The Rooster

Maybe it adds to their action, or keeps them running horizontal instead of angled downward like they are trying to dive but not able to.

That reminds me of another favorite memory. My wife now, but my girlfriend at the time, back in September 2001, just before 9-11 actually. We went camping that weekend, and were at Yatesville Lake (see above stories from me, they all happened there). Went out to the main boat dock just before sunset to mainly enjoy the scenery and just walk along the shore. But being who I am, I took a couple of fishing rods too, you know.........just incase she wants to.......let me fish instead of walk. Well we did stop and fish. But it wasn't in the most ideal spot. It was on a stretch of bank with absolutely no cover or structure, the main swimming area of the beach actually, and it had a muddy bottom with virtually no rock. I rigged her up a 4" purple twirl tail worm on a light wire 1/0 hook with a small split shot pegged about a foot above the worm. She made a few casts and so did I, then suddenly I see her cranking away with the rod bent down. She managed to hook a bass about 12 inches in length. She was excited by it I could tell, but she wouldn't take it off the hook or even touch it. So I did it for her. Funny she was the only one who caught a fish, and that was the only one we caught. But it was special because first of all, I really thought we had no chance of catching anything where we were at. And we were just spending one on one time together getting to know each other and that happened and made a memory for us.

I have another favorite memory. Not the first time I ever went fishing however. I had been before when I was a kid. But for some reason it just never took hold. Fastforward to May, 1996. I'm 22 years old, been fishing about 5 times in my life to this point. A friend of mine I worked with was always talking about fishing. He was always asking me to go, but I just always found an excuse not to. Seemed boring to me, waiting for a bite, never catching anything. Well, he finally talked me into it, saying he promised I'd catch fish. So we went, along with his father-in-law, and we took 5 dozen nightcrawlers to a fairly new lake at the time, Yatesville lake in Lawrence Co. Kentucky. That day, I borrowed one of his rods, an ultralite micro rod about 4 1/2 feet long. I was rigging whole nightcrawlers on 1/0 light wire hooks and casting them out weightless. 12" bass were busting them left and right and on a small rod like that it was a serious fight. We also caught a lot of sunfish and bluegill. I had to go to work that afternoon but they stayed and fished on. I went to work feeling better than I had in a long time though. From that day to this one I have been SERIOUSLY hooked on bass fishing, and fishing in general. Wasn't even a year until I bought my first boat and refinished it. The rest is history.

Well, you're probably right, and it does make sense. Just sucks. That black/chartreuse color is flat out awesome in muddy water. There was a time last summer after the rain the water looked so bad and that black/chartreuse was the only thing they'd hit for 3 days straight. I only had one left and they tore it up so bad I had to glue the skirt together to keep fishing it. Now it looks so bad I hate to throw it anymore but I can't get rid of it until I get 50 new ones.

I've searched everywhere locally, and even online that I can think of to find Worden's Roostertail lures in the Black Chartreuse color. Sizes 3/8, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 oz. No one has them except for the Worden's website, and they want about $4.50 for them each plus shipping, which is about twice the going rate in a store not counting shipping. Local bait stores tell me they cannot get that color. I'm looking for that specific color, and it has an abbreviation of BLC on the back of each one. Any idea where I can get it?? BPS and Cabela's do not have them.

I have 7 Wal-Marts within 1 hour's drive from where I live. I used to work there and in the sporting goods department so I got in on the clearance as soon as it was marked down and used to get a lot of good stuff. But over the years I think they've stopped keeping very good stuff at Wal-Mart, it's went way WAY down around here, and their clearance is not as good as it was before either. But when I first got into fishing I stocked up on most of the basics from clearance. Now I hardly buy anything at all, even hooks, from there. BPS and Cabela's, local shops, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sportsman's Warehouse, that's where I get my stuff now. Sometimes I drive for 3 hours to get to one or the other. BPS and Cabela's are the only two I have to go so far for. I think the best thing I ever got on clearance at Wal-Mart was a Minn Kota Powerdrive with Autopilot 36 lb. thrust trolling motor. Paid $100 for it brand new in the box unopened 11 years ago. No longer have it now though. Used to get rods and reels too, but their selection is hardly worth fooling with now.

I have a favorite memory, well, one of my favorites. My wife and I were on Yatesville lake here in Kentucky 2 years ago, fishing during a tournament, but I wasn't in it I just happened to be there. We were slowly fishing towards a cove working my way in from the outside edges of the main lake and another boat (in the tournament) was doing the same from the other side of the cove's entrance. As I got closer to it, I saw them rushing to get in ahead of me, powerfishing as they went, where I was slowly working a Zoom Fluke. They beat me inside the cove and fished for about 5 minutes before I made my way in, but they picked the wrong side. I fished along and found a stump about 3 feet off shore and casted the Fluke to it and a bass just blasted that Fluke. I saw it take it and I set the hook like it was a 10 pounder, fought it in and landed it. I caught a fish before they did (they never did catch one actually). I'm not a great fisherman (yet) but it was a nice bass. It wasn't a keeper though, here they have to be 15 inches at least and it was only 14. But after that, those guys wanted to talk suddenly whereas before they didn't even speak to say hello. They wanted to know what I caught it on, what color it was, how I worked it, and everything. I just thought it was funny that they made such a rush to beat me in that cove and I was the only one who caught anything and I wasn't even in the tourney. Yeah I know if they had caught it, it wouldn't have helped them any cause it wasn't a keeper, but I never fish tournaments, I just fish, and it's funny to me that they thought they had to get in ahead of me and I ended up catching a fish anyway while they didn't. Shortly thereafter, while still in that cove, the smell of fresh barbecued hamburgers was filling the air as my wife had the propane grill going in the back while I was on deck up front fishing. MMMMMM......I can still taste 'em.

Me too. I'm going to remember the drop and pull technique. I usually just throw it out like normal and crank it back in actually trying to catch a fish and the whole time hoping one doesn't hit it. If it does then the rest of the day usually is no good.

Hmmm......this will require some more though. Quickly just now I asked my wife and she replied....."ebay".

I agree with both of these statements also. I must have spinnerbait eyes, and I won't buy one unless it has them. And if they're painted on, then the paint has to be evenly applied to both sides and they have to be painted on in the proper places so as to look like it's actually eyes on the head, not blobs of paint randomly applied. And I have to have more than one rod. 2 is an absolute minimum and I feel handicapped with that few. 5 is my average.

When I buy a new rod and reel, the colors have to look good and they have to match. If they don't I won't buy it. Example would be the rod is red and gold, but the "supposed" matching reel is red and silver. I won't buy that no matter how good it is. And I never buy prematched combos, always match my own up. I will fish a rod in any length as long as it is 6 foot. When I buy a lure I will look at every single one they have and pick out the best one of the lot. If I get two I will take the "next best one" of what's left, and so on. I never buy Worden's Roostertails in less than 3 quantities. I organize them in order of colors in the box and by weight. Then for the next size down I start over again and duplicate the color arrangment patter of the previous weight laying them out in the Plano 3701 container. When I get spinnerbaits I have to have chartreuse, white, and chart/white comination in double willow, tandem, and double colorado and in every available weight, 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 oz. That's 27 spinnerbaits right there. If I add another color to that list I must get it in all available blade combos and weights too. I will not fish a white spinnerbait unless it has silver blades. If it doesn't, I will swap blades to set one up. The head has to look like a real fish. If it doesn't I won't buy it. Booyah spinnerbaits are my favorites for this, and Strikekings too. If a spinnerbait does not "look good" I won't fish it either. Skirts must be trimmed to an even length on the bottom, no shaggy looking skirts allowed. When it comes to spinnerbaits I have a huge hangup. When I get soft plastics I take them out and handle them, smell them, and sometimes even taste one to see how they will be liked by the fish. My tackle bag MUST be totally organized, nothing ever out of place. But I do keep an empty area for quickly stowing a bait I'm finished fishing with so I don't have to find the exact box and put it back immediately. But when I get home I immediately have to fix it all again. I never put a lure back with any remaining fishing line still tied on, it must be cleanly cut off as if new out of the box. About once a year I will reorganize my entire tackle system to what "seems" like it's better set up. I usually end up changing it back again soon afterwards. I cannot fish with dirty equipment, I must wipe it down with a damp cloth if it has dust on it from storage at home. I do not keep fishing equipment in an outside shed, garage, building. It stays in the house in my family room or in my bed room. I used to have a wooden rod rack that I built to display them on. If a rod/reel combo wasn't expensive I can't fish with it, seems too "cheap". I could go on and on.......my mother is massively obsessive/compulsive. This must be where I get it from.

We take our dog nearly every time we go fishing on the boat or otherwise. He's not very big at all though. And he's mostly well behaved, but once he did jump into the water after a small bass I caught and let him sniff before throwing back. I'm not sure he realized it was water, he just thought he was supposed to go fetch what I threw overboard. He was swimming around all surprised like he couldn't figure out what happened after he jumped out. While I fish, he just sleeps, or walks around the boat looking out at things on shore, rarely makes any noise, never pees or poops in the boat, and generally is a pleasure to have around. Below are some pics of him on our boat, and of the time he went overboard... This is the time he went overboard and I had to fish him out. He was still looking for that bass when I brought him onboard again dripping wet.

Yes I will definately post pics. I am a member of another forum, car audio related and we constantly post pics over there of our installed systems. I'm treating this boat just like I would a top notch audio installation and it's going to be done to the letter perfect if possible. And as much as $$$$ will allow for. When I'm finished with this boat it will look as good as, and be as good as having a new 2008 model. Trailer will need some work but I'm thinking I may just get a brand new aluminum trailer, no rust that way. Priced at about $1600 I think that's a good price for a new trailer. The boat will be like new, and the motor runs great and looks fine, just needs cleaned up some.

Thank you. I went yesterday to the dealer and got the matching receptacle for that plug I have. It was made by Rig Rite Manufacturing Inc. That's the brand name. They had a 2 prong and a 4 prong that both would fit it, I got the 4 prong even though I only needed 2 prong. I figured it might help to hold the plug in the socket more securely having 4 prongs in 4 holes instead of just 2 only (my old trolling motor plug on the previous motor was constantly falling out on me). Plus the 4 prong was $3 cheaper which made no sense to me, the dealer said it was just an older model :-?. Oh well, I came home and it fit like a glove so I'm all set on that. Also got some parts to install a V shaped keel roller on my trailer to replace a metal plate that has the plastic coated surface cracked. That part was where the bow of the boat came to rest after it was trailered again. It was nearly about to be metal to metal contact on my aluminum hull so I had to fix that before bad stuff happened to my boat hull. The previous owner of this boat did NOTHING to take care of it. The day I bought it, it was covered in 1/4 inch of ice inside and out, over seats, depth finder, wiring, dash switches and gauges, motors and all. Left it outside in an ice storm with no cover, he had no cover for it at all, so weather, rain, sun, snow, bird crap, animals, leaves, anything at all could get to it and in it. I'm restoring it now for my use. A little bit about my boat. It's a 93 model Smokercraft V-hull, 16 feet long and roughly about 6 foot beam width. I'm restoring it with new carpet, front deck and sidewall wood, new electronics, trolling motor, seats, and one new seat mount in front, rod racks, wiring, live well hoses, the works basically. Got it gutted down to the aluminum hull mostly at the moment. Only main flooring wood still remains in the boat as it was still good. The rest of the wood was removed to be recovered (what pieces are good) and replaced (what pieces are bad). Already bought the trolling motor and a new fish finder, a Humminbird Pirahnamax 220, dual beam unit. Nice for the money I think. Motor on this boat is a 89 model Johnson 88 SPL, 88 HP with a stainless prop, and aftermarket added on tilt and trim. I love it, runs great and so fast. Faster than I'll ever need. Estimated at about 40 - 45 MPH by my buddy who had a bass boat that ran 55 MPH as shown by his speedometer. I don't have a speedometer so we're just guessing. Maybe later I'll install one. Too much else to do now. I'm thoroughly stunned by how fast this boat will get up and plane out with such a deep V hull. It planes out fully and does not plow water at all. Boat hull is rated for 90 HP max, and I've got 88 HP so I'm pretty much there. I figure that explains it mostly, to me anyway since I don't know a lot about that part of a boat. Just how to use them and fish them mostly.

UPDATE: I called the dealer today where I bought the motor from and he says he has a receptacle that will fit that plug on the motor. So I should be good to go once I get that. I'll let you guys know how it all comes out after I install it. I plan on sticking around here and posting more, I'm heavily into bass fishing (interested anyway, only decently good at it).

I wanna read some "dead body" stories.....

Thanks for the replies. The motor calls for 6 gauge to run from the battery to the receptacle in the owner's manual. Also it says to use a 50 amp breaker, not a 60. If I typed 60 before, that was a mistake. Being an electrician by trade, the 50 amp breaker with 6 gauge wire makes sense to me since 6 gauge wire is rated to carry 50 amps at it's max. 8 gauge is only rated for 40 amps max, and using a 50 amp breaker on that would allow the wire to heat up beyond it's range instead of opening the breaker, and possibly make the wire insulation get hot enough the melt. I'm still looking around. I think I'll give the Bass Tracker sales places a try, I got the motor from an authorized dealer of Tracker boats so maybe he has something to match it. Otherwise, I'll probably get the Minn Kota brand harness and receptacle kit, and also get the 6 gauge adapter for the back side of the receptacle. I definitely want 6 gauge in my boat, already bought the wire too so I need to use it now.

Thanks guys. I might go back to the dealer and see if he has a plug to fit that. Otherwise, I may try to take it completely out and install my own wiring. Since this motor suggests using 6 gauge then I might try to get something that size to put back on and then get a connector of some kind to fit it.

I bought this motor brand new only a month ago at a local boat dealer. It was out of the box on display, but had never been used. The harness that's on the wire looks to be completely factory since there's no way to remove it without cutting the wire. It looks like it's technically a male plug that goes into a female socket, but it has four female holes in the end of it that accept male prongs that would be recessed inside of the female receptacle. Two of them are connected to the power leads. I have them marked for + and -. The other two are not used. Here is a pic of it.

Bought a new trolling motor, a Minn Kota Powerdrive 55 lb. thrust foot controlled motor. Trying to connect it to my boat and I'm having trouble finding a harness. Minn Kota makes a plug and receptacle that I can use, but the motor itself has a harness on it that I'd have to cut off in order to use that other plug set up. I'd like to find one that matches the plug coming out of the motor if I can. The one that's on it is made to accept two male prongs into holes on the end of the plug I have coming out of the motor. Any idea where I can find one to match this??

A duck. I was casting live nightcrawlers in a pond and got too close to a duck and he grabbed it. I hooked him in the tongue. I had to chase him down and hold his neck and head while cutting the hook to remove it. He was very mad when I let him go. Then I reeled in 1/2 of a rod with a Daiwa spincast reel on it. It had an Eerie Derie lure on it. I thought it was strange to find a walleye lure on a rod in the bottom of a trout/bass lake. Maybe they do work for bass, who knows. Other things include shoes, diapers, once a small rock hooked perfectly in a hole on top of it. I once witnessed my brother catch a dead bass. It was hooked in the mouth so he thought it had taken his line. Turned out it had another line attached to it also and apparently had been hung up and died cause it could not move around to feed. He hooked it perfectly in the jaw, brought it in, lipped it and then was surprised to find it was already dead. Wasn't a keeper though so he had to throw it back. ;D

Been living right here beside this river my whole life and I'm only just beginning to fish it by boat. So far I've had good luck with inline spinners, the Blue Fox Foxtail in all chrome with a white hackle tail and a little red trailer built in, size 4. Largemouths and white bass and even one smallie loved those last fall, which is the first time I had fished this river seriously in a boat. I'm fishing up around the Ashland Kentucky bridges and as far downstream as the Ironton boat dock and just beyond, casting to shore around rocks and reeling out to sea. Inline spinners have been the number one lure for me in this river for years when fishing from the bank on the Ohio side below the Greenup Kentucky dam. Roostertails mostly, and they do catch some big whitebass and hybrids. Up to 5 pounds so far. 8-)

That's a nice fish. I'm still learning to fish (correctly). I went all last year and didn't catch one that size. I've only ever had a couple that were close to that size in largemouths. Now white bass and hybrids, that's another story.

Thanks. I went with the black rubber again. Now I just gotta install it.

Hello all. I'm new to the forum. Got a question though. I'm redoing my 93 Smokercraft V-hull (new carpet and wood) and I need to run a new drain hose to the livewell in front. The one that's there now looks like it's made out of black rubber similar to fuel line in a car, but about 3/4" in diameter or so. Should I go back with the same material hose again, or can I just use some of the clear plastic tubing that Lowe's and Home Depot sell by the foot??