Muddpuppy

I had inquired into several of them a few years ago and was told almost unanomously that at best they are good for is maintaining batteries that are left to sit unused. I think they work pretty good for that, if you have a sunny area that you park your boat, but I haven't used one myself. One dealer that I know said that somebody he knew went to the extent of putting an automatic positioner (said it cost about $450.00 if I remember right) on his and it still didn't do much good. The ones that I looked at didn't produce enough charge to begin with much less to equal the draw of any utilities or a trolling motor that are being used. Keeping it positioned is a big problem especially on the water, the panel has to be where it basicly focuses on the sun, and that would be almost impossible to do and still fish. Even under ideal conditions the charger that you mentioned would produce 2 amps, so if the electronics draw 3 - 5 and the trolling motor draws 45 it not going to help much. There maybe some models that do work better than any of those I looked at, but the ones I saw were made for marine use and around $100.00+ so I didn't look long. And like I said this was what I was told and not from personal experience.

Big Sow also makes snakes, but they do not show them on their web site yet. We use flukes alot in the winter sometimes adding maybe 1/16 or 1/32 weight on the hook when fishing the in the tops of submerged weeds and hydrilla, so they might be worth a try. You can try fishing them unweighted also. They also work good on a C-rig. I usually try to present lures in a vertical manner then to try to work them through the weeds when they are real thick. I usually cast onto the pads or the bank and drag or hop rather my bait back across them, take advantage of any openings and pull them in try to splash and wiggle around a little. When you find a good pocket let them slide off of lilly pads and fall under their own weight w/ or without weight on a slack line until they reach the bottom. If no strikes then use the line to pulley them up and down off of the pads then find anouther hole, or a c- rig and just twitching the bait and not moveing the weight much. I would try fishing any change in the grass, like where 2 types meet there is normally a change in depth, bottom construction, like clay or sand. Throw around any sticks that you may see sticking up. One thing also that sometimes works for me is throwing a buzzbait or something that makes alot of noise then going right back with plastic. The largest Ika that GY makes is supposed to work good in weeds without weight. It is supposed to be heavy enough to get down into them and not just lay on top and still relatively weedless. I haven't tried it yet, but intend to.

Sticking with top water I would try buzzbaits and jiterbugs where I could. I also like toads, frogs, or a rat, weightless worms (snaked across the surface and then let sink in pockets and holes. You could also try creature baits like bushhogs, kreatures, ikas ect. Fish them in pockets weightless letting them sink and jigging them a little when the reach the bottom. You could try using weight to punch through the weeds, especially where the hydrilla and pads meet since that will most likely indicate a structure change. Try working a kreature bait as a top water lure rigged weedless. Pull it where it just bubbles along on the surface, it should skim over alot of the weeds. Tubes might work in the pads.

I only some what fish 1 pond anymore but it is covered in crap in the summer. Lizards work pretty good weightless for me, you could try a C-rig and see if that would get you through the crud on top and yet not pick up too much trash on the bait. I have caught a few just throwing a wacky worm into open water and just let it sink. Try to hit any pockets and the weedline if there is one. If it has just rained and the level has risen recently they maybe lockjawed until it starts dropping again. I have the best luck just about dark and if the mosquito's aren't biting neither are the fish. :-/

There are quite a few ramps that charge to launch around here. Normally it's $2.00 or $3.00 but you can also get a membership or yearly pass that cuts the cost. Most of that goes for ramp upkeep and most are pretty nice. Usually there are also some free launching alternatives. Pay and keep for catfish has been around for decadeds, and I have heard of pay bass lakes even though I'm not sure where they are. There are a few private ranches and resorts that fishing their lakes would be included in their guest package. I think Gary Yamamato had Sugoi lake around here that was like that even though the package was really geared for fishing Lake Fork.

I really want to fish one of the canyon lakes in the western states. I think Roservelt fits the bill and I hear in a couple of years should be a hot spot. Not that I have ever fished that type of lake. I would like to spend a little more time on Kentucky lake and hopefully maybe make it down to Guntersville on one of our trips to Alabama which will hopefully be soon. The chain would make a nice trip in Florida and so would the 1000 Islands in New York.

In Texas you would need to go through the Parks and Wildlife Service for a new title. I think there may be a cut off point when it comes to age if I remember correctly. There also maybe a size limit but here the motor has to be registerd also. The trailer would be able to be handled at the DMV. I read on TP&W site a while back that they are going to crack down on missmatched titles, non existant titles ect. due to the amount of stolen boats. The way it sounded it could be rough if you didn't try to straighten out a problem and were caught. That would just be here.

You could check into Temple Fork Fly rods. They aren't terribly expensive should fit in your budget with a decent fly reel. In the hands of someone that knows what they are doing they are impressive and yet for a first rod (which mine was) easy to use. Line is something else that you don't want to cut corners with. I would try to find a fly fishing shop nearby and see what they recomend. They will most likely be more then happy to demenstrate and explain everything.

One link for a worm welder is http://www.iovino.com/wormizer.html I often get by useing just a lighter to repair worms while fishing also a woodburning set with different attatchments works pretty good when you get home. Eagle claw makes a baitholder hook with a little clamp at the eye to hold the worm on and other companies have other types as well they work good for weeds and stuff, fish might still still tear them up, but might be worth a shot.

You could also use 2 x4's. Pre cut and drill the pieces and put them together with screws when you get there if space is an issue. I think we had an old post called bass hurdles (maybe it's the right one) and there might be some links showing some on it.

You may be able to download a manual off of their website, I know that you can or at least could with a Lowarance, and I thought that I remember seeing them on the humming birds also. Anouther place that you can look for some tips is on here in the Fishing Article section then Fishing Equipment tips. I think that there are about 4 articles that might help with setting sensitivity and grayline some problem trouble shooting ect.

On mine and most that I have been around the "fish" is only displayed in auto mode. In manual mode you should get the traditional arch that you are talking about. The catch is, they only show up as arches under certain ideal circumstances. Everything has to be just right, boat speed, the direction the fish is pointed in ect. Other wise Fish may show up as clouds, dots, lines, semi arcs or arches. I use mine on manual quite a bit to look for fish or cover or pretty much when I am acturally fishing. I think you get a lot more accurate information from them once you get used to reading it, that does take a little experience to do it well and also depends on the quality of the unit. Come to think about it I was messing with a buddies older model H.bird the other day and it was showing everything in x's when I tried to change it from auto. You would look down at the screen and see a line or a box of x's and I have no idea what it was indicating, I had to go back to auto.

A week or so ago we were haveing pretty good luck with tubes, and several different things on a C-Rigs even though we did get hung up from time to time in conditions like you had. With the C-rig we tried to work the channels and edges and grass lines if we could and did have to drop the size of the weight to about 3/8 or 5/16 fished slow and let them slither over the branches . Most of the strikes were almost undetectable once you got around 30'. Flukes, Hoo Daddy's and bushhogs worked the best for us. What worked one day didn't always seem too the next.

I believe there are quite a few from the Georgia area. you can also post and look in the location section. There is also a members list, talking about takeing a while. I'm in N. East Texas.

I went out with a friend yesterday in hopes of catching a few crappie for the freezer. The area we were in is formed by a cove filled with old timber with an island at the end of a point that is close to a chanel that runs along in front of it that drops from about 16' to 25'. We stayed in the area until lunch and worked and covered it well. Not much luck with crappie; however there was alot of fish activeity on the top hitting shad up until we left. Alot of these looked like they were largemouth bass some were probably hybrids. I was back seat and not used to adjusting or reading his electronics, but I needed a break, so I got messing with them and it looked like there were small schools of shad moveing around in the area and also fish suspended at 2 seperate levels in deeper water and occassionally they were surfacing to feed much like has been suggested. We did not get any to bite, but only tried briefly before leaveing.

You could try to do a search on here or look through the past posts what you are interested in. I know I have seen some good pictures that people have loaded to show like a wacky rig and I am sure others. There were some posts very recently that had links that showed various ways to rig a Yamamato kreature bait and that would basicly be the same, as with the rigging some others. Normally I would look around alittle but this computer is acting up so I might ought to round up a hammer and a couple of pipe wrenches before it locks.

The Wal Marts here carry it. I took one out the last time I was there to see what the knots were on the end.

Juglines or throwlines are anouther option if legal in your area.

The jig and the crawdad trailer can be fished seperately and is effective like that. I use them together when I want a larger bait. They also make baits that are identical to crawdads. Jigs are not my strong suet but I have started to trim them when useing a trailer and trimming the gaurds from info on here. You can use the jigs or jig head/hooks when useing other baits too like grubs, worms, kreatures and tubes. If it looks good try it.

I had a 12' flatbottom when I was young that was narrower then some. I am not sure anymore of the span. I believe it was pretty wobbly, but we did alot of fishing with it and could go almost anywhere.

Location has alot to do with it when it comes to Crawfish and Crayfish. I guess RW is correct in the terms, even though I have never thought about it much before. Down here Crawfish and mudbugs are probably used mainly to describe the edible ones, but not exclusivley. Alot of those are raised in shallow ponds or rice fields anymore and their size is selected and normally larger. Crawdads I guess could be those found in creeks, ditches ponds and standing water. As far as a difference they are one in the same as far as I am concerned. And pretty much call them what ever comes to mind first. There are different types I guess thoughout the world. Oh, I have seen a bunch of Mudbugs play hockey but never any crawdads.

Ben made a good point on the design. I have an aluminum hulled Ranger and it's designed more for shallow water use. It is't really a rough water boat. It bounces around pretty good in waves. On windy days with 15 to 20 mi. gusts I really prefer to find somewhere in a cove if possible. I am sure that would vary from boat to boat. I fish alot of smaller lakes 1,000 - 30,000 acres most with large areas of shallow water, stumps and large weed beds. I don't have to worry (within reason) about stumps, sticks, or brush. I can go over sand bars (carefully in about 14" of water less if I pole), I can some what beach where I want as long as there are no sharp rocks. There isn't alot of maintenance with the alum. hull. When the water is low in the summer I can usually still use the ramps that I normally use when some of the heavier boats have gone to the larger ramps. For the motor size that I am running it runs right along with a decent ride. Compared to some of the guys I fish with it does ride quite abit rougher than their fiberglass Skeeters and Champions, it's not as stable fishing in rough water either. They do make aluminum hulls that are a alot closer match to theirs then mine is, of course so is the cost. Mine is also only a 16'. Some of these alum. boats are running at speeds of 70+, and they are sweet. I would look at what type of water I intended of fishing, have good access to fishing areas, fishing mostly shallower waters, brush I would consider an aluminum. If you run large bodies of water with heavy winds and waves I would probably go with a fiberglass. If I did intend on fishing on open water much I would consider very seriously at least an 18' or larger no matter what I got.

Is the color more related to water temp or season? I know they turn dark red when boiled in crab boil seasoning. I think that the ones here pretty much change like Raul described. There are some good links on crawfish that can be fond online under crayfish trapping, crayfish farming, pots , traps ect.. a minnow trap will work even though a mudbug trap or pot is a little different. You can also use a jug type in shallow water.

red/blk are popular here in the winter and early spring.

It's my understanding that hair holds air so it floats better and emits bubbles that attracts fish when fished.