Tennessee Boy

If I understand the question you are want to know how to get the information needed to set the offset. For most lakes you can get the lake level online at http://www.lakelevels.info/ or from the web site of agency that manages the dam/lake. If the lake level is different from summer pool then enter the difference. You could also note the depth at a certain location, say as you are leaving the marina, and adjust the offset so that the map's contour depth matches the actual depth. Personally, I just make an educated guess based on the water level at the ramp if it's significantly different from summer pool. The guy in the video was saying the water was 40ft below pool. We don't see drops like that around here. We do see lake levels that are 15 ft high sometimes. I usually go somewhere else when that happens, I don't like launching the boat in the parking lot. ?

My aluminum Ranger has a welded hull. The welds are warranted for the life of the first owner and I think five years for the second owner. I've only owned if for six months but no problems so far. I owned a riveted Tracker in the 90s. It leaked after about 10 years.

I watched the show. I found the idea odd and I personally can't see any merit in it. 1) Football is a team sport, one guy throws the football and another guy catches it. Fishing is an individual sport. Sure you can combine individual efforts into a team effort and that can make for an interesting twist but it's still an individual sport, there will always be individual stars, and I think it will always be viewed and enjoyed as an individual sport. 2) The idea he expressed at the beginning about getting sports fans that don't fish interested in professional fishing is a pipe dream. Fishing is not a spectator sport. Only people that love to fish enjoy watching the best fishermen compete in a tournament. I don't think this will ever change. 3) For me as a fan, I think the sport is stuck somewhere between the old cable tv world and the new internet world. In the old days I could watch a BASS tournament on ESPN and most of the time I did not know the outcome in advance. I got all the action compressed into an hour show with the excitement of not knowing who would win. Now I usually know the outcome soon after the tournament. I enjoy watching the tournaments live on the internet but it takes a big commitment in time to watch an entire tournament and I usually only do it when it's on a lake that interest me. MLF solves this problem by holding tournaments with no spectators where the results are only revealed in a well produced TV show. BASS and FLW need to solve this problem in their own way.

Welcome to the forum.

Congratulations!! Nice Fish

Welcome

Welcome

Very nice fish!

I’ll cast another vote for the Rebel Wee Craw. By far my favorite creek fishing bait. I’ve never completely understood why some creeks have bass and other do not in Tennesse. I’ve caught good smallmouth in the puddles of creeks that were almost dry in the summer. Other beautiful creeks that you would sware would have bass do not.

I'm guessing that your problem is actually pretty simple. You've been casting a spinning reel for a long time and you're trying to cast your new baitcaster the same way. You cast a spinning rod with a quick snapping action. This will generate a backlash every time with a bait caster. Try this. Turn the breaks to max. Tie on a 1/2 to 3/4 ounce weight and with a long, full, smooth casting motion make a very short cast. Just lob it a few yards using a full casting motion. When you master the long slow smooth short cast, then use the same long smooth casting motion to cast a little further. Then just keep increasing the distance and turn the breaks down some as you go. You want to lob the lure instead of whipping it the way you've been doing it with the spinning rod.

Nice boat. I've heard nothing but good things about Lunds. I wish they had a dealer near me. Nice fish also.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome

Welcome to BR

Welcome!

If you're after smallmouth then you definitely want to go to Pickwick or the tailwater below Pickwick dam. On Kentucky lake all of the big tournaments and classic ledge fishing happens on the northern half of the lake where smallmouth are rare. I've fished Pickwick maybe five times in February and caught my two biggest SM there. I've fished the north end of KY lake my whole life and never caught a SM. I've never fished Pickwick dam tailwater but I've heard great things about the SM fishing there.

I'm not a Garmin user so I'm assuming that your unit works like others brands that I've used. Garmin users correct me if I'm wrong. I think you are seeing the same stuff on both sides of the screen. On the left is traditional sonar with a cone shaped sonar beam that is as wide front to back as it is side to side. The front to back depth is what is giving you the arch shaped returns on the screen. On the right you have a sonar beam that is wide from side to side and very thin from front to back. When you pass over something in the water column, you get a clearer image of it with no arch. I would expect both views to show fish, structure, and cover but they will look very different due to the different shaped beams. So my interpretation of the picture you've provided. The left side of the screen tells me it's not noise since something is passing through the cone. Noise will usually just appear as dots on the screen. The right side of the screen tells me that most of what you are seeing is not very big although some of the returns look big enough to be catchable fish. How fast the boat was going would also be a factor in interpreting the results. I agree with Team9nine on the distribution of fish in the water column. I don't think you are looking at a lot of suspended black bass in my opinion.

Yeah. What he said. ?

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome Clark!

New York Times Fishing Dictionary livewell (noun) - A compartment behind the boat’s seats that acts as an aerated swimming pool for captured fish.

Nice fish. Congrats!

Thanks. Very interesting read. I never knew Smallmouth had razor sharp fins. ?

Welcome to BR!