Pool 8 Bass 8/3 & 8/4

After a 2 week vacation from pool 8, the home water definitely gave me a warm welcome home. On Monday I hit the river hoping to find an explosion of big shad since I left. In the area I was fishing, I was very disappointed with what I found. The backwaters were dead and the minnows were small. I made a move out to the main channel and bam, it became clear where I should be focusing my energy. There was still a lack of minnows on the channel too, but I was quickly rewarded with a 2-1/2 lb and 3-1/2 lb smallmouth late in the day. This told me that my August smallmouth pattern was starting to come on, and a gameplan was made for the next day, and Justin and I were fixin’ to put a hurt on ’em, and that we did. We fished swim jigs and plastics on rocks and wingdams to catch about 16 keepers total on the day and countless non keepers. Justin had 13-1/2 lbs for his best 5 and I had 14-3/4 lbs for my best 5, anchored by a 4 lb smallmouth. Our limits could have been much bigger if we each could have just gotten rid of that one peanut in the bunch! Here are some pictures of our fish (first 2 are from Monday). All of these are from 3-1/4 lbs to 4 lbs. Our combined best 5 would have been over 17 lbs.

Nice fish! I found some small minnows in an area right off the main channel near rocks, we were throwing crappie jigs just to see if we could find some nice bluegills or something and within 20 minutes we had a 17 1/2″ smallmouth, 27″ pike, and a 21 1/2″ walleye, all on little tube jigs! The fish are in there feeding on those little minnows, you just need to find em.

I saw you out on Tues night still with your old boat. When does the new one arrive?

I just ordered the boat today, once my order arives in Flippin, Arkansas, it will take 6-8 weeks before it is ready, and who knows how long for the shipping. I will just be chipper if I can get the boat on the water by October…It’s no rush

Details on what you go?

Nice…was out on 8 last night. Tough bite…lots of dinks.

This picture is pretty much what it’s going to look like, only instead of an e-tech its going to be a 90 horse Yamaha. It will have a lowrance x-52 on the trolling motor and I got an upgrade from the 55 12 volt minnkota maxxum to an 80 lb 24 volt Minnkota Fortrex. I am planning on mounting my current gps (garmin gps map 178) in the console and I should be good to go. I might contemplate using my Marcum Lx-3 flasher at some point also. I don’t think I would need it on the river but it could come in handy for vertical fishing on the great lakes. The fortrex is sweet because it is universal sonar so all I would need to do to swap out fish finders is an adapter cord. I am stoked to say the least! Now all I need is for it to get here! That, and a loan for a few grand to pay income taxes next year..

remember that all your fishing costs are taken as losses as well.. all your rods.. reels.. gas.. all goes against your winnings..

this is the time to contact a true accountant. but it should off set your costs of taxes.

Yep, write off travel, expenses, equipment, etc to bring it down to zero. That trip cost a pretty penny in gas, lodging, food, etc so gather all receipts. If you try to claim a “loss” it will be considered a business but as a hobby you can zero down any winnings you may have. Thats what my accountant says anyway.