Russ E

nice fish. Good to see they are fat and healthy. that is too cold for me to be on the water. hopefully that lake stays open, so I can fish it on warmer days.

Wow! you are more dedicated than I am. Do you Know if La Cygne is open. I was assuming with our cold spell, the ramps would be frozen over.

I know a lot of fishermen who would never pay $400.00 for a rod, but they own 15 to 20 $200.00 rods. which is worse? I would say I am closer to the 15-20 $200.00 rods. I would have no problem paying $400.00 for a rod if I felt it was worth it. If I consider what I pay in Gas and tackle every year to fish,$400.00 is not that much.

as stated above Bass resource fills some of the niche. otherwise I am chasing deer and coyotes. Often times more chasing than harvesting, but it fills the void.

my bass fishing resolution is pretty simple. spend more free time on the water and start fishing a few local tournaments. I retired from tournament fishing 20 years ago, because it consumed all of my free time. this time around I plan to keep it much more laid back.

discussions about why would anyone pay a certain amount of money for a piece of equipent, is nothing new. in my opinion, let your budget determine the cost of your equipment. when I was younger and money was tight, I used low cost equipment and caught plenty of fish. As my finances improved over the years, so has the cost and value of what I fish with. Do I catch more fish with the higher end equipment? Maybe . I will say higher end rods and reels are more fun to fish with all day and my bass boat is a lot safer and more comfortable to fish out of than my first jon boat.

Kansas City Cabelas still has quite a few Lowes. they also have Nitro and tracker boats. still looks strange to see new Trackers and Nitros sitting next to Rangers on the same floor.

^^^^^ What he said. It is a good bait when the bite is tough, but it can also be retrieved aggressively when the bite is hot. There is no wrong way to retrieve the bait. Let the fish tell you what they want. If I could only use one bait the Ned Rig would be it.

I used to fish the windy Kansas reservoirs with a 16 ft mod v boat and a 50 hp motor. I always watched the weather forecast. I have been in some pretty nasty water with that boat. You just have to take your time If you go out on the big lakes more than likely there will be a lot of boats similar to yours. they just get off of the lake when water gets rough.

Sorry my mistake. my helix 7 takes a micro sd card. your helix 9 takes the standard sd card. If you want to use micro sd cards, just buy one with the SD adapter. just make sure the card has a capacity of 32 GB or less. I tried a higher capacity card and the Humingbird would not recognize it.

Hummingbird takes the micro sd card. You can buy them at Wal-Mart. Make sure it is 32 gb or smaller. You don't need a card to make a helix work. If you buy lakemaster mapping it comes on a micro sd card. The only other reason to use a card is if you store more waypoints than the internal memory can hold or if you want to transfer waypoints.

i have a helix 7 at the console and one at the bow. I use lakemaster mapping cards in both. I usually have the one up front on a split screen. With mapping and graph. I use the bow mapping a lot, watching changes in bottom contour while I am fishing. it saves a lot of time searching for structure.

looks like a fun project. wish I had a place to store a boat like that. I traded one in last year about the same size because, I did not want to pay for storage. Still wish I had it for running rivers.

8.5 after nearly 30 years,this is still one of my favorite songs

my funniest fishing memory was during a windy spring bass tournament. the water temp was 55 degrees and we were catching a lot of bass in standing timber with spinnerbaits. My fishing partner in the back of the boat snagged a brushpile with his last spinnerbait . the timber was too thick to get to the snag, so I could only get within 5 ft of the snag. I offered him one of mine, but he was intent on getting his back. he stepped out onto a log with one foot. the wind swung the boat around and he did a perfect split between the log and the boat. while I was laughing, trying not to move the boat, I was also impressed he was so flexible. he looked like Jean Claude Van Damme. after a 10 second pose he fell in the water. he never did get the spinnerbait. we won the tournament and after I told everyone at the weigh in the story, his new club name was Jean Claude Van Damme

used to ice fish when I lived in eastern Iowa. had to quit because of the hangovers. here in Kansas we usually don't get safe ice. if lakes ice over, I would rather be hunting. if I get the urge to fish in the cold, I will head to a power plant lake. Today I was out in my boat, bass fishing. air temp was 50. water temp was 43.

the bladed jig is one of my favorite baits. It produced most of the bigger fish I caught this year. one key to my success this year was fishing just fast enough to feel the blade thump. In relatively open water I will usually use a paddletail swimbait as a trailer. usually some combination of white and silver. In cover or weeds I will use a craw style of trailer to get a bigger profile. in stained water black and blue. in clear water pumkin or green pumpkin.

in the early 90's, the Sluggo was my go to tournament bait for catching a limit on clear water lakes. used both the 7 inch and 4 inch. I switched over to the fluke design, when it came to market. they both work. the reason I switched to the fluke is it is easier to Texpose straight, it has a better action, and it seems a little more durable.

welcome from a former Iowan. My job brought me to KC. While not quite as warm as Arkansas, winters here are definitely warmer than Iowa.

my last boat had exposed cleats. I seemed to catch everything on them. my new boat came with recessed cleats. didn't think i would like them at first. now I would never go back to the exposed cleats.

controlling the boat market was an exaggeration. I have nothing against the tracker or nitro's. fished out of both, they are reliable boats. From my own boat shopping experience the lower cost is partly attributed to the lack of standard features. When I was in the market for my latest boat I quoted a Ranger Z175 and a Nitro Z7. the baseline prices were quite a bit different. with the ranger costing significantly more. once I added all of the extras of the ranger to the nitro, they were only $1000.00 different. That difference was worth the sealed waterproof storage and ranger trail trailer in my opinion.

did something change at La Cygne? I have heard from a couple people, that even when they are generating electricity the discharge was cold.

while I believe one company controlling the boat market is not good for the industry, I am not going to get rid of my Johny Morris built ranger. I agree with @12poundbass. Bass pro started as a small business and turned into a outdoor supply empire. sounds like JM is living the american dream.

good luck. hope it all works out for you.

small town of 550 people in eastern Iowa. we were 20 minutes away from a major city, but we were definitely rural. grew up fishing, hunting, and trapping. there was not much else to do in the country.