ring fry

Hawgin, without a doubt, hire a guide. If you have never been there, you will be overwhelmed with that place. Especially now that the water level is back up (YAHOO), every spot you look at looks like it should have fish. By that time you will have pre-spawn AND spawning fish. If you don't hire a guide, PM me and I will give you what I know. I've been going down there 2-5 times a year since 1990. Was there between Christmas and New Years and did pretty well. Will be down again last week of Jan. and sometime in mid March. Maybe you can get the BR Fork trip guys to give you 10 bucks a piece to hire a guide and then give them the info Good Luck

Pitch and flip right handed, but use left handed reel. I switched several years ago, because I missed a few fish in that brief time it took to switch hands. Most of my reels are right handed except my flipping, soft plastic, and spinning. I tried flipping left handed and hit everything but the water ;D

Ya'all are making it tough on me to make a decision. Are there any navionics dealers in the Joplin, Mo. or K.C. area?

When is that Olathe store supposed to open?

zimmy, could you elaborate? I would like to know, as I haven't purchased one yet. I borrowed the old hot spots from a friend, used it on Fork and really liked it.

Just found out that the new chip shipment has again been delayed till December 28th. >

I've posted this on another forum with no luck , so maybe you all can help. I 'heard' a few weeks ago that an updated hot spots chip would be available around the 18th of December. Does any one have any information on this? Thanks in advance.

Not mine, but a friend at where else (?) Lake Fork about 10 years ago. He had caught a 10.88# a couple of years before and this fish was much bigger. He launched a jig n pig as we were leaving an area, felt a tap, and crossed her eyes. Got the fish about half way back to the boat, she rolled, and then spit the jig back at him. The mouth was huge, but the thing I can still remember today was the size of her eyes. I swear they were the size of a fifty cent piece.

Hookum, yes the 2-ton epoxy that is still workable in 30 minutes. DO NOT use the 30 minute dry time epoxy, as it will yellow your baits.

senile1, I hear ya. That crap a couple of weeks ago really made me want to retire early. We plan on spending our golden years in East Texas, but the older I get the more Zapata looks good!!

Well, it shouldn't but, for me it's also from Jan. 1 thru Dec. 31. If there is no ice, which there hasn't been lately, I'll go at least once a week. If nothing else, I'll walk 47 steps to my dock and make a few casts. It also includes two or three trips to Texas Jan. thru March and a couple in the fall.

I've had two of the Berkley $20.00 scales. The first one was about 10 to 15% off. The one I have now is right on at 2.5#, 5#, and 10#. I've thought about the higher dollar scales, but I can't justify it.

YOU ARE TOAST! ;D I have a friend that worked at Cabellas part time for two years in KC. He had to quit, because he couldn't afford it any more. The bait monkey is ten fold when you work there. Good Luck, anyway.

NOAA without question! I run a golf course and have been in the business for over 30 years. Where do you think the other weather services get their information? If you study it long enough, you can make the predictions better than the local weatherman. The discussion area of the NOAA will give you a good insight as to the why's and wherefore's of the current conditions and the future.

Length, girth, and if it is a thick fish, do the measurement around the back fin as well. Also, be sure and take several good pictures with the sun at the camera's back. Good luck, wish I was there!!!

I am in love with these things. Been fishing with them for about a month now. Lake Fork, a couple of weeks ago, did well on the outside edges of grass texas rigged. Have done pretty good here on pits lately, too. My favorite colors are june bug and watermelon with the tail dipped in spike-it on the watermelon. Ordered 6 more packs from Yamamoto last Thursday. Hopefully they will be in on Monday.

NJ & NE, no ice----FISH! I caught my personal best (at the time), an 8# 12oz. bass in a small farm pond in Otoe County, Nebraska on Valentine's Day in '88' by dragging a jig n pig across the ice and letting it fall to the bottom. Bass eat all year, just not as much in the colder water. We also used to catch bass through the ice when I lived up there. So keep fishing!!!

golf course superintendent, manager, head mow boy. 9 years, 11 months, 11 days, 4 hours, 19 minutes till retirement, but who's counting?

I would have to vote 'no' on the bass traveling through the canal to the other lakes. There are always some bass in shallow water at any time of the year. If there are any creeks, depressions, or humps I would concentrate on them. Even if the depth change is only one foot, it can make a difference. If not, then I would probably go to the edge of the one acre of deep water and work from top to bottom. S-l-o-o-o-w presentation is the key. Use small, natural colored plastics and jigs. If that doesn't work, north bank, out of the wind, in the sun! When I lived in Nebraska for four years, one lifetime, we would catch bass through the ice in as little as two feet of water. Where I live now, we have hundreds of old coal mining strip pits. Two of my favorite ones, in the winter, are only 2 to 8 foot deep. One in particular, has about 4 or 5 acres of 8 ' or less water and joins another one with about 40 acres by a small cut that has 40 foot water in it. I catch more bass in the shallow part of the pit in the winter than I do in the deeper part.