TnRiver46

My first world problem: the river by my house is nasty, most would call it unfishable. As the old timers say, “It’s so thick you can see raccoon tracks on top of it.” So now I have to drive my truck around looking for better water, and I’m a cheapskate ! I burned up a lot of gas for 1 largemouth yesterday but I did find clear water and 1 largemouth which is more than the zero any kind of fish I would have caught near my house. I even tried fishing the mud water with every lure I could imagine on Saturday, white bass were spawning all over the surface and wouldn’t hit any lures, including rattle traps chatterbaits, umbrella rigs, stuff they always hit even in stained water but this is just too nasty

I now see the dilemma! A lot of our customers have mice get into cars they don’t drive frequently. @J Francho is correct, keep poison in there and make sure it’s fresh! Traps and poison do the same thing, kill mice. Traps are reusable but you gotta reset them unless you use a repeating trap like the bucket suggested above. But if you catch a whole bunch, then you have pretty foul bucket in your boat. The poison at least let’s them have the opportunity to die elsewhere (although they could still die in the boat).

You’ll never get them all but getting rid of the ones that climb into the boat certainly can’t hurt! Do you live near where you store it? Frequent checking of the traps and just looking into the boat often will surely be better than storing it for months without looking inside. I’ve seen mice get into everything, exclusion is literally impossible (my boss claims a mouse went into space with John Glenn according to his journals). If Houston couldn’t keep one out of the space shuttle, I doubt you can keep one from getting under a boat cover. If it was my boat, I would leave traps in there all the time and check them about twice a week. @J Francho, I always wanted to go pro as a kid, who knew it would be going pro in varmints? Haha

Nobody was hurt my foot! I guarantee that hurt

A skateboarding grandpa. Congrats!

I agree. Gin is the devils drink, I know it says 40% alcohol but it feels like 400%

Might have better luck machining your own haha. I’ve tried running down rare parts before, nothing fun about it . back about ‘09 all the local marinas were getting sick of me asking for stuff they couldn’t find

I just 86ed that piece on mine, but I put a mud motor on and the clamps fit better without it

There’s a blue million of those hanging in every store ‘round here

My aluminum canoe has foam inside the front and back and the mice chewed little burrows into the foam to sleep, so filling the cavities might just give them some warm insulation. Might be worth a try though, I would just keep traps set near the cavities at all times

I’ve never heard of it being illegal to shoot a squirrel. California? Unfortunately , as with all people when it comes to mice, you are over thinking it. You need maximum amounts of mouse death which are provided via dogged persistence with traps and/or poison. There is not structure on earth much bigger than a mason jar that a mouse cannot penetrate . If you leave wooden snap traps (victor brand, number one seller for probably a century) baited with peanut butter and sunflower seed set in your boat and check them every now and then, you won’t have any problems. But mouse traps are the last thing anyone will ever think of when it comes to dealing with mice. The irony is often too much to bear

Mice and other animals being a pain is how I pay the bills! If you find something that is “mouse proof,” you will be a billionaire and retired in the Bahamas

Not even close to spawning, lake is pretty muddy and flooded right now

That’s why you just push the thumb bar and play it by ear!

Yes access and fishing remains good. Some ramps are left out of the water but there’s always a few open year round. Floating docks aren’t always available but there’s always fishing going down

seems like They always do that right next to the boat! Sneaky devils Well, it's personal preference. But to me, 1 single drag setting is not always right. A fish isn't always pulling with the same exact strength and speed so I like the amount of resistance I'm using to be ever changing, not set

The advantage of the thumb bar is now your brain is the drag and is dynamic. It’s not set at 2 lb, 3lbs, blah blah blah. It can be looser when the fish pulls harder in a split second. I’ve yet to see a pro angler NOT push the thumb bar when a fish dives under the boat. And I’ve seen lots of pros backreel their spinning reels too....... but that shall be ignored before we go down that path or the thread will be locked like my drags

Reckon why your reels come with drag adjustments then?

Usually 40s-50s and raining . Douglas floods and muddies up worse than the other lakes you mentioned as it's the only dam on the french broad river. Douglas and cherokee get drawn down about 30 feet in winter, norris about 20 feet in winter, tellico about 6 feet in winter and melton hill stays full all winter. The only time they lower melton hill is in the spring to allow people to walk around the shoreline and clean up garbage for a week or two . Melton hill also has big muskie

I think it was a challenge from Dave mercer, Cox rows! Inspired my danny mcbride's character kenny powers in the show "east bound and down"

I wouldn’t say it was warm but a fellow fisherman said it was in the mid 50s. Early enough in the spring those small streams can be the warmest water around . I also didn’t wade in past the Mendoza line ...........

Now if only the lighting would stop I’d take her for a water test update: water test went well, no hiccups

For panoptics or live target, think of a flasher type unit like a vexilar but instead of shooting straight down an ice hole it can pan all around. And instead of displaying it as flashes, it turns it into a clear display and you can see fish moving on a screen. People have been watching fish approach their lures on units for a long time, but it was always directly under the ice or boat. Now they can scan forward while moving the boat around, effectively scanning 360 degrees. I also imagine the newer live units have a wider cone angle than older units? Not sure though.

Who knows where they will die but you’d rather have a dead mouse in there than a live mouse With extreme levels of persistence

It appears it was the rectifier, the new one is charging the battery! Good thing nobody shook my hand on that stator bet....... 1 million thanks to @galyonj