BigAngus752

Tatula SV. Then you can throw anything you want.

I had this happen on my Lowrance a couple weeks ago in 10 feet of water and discovered I had accidentally turned off the auto-range and had locked the depth at 30ft. It was trying to show me the bottom and another bottom below that.

^^^this^^^ As usual @Scott F and @A-Jay are handing out great advice. It's not bluegill where I'm at though. I am a truly spectacular crappie fisherman...unfortunately I'm always fishing for bass...heck, last Saturday I caught a 15in walleye on a lipless crankbait in a forest preserve pond where they swear THERE IS NO WALLEYE. Uh, so this bass is dressed up like a walleye for Halloween then?

You've already gotten some spectacular advice in this thread but considering you've been at it so long with what sounds like NO bites from ANY fish at all I have to ask two things: 1. Are you certain that there are fish in the body of water you are fishing? 2. How long at a time are you fishing? I ask these things because there are some retention ponds in subdivisions around our city that are completely lifeless. Also, if you are spending only 30 minutes at a time fishing then I'm not surprised you are having difficulty catching. In the hot summer months I may only catch one or two fish in 5 or 6 hours and I'm in a boat. If you are spending a considerable amount of time fishing water that you KNOW holds fish then all I can add to what these guys have suggested is SLOW down. And then slow down some more. Slow down until you are bored to tears. When you catch something you won't be bored anymore.

Nice fish! Congrats!

Hey don't worry about it this time. When you have a 5 1/2 pound fish it never LOOKS long-armed even when it is! Beautiful bass!

That is just a shame. Manners are definitely disappearing from our society. But that just strengthens my resolve to go out of my way to lead by example.

I have to believe that you are correct and it has a lot to do with where you are. Fishable water with catchable bass is very far and few between in the middle of Illinois. The large lake that I fish is the best bass water for over 100 miles and it will have as many as four tournaments a week during peak season. I've been on that lake when it was practically bumper boats. Everyone seems to understand and tries to get along. But as many have mentioned, an armed society is a polite society.

Man, that is a great color! That would likely be almost perfect for one of the lakes I fish. I need to learn how to do this. I would make one with a white bottom and another with a dark red bottom. I bet those would slay them on one of my home lakes. Nice work there. Your attention to detail is amazing and your dedication is even more impressive.

X2 on that. Fortunately most progressive police departments are now allowing officers to choose their own sidearm in addition to offering them excellent issue weapons like the Glock. I consider the S&W pistols to be well designed and highly reliable. The fact that he has shot one and felt comfortable with it is all you really need to know. If he feels comfort and confidence then he will do well with it. Funny that you mention the first M16s...our department purchased 24 surplus M16s from D.O.D. for just a few bucks each. We received them and found that they were all M16-A1s manufactured prior to 1968. They were all full-auto (not burst triggers) but they still had the pencil barrels and shiny plastic stocks (and they were beat to crap). Those pencil barrels are just shy of worthless. We stripped them down and threw everything into a big junk box except the lowers. We bought everything else new and built short-barreled entry guns on those lowers for the SWAT team. Really didn't save any money....and I kept thinking about the guys stuck in that heck-hole Vietnam with those original AR15/M16s after their reliable, accurate, powerful infantry rifles were taken way from them. Message me anytime. I'm happy to help, but I think he's got a decision made in his head already and it sounds like a perfectly reasonable, reliable choice to me.

Hey, you can't beat that price right there!

Those are all good reels and this is NOT a knock on TW because I buy the vast majority of my tackle (and a couple of my rods) from TW...but I have not found TW to be the best place to buy reels. Even with a 20% discount. You need to check EBay and shop some of the box store deals. Heck, I got a Revo SX Gen 4 from Dick's for $99 and got a FREE 7ft M/H Vendetta. Again, not knocking TW in any way, other than the prices on their reels.

I have been a Master Pistol Instructor and Master Rifle Instructor as well as a certified Armorer for numerous firearms manufacturers for over 20 years. I also testify as an expert witness in both state and federal court regarding firearms evidence and I'm in my 27th year as a police officer in a major jurisdiction. Just to give you some info so you can decide if my advice is worth your time. Choosing a duty weapon is not a decision you can make by figuring out what is a "reliable" or "desirable" firearm or what someone else likes or prefers. Kudos to his department for allowing him to choose his sidearm!!! I feel that is extremely important! Please ask your son the following: 1. Why doesn't he like the Glock .40 (I assume it's a Model 22)? The specifics of his answer is how you will search for the new sidearm. 2. Has anyone ever helped him check his natural "grip angle"? Everyone has a natural tendency to "point in" . UNLOAD THE GLOCK. Then check to make sure it's unloaded. Then check AGAIN to make sure it's unloaded. Have him hold the pistol in front of him in a two-hand grip in the "hunt" position (depressed muzzle position). Tell him to pick a point on the wall at about eye level like a picture or wall light. Tell him to close his eyes and visualize the point on the wall. Have him quickly raise the pistol to a firing position WHILE KEEPING HIS EYES CLOSED. Freeze. Have him open his eyes and determine where his sight picture is in relation to the point on the wall. Is the front sight way below the rear sight so his shot would go really low? Is the front sight way above the rear sight so his shot would go really high? Are his front and rear sights nearly level? Different pistols have different grip angles. Some of us naturally point in at a grip angle that matches the Glock grip angle. Some of us naturally point in at an angle that matches a more upright grip angle such as a 1911. Can he learn to shoot a pistol that does not match his natural inclination for grip angle? Of course he can, but it may be easier (and more comfortable) for him to find a pistol that matches his natural "point in". 3. Is it the recoil/muzzle flip of the Glock that he doesn't care for? He should try a 9mm Glock pistol. Don't listen to the pop culture gun "experts" that bad mouth the 9mm. The 9mm round in its different variants has killed more people all over the world than any other pistol round by about a multiple of 50. I carry a Glock 17 (9mm). No one I work with wants me to shoot at them so it must be a decent round. All of our MFI's (Master Firearms Instructors) are trained to watch our shooters that have smaller hands or less grip/wrist/forearm strength for the tell-tale sign that the .40S&W round is not for them. You can see that shooters with smaller hands/weaker grips will absorb the recoil from the .40 and the gun will actually twist slightly in their hands. Glocks have a right-hand twist to their polygonal rifling and a .40 round is actually hot enough to translate to the recoil causing the gun to twist as the muzzle rises if the shooter isn't strong. In my experience it's actually more likely for a "less strong" shooter to be more comfortable with a .45ACP than a .40S&W. The problem with the .45 becomes the size (circumference) of the grip. If it is the recoil/muzzle flip that your son doesn't like, warn him that the polymer-framed pistols are much more forgiving than steel or aluminum-framed pistols. Super slow-motion video shows that polymer-framed pistols bend and flex with every shot which translates to less felt recoil. 4. Is it the trigger that he doesn't like? That's a no-brainer. He need to try some different pistols until he finds one that he likes. Most importantly, don't look for a "bargain". There are cheap guns, there are good guns that are excellent purchases for homeowners and people with concealed carry licenses, and then there are firearms that can take the abuse of a daily duty weapon. Keep your manufacturer shopping list short, perhaps focused only on those pistol manufacturers that have built guns to compete for military contracts, etc. I'm happy to help in any way that I can. Feel free to PM me also if you wish.

I'm with @GReb. Spinners are a go-to here. Wind is the real indicator. Any kind of breeze that ripples the water (ours is two-foot clarity at best) and spinners will catch consistently. In fact, I find that with some breeze and rip-rap or a weed line then spinners or lipless cranks are almost interchangeable. You can throw either here and catch fish under those circumstances.

^^^this^^^ There just isn't a time that I don't try a Zara Spook. Literally every single time I go out I walk a Spook for at least a little while regardless of season.

HA! The man lists eleven lure types and adds "other". And "other" stays at the top of the survey!!! This tells you just how much tackle crap there is for us dummies to buy!!! Bait Monkey is the monkey on my back...

I grew up in Peoria, IL and now live an hour away. Let me assure you that this is absolutely a "NOPE". You can no longer take a bass boat or small pleasure boat up on plane in the Illinois River near Peoria. At least not without wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet and risking damage to your boat. When I was a teen (30+ years ago) we used to water ski all day long on the river. That's when the carp were just starting to show up and we'd catch them and laugh about it. We started seeing them as a problem when I left 27 years ago. Perhaps "run it's course" will happen eventually but 27 years hasn't been long enough so maybe 100 or so?

You have GOT to start shopping the sales! Sign up for Dick's scorecard and every other store's reward crap that you can find. Watch the sale thread on this forum like a hawk. There are a million ways to get rods at a discount. My favorite deals so far have been: Powell Inferno on sale at TW for $80; M/H Vendetta for FREE when I bought a Revo SX (Gen4) on sale for $99; Lew's Carbon Fire spinning rod on sale and using a combination of Dick's rewards stuff for $40. I agree that these aren't high end rods, but they are great rods for me. You can find a lot of rod for $60 or less if you shop patiently and diligently.

This summer has been a lot of one fish trips and some skunked days too, but there hasn't been a single day that I haven't learned something new. Yesterday I fished 5 hours and caught one 2.5 pound bass. Last week I was embarrassed to tell my wife I didn't catch anything AND I lost an $8 lure. From a boat! What idiot can't free up a lure from a boat?! Answer: me. I like being out there. I always figure something out for the first time. To be a bass fisherman you've got to be a glass-half-full kind of person. Actually, when I'm fishing is the ONLY time I'm a glass-half-full person!

Thank you!

I've started using Presley Outdoors (https://www.presleysoutdoors.com/). Some of their everyday prices are downright ridiculous (example: Original Zara Spook for $3.99) and with certain lures you automatically get free shipping. Even if you only order one.

Did you put that motor on it or was it on there when you pulled it up? If it's the original motor get the numbers off of it and contact Mercury. They will know what boat manufacturer it was shipped to. If the motor isn't original start going through any other original equipment that was on the boat. Also, I don't know much about Canada, but it looks like the ICB (Insurance Bureau of Canada) is very similar to our NICB. The ICB has a Theft division and if they are like the NICB they are the national experts on all things motorized that can be stolen. Contact them with all the info you have and they may be able to decipher it for you.

Thanks for the tips. I've only thrown hollow-body frogs over it but not had much luck. I mostly avoid it. I won't now, thank you.

One of the lakes I fish has quite a bit more of this stuff this year than last year. What are you doing to fish around/through it?

You guys have been smoking too much algae.