Wesley

We have a HB 997 and it is awesome, I love it.

From what I can see on the picture, I have to assume the boat was being driven in a straight line or you would see distortion on the edges of the picture. The boat crosses a small ravine with a small wooden bridge across it sitting in about 22 feet of water. The small ravine looks to be 4 to 6 feet deep. Then the boat crosses a creek that drops down to 30 feet from 22. If the boat was just a few feet to the right we could have got a little bit clearer pic of the bridge, though from what I see it looks like it is falling apart. Also if you look closely to the left of the brige you can see some laydowns that have fallen across the ravine close to where it hits the creek. Now I may be wrong because I wasnt in the boat but this is what I have gathered from my experience with reading SI on the water.

- Can you use any ramp on the lake? I take it you can use any ramp and don't have to take off at a certain time. They just announce when you can make your first cast on the radio. Am i correct on this? Yes, I have launched at 4am and slept in the boat until right before first cast was announced on the radio. - When you register for the tournament can i pay my entry fee online? Yes you can - Can i pick up the tournament package when i arrive at the lake like 3 days before? I believe so

Take a Radio with you and be listening to the hourly weigh-in so you know what it takes to be in the money. If you catch a fish that you think MAY get money you want to run down close to the ramp and see whats brought in those last 15 mins. Dont be scared to hold your fish till the very end of the hour. I have been bumped out several times in just the last 2 or 3 mins. If you bring a fish in at the beginning of the hour then you are stuck there for the whole hour because most people wait till the last few mins to weigh in.

I have fished several on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend. I had a lot of fun and will be fishing them again. If I were able to drive to Guntersville I would drive there and fish it.

Great pictures and thats a good strategy, if they wont hit that spinnerbait or swim jig I will Tx rig a senko and fan cast it over the top of the gas and along the grass line. Sometimes they want you to dead stick it for 1 to 2 mins.

so plan for March 27th?

Hmmm I didnt realize that was Easter weekend I can still make it though. But if we need to move the date I can also do March 27th which is a saturday. I cant do April 10th because my company tournament is that weekend.

I have a boat and my partner will most likely be my wife or brother.

Well lets wait and see who all we have coming. Right now we can just set a date and a place so people can make plans. Do you want to do it down out of 6 mile, or somewhere areound mid lake area? The set up to handle a 5 fish tournament isnt hard as long as people have thier own weigh in bags. A plastic deepsink, and some good scales close to the water will keep the fish safe.

Aww thats not too complicated just wanted to get some details out so people could make plans to be able to be there.

do a google search for Animal paintball

How about we do $25 a boat for the best stringer of 5 and $10 a person for big bass optional? If we get over 10 boats we can pay other places for the stringer of 5, I can download that tourny management software that someone posted on the tournament forums and we can use that to do pay outs. Its not a bassresource sanctioned event but Glenn has no problem with us organizing it on here. So if you have friends or family that might be interested have them come. I do not have scales so unless someone here does we will have to find a marina that will let us use thiers. I was thinking Lowes Creek or Alpine though I do not know if Lowes has scales to use. For the date we can do April 3rd from safe light till 3pm and then have a BBQ after. what do you think of this?

Bayou, I havent got any screen shots but I plan on getting out and getting some soon and we can discuss them on here.

I was wondering who all would be interested in meeting up on April 3rd for a small friendly tournament/meet and greet type deal. Just wanted to put it out there and see what kind of interest there was.

Wow I looked at the software and then followed the links to the TS series scales and leaderboards display and if you were setting up a tournament trail that would be the place to look there.

Jack its not fair in that context. Most tournaments that have an offical off limits period and an offical practice period are going to have rules against useing guides during practice days. If they do not then really there is nothing illegal about it and we all have to deal with it. People are going to use every advantage they can get out there. Doenst make it always right, my point was there is no use letting it get into your head and affecting your game plan.

I dont see it as a problem, unless it is specificaly prohibited in a tournaments rules then there is nothing you can do about it. You go out there and you fish your game let them find thier own. No matter what a guide shows them they have to go out and catch the fish on tournament day and they have to deal with whats changed since they went out.

Those deep grass lines in Housen should be good this time of year.

Catt, my depthfinder will take shots like the ones posted above. If there is any places you would like to get out and take some Downimage or side image shots of let me know and we can get out there some time and get it done.

Hey man I remember you, Welcome to the BR forums.

Sounds like you have it down, now you just need these companies to pay you for that spill.

Well you are entitled to your opinion just like everyone else. But I can tell you lots of tournament anglers hire guides to help them out on lakes they arent familiar with its not against the rules so its not cheating. Now to get the thread back on topic.

I'm thinking about going the guide route on St Clair, Traverse bays, and Burt/Mullet. While I'm sure you can go, and catch fish, I want to maximize my time on the water. A guide could really help do that. Will guides typically let you carry a GPS and mark spots? Seems pretty douchey to me.. :-/ If the guide is worth his money and you let him know before he shouldnt have a problemw ith you marking spots afterall you could hire him with the express purpose of helping you find fishing spots.

Good to hear, I have always loved Bassmaster mags and now days all you hear is negative stuff about them so its nice to see a positive comment!