Steve, great job !!! even us old people can read now!!

USE TO THUMP SHEEPHEAD ALL THE TIME. THEN HAD MY OLDEST BOY OUT AND I CAUGHT ONE AND THUMPED HIM. THE KID LOOKED AT ME AND ASKED WHAT DID I DO THAT FOR. WENT ON TO EXPLAIN TO HIM THAT THEY WERE ROUGH FISH AND NO GOOD TO LAKE. HE THEN WENT ON TO TELL ME THE BIG FELLA PUT THEM HERE FOR A PURPOSE. THE KID DIDN’T KNOW WHAT PURPOSE BUT A PURPOSE AND IN THE EYES OF THE BIG FELLA THIS WASN’T RIGHT. THEN HE WENT ON TO SAY “DAD HE BATTLED YOU TOUGH AND GAVE YOU A GREAT FIGHT AND HIS REWARD FOR ENTERTAINING YOU IS TO GET THUMPED?” THE BIG GUY REALLY HATES THAT. KID WAS 5 AT THE TIME. HAVEN’T THUMPED ONE SINCE.

Know a lady here in town who got her 3rd or 4th Master Angler Award from Manitoba this fall. She is 82!! Been fishing as long as I can remember and I can remember when Eisenhower was president. It”s great to see these gals out and about. Great for the sport.

Make sure your bilge pump works. Have a drift sock. Marine band radio to keep up with the weather. wind especially!!

75 miles to Lake City. 65 to Faribault on beauitful French lake.

Does head color make a difference when fishing jigs naked and all dressed up like a June bride. I notice a lot of very nicely tied jigs with bare heads.

I have used and tied jigs along time. I have spent considerable time fishing jigs both naked and well dressed. From the experience I have, I perfer to dress my jigs especially while fishing lakes. But I have always tied my jigs to be dressed with sparse hair and short. River fishing which is new to me has reopened up the book on jig tying for me. I tied streamer type jigs when I first started tying these things because the only thing I could relate to where streamers and the old bermuda jigs. Now I have tied a whole passal of these stearmer type jigs. I am very anxoius to try them in lake situations both naked and dressed. In lake fishing 90% of my jig fishing is trolling and rip jigging. Starting to fish the river I have had to learned to slow down my presentation and be more creative as there are a lot more situations in the river. another 2 cents worth.

Some really great tips. If I could add my 2 cents worth I would advise to trim the hair everytime after cutting from the tail. I like to make sure that the hair is as square cut as possible for a better fit near the jig head. Another note and this can get alittle picky for a beginner is to search for the softer hair on the tail until one is more proficent at tying these things. Some hair is unmanageable as it is to large in diameter and very stiff. Also I would use a larger thread to get started. I also put a small drop of clear finger nail polish on the thread when first wrapped to the shank. It sets up while I am cutting my bucktail and helps to anchor the thread to the shank. Also another tip to help in the boat is to clean the hook eye so you don’t have to do it in the boat. Much better to do it in the comfort of home than when the fish are biting on those beauitful creations !!! One last note I bought a small sissors made by Fishcars really works on cutting bucktail and stays sharp.

Ya, I have had the same experience with factory tires also. Set that come with this trailer just chunked off like recaps. Running a steel radial now but i want alittle more tire height and besides i ended up with plugs in both of these tires last fall. So tires are on the to do list this spring when i get the boat out of storage.

I don’t know if you can get the stuff at an auto parts store but we use Mobil EP on our hydraulic chucks at work and it works great on wheel bearings. All major oil companies make the same sort of stuff. It’s no secret though you have to check them little fell’as often. EP means extra pressure I guess.