Miabucman

LOL. Son went to ISU and I have family that went to UI. So, what did you find on your guides. And yes, the heat has been crazy lately. Going to try some early morning fishing this upcoming weekend.

I was going to make a joke about being a Hawkeye but the sting of losing your lure is enough stress. Hopefully it was just a kink in the line and not a cracked guide. I dropped one of my rods and didn't notice that I damaged one of my guides. I was getting extremely frustrated when my line kept breaking until I found the cracked guide.

I would recommend drawing for takeoff order. When our weeknight tourney got over 20, we has a couple of close misses with a shotgun start. This might be specific to my location due to the narrow body of water but it is better to be safer than having an accident. Remember, it is not only the tourney boats that are out there. Recreational boaters, skiers and jetskis can make it a bit more riskier.

I work to catch my limit first. I do use the color clip tags and remember which one is the smallest. Once I (we) catch the sixth, we determine the smallest by using the balance beam. The clip tags easily go on the beam. I do have a scale that we use sometimes, if necessary. I usually fish weeknight tourneys or an occasional weekend tourney, so I am not as invested as some.

Congrats. Looks like you did awesome with it being your first time on the lake.

Done x 2! Thanks.

Too late. He hits especially hard when the temps drop and the boat has been winterized. Sigh

He keeps jumping on my back!

Yikes. I have a gift card burning in my pocket right now!

Sounds like an awesome evening. A picture would have been nice but you have the memory.

Glad to hear that everyone is on the road to recovery. As some have stated, listen to your body. After jumping out of airplanes for many years in the Army, I am on the (almost) quarterly round of back injections. Fishing is relaxing but I have to take it easy if I want to fish any longer than four hours. I try to fish weekday evening tourneys when I can due to limited time. Just had another injection after I got dumped due to a wake boat swinging by within ten feet of where I was fishing! Cheers

I would say go for it. If nothing else, it will satisfy your curiosity. As others have said, if no one is on that spot, it is free game.

Yes, I have had it happen a few times. One instance was I when I was fishing a local weekday club tournament and I was a "new" guy to the rest of the club. Launch time was 5:30 and it was 90 degrees. Everyone was beating the banks and I found a small point in about 8-10 feet of water. I switched to a Carolina rig and the bite was on. I had a bite 9 out of 10 casts and had a great time. While many were short fish, I finished with enough keepers to win my first tournament. Funny thing was that there was some grumbling at the weigh in because me and my partner were not one of the "regular" teams that normally placed.

Same here. We had a few team members come up from Texas and one of them didn't bring a jacket. I squared him away with an extra jacket and gloves and he promised me BBQ next time I am down south.

The Bait Monkey has a sense of humor also. Just walked in to Bass Pro the other day for a pack of trailers and exited with a basket full of baits. Once I got home, I realized that I bought some different colors to try and they were the same crankbaits that I bought in November! I think I need more storage now!

Thanks for the info. I might have to give it a shot.

Lol. We have a couple of lakes here but everything else is pretty much corn and soy beans.

Signed up, team filled and staking my claim to the middle of the pack! BTW, don't forget to do the Drain the Lake also. Good luck gents and tight lines!

Here again to lock up my middle ranking! Always nice to live vicariously since we are about to get a huge pile of snow tonight. Spring cannot get here soon enough. Good luck fellas.

Great writeup. Unless the regs have changed, I do believe that your Alaska example is incorrect. When fishing for salmon, it is considered "snagging" if the hook is not in its mouth. If the hook is not in the mouth, the fish has to be immediately released. When I lived up there, I witnessed a guy next to me that brought in an obviously snagged silver (Coho). A couple of anglers said that it was snagged and he should release the fish. He laughed and said that he didn't care and proceeded to bonk it and put it on his stringer. A gentleman that was a couple of anglers down was watching and slowly reeled in his line, walked up and asked the angler about the fish. He opened his fishing vest and flashed his Alaska Trooper badge and proceeded to write a significant ticket.

Always fun to try a new lake. I would get there a little early in case they open early and possibly be first in line. Good luck and tight lines!

Wow, my condolences to friends and family. Scary situation.

Even though it is technically a skunk, getting bites is a whole better than a day with no bites.

I guess it depends on where I am on the lake. Most of the time, I will fish it all the way back to the boat. If I am in a dead area, I will give up on the cast after my lure is out of cover. And then, I will have a bass strike at my lure when I pull it out of the water.

My wife and I took the plunge a couple of years ago, right before Covid shut everything down. We still own our house and our lake place is ~2 hours away. We have not regretted it at all. Especially when everything was locked down, we would head out and work around the place to make it our own. I might be crazy but I like to mow the lawn and having a second place to mow isn't a hassle for me. There has been some smaller projects that I had to tackle but the experience has been great. I keep the bass boat on a lift and I wake up early on Saturday and Sunday and get to fish for a few hours by myself (or with my son). Once the boat traffic starts heating up, I head back and can do what is needed. Swim, pontoon rides, fixing a few things or fire up the grill. It has been awesome to walk down to the boat with my poles and launch right away. There are bi-weekly tourneys that I get to fish also. Just makes for a late night but it gives something on the calendar to ensure that I can fish. If I want to fish somewhere else, the boat ramp is five minutes away and easy to pull out. It was the right time for us and the prices are not going down. A place a couple of houses down was recently ~$400k and just sold for $600k.