DaubsNU1

Pitching and flipping are two of my favorite techniques. I love, LOVE working this creek channel. Like @A-Jay said, if you miss the mark, do your best with what you have. I have made some perfect flips/pitches, and caught nothing...and made some mistakes, and landed some nice LMB's.

My summer time staples: Spinnerbait 7 or 10" power worm, 3/16oz. weight NED rig, green pumpkin Buzz-bait, black Rapala DT8 Senko, green pumpkin 1/16oz. jig with 2.5" Gulp minnow, black shad Drop shot Jig-n-plastic Chomper

I like to spot-lock on areas that I know have held fish in the past, and pick them apart. Probably spend way to much time on any given spot.

My Dad is 85 years old, balance is not good, needs a walker, in assisted living. We can get him on to the pontoon, but just barely. He had sooo much fun catching crappie and bluegill a few weeks back. One day we will look back and say, "that was the last time we were able to fish with Dad."

Not an Ultrex, but had issues with my Ulterra, purchased new in 2023. It would randomly lose spot lock, turn power back to "0", and display "motor not found" on the remote. Then would be fine. Seemed to happen in colder temps...then this spring happening all the time. I paired the remote, the GPS Puck, reset everything, checked power cables, connections, fuses, etc. Still no resolution. Called Minn Kota and walked through all I had done...they thought either a bad control board, or GPS board(?). Suggested I take to my local authorized dealer...after calling him and discovering the wait was 3+ weeks just to have a look and diagnose (ugh!), I decided to pull the cover and have a look for myself. Everything looked okay. I pulled the power cables from the board, cleaned them, and applied a little dialectic grease. That seemed to solve my problem. Last three times fishing had zero issues(!). Crossing my fingers this was the solution...a new control board was $350+.

Interesting topic for sure Koz. Manufacturers are always looking to make things better, always looking to increase sales, profit margins, stock price, etc. Sometimes it is a good plan to sell current items while they still have worth, and you can get good $$ now. I'm a picture guy on the side...and was thinking of upgrading DSLR camera bodies a few years back. Debated, researched, thought about it, math-ed it all out on Excel...decided to pull the trigger. Old and new camera's did basically the same thing...just a few more bells and whistles with the new body. Glad I did upgrade...and sold the old camera via eBay and sold for a pretty good price. It's just money...and you cannot take it with you. Like my brother keeps reminding me...."Just buy the boat."

I love the Shelta hats. Have several. They even float. And best of all, they fit my giant dome, size 8! Older styles are on clearance, $20 off. SheltahatsFinal Clearance SaleProtect yourself from UV rays with High Performance Sun Hats. PATENTED No Flop Visor with UPF 50 sun protection. The best sun hats in wet or windy conditons for fishing, sailing, golfing, stand up pad

Strong work @A-Jay! New truck day is great fun!! Enjoy!!

Good to have you here Mike!

Fished the home lake for the second time today with FFS. My observations: Absolutely amazed how many fish are down there, and are picked up on LiveScope. I'm seeing mainly crappie and bluegill. I do see some larger fish cruising by (bass and possibly catfish?) Common to see groups of 30-40 stacked on brush piles, just milling around. So interesting to see how they flock to my jig-gulp minnow, and fight for it. I did find a small group of largemouth...and caught one before they moved off. They were slightly larger on the screen, and were grouped horizontally, not stacked vertically as the crappie were. I need to work on settings...I can "see" out to about 30 feet. Water is pretty cloudy, visibility under two feet. Anything beyond 30 feet doesn't show on the screen. Tossed a 10" t-rigged worm, and worked it back to the boat...and the panfish were following it the whole way As I was moving between spots, running about 1.5 MPH, FFS pointed in front or me...watched fish dive deeper as boat approached. Really cool to find groups of crappie in places I would have never fished.

20lb Power Pro braid on all my casting rods. A few have fluorocarbon leaders, 10, 12lb. All my spinning rods have 10lb bright yellow Power Pro. Fluorocarbon leaders are 6, 8, 10, and 12lb.

I've had two cancers cut off my noggin. Try to cover up as much as I can. Shelta hat, gaiter and gloves. I have tried a number of different long sleeve shirts, Hük, Columbia, & Kuiu Gila series, all are very good. Shirt in this picture is an Amazon brand...seems as good as any. CastKing polarized glasses via Amazon. I like the Columbia PFG shorts.

That is great information! I am going to keep a close eye on my unit. It's been randomly switching to reverse view...and I have been restoring to default to fix. Had the unit just a few weeks, and registered with Garmin recently.

Never heard of the show, and don't watch much television. There are a few shows the wife and I will watch. I really thrive being alone. Work at University has me supervising 12 people, supporting 3k+ students...lots of personal interaction. When I am away from work, I want to be away from people...(but really love being with my wife, our kiddos, and their significant others...and my brother, sister, their families). I thoroughly enjoy hunting and fishing alone. Would take the entire week of deer rifle season and wander around the Sandhills on foot chasing Mule Deer. Got a Garmin In-Reach just in case... I stayed in a hotel, so hot shower, warm bed, etc. That week re-energized me! I try to fish once or twice a weekend by myself. I will have to check out that show...

A-rig / umbrellas rigs are prohibited in Nebraska. Can only have two hooks per line. I have not used one...my brother has, and fish seem to love it.

Brother and I both got Garmin Livescope in the past month. We have both noticed the unit randomly reversing the sonar. Restoring to factory default solves the problem...but then I lose all my custom settings. I need to register my units...might hit up customer support.

I’ve been using forward-facing sonar for a week and I’m curious how it’s changed your fishing and what you’ve learned about fish behavior? How has FFS changed your techniques or style? Are you fishing differently than before? What have you learned about fish behavior (reacting to lures, holding around cover, chasing vs. ignoring bait, etc.)? Any specific moments where FFS completely changed how you approach a spot or species? Looking forward to hearing your experiences. Thanks!

I am most decidedly late to the "game changing" party. Spot-lock has been the biggest game changer for me, hands down. No more tying off on trees, or fumbling with an anchor. Just hit the button, and the TM does all the work. Amazing. Switching to braid-to-leader would be #2. Really opened up my spinning rod world, and even changed how I run casting rods. Wonderful. #3 has to be forward-facing-sonar. I have only had it a few weeks, but man, eye opening to see what is going on beneath the waves. So much to learn. I still love tossing a t-rigged blue=fleck worm in shallow lay downs (haven't been able to dial in FFS for that technique just yet).

Great two days of fishing. Yesterday we got my 85 year old Dad on Brother's pontoon. He had a great time catching crappie and bluegill. Today I got out to the home lake and found crappie. This one was 14.5", 1lb-4oz. SLAB!! And the trolling motor appears to be fixed. It had been glitching in cold weather...would lose spot-lock, set power back to zero, and display the "motor not found" for just a few seconds, then would work okay. This spring it was glitching every time I was out on the water. I re-paired the remote, re calibrated the GPA puck, checked batteries, connections, fuses...all tested out okay. Called Humminbird and they recommended taking in to my authorized repair center. After calling and discovering it would probably sit in line for 2+ weeks before he could even have a look...I decided to dig deeper. Pulled housing off and unplugged the power cables from the control board. They seemed to be snug when I took them off...but I cleaned them up and applied a little dialectic grease just to be safe. That seemed to do the trick! No glitches last two times on the water! Hopefully the problem is solved.

Holy cow! What an ordeal. Glad you were able to get help, and get to the hospital. My wife is a nurse practitioner and used to work cardiothoracic transplant / surgery department. Lay there for 15 minutes...drug yourself to the door...wife drove you to hospital(!) You, my friend, are a complete BADASS! I have heard my wife tell many, many stories of people in far better situations than you...and they did not make it. Hang in there!!! Strength to you! And God Bless!

I had been contemplating forward facing sonar for a while. Since the boat was networked with Ulterra and Helix units, I was pretty limited. Not wild about MEGA Live 1, and did not really want to ditch the Helix units and upgrade to Xplore in order to get MEGA Live 2. Adding Garmin to the boat meant lots of wiring decisions, likely an additional battery. So I waited.... Did get MEGA 360 this spring and really liked the view and features. And it integrated in to my network seamlessly. I like it very much. Figured I would just wait and see on FFS. Then my brother picked up the Garmin 12" LifeScope bundle, and the HD innovations shuttle, and created his own portable unit. We fished a new-to-us lake and were able to find fish quickly, and put them in the boat. I visited my local Scheels to have a look...couldn't decide between the 10" and 12" screens...then the sales rep made my decision easy...knocked a few hundred off the 12" bundle. SOLD. Went with Brew City pole system, and 52ah AMPED lithium battery in HD innovations shuttle. I like being able to move around the boat, or take to my sister's lake and fish off the dock. Doesn't take up much room. Fished for about 2 hours on Sunday...very cool, even with factory settings. Pretty eye opening to see what the fish are doing, where and how they are hanging out, moving around, etc. I have a LOT to learn about this technology. Build was pretty straight forward. Shuttle came with no directions, but there are a bunch of youtube videos out there. Pic below it's just sitting on front of boat. Now it's time to learn, experiment, fish, learn some more, and continue to fish...

I do not troll much when bass fishing, mainly because my home lake has lots of standing timber and off-shore brush piles that I like to spot-lock near, and cast to. I tried to set my boat up to be a multi-species, and do have rod holders. I will troll when fishing walleye. It's not my favorite thing to do...find it boring. I would rather cast, cast, cast, than troll.

All of my casting reels are Citica's or Curado's, of this vintage. I just like them. A few were purchased brand new back in the day...others picked up via eBay and FB market place.

Fished the home lake yesterday, water temps were just above 60 degrees. Decided to work some off shore brush piles. Landed a nice 16.5" LMB, and they the Crappie started hitting. This 12.5" Black Crappie was the largest. I probably caught ~50 in a few hours. Spot-locked right on top of the brush pile...used the new MEGA 360. Live bait is prohibited, so just tossing small plastics on 1/16oz. jig.