TOXIC

We were forecasted tornados, schools closed , warnings issued, and actually some around us got hit. I had a new roof put on Saturday and with no hot weather to seal the shingles, I was afraid I was going to have a lot of damage. By some miracle, the weather bypassed my area other than some gusty winds and rain. I don’t know how it happened, I was glued to the weather radar until midnight and it just seemed to part every time a cell came through. Divine intervention I guess.

84 yesterday. Sleeting today. Snow predicted. Just shoot me now. Having a new roof put on the house, materials were just delivered and put on roof today.

FINALLY!!! Got out to help break in my fishing partners new Vexus and we managed to do a little fishing taboot. Water temps 62-65, light wind and air temps starting in the 40’s up to the low 70’s by late afternoon. Big swing. They have started bedding. We pulled a few bucks off beds and my biggest came from a bed. We also caught a lot of channel cats and crappie. It was a nice change from the butt whipping we got in Florida. It was a 65-70 fish day and that’s also spending time breaking in his motor. Lake is extremely low with a slight rise due to the rains but still down 3 feet. Some boats stuck on lifts. We found the majority of our fish staging in creek channels and deep spots in coves. We went to where there used to be grass and back out to the channel. Fantastic day and now getting ready for another temperature drop and rain/snow mid week . Wacky weather.

I almost forgot, for the last 3 or 4 years on St Clair, we dedicate a day or 2 drifting the St Clair river for walleyes vertical jigging blade baits. I’m relatively new to walleye fishing but we have had great success drifting with the current, using the trolling motor to stay parallel and to somewhat slow the drift while we drop blades straight down. Yes, we lose a fair amount of blades but we have yet to not get enough walleye for a fry and to bring some home.

In my 23 years of fishing St Clair before spot lock, we used drift socks if the wind was up. It’s an age old technique to drag and snap tubes. As you drifted, we would drag tubes and when you caught a fish, drop a waypoint. We would drift a couple of miles. At the end, pull up the drift sock run back to the beginning of the trail from the drift and repeat. You only used the trolling motor to keep the boat positioned sideways in the wind. One of our trips was saved by dragging a Yamamoto DShad (pink), weightless. Dragging also inspired me to come up with a Senko rigged with a football head when slowing the boat with drift socks wasn’t possible. It was the only way to get the bait to the bottom. My point is that drifting and dragging is a time tested technique that works well.

IMHO, it’s our weakness to marketing. Does it really matter if a craw plastic bait has 6 or 8 legs? If we didn’t buy new baits, there would be far less bait companies. And the marketing that goes into those small “don’t sue me” differences have to convince you they are worth it and to buy it. I had a buddy text me and ask about Yamamoto’s new Yama Bug. I took a screenshot of Yamamoto’s web page that has it and a bunch of other baits in the same category. My response was that I could substitute any bait on that page and almost guarantee I’d get the same results. BUT…..if you think it will do better it will. Confidence is the name of the game.

@Swamp Girl There were a few areas of the plant that were a little overwhelming. Of course the fiberglass resin smell was very strong. The welding smoke in the tin boat area was intense and the spray they put on the aluminum to prep it for paint was pretty strong. I have a very sensitive sniffer so it may affect me a little more. They did have spray booths for some of the processes and huge exhaust fans to help moving the particulates. They do pultrusion and vacuum bags so the resin is pumped into sealed forms.

Had the opportunity to make a road trip with my fishing partner to Flippin, Arkansas to pick up his brand spanking new bass boat. A 20 foot Vexus. Highlight of the trip was taking a tour of the manufacturing plant and having dinner with Randy Hopper and the management of Vexus. I’m in no way affiliated with Vexus so there’s no sales pitch here, just recapping a very informative trip. We stayed at Gaston’s White River Resort. The White River is where Ranger Boats founder Forrest Wood starting his guiding and boat building legacy. As a matter of fact, we went by multiple manufacturers in that area. Vexus, Ranger, BassCat and a few smaller builders. Interestingly enough, the boats all the guides use on the White River are long shallow bottomed boats with 30-40hp prop or jet drives. It is predominantly a trout fishing area with Bull Shoals nearby for the bass guys. I got to see the construction of bass boats, deep v multi species, tin boat line, center consoles, and even a prototype 23 foot bass boat that is designed to perform as well as their smaller models with a 250hp motor. They will rig any motor you like and had Mercury, Yamaha, and Suzuki. All available. I’ll finish by saying that if you ever get the chance to tour any of the manufacturer’s facilities, for sure do it.

Personally, I think anyone who regularly participates in this site is hard core because they have the interest and the desire to learn and contribute and teach.

Only on St Clair. 2 techniques, first dragging a 1/4 oz football head jig and second, bed fishing in the reeds that grow there and the smallies bed in them. Bury a hook in one of those stalks and if you don’t go in and pull it loose by hand, you are not getting it free without braid. I use an older BPS reel that has the wide spool. Some of the locals I fish with use 50lb 😉

I have fished the St Lawrence in Canada and I fish St Clair in Michigan/Canada and Jig Man is spot on. There are so many preferences regarding gear that are personal to every individual so much so that I would never try to suggest that what works for me will work for you. I know what works for me in my bait choices and it’s easier to just quantify what lures I will be using. For me on a smallmouth trip I rig a Ned, Dropshot, Senko, DShad, crankbait and topwater depending on the time of year. Gear selection includes factors for depth, cover, current, etc. I’ll be the first to admit, I use 2 lines. Different sizes of Straight Mono on everything except bed fishing where I use straight 35lb braid.

As for the strap base, mine comes off the top of the wench drum and the wench handle turns from top to bottom away from me standing in front of the trailer to tighten. I have seen wench stands that hook to the trailer with springs and the boat bow eye on those goes over the top of the roller on the stand compressing the spring. I also have a secondary trailer mounted ratchet strap that attaches to the bow eye once loaded. It’s all a nice piece of mind because I’ve never seen any wench strap hold when in any kind of accident.

I don’t get where the 1.5mm scam amount comes from. From what I get, only some paid the entry fees before he deemed it free entry and a small number of them got their refund checks cashed before he vanished. He probably owed the marina some cash but for most, it was just like fishing a tournament and finishing out of the $$ with no entry fees. Even for those that won. I understand the expenses on the anglers as well.

I have posted we live in the forest and I can’t say there’s a bird that’s been mentioned that we don’t have. At one time we put out suet cages for the Pileated woodpeckers and they would bring their young to the block with us sitting on the deck. They would be about 10 feet away. We have a good selection of birds of prey, several species of hawks and my favorites, Great Horned Owls and Screech Owls. We used to have a pole feeder with a 4 tube seed holder but we now just have a hanging 10 inch hard suet block cage that is attached to the soffit of our addition and is at least 70 feet off the ground and strategically surrounded by baffles that keep the squirrels out. All except for the flying squirrels which I don’t mind. They don’t eat much and they are nocturnal so we can watch them through the window at night. We also only feed in the winter to avoid any communicable diseases. The woodpecker species are the worst about wasting seed but we have enough ground birds that they clean it up PDQ. We also have generations of Carolina Wrens that have used the same nest in our garage every year for the last 20 years. It gets a little messy when the fledglings are learning to fly out of the window I leave open for them

Even though everything I replaced would have to eventually be done, I decided to just knock it all out. I have a key backup for the touchpad, I exceeded my own rule on 5 years for the tires, my batteries were weak but still functioning. I did have a trim relay act up while there and I’ll have to fix that here in the near future. We had 1 warm day the entire week. We even got a heavy rain one day.

I’ve been waiting a while to make this post. As the title indicates, this trip was more for building character or “paying your dues”. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage and let me detail a tough trip. If you don’t like long posts, scroll on.😆We have been going to Florida for 6 or 7 years as a wintertime break. We have fished, Okeechobee, Kissimmee, Harris Chain and a fewer smaller waters. Some multiple times be the last 3 years it’s been headwaters. We’ve had some tough trips but none stack up to how this last trip to Headwaters humbled us. First, before the trip even started, my fishing partner who has a 2023 Ranger 520 with all the goodies (power poles, forward facing sonar, 5 graphs with the latest mapping, power pole move trolling motor, 4 stroke 250 merc, lithium batteries, etc.) decided he wanted a new boat and to save costs, he is moving some of his current setup to the new rig. As a matter of fact, I am traveling with him to the factory to pick up his new boat this week. Bottom line his current boat was torn apart and we had to take my boat. While completely functional, my boat has served to be the local platform, while his is the one we take on trips. In order to get my boat ready there were some things that needed to be addressed. Things I could procrastinate on if staying local but never would if trailering a long distance. I pit 4 new tires on the trailer, the current ones were 8 years old. I bought and installed a new console and bow touchpad and brain box because my push button start was acting up and a failure was imminent. New fuel filters and general motor maintenance, and 4 new batteries (1 AGM, 4 wet cell because I am cheap). Bottom line, I invested some coin in the old girl which only made the trip result sting a little more. I’ll cut to the chase and give you the reason why this trip kicked our behinds. The weather. We faced record breaking cold, 35mph winds and high 40° low 50 degree water temps. For anyone who has ever fished Florida strain largemouths, they do not do well in the cold. We’ve fished cold fronts in Florida before but this was totally different. Make no mistake, we were experiencing better weather than most of the country over that week but it was not conducive to fishing. We were averaging 1 bite per hour each most every day with a few flurries in between. We did find out we were doing better than those using live bait who were getting skunked. We had a good group of guys who were from Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan so the camaraderie was a blast and we certainly paid our dues for next year. Ps. That frost on my boat seats is in Florida. 😂😱

That’s what I have always done. Not anymore. Except when it takes you to page 33 of 400. That’s what happens when I click the # of responses now. I’ll try that. It’s what I am trying to do.

On a post with multiple reply’s, you used to be able to click on the post count and it would take you to the last post in the thread. If you clicked on the subject header line, it would take you to the first post. Now it won’t take you to the last post, it takes you to the last post you read. That could be page 10 of 64 on a big thread. Is there anyway to go to the last post?

FYI some of the sites I moderate or administer have AI actually make independent posts asking questions. Normally they are very borderline wrong or so simplistic it’s laughable. Certain platforms have the administrator option to disable AI. I do it on every site.

There’s a few things to consider. Someone who has to have the latest and greatest is either a hard core hobbyist or has the same weakness I’ve seen so many in my 40+ years in the financial world. I swear it’s a mental weakness that marketers tap over and over. If your finances can handle it then great, it’s when they can’t that I’ve seen the ruin it can cause. Some have to have the newest car, truck, gear, boat, and will spend money they don’t have to get it.

There’s no doubt, you are losing pressure in your oiling system. You just have to find where. My old 929 NITRO with a 225efi did the same thing. We chased the problem for a long time and like you, I was refilling the saddle tank with the engine running as specified by Mercury. I sat with my merc mechanic and we went over all the possibilities. Starting with saddle tank. Bad cap (known failure item), bad sensor, bad tank, bad line from bilge tank to saddle tank, bad cap on bilge tank, bad bilge tank and finally bad oil pump (my efi had a switch to fill saddle tank as well). It ended up being a hairline crack in the saddle tank. Enough to let it lose pressure but not big enough to leak.

I would question if the lu oil will even flow out the small drain hole with the low temps we’ve had. You could wrap it with an electric blanket or put a heat lamp on it to get it warm first. Cold Shouldn’t affect fuel filters at all. I assume you have a 4 stroke if you have engine oil and filter. I’m not familiar with the drain for that.

I shoveled during the storm and after the storm then we got 2 inches of snow and 2 inches of ice. With sub zero temps it turned to solid un shovelable ice pack. Like a fool, I pushed some of the snow up to the side, back and front of my truck rather than all the way off the driveway and it turned into an ice prison. I don’t want to get out the metal spade to bust through the ice and damage the asphalt seal I just had applied this summer. Then the plow comes and pushes a 2 foot mound of snow across the end of my driveway and of course it’s right before the 2 inches of ice fell. Put the truck in 4wd and busted out but even the truck wasn’t heavy enough to break the ice on the driveway. I’m heading out to my daughters farm to get the boat tomorrow and head to Florida. Of course they are in a severe cold snap with 30mph predicted wind gusts. And another east coast storm predicted for this weekend. I can’t win. I’m going anyway. Time for some combat fishing.

I just got it this year and it’s been fine. Keeps the boat bone dry with some trickery and props under the cover. It is in no way custom and I would never tow with it even though they say it can ba done. They have different levels of cover. I got the highest and it has a lifetime warranty. I used them for a truck cover and have been very happy. Wind blew my truck cover and it caught my bumper and ripped it. They replaced it without question.

I’ll have to agree with @A-Jay 100%. My smallmouth experience is pretty much regulated to 30 years fishing Wisconsin and St Clair for bronzebacks. A staple bait is a dropshot and I’ll use it as an example. I’m not discounting shape but color, beyond just shades, it vitally important. I have probably 20 different colors of Yamamoto Shad Shape Worms which is my preferred dropshot bait. It’s always a crapshoot which color will produce any given year on St Clair. It can even be which color flake on 5 different green pumpkin based Shad Shape Worms. It’s proven itself over and over again. It’s the same with Senkos and DShads as well and the reason I have 100 pounds of plastics in my truck for every trip.