gim wrote:

Bass only see the bottom of it. They don’t care what the pattern on top is. That’s nothing but a marketing ploy.

Yep, I’m only looking at the bottom side of the frog for color but I gave him the specific colors. We had multiple outings this year where you could not get a bite on a white or black belly but the yellow belly got lots of hits.

It’s one of those things now that everyone in the boat has a different belly color on until we decide if color matters that day.

More times than not this last year, color did matter.

Spro Bronzeye Flappin Frog 65.

It ended up being the only frog I threw after I got used to it. Obviously it is easy to just reel it in, but I also got comfortable popping and walking it.

Caught a lot of largemouth and a few smallmouth on Vermillion with it in August.

You’d think color would not matter that much but I had multiple days when color was the only difference. Red Ear was my top color, second was Killer Gill but it was a distant second. Something about that yellow belly on the Red Ear.

Mine was out of the warranty period but I just had it repaired in September and it took 7 days, shipping days included.

Also check the plug and plug receptacle. I was having trouble with my trolling motor only to find out when the previous owner upgraded to an ultrex he did not upgrade the plug and receptacle.

Interesting. Thanks for posting, I much prefer casting setups to spinning so I’ll look into this!

Set something round at what will be the inside corner of the stair landing, that should allow you to pull it around the corner without it hanging up.

I’m thinking something like a drink cooler full of water, but anything that is round and heavy should work.

Clip a long string/line to the cover and pull it down into the yard. Hopefully it opens up so you can see what you are dealing with. Either way it gets it away from the house.

BC – the original post mentioned some transom damage, was there anything on the transom that you needed to fix?

Nice job on the repairs!

Sounds like it would either be a battery or fuse block issue. I’d lean battery since you mentioned that the one minute thing is pretty constant. Make sure it is taking and maintaining a charge.

After that, I’d check for loose connections (positive and negative) at the battery, switch and fuse panel. This seems less likely based on the one minute timing being constant.

Also the trolling motors can be very voltage sensitive. I was having all kinds of issues and realized that the previous owner did not upgrade the plug and receptacle when he went up to an 80lb ultrex. Since I’ve upgraded that, I have had far fewer issues.

Now the only issues I have with my trolling motor are if I leave my Helix 12 networked. I mainly use that for 360 so I just took it off the network for now.

After they ask you about the software they will ask whether you’ve tried a different ethernet cord and helix dongle?

I have an issue on my network, but I’ve isolated it to the Helix 12 on the bow since it will only happen if that unit is involved no matter where I move it to. Any unit I swap out for it works just fine.

Since you tried swapping units and it still happened it could be software, ethernet cord, helix dongle or I suppose it could be an issue with the trolling motor itself.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Does prop MD do skeg repairs ? I just called the specialty welding shop that used to be marks prop shop and confirmed they do not do boats any more.

Prop MD repaired/replaced my skeg. It was just about as bad as yours.

RV Works Cajun Fryer – they are pricy but the design of it allows one to change the oil infrequently.

Youbetcha wrote:

Theres a pretty good video on youtube that seth feider shows what he does with them. Never tried it but seems pretty neat.

I think I just watched that one. An interesting comment Seth made was something like: you could also throw a big swimbait (6+ inches is what I took from it). I’d lean more towards the swimbait but that is purely a confidence thing.

I have not, but one of my fishing buddies always has a huge hair jig tied on. I haven’t seen him hook anything with it this year but I think it will work in the right situation.

Nice work!

Decided to hit Waconia this morning, caught 15 in 3 hours. Water temps were 77-78.

Better fish came off of isolated grass/weed clumps outside of the deep weed edge. Was using a 4” pit boss, also caught a decent one on a 3/4 oz jig, had some bites on the Ozark rig with 10” worm but they seemed to like the faster falling baits today.

Then I went and fished shallow shade lines and boat docks. Caught several on a weightless zoom super fluke. Saw a big musky (45-50”) casually swim by, I watched it for quite a while.

Then got off as the lake traffic was starting to pick up.

That would be fun to fish with them!

I tried to get out early this morning to mow because a low spot in our yard was just dry enough to finally cut.

I barely got started and it was pouring down rain just west of Waconia. I’ve since been able to cut the rest of the yard between sporadic showers but that low spot is to wet to mow again now!

Yeah mostly safety reasons, I’m the only one allowed to run the outboard during the competition. They can help get the boat on/off the trailer though.

I can’t do the following:
– Touch a rod if the lure is in the water
– net a fish
– determine which fish to cull
– run the trolling motor
– those are the main ones, but there are many more rules to follow as well.

There’s a 5 minute period (food break) that I’m allowed to give them some advice/feedback/coaching. For the most part though I just tell them to keep grinding.

I think I might take this weekend off from fishing. Unless one of the kids asks me to go out, they won’t have to twist my arm to hard!

Thanks for posting that link Gimruis, I do not hunt but I remember listening to an episode of Meateater about it. It was fascinating to me that this is an issue that needs to be sorted out.

In my mind, all public land should be accessible by reasonable modes of transportation. I suppose reasonable modes is up for debate but at the very minimum walking in should be allowed.

Yeah it’s a pretty cool experience for them. I know I would have loved something like this when I was in high school.

We just started throwing it this year, I’d say I’ve been impressed with the action of the bait(s) on them.

Not that much different than a belly weighted hook, but slightly better I’d say. And the hookup ratio on the Ozark rig seems to be better.

In the last 2 weeks we pre-fished a lake 4 times for the high school tournament that was held yesterday. In that 2 week period there were 3 or 4 other tournaments and you could see the pressure having an impact, plus I think the recreational traffic picked up big time around 4th of July.

Water temps increased from low 70’s to upper 70’s. We found fish in pads, deep weeds, reeds and even found smallmouth out in open water chasing baitfish one day. On tournament day they decided to fish deep in the reeds thinking that most of the boats would not be willing to go in there, which turned out to be a great plan. Best baits yesterday were a texas rigged creature bait, belly weighted 10″ worm or an Ozark Rig 10″ worm. The bass really seemed to like the action of that Ozark Rig but it was harder to work through the reeds so the boys opted for the belly weighted worm. They had 18 or 19 good bites but were only able to land 7 of them. After the tournament we had a good discussion about cast length and picking equipment that matches the environment. I think they could have landed 5-7 more of those fish with shorter casts and longer heavier rods. They needed to set the hook and get them headed to the surface immediately.

For the most part the fishing was pretty good every time we were out there except Sunday the 8th was really tough. I did not get a bite for 4+ hours, then something changed and I caught 10 in the next hour or so. Did they turn on? Did changing baits make the difference? If I would have been throwing the t-rig and ozark rig in other areas would I have been getting bites earlier?

Seems like we are getting warm enough now that fishing in pads, matted grass and docks will really start to takeoff.

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My youngest decided he was going to give the high school bass fishing thing a try this summer so we’ve been doing more bass fishing this year than usual. So far practice days have been pretty good and tournament days have been tough, but that’s the nature of the weather! Just have to keep grinding.

Outside of what the other haves shared (neko, ned & jig worm) we’ve had pretty good luck slow rolling big swim baits around, through and over the weed edges. 5-6″ baits but the way some of these fish have attacked it I don’t think 7-8″ would be out of the question either. I’ll warn you though, this also seems to be a recipe for catching nice pike and musky!

Ozark Rig with a Berkley Creature Hawg has been productive. So has a texas rigged 5″ stick bait on a drop shot. Just another way to fish it deep in the weeds without getting hung up.

I had the complete opposite experience with them. Recently bought a used boat from them and had an axle issue immediately after purchase. In my opinion, they did everything in their power to get me a new axle as fast as possible.

I will not hesitate to buy from them again or recommend them.

I have an iPhone and I’m not having this issue currently. Is your phone software up to date?

I just loaded up with all of the Core Tackle jigs (Hover, Tush & Ozark). Looking forward to throwing them this year. That is a good video, one of the ones that got me intrigued about their products.

I think the smallest hover rigs will be great for Crappie too, they just showed up at my house yesterday and I can get my preferred Bobby Garland 2″ baits on them.

There would not be a speed limit for the live imaging, the limiting factor would be your pole mount. You’ll be fine drifting.