Joedodge

Atleast ya have duckweed! I’m used to if a pond or lake looks like that it’s floating filamentous scum. And it’s a nightmare to fish through. Even frogs catch it. I still fish it but man it’s not overly productive or quickly atleast. I’d frog it, run a top water toad over it or a mag speed worm weightless on the top. And probably Texas rig or jig under it.

Black. Black is the only color top that water ya need. Whether it’s a frog, buzzbait, popper, plopper, spook you name it I pretty much only use black. Sunny or cloudy days

Well like it says how’s Iowa treating us Iowan anglers? How’s the fishing? What ya catching them on? Anything new? I’ve done a lot out in the new boat and a lot of pond bank fishing this year. Got a 6.5 in April that earned me a master angler award from the state DNR. A lot of my fish have been on buzzbaits and frogs. Jigs have followed up right behind. I realized I haven’t fished a single worm this year yet lol

Take a stroke king bitsy bug. Trim the skirt how ya like and put a trailer on. Bammmmm a small finesse light wire swim jig in the cheap. Or get on fishing skirts site and order some boss jig heads and tie you’re own up to you’re liking. I’m Not gonna say what the big jig tier around here calls them but get a boss mini flip jig head. They swim amazing and are a similar hook set up like ya are looking for

Weightless baby d bomb is a slow sinker I like. And the caffeine shad is my absolute go to for a slow sinking soft plastic

All I can add to this is actually getting a heavy or mag heavy. I always dabbled in frogs but never had success. Aside from a few other things I figured out. Having the actual right power rod made allllll the difference. Wow what a different experience compared to trying to get by with a medium heavy rod. Hooksets are right there almost every time.

Hot here in Iowa and waters up to 84 degrees on the bigger body’s of water where I’m at. Top water has been really good to me this summer though. The frog and buzzbait early or late in the day have been doing most of the work.

Oh boy does it lol. Had a spill In a buddy’s boat. And it makes a heck of a mess. That’s one thing holding me back on putting any in my boat. I’m a pretty real person. This isn’t a 70k dollar bass boat. It’s a real world affordable small Aluminum boat. Things spill, accidents happen. And I’ve always tried to plan for things like that. And would rather not have to tear a boat apart because of something like that. Heck scroll back in this thread my gas tank didn’t vent and decided it was gonna and blew 1.5 gallons of gas everywhere lol.

Thank you so much. I’m really Enjoying the lil boat. I enjoy making it what I want as much as fishing lol. No there is no foam in it. I’m possibly gonna do Some Pink insulation board on the floor under the decking.

That’s exactly what we were after! We had heavy rain and the water was straight mud. We could get them jumping and stirred up with the outboard running down the river. But couldn’t find any to shoot

I email the pics to myself and resize them that way to fit the forum. Sometimes they come out blurry. I hate that so much. But oh well. Sorry about that. It is all 3/16 riveted together. The frame work is tied to what is left of the front bench with rivets. There is two uprights and a cross bar tied to the bottom with rivets directly under the trolling motor pedal tray. But the far edge uprights and the very front are notched and just weight holds them down on the small ribs. I really hope it does. Not that the boats bad by any means. But it certainly can’t hurt. I have a little more wood to get out of the boat. Then it will only be the deck boards and the transom. Which I’m honestly not concerned about. It’s been a blast. Kinda like being at work at home though lol. If I could have worked on it at work I’d have welded everything. Here’s a photo bow to stern. It’s just flat from deck with one hatch, a middle floor board, and two boards that act as storage for things tank and the battery’s and somwere to sit.

Exactly! It’s the whitest meat you’ll ever find. And there is a ton on them!

Gar is actually really good. Just a pain to clean

Got the tray painted and installed. Need a few more screws though. I’m gonna add a thin piece of rubber mat of some kind to the bottom to keep the pedal from moving around to much. And drill a hole in the back of the pan for drainage. Just in case. It has a slight grade to the pan so it will drain and I won’t store the pedal in it when not in use just incase. Really happy with this project honestly. Also vacuum out the floor and cleaned it up from years of water and grime and all the aluminum and stuff from drilling. Nice that if I need to I can access the front of the boat now.

Was gonna fish this morning but woke up to rain and thunder and lightning that didn’t stop till after 8am. So I said screw it. But was bored so I dove deeper than I planned. I tore the front decks out of the boat. Took a peak at what is there. And went and bought some aluminum and rivets did some measurements and ripped all the wood framing out. And framed the front deck section out in aluminum. And cut the deck out for a trolling motor pedal tray ( it’s a closet dryer vent box from Lowe’s). Took me about 2.5 hours to knock it out and I took 37 pounds off water logged wood out of the front of the boat. So far her diet of wood framing and removing the seats and bases has saved 100 pounds. Not a bad $100 project. Just need to paint the tray and screw it down. I need to vacuum the front of the boat out it’s full of mud and twigs and everything else. And now I have access to the front part of the boat.

Dang!!! That’s aweosme!! I’ve gives flounder I grew up in Florida. But never bow fished. We had heavy rain and they were opening the d**n so the water depth was changing and it was muddy. The motor would stir up the carp and get them jumping like crazy when we would run to another creek or cove. But only thing we could see near the surface was gar. But we had a blast. He used to guide for bow fishing off his boat. So it was cool to go with someone who knew exactly what to do. That’s awesome you did it so long and we’re so successful. It definitely makes me wana put lights on my boat haha. My trolling motor wouldn’t fight the river current well but I could go to the bigger lakes here that have carp and gar!

I have a few of them in different lines. They are just fine to me. Comfortable and well balanced. Fit and finish is amazing. And there is a lot of information and interview videos with Gary Dobyns on YouTube. Not vids being pushed by sponsored pros. But from the guy who designed the rods. Gary is also still a part of designing rods for them even though gsm bought them out. Across the board in different lines the 734 is a super versatile rod that does a ton of things well. Some guys say they are heavy. But to me they feel more balanced and sturdy then other super light weight rods I’ve fished. And the replacement program is amazing.

I’ve fished a lot of powerpro and suffix 832 over the last 15 years. A lot of it in salt and freshwater. This next year though I think I’m gonna make the switch to Berkley big game braid. I’m so happy with normal big game. I’m gonna try it.

Went out with a co worker on the river below one of our major lakes. He’s got a really nice aluminum deck boat he built from aluminum sheets and tubes himself. What a cool change. Running the river at night. And shooting carp and gar. Doesn’t replace bass fishing by any means. But it was a pretty cool change of pace.

Most of my small local lakes are no wake and never see pleasure boats. We have bigger lakes dominated by pleasure craft. But no one really fishes those. I hooked the boat up. The water at the lake close to the house has that pea green tinge from field run off. But the grass has burned off some ( drove by there and looked today) I’ll probably give it a shot in the morning for a couple hours and see if I can get some on topwater. But I won’t be out past 9 probably lol

I’ve had great luck on the missle baits 6.5 quiver worm as well neko rigged

I grabbed one of these on sale a while back at scheels. I know they are a composite frame. But man what a bargain. Smooth 5 bearing set up. The drag is strong and smooth. They recessed the brakes dial so when I palm it I don’t accidently adjust it like I do on my gen 3 LFS speedspool. Palms well. Paramus braking is really nice and easy to dial in as well. Great reel all in all. I know everyone hates composite frames. But has anyone else fished one of these yet?

I always have orange and chartreuse around. I like to color the belly of swim baits with them and use them on a underspin. Another one I like is a plain old sharpie marker. It will turn white plastics a cool purple color

Been a minute since I’ve done anything with the boat besides cleaning. Earlier on in the thread when I mounted my graph. I used a small plastic ammo can under the front bow cap to place my Milwaukee 12v 5.0 amp hour battery in and keep wiring simple ( I was excited ) since then I got a 2 pack of 8.0 amp hour life p04 battery’s off Amazon. I made a mount and cut the ammo can down to mount the battery next to the trolling motor battery in the back of the boat. Just need to get some duplex wire and run the wiring under the floor now. It was never really in the way at all. But I wanted to do a little better job than my kayaker style box under the bow.

Flip flops, crocs, deck boots I’ve had for a long time, sneakers. Depends on the weather. Crocs are probably my favorite for the last 10 years lol