I had this happen on an F150 as well. I rubbed a little WD40 on the key and worked it in and out a few times and haven’t had a problem since.

I had the same problem with one of my connections getting loose and making the wires hot. I went to this new style Minn Kota has that has a screw on collar and seems much stronger. It was a kit that comes with everything needed to splice in to both the boat side and the trolling motor side.

Clear lake in North Central Iowa is always good and the ice holds up well usually into April. Walleyes, crappies and yellow bass are the main targets. Be warned since there are only 3 or 4 lakes in Iowa (haha) it will be fairly crowded. There are lots of fish to be caught though.

I second making your own. Then you can put a better quality hook of whatever size you want in it. It’s just a standard round head jig with a lead barb. Sometimes it takes a little modification to the mold, but for walleye jigs that weight I put 1/0 or 2/0 hooks in them.

Lynn Lake Lodge, Sportsman’s cove, boomers outback are a few places to stay. It is also possible there could be ice on the lakes around Webster in April depending on the weather.

Melting the plastic on each side of the tear works ok. A blade on a soldering iron works well. Also as stated above mend-it is a glue designed for soft plastics.

JasonP wrote:

That looks like a pretty decent rig! Where do you store your TM batt’s?

They are in the compartment under the terrova head. 2 batteries and an onboard charger in there.

I have a 17′ all welded Alumacraft with a 40 HP surface drive for my small river boat. I went with the Alumacraft because it had the features I wanted. It has a live well, 7′ rod storage, comes rigged for a 24 volt trolling motor setup and has plenty of storage up front. I beat on it pretty good and have not had any issues with it.

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For spoons I always like to use a straight tail plastic and put the plastic on horizontal. Bluegills especially seem to like the horizontal presentation.

I’ve had many over the years and after buying Kahtoola microspikes I’ll never buy and others. I’ve had zero problems with them. I’ve only had them 3 years but so far they are still in great shape.

This is the reason I make my own jigs. You can put what ever size and quality hook you like in the jig styles you want.

Great show guys. I liked the explanation of the technique. One question I have for you is what action and power of rod do you like for throwing these type of baits? I do most of my walleye fishing with jigs and plastics so I’m using a lot of medium light and medium power with fast or extra fast action rods. Would a medium power fast action rod work well or would a moderate action be better for this kind of fishing? Thanks for any advise

I for one can say I know for a fact that I have caught fish again that I have released before, especially smallies. Once in awhile you catch a fish with a distinguishing mark that you can recognize.
As far as the conversation about the reproductive success of the fish goes I see things different living in Iowa. I fish walleyes more than anything so that is the species I can talk about most. In most of our rivers in Iowa there is not a lot of natural reproduction of walleyes. We rely a lot on the DNR stocking efforts to have the fish we do. In NE Iowa the DNR does a fantastic job with that. The biggest part to the equation here is time to grow the fish. I’ve read studies from the DNR that show a 23″ fish here is 10 years old and grow approximately 1″ per year after that. That puts that coveted 30″ fish at 17 years old. The way I look at it is if I keep a 28″ fish it will take 15 years to replace that fish in the system. Sure the DNR stocks lots of fish but they don’t stock the quality of fish we are looking for. There is no replacement for the time it takes for that fish to get big.
I would rather release the fish and give it a shot at living rather than take it home and guarantee it’s going to die.

I fish them a lot. I get rid of the split ring and tie directly to the line tie. My setup is braid with a floro leader spliced together with a uni to uni knot. #4s are my preferred perch size. #4s still have plenty of fish calling rattle when you rip them. The #3s are a little more finesse and are great for crappies.

You guys talk about putting your boats away mid October. I’m kind of backwards I guess.I don’t use mine all summer. I put it away in June and get it out around the 1st part of October. Ill fish the river until its too froze to get the boat in. Usually that takes until close to Christmas here in NE Iowa. I hate being in the boat in the summer heat!

Its known mostly for yellow bass. There are also lots of walleyes and crappies in the lake. And for Iowa it’s a decent musky lake.

There are a few large mouths in Clear Lake. Ive seen them in the rushes and accidentally caught a few. Its not a real big population but if you targeted them you should be able to catch a few.