Woody B

It's my belief that more action is good in muddy water. I don't think color matters much until the water clears some.

I think I do pretty good, especially considering what fish I land, and what fish I lose. IE, today I boated 7 and lost 1. The one I lost was a micro Bass, 10 inches long or so. Most of the time when I hook a decent sized Bass I get it in the boat. It's my belief that smaller ones are more likely to short strike, and barely be hooked, or swipe at a bait and get skin hooked. There's also less weight, and resistance against the hookset. This makes the hook harder to bury deeply enough to stay hooked.

I'm wondering if I've got too much life insurance

It's been in the 90's here for a few days. I'm going around 4 in the morning. Depending on how things go I'll probably come home, go to sleep and go again around midnight tomorrow night.

Publicity. I still think the #FBD guy had decided to leave the tour. Him and Duckett came up with the hats, and suspension for publicity.

That's proven by the HUGE engine on the back of the tiny boat, but everyone is talking about livescope. The overpowered boats that flit around, make 2 or 3 casts then take off wide open somewhere else are a threat to many of us. The screens blocking their view just makes them a bigger threat.

I know about A-Jays old graphs. They're not full of waypoints...........they're full of hollow points.

There are fees associated with fishing on Lake Menderchuck.

I bought my first boat when I was 16 (in 1980) and fished multiple times most weeks for years. By 1992 family and professional obligations made it almost impossible to find time to fish. I sold my boat, with the plans to buy another boat when I retired. For the next 19 years I hardly fished at all and would only occasionally think about it. I went Striper fishing a few times with my Son in Law, but that's not really my thing. During Covid my youngest Grandson sent me a picture of a 6 pound Bass he caught in a farm pond. That got me started thinking about Bass fishing again...but I still planned to buy a boat when I retired. My Dad (89 now) was and is basically healthy but can't walk. I accelerated my plans and bought a boat before retirement after watching my Dad just sit around and talk about the things he could no longer do. I bought my current boat in December 2021. With the exception of 2 weeks I've fished at least once a week since then. Don't neglect your family or other obligations, but don't wait to have "fun" until later. You may run of of time before you ever have this "fun".

I suspect there's people lining up to buy them........then they'll complain about the high cost of fishing.

Modern agm batteries don't usually give a warning. Quality with new batteries is sketchy at best. Replace a battery when it fails. If you simply replace one because of age you may be taking out a good battery and installing a bad one.

I drove through the landing Sunday afternoon. Every ramp had someone at it either loading or unloading. There were 10 or so empty parking spaces.

FWIW the speed sensitive volume is adjustable through the radio interface. IIRC there's 4 settings. Low, medium high, and off. Off the volume is constant regardless of speed/throttle. Somewhere buried in the settings is "Speed Sensitive Volume".

I went last night(this morning) from 1 until 5. I caught 12, mostly on points. None were tiny. Biggest was a 18 inch Largemouth(pictured). I saw something interesting. There's a dock that usually has a Bass or 2 hanging around. There were 3 or 4 green lights under the water. There was a BUNCH of small fish 2 inches long or so swimming in a circle, in a tight group above the lights just under the surface. There were enough, and swimming fast enough they were forming a vortex. Every now and then a fairly big Flathead would come up and grab one....or maybe a mouth full. I caught a 15 pound Flathead at this dock, at night a few weeks ago, but these lights weren't on then. I've seen baitfish swimming in pretty much every way possible, but I've never seen them swimming that fast, in a circle that tight. I don't know what species the small fish were. I think I could have netted some. There were some Bluegill around that dock....bigger than the 2 inch long circle swimmers.

Look at a used Nissan Titan, 2016 or newer. (not an XD though) The engines are bulletproof. Transmission are made by Jatco. I've got 110,000 miles on my 2018 with zero problems. I get 19 mpg driving to work and back, and 14 towing my boat. The older ones had some engine problems caused by faulty catalytic converters, and some differential problems. The 16's and newer don't have these problems. Basically they're a Tundra copy, but will get slightly better gas mileage, and cost a BUNCH less than a Tundra. The reason Tundra's cost so much is they're popular. They're popular because they're durable. Don't start with the foreign made talk either. My Titan was built in Mississippi. Tundras are built in Texas. Many of the Chevy/GMC, Ford and Ram trucks are built in Mexico and Canada.

A time sert requires a bigger hole than a heli coil. What size is the bolt? I may have what you need to install a time sert.

I suspect the law regarding this varies from State to State. I don't know what NC law is, much less anywhere else. A decade or so ago the Chevrolet dealership I was working at had a couple customers cars get broken into. The dealership replaced the stuff that was stolen. They had the same signs stating "not responsible for items left in cars" as pretty much everyone does. I would suspect a big company like BPS is self insured. They would have a fund to pay any liabilities, and usually a 3rd party to determine what and when payment are made. If this is the case the individual store will often do whatever they can to prevent a claim from being paid. This would include "refusing" to help a customer file a claim. Most big companies, like BPS don't want bad publicity. At this point most companies would settle this quickly, and quietly just to get it to go away. I have way more questions than answers. Was the work performed? If the work was performed will BPS be expecting payment even though they don't know where the boat is? Was the work paid for in advance, or was/is payment due when picking up? Did someone else come pay for the work, and pick up the boat? Are BPS stores all company owned, or do they have franchises?

It depends on the day before. My job is physical at times, mental at times, but always seems to be hectic. Sometimes when I get home of Friday I'm tired..... ready to eat, shower and go to bed. In these cases I show up to the lake either unrigged or rigged from the previous weekend. WRB says knots weaken mono is as little as 24 hours so having stuff tied on from the week before isn't a good idea. Occasionally I re learn this lesson. A few weeks ago I was tired on Friday and didn't do anything beyond hooking up my charger. When I got to the lake I was "ready" to fish, not retie stuff. On my first cast I lost a Bass that was probably 3 poundish on it's first jump. I put down my spinner bait and followed up with a wacky rig. On that cast I broke off on the hookset. I spot locked my boat, rigged another wacky, retied my other 4 combos and sharpened my spinnerbait hook. On my next cast , the 3rd cast of the day but with a few minute break between casts I caught my biggest Bass of the year. 7.91 pounds. I got lucky, but now if I don't pre rig the night before I do what needs to be done at the landing before I launch my boat. It seems like an eternity rigging stuff before I get to fish but it's only a minute or 2.

Yesterday a dump truck owned by the city accidently rolled into the lake. People on social media are brutal saying stuff like "I hope he paid his $200", and "I hope the city manager was driving it". (The truck wasn't occupied) The yearly pass (going up to $200) is a decal on your boat, and trailer. To get a daily pass you either pay in the office (during normal office hours) or fill out a form, and leave your money in a drop box. They watch the landing closely. If your trailer doesn't have the decal and your information isn't in the drop box they'll be waiting for you when you load your boat. I'm not a thief, I wouldn't try sneaking without paying even it the chance for getting caught was really low. Most of the lakes I fish and landings I use are power company lakes, with landings maintained by the State and/or the power company. I use one landing at Lake Wylie that's been leased by the county. (Allison Creek, York County SC) They have a campground, walking trails, picnic area, fishing pier ect. They charge something like $5 per day, per person for access. I bought an annual "night pass" for $30. I have a card that operates the gate. This gives me a super secure landing both night and day. You have to go through the gate to get in, and there's guards/rangers all over the place. There's several free public landings but for me it's worth $30 per year for good security. Just a disclaimer that I do pay to use a landing, but it's for security. There's other free landings on the same lake.

Thanks for all the responses. It amazes me how full the lake gets on weekends during Summer. Higher fees should help the overcrowded lake. I drove by there Sunday afternoon. The entire parking lot was full with additional tow vehicles and trailer parking along side the entrance road. I should have taken a picture of the lake. I could see ~15 boats from the landing. As I stated in my OP I had already decided not the renew my annual boat permit for $80. The old fee was $80 per year, or $16 per trip. New fee is $200 per year, or $40 per trip. It's still 5 trips equal an annual pass. Higher fees should relieve the over crowding but it's still a lake full of mostly 10 inch Spotted Bass. The new fees take effect and my old annual permit expires on July 1. I'll drive though the landing occasionally after the new fees take effect. Their rules state "any boat capable of having a motor" has to pay the fees, so I suppose a jon boat with an electric motor would still be suppose to pay. Kayaks, and canoes don't have to pay any fees. I suspect this will make it a better, and safer lake for them. They also tripled the overnight fees for the campground at the landing. IF (big if) that lake turned back into the lake it was 40 years ago I'll cough up the $200 for an annual permit. I used to fish there 2 or 3 times a week after I got off work. Time will tell. Perhaps in a year or 2 I'll be paying $200 a year. Team9nine will be coming up here and we'll be riding around the lake catching DD's.

How many of you pay fees to access certain lakes? Are there free lakes, along with the "pay" lakes? How much do you pay? The reason I ask is the lake closest to my house (Moss Lake, Shelby NC) is going up on their boat fees.(dollar amounts later) Moss Lake is a 1500 acre lake. It's owned by the city of King Mountain, and used for their water supply. It was built ~50 years ago using federal money. They have always charged for boats. They used to require a special extra fishing license also, but the State won't stock lakes if the public isn't allowed to fish for free. In the past(several decades ago)I've caught a bunch of nice Bass there including a couple 8 pounders. I can still catch some Bass but they're mostly what I call "micro Bass" and nearly all of them have hook holes in their mouths from being previously caught. The fishing pressure and boat traffic in general is terrible during the Summer. They have a Thursday night tournament every week with 30 to 50 boats. The winning weights are as well guarded as Colonel Sanders KFC secret chicken recipe. I stop by the landing occasionally on Saturday or Sunday afternoon just to see how crowded it is. Most of the time there's no parking spaces, with trucks/trailers parking alongside the road coming into the landing. The fee increase makes me mad, but actually seems like a good move. The current boat fee is $80 per year, or $16 per day. I had already decided I wasn't going to renew mine at that price. The new fees (that take effect July 1) are $200 per year, or $40 per day. I'm not going to get a permit, but I'm going to see what effect the fees have on lake crowding. I don't know if Bass fishing would ever get good again without a good stocking program. The only thing that gets stocked is Wipers/ Striped Bass White Bass hybrids. The city manager gave a speech after the fee increase decision. He said the lake was primarily a water supply lake and all the recreational boating was bad for that. What I heard was "we don't want you on our lake, but if you give us $200 it will be OK". Thoughts? The last fee increase was in 2018 when the boat fee increased from $60 to $80. Unpowered boats don't require a permit.

28 Bass, and they weren't dinks. I'd like to strike out like that.

We use time serts for most thread problems. https://www.timesert.com/ You need a straight hole, in the correct location. As Keith said make some kind of guide for the drill.

We had a fawn bedded down just behind my backyard fence last week.

First, Katie, you're a hammer. You catch amazing numbers of Bass. I also believe you catch some of the biggest Bass that are in the waters you're fishing. When I started back fishing in Dec 2021 I just wanted to catch Bass. That still applies, but I'm not happy catching what I call "micro- Bass". The waters I fish have decent numbers of both Largemouth, and Spotted Bass. Most days I could catch 10 inch Spots all day long. (what I'm calling micro Bass). That's not what I'm looking to do. Even though it's against conventional thinking I will "leave Bass to find Bass". I don't know where to rate myself. I'm not much to brag..........I'll probably get skunked the next 57 times I go fishing for saying this. I've got a friend who works at a marina on the lake I fish mostly. He wins a bunch of tournaments on this lake and others. He also always knows all the results from tournaments. I consistently match or exceed the biggest Bass of most tournaments. My biggest so far for 2024 (7.91 pounds) is the biggest Bass he's heard of this year. I'm not in a contest....I enjoy Bass fishing too much. I don't keep track of my best five. When it comes to having fun fishing I'm a 10. Beyond that it doesn't matter to me. There's many people who catch more Bass than I do. There's many people who catch bigger Bass than I do. There's even a bunch of people who catch more and bigger Bass than I do. I enjoy seeing pictures and hearing about their catches. If Pat Brown were to come down to the lake I fish he'd probably catch a 15 pounder. I'd be celebrating with him. Added: If Team9nine were to travel up here I doubt he'd catch Pat's 15 pounder. He's just catch a 14 pounder......and a 6 pound Crappie.