TOXIC

The way I look at it, the motor stands on its own. A good motor is a good motor. Most all of the older mothers are not having new parts made anymore regardless of manufacturers. If it checks out with good compression, etc., it wouldn’t deter me.

I purposely didn’t say anything about the bait. I’m surprised you think that you can throw any kind of jig head and call it a Ned. Would a football head jig double as a Ned? Would a shakeyhead double as a Ned? MThe mushroom style of head on the Ned definitely gives it a different action when dragged as compared to a ball head. The Ned is meant to be dragged not swimming but whatever works for you. I’m just saying that when someone refers to a Ned rig it’s pretty specific.

Actual Ned heads are not ball headed jigs. Can they be used.....sure but they are not Ned heads. I get mine from a friend who had some specs from the master himself. I don’t know why they work so well but they do. Trout hook and 6lb test is all I throw. I also attached the biggest fish I ever caught on a Ned. 30+lb cat on that exact rig I posted.

How big of water are you going to run it on?

Totally a financial call. I blew the LU out of my 2005 HPDI Yamaha last year with 420 hours on it. I opted to go with a new oem LU. Price tag was $4000 installed. I have heard godo and bad about SEI lowers. I had that option as well as having the mechanic rebuild mine because there was nothing wrong with my outer case. I chose a whole new oem. As long as your pressure is within 10% highest to lowest you are ok but your mechanic can do a quick evaluation of your cylinders and pistons with a bore scope.

Some of my biggest bass on a Senko have felt like panfish pecks. That being said, “normally” I can tell the difference. I actually like a panfish attacking a Senko. Many times it will get the attention of a big bass and he will steal it from the panfish or hit it as soon as I pull it away.

I have 2 first gen 8ft poles. My main considerations were weight (talons are heavier) and reliability/customer service. I do not have the electronics nor the model of poles to interface or the Trolling motor interface. If I had to do it all over again, with today’s trolling motors and with my style of fishing, I may have forgone the poles for an upgraded TM with spotlock and the other features. I do use my poles on a regular basis, I put them on 6 years ago, they are not even the Bluetooth model and they have been reliable and trouble free. I have a Fortrex for my TM and will be upgrading that soon once all of the new TM models have been on the market for a while and I can see that any bugs are worked out.

I have been fishing for near 50 years 15 of them as a guide. I have learned over time where I can cut corners and where I need to spend the coin.

Water temps here in Virginia are in the high 80s. We found them on the grass edges and they hammered a weightless Senko.

At the depths you are fishing as long as you are vertically dropshotting, 1/4 oz will be fine. We bump it up for going like 75ft in Lake Erie or lake Lanier. Usually 45-50ft is where we start to consider heavier especially if we are dragging or there is current.

You will find that dropshotting is a personal thing and everybody will have their favorite technique and baits. It also depends on whether you are casting, dragging or vertically fishing your dropshot. I use a gamakatsu #1 (not1.0) ewg offset hook. That is because I rarely nose hook my dropshot baits. I Texas rig them. I use a QuickDrop weight most often in 1/4oz. QuickDrop weights are the highest quality dropshot weights I have ever found and hang up much less. As for baits, the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm, Cali Roll and pro Senko are my go to baits. I have dropshotted from Florida to the Great Lakes and have had lots of success. I have been dropshotting for over 30 years. Lots of baits will work but these are my personal favorites.

When I bought my boat it had a bad custom cover on it. It was full of mold and debris. After I got it cleaned up, I took the old cover and cut it up for fender covers and bought a Ranger cover for cheap,off eBay. The cover I bought was for a fisherman series Ranger not the bass boat style. It’s not a problem because I do not tow with it on anyway. I leave my front and back butt seats in and put a 5 gallon bucket between the consoles to tent the cover so that it sheds rain and snow. This cover is now 6 years old and I need to replace it. In the meantime, I put a cheap blue tarp over the cover to help it stay watertight. I also put a small portable fan in the rear of the cover to move air.

Just my luck that I retire and the river goes to crap, the weather is Africa hot and we get COVID thrown in the mix. I have been fishing quite a bit and a moderate a couple of Facebook pages so I am pretty busy. Snuck up to Lake St Clair for a trip and will be going back up to Wisconsin for a couple weeks next month. I also have been riding with my daughter who has been crisscrossing the USA delivering and transporting imported horses. I need to drop in a little more often.

I’ve been fishing for 50 years. I’ve got some doozys.?. Most expensive....$4,000 for a new lower unit. I was actually videoing it when it failed because I was going to send it to my mechanic because it was making an odd sound. I was in Wisconsin, home is Virginia. Second was at the Potomac in Virginia. Bunch of friends got together to fish. I was solo in my 21ft Ranger. Time to go in so one of my buddies that already loaded up, took my truck keys and was going to pull me out. Little backinfo...I am anal about my truck and maintenance. At that time I had a 2004 3/4 ton Silverado. He backs my trailer into the water as I approach and it goes a little deep, then the bed goes under and then water is to the cab and it is floating. He drops it in gear and I see the back wheels spinning so I motor up and manage to hit the bow roller which is under water and push the truck back to the ramp with my boat. Come to find out my brake line burst due to rusting through from the inside. Known Chevy problem.

Made a reluctant trip to the Potomac last Saturday. It’s been fishing so tough that we have been going to the Rapp more. Pleasant surprise. Grass is back pretty healthy and we got into them pretty good. Quantico Creek and Belmont Bay both had good grass and produced well. Water temp was 87 degrees in most areas.

Naw, I’m still around. I’m moderating a couple of Facebook sites and it takes a lot of time. Our annual Michigan get together got canceled. First the house on Hansen’s became unavailable due to the high water, so we booked another on the mainland. Then the various COVID restrictions kept some our crew out of flying in without having to quarantine so we canceled that house as well. Heading back to Wisconsin for 2 weeks next month and have been fishing a lot here locally.

About 15 minutes from the boat. We were in a cut off the main river. If we had been in the main river with current and tide it would have been a different story.

Just for reference, my latest Ned rig catch. Yamamoto Cali Roll on a 1/32 oz custom made Ned with trout hooks. 6lb test line and a Quantum Smoke spinning setup. Big Blue was 30+ pounds.

I snuck up the end of May to the big pond. Of course the wind was 15 gusts to 30 straight out of the East so it was tough fishing but we managed a few.

Prayers lifted for you and your family Tom.

I like throwing jerks. I never could figure out why one outfishes another. I was partial to rouges for a long time. Year before last on st. Clair we got into a jerkbait bite. My partner was throwing a Staycee and tearing them up. I started cycling through every jerkbait in that same color in my possession. I was getting outfished 3:to 1. I threw at least 5 other brands and could not match the catch ratio. I tied on one of his staycees and started matching his catch rate immediately.

I have taken fly fishermen out on my bass boat for guide trips. I also have fly fished. You will need to be very aware of the guy on the front deck since fly fishing puts as much line out on the back cast as it does on the front. If he is experienced, he will keep his casts fairly horizontal to the boat which will keep his line away from you.

Was going to make one more trip up north to fish with Mac and Mini before the weather closed in. Looks like I missed my opportunity. ?

I’d like to think I have a good trust level for fellow fishermen. I thought about turning it in to insurance as a vandalism claim but I just couldn’t believe someone would do that. They would have had to remove the lower screen and then both plugs and then put it all back together. They even would have had to catch the oil because at the request of my insurance agent, I called the motel and had them check for any oil on the ground where I parked the boat. There was none.

Really odd situation with the lower. I checked it a couple of weeks before I left and all was good. Went to Green Lake and fished all day running all over the lake. Stayed for 2 days in a little no name motel with a lot of other fishing boats there. Went to Waupaca and as soon as I launched, the motor was making an odd sound. Motored to the cottage and fished really close (idle out) from the cottage the next day. Decided to video for my mechanic friend back home and on my first run videoing it blew. Long story short, got it to a Yamaha dealer who said there was ZERO oil in the lower and there was ZERO WATER IN THE LOWER. So, the seal didn’t fail. His opinion was that someone drained it. Said that it would only last an hour or so with no oil. So, it had oil the day I was on big green lake and overnight before I left and went to Waupaca, it got drained. Very odd.