Keithscatch

Refer to my post where I mentioned worst yet plowing by. I agree fast creates a smaller wake then plowing. However, a wake is a wake and we are responsible for our wake. Running by someone on plane while they are fishing in a canal is not a good way to win friends. To me it is rude. Any other Etiquette things for boaters to remember?

Ok, well I thought it was about time to have a Boat Owners Etiquette thread. I will start off with a question and we can go from there. When running in a canal how wide would it have to be for you to consider running by another boater who is fishing in this canal? Personally, I stop for everyone and idle past them and then get back on plane and go on about my business. But I am weird like that. I ask this because lately I have been fishing a canal in a lake that is maybe 4 lanes wide (highway example) in some areas and only 2 or 3 lanes wide in others and some bass boaters just fly by me or worse yet plow by me making a pretty good wake. One wake was big enough to cause water to come over the stern of my boat. Is this acceptable or not? I stopped one guy yesterday and told him to stop as I was fishing here. His reply was "You are fishing the middle of a canal" some how this seemed to justify his response in his mind. Yes, this is a canal that is like a highway for boats. But is it polite or right to just fly by people making them have to deal with your boat wake and possible shutting down any fish he is going after? I hope this thread turns into a good discussion about things we as boaters can do to make things safer and more enjoyable for ALL considered. Remember YOU ARE NOT the only one on the water.

TM, as far as tough and durable goes go with a MotorGuide no question. All you have to do is look at the head of the units to decide which one is going to last longer. Minn Kota is made from plastic. Yep, plastic. Motor Guide digital motors are made out of metal. If we are using a foot controlled unit then the steering cables are held down in that head unit by screws. Do you want screws being held by plastic or metal? I know I broke my Minn Kota this year. It is fine if you fish up in Yankee land where they have no tree stumps in the water. But if you fish in water where trees live then sooner or later you will break a Minn Kota. I like the Minn Kota for everything else. If they had a metal head unit I would say Minn Kota hands down. But for ruggednes MotorGuide all the way. The Gator Mount is a superior design anyway for deflecting off of stumps then the big spring MinnKota uses. I have owned both brands.

Hmm, I use braid allot. I have never ever broke a rod on a hookset with braid on it. I have a heavy action 7.5' flipping stick that resembles a pool cue and I have 50lb braid on it and the drag as tight as I can manage. I also flip into some thick and I mean thick floating grass so when I get a bite I have to set the hook very hard to move the fish upward and then pull them out of this mat. Using any sort of mono or co-poly or Flourocarbon would be silly. Braid shines in flipping. Best thing ever invented for it in fact. But I guess to each their own.

Guys, Is Yo-Zuri Ultra Soft and their original a Co-Polymer line? I ask because years ago my all time favorite line used to be Silver Thread AN40. For some reason when I was using it late 90's I didn't remember having any trouble. It sort of dissapeared from the market then came back on the market a while ago and I bought some more of it. To my dismay this line is crappy and nothing like it used to be. It coils horribly. The colder it is outside the worse the coils get. In the winter time in Texas I couldn't use it at all. It resembled the cord hanging off of a telephone. I fish a clear lake here called Ansin Garcia and was going to get Berkley Transition as recommended by a friend. That is a Flourocarbon line. But I have had hiddeous results with past Flourocarbon lines with line breaking on hooksets. So this Yo-Zuri might be worth a look. Oh, I also use Braid and when hung up I just pull hard untill the hook bends and I get it back ;D

Great comments everyone. Thanks.

Friend of mine sent me this info about a SAL (ShareLunker) fish caught at Lake Fork. I know these numbers to be exact as they are weighed and measured by biologists at TP&W. Here they are: ShareLunker No. 424 Caught by Eddie Horn of Alba, TX November 25, 2006 in Lake Fork 13.79 pounds, length 26 inches, girth 20.5 inches Bait/Lure: 6" Black Zoom Lizard Water Body Record? No Day of Week: Sat Moon Phase: FQ-3 Going to the BR weight calculator and punching in those numbers gives us a weight estimate of only 11.548333333333334lbs. Pretty good descrepency. Has anyone else seen these calculators to be close or accurate?

Nice fish Don.

4" Zoom centipede T-rigged in Pumpkin color. Fish weighed 9.5lbs.

I wish we had a Sportsman Warehouse out here in Florida. Those stores are awesome. I am so big bait store challenged out here in Florida it is sad. When I lived in Lewisville, Tx. I was 10 minutes from BPS, 5 minutes to Academy, and 5 minutes to Sportsman Warehouse. It was incredible. All of these stores have a bunch of stuff too.

haha that is funny. Never thought of that but hey, one has to do what one has to do.

Glad you got some fish Don. I used to have a Shimano Stradic. Man that was a sweet reel. It got stolen right out of my garage along with all of my other equipment back in Texas. I was so bummed until guys from the TFF site donated me all new equipment to replace what I lost. All of those reels and rods I fish with where all gifts from other strangers/friends I never met. Anyway, besides that I loved the Stradic. Not that I am a big spinning reel fan but that Stradic felt real smooth and cast like a dream. Line twist was fairly minimal with it. I had the occaisonal loop knot/line twist but not as much as lessor models. One of these days I will replace that. The Stella on the other hand. $500 for a reel. Probably not going to happen.

That sounds like an incredibly productive, fun day. Just under 8lbs is a giant bass but a Smallie that is a trophy. Good job

It is a falsity (Is that a word?) to assume that Wal-Mart employees would earn a higher wage at other retail outlets. Have you seen some of the folks who work at Wallie World? The way I see it some of them are making about what they can. So believe me without Wal Mart providing some of these folks with jobs, who else would? Where else would they work? Not everything "evil" on the surface is evil. Plus. California is a strange place anyway. So I take things out of that state with a large dose of salt ;) JK.

This is different then Gulp lures but same premise. I wonder if anyone here has ever heard of or seen or felt or used these lures before? I might order some to see what these are all about It is amazing what can be found online. Check it out: Food Source

I rarely if ever go to local mom and pop bait shops. Why? Because they charge WAY TO MUCH for their stuff. Why would I want to pay an extra $1-$2 on everything for the EXACT SAME THING? The only thing I can think of is if this local bait store was owned by someone in my family or a real good friend. But I am sorry, if they want my business they have to get realistic with their prices first. I hear this comment all the time about supporting local bait shops etc. Why? Not to be mean, but what have they done for me? Am I obligated to overpay them for basic items just because they are a local store in the community I live in? I just don't get it. Now, if they where a friend of mine then I could see overpaying for stuff just to help them. But beyond that, I think I would rather pay Wal Mart prices for the lures and terminal tackle that I buy. Personally, I am thankful for Wal-Mart, BPS, Cabela's, or any other large retail chain that will deliver products to me at low prices.

Muddy Man or anyone else who is going to use Shiners. Be a little descreet about it down there. Unlike Florida, folks out there don't look kindly to Shiner fisherman. So while eating at local diners and such I wouldn't brag about catching fish on Shiners much ;D I was never into bait fishing while living there mostly because of the mindset around there about bait fishing. I personally don't have a problem fishing with them but never did when I was there. However, if you are going to do allot of bait fishing then you might want to buy some Waterdogs. They account for some monster bass out there each year especially in the spring. Also, topwater will absolutely work out there. My favorite in that lake is a Devils Horse in frog pattern orange belly. Basically anything with an orange belly works. Fish bedding will knock the living tar out of those baits. One time I remember way back in the back of Birch Creek where I was fishing bedding fish with these lures in the grass, they were literally knocking the lure 2 feet into the air running over to where it landed and smacked it again. It was AWESOME. Best topwater action I have ever had. I literally thought I was Peacock bass fishing. Just thought I would offer my 2 cents.

Jim or anyone else looking for info on Float & Fly here is a link that contains lots of pages with articles on that subject: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-30,GGGL:en&q=float+and+fly

I am shocked that no one has mentioned the Ford GT. In my opinion domestic sports cars start and end with this. Just look at this thing. WOW, yeah I want one of these: If I can't have this then I will settle for this: 500HP of SHELBY muscle.

Now this is neat and scary all at the same time. Some of the rearranged words are better then the non arranged ones haha. See for yourself. DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters: MOON STARER DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE ;D ;D THE MORSE CODE : When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN ME (ain't that the truth) ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY ELECTION RESULTS: When you rearrange the letters: LIES - LET'S RECOUNT SNOOZE ALARMS: When you rearrange the letters: ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S A DECIMAL POINT: When you rearrange the letters: IM A DOT IN PLACE THE EARTHQUAKES: When you rearrange the letters: THAT ***** SHAKE (No coincedence this happens in Califonia more then anywhere else) ;D ELEVEN PLUS TWO: When you rearrange the letters: TWELVE PLUS ONE AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE: MOTHER-IN-LAW: When you rearrange the letters: WOMAN HITLER

One of the main differences here guys between Joe Schmoes pond and a public lake is that if Joe Schmoe is running his lake to grow large bnass he will not remove a 10lber from his pond when he catches it. However, in a public lake many who catch such a fish do. I mean they have a right to by law so what can you do? But this one thing hinders the development of big fish for years and sets the lake back. I am from Texas and while I love the ShareLunker program they have over there in theory I still believe it is not helping them. I know I have argued this with lots of Texans on another site for years but the facts are the facts. Case in point. A majority of fish that are entered into this program or let's say an even number of fish entered into this program NEVER go back into the lake they where caught. They end up in a fish tank at BPS or at the Athens center where they keep this bass till it dies. So every year let's say that in Lake Fork we have 5-10 fish caught and entered in the ShareLunker program. 3-5 of these fish will never go back to Lake Fork. So basically it is no different then catching and eating those fish. Same result happened this fish never goes back. Now their eggs and fry do so that is the one good thing. All that means though is that the number of teen fish where reduced that year thus making the pool of bigger fish less by that number of fish each year. Now a 13lber will not always live long enough nor grow big enough to reach 20lbs. But some will. Now if we continue to remove the teen fish then it stands to reason that we lessen our efforts at seeing 20lbers. In California they do not do this and it is no strange occurance that they have 20lbers. In Florida sadly allot of people remove such a fish and therefore limit the number of 20lbers here. I believe Florida has some 20lbers swimming around. I think Texas does too. But if only a couple reach that size then the likliehood of catching them is slime and none. So moral to this story, release the big bass back to the lake and perhaps a WR is around the corner.

Very nice detail work guys. Very impressive

Raul, I think that is what he said. He then said he thinks it shouldn't be allowed which I also agree with. But as I stated at the end if it is allowed then what can you do?

I know in Texas they do not recognize private water fish anymore except in a special private water body record book. Personally, I think that is fair. Owning a large pond like what Ray Scott has or Gary Yamamoto has is not fair if a record bass was caught from that. But if it is allowed then what can you do?

Roland Martin plugs anything and everything on his shows. So I would take that with lots of grains of salt. He is a walking talking billboard for sponsorships now a days. To the point that it makes his shows hard to watch.