Russ E

Stopped by Cabelas today to look for sales. bought 3 Whopper Ploppers and of course had to have a new baitcasting combo for the whopper Ploppers. ended up costing me $160.00. Living 5 minutes from Cabelas can be expensive.

so true.

there is always a pole with a Ned rig on my deck. It not only catches a lot of fish. It is also is a great follow up,if a fish follows another bait, or you miss a fish. I agree with Fishin' Fool the TRD is a great bait. if you can't find them, cutting a zinkerz in half works just as good. the great thing about the Zman baits is you can catch a ton of fish without changing baits. the yum dinger is a good bait, but you will go through a lot of them on the Ned rig.

some of the best entertainment on the water, happens while watching people trying to load or unload their boats. Unless you are the one doing the entertaining.

my first boat was a 16ft 1966 Polar kraft Jon boat with a 1967 10 hp evinrude. this was in 1989. Just got married and had very little money. added a hand control Minn Kota to the bow. and a cheap hummingbird to the stern. Used a recirculating pump in a cooler for the Livewell. Total investment in the boat was under $1000.00. My brother in law and I fished Local Iowa Tournaments for 10 years in this boat. this Boat paid for itself several times, in tournament winnings. we had a lot of fun in this boat.

Boom bait this year: Chatterbait. this is the first year I seriously started using this bait. have caught several nice fish with it. wish it was more weedless. Bust bait this year. weedless Paddle tail Swimbait. It looks good in the water, but has not yet produced for me. have tried this bait several times this year with little or no success. Several times I have fished back through the same areas with a Fluke, squarebill, or Chatterbait and have caught decent fish. not giving up yet.

I think everyone has gotten skunked fishing at some point. I will say the Ned rig has saved the day for me, more days than I can count. It may not always produce the biggest fish, but it will get bites when nothing else does.

i only fish it once a month. I have caught quality fish there, just not very many,

I usually fish the main lake points that have trees and brush piles this time of year, but the rock and rip rap banks around the boat ramp areas always seem to hold a few fish.

Fished Smithville today. caught three. one was 3lbs and two were 2lbs. all were in less than 5 feet of water, around timber on main lake points. all were caught on a Havoc pit boss. the bass seem to stay relatively shallow on this lake throughout the summer. I have caught a few fish in the 5 lb range, but have never caught numbers at Smithville. Does anybody catch numbers at this Lake?

i Have a 24 volt Ultrex and it has a round shaft. maybe the 36 volt motors are different. in my opinion it is extremely durable. I smacked a stump dead on with the motor on high. Nearly threw me out of the boat. The shaft bowed, but snapped right back. I have also hit a few rocks with it .The prop looks a little rough, but other than that it is fine.

have them on my new boat. greatly simplifies loading and unloading. can't believe it took me this long to get them.

i have noticed, some deep v boats sit lower in the trailer frames, this probably would not work for those.

I tend to use the Chatterbait much more than Spinnerbaits lately. i agree with Bluebasser86. Chatterbaits seem to get bigger bites in the lakes I fish. The one area I use Spinnerbaits more is around wood. Chatterbaits are definitely not snag resistant.

this is how my new ranger spare was setup. completely out of the way. when unloading by myself on a shallow ramp , the spare makes a nice step

Maybe I stated that wrong. I was not implying I know it does not affect fish. It has just never been a concern when I was trying not to spook fish.

I have seen fish spook in shallow water from my trolling motor. not sure if it was trolling motor noise, or the displacement of water. I would have a hard time believing the sonar would spook fish. Mine is always on. I have caught tons of Walleye,wiper, and white bass right under the boat, with my sonar bouncing off of them.

I love fishing weeds. top water, punching, or fishing the edges, if there is any vegetation in the lake, that is where I will be.

using a Ned Rig in shallow water this 6 pound drum nearly pulled the rod out of my hands when it hit. this guy was fun on an otherwise slow day.

If you read Ned Kahde's Blogs on Midwest fishing. some of their most successful fishing is in the middle of the day in summer, using the Ned rig. it gets hot in Kansas. the water surface temp yesterday at the local lake was 84 degrees at noon.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

if I am after largemouth or Smallmouth bass, I usually do not deviate much. with that being said, if the water starts boiling from wipers or white bass, I will switch pretty fast.

Menards is number 1. When I moved from Eastern Iowa to Kansas city there were no Menards nearby. Now we are finally getting a few in the area. I will drive by a Home Depot and a Lowes to shop at Menards.

my bow mount helix 7 does that if I don't shut it off when storing the trolling motor. (I leave it turned on all the time.) when the trolling motor is stored it reads 1 ft. and when redeploying the motor it takes a little while to start reading. your transducer is probably coming out of the water when on plane. A Cabelas rep.told me it was probably air bubbles on the transducer.