I bought Blue's BPS Extreme 7'10" H/XF this spring and it has handled big baits very well for me. He really liked it, and the only reason he got rid of it was he won a free swimbait rod from another site. It's rated 1/2-3 oz. Not the most glamorous recommendation but it's a very good rod, expecially when you can get them for $69 on sale.

If I'm using mono backing and floro as a main line I just use a piece of electrical tape. If braid is my main line I'll use a modified albright to connect the two. I put about half a spool of each line on and I've never let the line get so low that the knot becomes an issue.

This ^^^ I'll usually take a few with me, along with one to wind down while we're bs-ing at the end of the day at the ramp. The front live well is where we put all trash and it gets emptied at the end of the day.

Some will think I'm crazy, but I am very fond of the St Croix Rage casting rods. I've got a 7'1" MH/XF and MH/F. The reel seat and neoprene is so comfortable and to me it balances very well. I plan on getting a 6'8" M/XF at some point. I've heard of breakage issues with them, but I haven't experienced it yet with the casting rods. Now the Rage 6'10" ML/XF spinning rod is a different story, had to send it back to St Croix two weeks ago after the tip broke. There are more expensive rods out there but for me this rod just fits.

That thing is a pig!!!!!

The bedroom has a full size if I remember correctly, and the other bed is a hide-a-bed that would only fit one person. So that would be a little tight for more than two people.

What he said

Those Stratos/Javelin Fish/Ski's ride really well. We've got a '93 Stratos 280SF with a 175 Evinrude Intruder and it can really move, also handles rough water very well. Looks like yours is a little longer than ours though. Really clean looking boat!!

We stayed at one of the cabins during duck season a few years ago and we really liked it. The cabin we got was pretty small so I assume it was only a 2 person, but it was very comfortable and the scenery looking over the lake was pretty cool!

Dang!!!!!!! I have picked several of these up over the last two years and I get giddy when I find them for $45. That is a heck of a price on a really quality reel.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that means just slowly dragging it or slowly reeling it without imparting any action on the bait. Most of the time we'll throw it up into shallow rocks and slowly retrieve it until it gets to the first little drop, then let it fall. I caught several fish doing this yesterday and they usually hit after the first couple turns of the handle. I have a friend pour them for me and he mainly does a 3/32 ounce head and uses a #2 hook.

Probably want to stay at 1/8 oz or less. Too heavy and I think it would take away from the effectiveness of the rig. I used the 1/8 oz when we were down there the last week of June and I did really well with it.

Got to melvern at 0600 yesterday. We could not have asked for a better day to be on the water!! First fish came very quickly on the Ned and it never really slowed down until around 1100. From there on it was a fish every once in a while but the bite had definitely slowed. Biggest was 2lb 14oz smallie, also caught a decent spot in the marina cove. All my fish were caught on the ned except for one on the drop shot and a couple on a spook. The fish I caught on the spook came out of very shallow water where the weeds on the shoreline had been flooded. The only down side to the day was the zebra mussels. I had about a 4lb fish break me off at the boat (my fault for not checking the line), and I must have lost about 10 rigs and had to go through two 8 foot leaders by the end of the day.

Picked up a 7'2" M/XF and 7'1" ML/F spinning rod for $129 each at BPS today. I'm jealous of you guys finding these rods at dicks for half that price. I've called around to every dicks on the Kansas side of the metro area and have only found one 7'2" MH/F spinning rod which does me no good. At least BPS price matched the cabelas sale price.

You two should just come to melvern like us in the morning, or maybe you just like to punish yourselves.

Any of you guys that may need a trolling motor, or know of somebody that might need one... I've got a minn kota edge that I've been trying to sell for my dad. 24V 70lb thrust and it was only on the boat for about a year. I found a good deal on a maxxum so we upgraded. There's nothing wrong with it and would make a great motor for an aluminum boat. Without the variable speed it just wasn't guite enough for our fish/ski. Bought in May 0f '13 and was taken off the boat in June of this year.