cufishin

I live in Fenton and work in midtown, Neither qualifies as Nirvana but I wouldn't call them bad areas. All cities this size have bad areas, some less, some more. But judging a city by it's least desirable qualities is a little like dropping a friend because they are too short or overweight.

I'm sure I've done worse stuff in the past that I've blocked out of my memory, but heres a recent Oh Crap moment. I had pulled the boat out of the garage just to clean and organize for the next days fishing trip, everything was going smoothly and quickly. I decided to check the fuel level and thought it would save a few minutes getting on the water if I went and filled the tank right then instead of waiting till morning. I head out for the gas station just 1/2 mile away and the trailer is pulling oddly and making noises I hadn't heard ever before. When I get to the station I start looking for the problem, I had left the new trailer jack in the down position. I'm just lucky that I haven't done something that stupid when I pull out for a long trip.

Went out to Coffeen lake the last weekend of Feb, water was at 52 degrees everywhere in the lake, made for some slooooow fishing. We found out later while we were loading up the boat that the power plant is down for maintenance until sometime in May, so until then Coffeen is a regular lake without any artificial warming.

Alcohol makes me break out............Doors, windows that kinda stuff then I start seeing spots..........like jails or hospitals

Once when I was trolling for Salmon in the Puget Sound we had a hit on a downrigger rod and began fighting a Salmon, not too long into it it felt like I had lost him, no head tugging or running but I still had a lot of tension on the line. As I reeled some more I saw that I had snagged some yellow poly rope, it obviously had something tied to it that was heavy, we thought it was most likley a crab pot that had lost it's bouy. So I set down the rod and started pulling in the rope and soon feel some head tugging on the rope. I wound up had landing a @7lb Coho that someone else had broken off on the crab pot line and got a nice crab pot as well. I did lose my original fish and about $15 worth of tackle though

On our little cul-de-sac we have great neighbors, mostly older retired folks, very friendly except for one widow, she just keeps to herself but causes no problems. We have a similar deal as the OP with our next door neighbors except they are @ 80 years old so we mow their lawn and shovel when it snows. He has a huge organic garden in the back yard and my roommate has full access, she helps him tend it and we get free veggies. It's neat to come home and see 6 big bright tomatoes on our front bench. One thing the old guy still gets out to do is deer hunting, last year he gave us an entire deer, processed, packaged and ready for the freezer. Thats the best payment I ever got for mowing a yard!

I have tropical fish, some of them are over a pound. I think if they were bass or crappies the temptation would be too much in these winter months :-[ If it did get the best of me I'll bet I could still lose tackle in a 75 gal fishtank

Website says they are in the U.K More manufacturing jobs lost to foreign competition ;D

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/12/drunk_man_kills_shark_by_jumpi.php It would also appear that he like to have a couple cold ones while he's at it. Hard to say if this is true or not, but I thought it was pretty wild.

My 1957 Richline hasn't given me any problems with leaking in the couple years and couple dozen times I've used it. This boat is a 50+year old riveted semi-V that was just a shell when I got it but now has front and rear decks and a floor. I owned an 18' Starcraft center console(riveted) for years that was used extensively on the Puget Sound, this boat took countless poundings in rough water and leaked the entire time I owned it, a bilge pump easily handled it but I always kept a spare pump on board, I learned that lesson soon after I got the boat. (bilge quit working = end of fishing for the day before I wised-up) I'm no expert but I'll give you my opinion FWIW: Either type of construction is prone to failure, a welded hull will probably take more abuse but can fail in a more costly and dramatic way if it does. Welded hulls are usually going to be rated for more HP and weight. So the real questions would be: How many people do you want to accommodate? How fast do you want to able to cruise? How likely is it that you'll be in rough water? A couple guys on a small/medium lake/river: riveted will be fine for many many years. 3 or 4 people or 2 adults and a couple kids going out on larger lakes or rivers: you will probably be happier with a welded boat

Awesome movie. And +1 on the Dukes swagger. "Don't worry, I aint gonna hit ya"

I've only done small areas with it but one of these can make the task a lot less difficult and time consuming http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/multifunction-tools.html I see coupons for this item in many outdoor magazines that would let you pick one up for @ $30

http://www.fishingnotes.com/lakeinfo.php?id=8000 Heres a link that will give you some good info. I've only fished there once early this spring and did well on a carolina rigged worm. I fished on of the bays on the southwest corner. I haven't been back lately just because the water temp there has been pretty high with our overly hot summer we had. Also last time I was there I had a little 14' flat bottom with an antique outboard. I'm really looking forward to getting my newer boat and bigger motor on that lake so I can cover some more water. Things should really be picking up there about now.

A religious man goes to church on Sundays and thinks about fishing... A spiritual man goes fishing on Sundays and thinks about God.

This is proof positive that whenever "they" try to make something idiot-proof a better idiot will evolve.

That bass was awesome! He hit a weightless fluke I was fishing with a spinning rod, he was pulling off line and found some weeds to wrap up in. by the time we got him next to the boat and I was able to lip him I pulled up 6lbs of bass and 2 lbs of salad. Thank God I was throwing a spoon on my baitcaster when the muskie hit, he was in the weeds when he hit and there was no doubt it was a muskie soon after, He was pushing down weeds like an underwater bulldozer, probably a good thing that I was only @ 15' from the boat at the time, he was none too anxious to see the inside of the boat!

Just got back from a 12 day trip to Lake Kashabog in Ontario. We had a great time and did a lot of fishing. I hit the tifecta with the biggest fish of the trip in 3 classes. Got a largemouth that was over 6lbs, a 37" Muskie and a smallmouth that was @3 1/2 lbs. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us when the muskie was caught, we didn't even have anything to measure him so my uncle's boat now has a notch cut in one of the oars 37" from the end of the handle. All the fish were released in a top secret location, maybe I can check in on them next year

I had the 15lb on my shimano baitcaster, I took it off after 1 trip. Too much memory for my taste. also seemed thicker than most FC line in the same pound test class.

Good call on the plywood, marine or pressure treated plywood has metals/chemicals in it that react badly with the aluminum of a lot of jon boats.

Bass Pro or Cabela's both sell boat carpet. You can also use the outdoor carpet that is sold at Home Depot or Lowes. The thing to look for is some kind that has a rubber backing. A few years ago when I was fixing up a 14' jon. I think we found some closeout/remnant stuff at one of those big box stores and got an 8'x8' piece for around $30. You just need to look around and get a little lucky(same way I fish ) For my latest project I used a piece of that real low loop commercial carpet that I've had rolled up in the basement for years, it wont last as long as real outdoor carpet but it was free. My boat also lives in the garage and on days when it's raining more than a few showers I usually dont go out or stay out on the water.

Wow, now that I'm getting a bit older I don't do much after fishing except get the boat put away, get something to eat and fall asleep in the recliner. All that cleaning and prep work will still be there when I have more motivation and energy.

I'm having trouble getting this old Rude to fire up, It does have electric start but the starter wont really spin the motor too well, maybe 1 revolution per second. If I pull the plugs it will spin fine. I've got good spark on both plugs, fuel is getting to the cylinders but All I'm getting is an occasional combustion. The motor seems to have good compression although I haven't put a tester on it yet. I'm just wondering what I am missing, or what my next move should be.

Sounds like a good time for you and your friend, and no the results won't be good enough to publish in Scientific American. But, it's not like you're curing cancer or launching the Space Shuttle. To me this sounds more like a good excuse to spend more time fishing and gain bragging rights.

I had a similar thing happen on the Puget Sound, a buddy and I were fishing our favorite bottom fish spot drifting over a drop-off and had some guys in a big cruiser try to mimic our pattern. We caught a small ling cod and decided to have some fun, we used a small hook, about 100' of line and a balloon to rig up our "marker buoy" to the ling cod. We knew that the ling would go back to his 70' deep hole that was 20-30 yards away from the drop-off. We spent the next 45 min trying not to laugh loud enough for them to hear us, never seen anyone have so much trouble positioning a boat close to a marker. After they left we pulled the ling back in and release it unharmed. Of course we knew he was fine the whole time the way he had been swimming around.

Me and a buddy were out fishing on the Meramac river around Fenton last weekend and had a Carp that was probably around 15" long jump out of the water and land in the boat while we were cruising along at 10 mph. They had been jumping all day while we were out there. We also saw several catfish either swirl at the surface or jump.