gg4709

I know its pretty early this summer but for me it seems to be getting off to a bad start. Lately the past few weeks Iv e been out to the local lake and can't catch a thing. Earlier in the past spring I was able to catch a few bass and a lot of crappie on small jigs and minnows. Many other fisherman have experienced the same thing. Iv'e tried the 5" senko of various colors fishing the bottom and even fishing with the plastic baby shad green and black in color. The water in Bryan Lake is real murky and hardly any visibility. Lately it has been really hot out so I'm thinking the fish are more in the middle parts where it is really deep. Anyone ever fish this lake before? Not many people like to fish here as it is difficult to catch anything at this time, maybe I just need to change locations.

I'm having the same trouble deciding which to use in a medium deep water with lots of big rocks off the bank. I'm always getting snagged atleast 10 times per trip that I take out there. I have tried using a SENKO worm but am not sure how to fish them (I tried those Texas rigged slowly dragging on the bottom with no luck). The Crappie and Bass seem really slow right now even with the light green and black colored minnows that seemed to be catching them just days before. Scattered showers and cloudy windy days have taken over the past week. What do they do when it is cloudy and windy? Not sure why but I think it might be the transition from spring to summer and the constant wind that drives them to other areas. Maybe the wind produces currents that makes them uncomfortable having to swim in place looking for food. I downloaded the free version of Doug Hannon's Big Bass Magic and it has shed some light on Bass behaviour throughout the year. My knowledge is still limited at this point cause I am still learning the basics.

I don't know it might be because its my first year getting into bass fishing but I still can't seem to catch anything over 3/4 lb. I will try to buy anything that will atleast give me a bite. I know how to setup T-rigs and C-rigs, walk the dog, and all that other stuff but there just no beginners luck for me in this game. Yesterday I saw this guy on shore catch about a 19" bass (small to him ) and several crappie on plastic minnows. I was out on a boat all day fishing the same spot and did'nt catch a thing. It really is all in how and what kind of bait you fish with, no doubt about it. There is much learning ahead and quitting is not an option for me. I guess I'll try those plastic minnows today to see if those results can't be copied.

Sometimes you can set one in the water and it will just stay there. One time I set one in the water after catching it and it would not stop swimming to shore even after pointing it in the right direction. I think they just swim in straight lines after you release them. Never caught one on a stringer though, I guess its hard for them to eat with a string hangin out their gills.

I am also new and have tried Berkley worms that come scented in a liquid. I got the dark purple kind and have'nt caught one bass with it. There are large bass out at our local lake because I see people catch them all the time. Today we used a small hooked tail grub worm which worked great on the crappie in the spring time. Now its summer and I can't get much of anything to bite anymore. I have a boat and noticed several topwater splashes where bass will try to jump at something late in the evening. We also tried using a spinner bait but I think it is too big and it scares fish away. I cast the worm out and slowly reel it in and stop, then do it again. I even tried the spinner bait (which is also light green) with a split tail trailer and nothing. Tomorrow we will try to use live medium sized minnows which most people use. It could be that it is almost impossible to notice a bite until you feel a big one hit. Most of the time I mostly anticipate the hard jerk like the smaller aggressive bass give.

Iv'e fished out of a canoe before and its really hard to turn around when you're seated in one postition. I'd get a jon boat with a swivel seat mounted somewhere near the front.

Nevermind I found the plate. All I need now is a gasket and some lower unit oil. The oil in the prop housing now is sooo old and black and stinky it makes me almost gag. The smell is so pungent . Have any of you smelled oil this bad before? It smells almost like burned gears and a rotten dead skunk in a dirty toilet bowl. blaahhhh I can't even think about it right now but someones gotta change that oil out. :-/

I'm haiving a really hard time trying to find a page out of a service manual that shows the lower unit of an evinrude motor. I just need a parts diagram from a 1974 Evinrude 40 HP Norseman model 40454. The reason is I need to see if the impeller needs the plate and gasket to operate. When I took mine off there was no gasket or plate there. I tried to look for it but could'nt find it anywhere. The only pieces it had was the housing screws and one chewed up impeller.

I got a Evinrude 40 HP Norseman (model 40454, year 1974). The oil in the lower unit is pitch black and the impeller pump is completly dry rotted to a million pieces. The impeller should be coming in by Teusday but how should I drain all the gooey oil inside the lower unit, and how much does it take?

It is possible to try and do it yourself, the only hard part is having the tools to do it. Anything like replacing parts can be done in your garage with a socket set, screw drivers, and channel locks. Rather than going to a marine shop that charges 50% more, go to O'Reillys auto part store. They should have a huge thick Sierras marine book full of just about any part that goes in your engine. For machining work that will more than likely have to be done by a certified outboard mechanic. One more important thing to remember is KNOW YOUR ENGINE. It will save you a lot of time and money if you know what size parts and what kind of parts are made for your particular year model engine. Outboard parts will vary from HP to HP and year model to year model.

You got a great deal out of that. It even came with the trailer and a boat cover. I saw it here in the classifieds, it went from 3000 to 1750 ? Heres the link http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1174106365

Thanks for the information. I got the motor running today which is good news. The bad news is I found the impeller was dry rotted into a million peices and I will have to wait until Friday to get the new one. As for the gas I currently have mixed now will be tossed out. The oil I have now is TCW-3 Evinrude outboard 2-cycle oil and with that I will mix 50:1. One thing about the impeller though is that I found some kits that have an impeller plate. When I pulled out the shredded impeller it did not seem to have any plate for the impeller to sit on. Hopefully that won't be a problem. The model I have is a 40HP 1970 Evinrude, the Norseman model I believe. (40454).

I took my old 70's model boat out for the first time and it ran fine until I shut it off after about 10 minutes. After that it would not start back up. I took off the spark plugs and test to see if they had any spark but they would not work. I figured the timing must be off but I can't seem to get the flywheel off to check the timing. The connections to the battery were fine and everything. Nothing seems to be wrong with the wiring because it worked just fine until that point where I shut the engine off. If the timing was OK before how can it be off synch all of a sudden after shutting the engine off? When I first started it up in the water on neutral I noticed a lot of smoke coming out of the propeller area, it smelled like burning oil or unburned gas. I thought maybe I put way to much oil in the gas. The guy at the marine place said to mix 20:1 but the specs say to mix 50:1. I noticed that after I ran the boat.

Iv'e never caught a bass over 1 pound and was just wondering when and if that 3 plus pounder does bite which test line should I use? I currently have 10 lb. cajun red line. I'm still a new fisherman that likes to reel'em in as fast as possible even when they fight back and thats a bad habit I got to kick. The main thing Iv'e been fishing for is crappie because thats all I can catch from the shore. Hopefully this weekend I can use my boat that I just fixed up, it will be the first time fishing off shore for me. The thing that really gets the most bites currently are those 1.5 inch neon green hooked grub tail worms (3.50 for the worms and 1 somethin for the light greent jig heads). I tried using a craw on a weedless jig and have had no luck with that.

Ha ha what a loser. He cheated and still did'nt get first place. Good thing he won't enter another tourney for a good 2 years or more, maybe never if people remember him.

Not sure on how to use the craw jigs cause I have never really tried it that much. Yet from what I have learned watching others is they let it fall to the bottom which is the time when bass strike the most. After it hits the bottom you let it sit for a little while to imitate that it is hiding under some grass or whatever ever. Then jerk it toward you so it rises up at a shallow angle then let it fall again. Or you could use a combination of the jerk method and swim method. To do that you reel in the line moderately as you pull up slightly on the rod so as to let it "swim" along the bottom. The craws instinct is to move as swiftly as possible and hide as much as possible to avoid being seen. Its the sudden movement that makes the strikes because that is when they are off the bottom and in the open. My guess is that bass will linger around in one location like an alligator until it sees something move along the bottom, then when they sneak up on it and that something moves again they strike. On some occasions when you get your line caught on an object with a jig and it suddenly frees itself it will fly out and a bass will strike it hard. Not sure when would be the right time of day to try this but my guess is whenever the bass are hungry they will eat just like any other animal, but crawfish are their favorite. Hope that helps.

I just got a 14 footer with a trailer and a running 40HP evinrude all for $150. It did not have a title or registration and I ended up paying around 300 extra for that and other stuff to get it ready (it had been sitting since 1999). Not bad. The way I stumbled upon that is I was driving around some neighborhoods looking for a boat in folks back yard that I could offer to buy. I found this 14 footer and a larger boat that looked like it needed atleast 800 in repair costs. The guy wanted 500 for both but agreed to let the smaller 14 footer to go for 150. You would be surprised to find how little people would want for a boat that they don't use anymore. If you think about it they could use all that space for something else, and it could be that they just don't have time to use the boat anymore. Go out and look, its worth a shot. 8-)