I don’t think there is a way to avoid fees. It drives me crazy and I almost exclusively go to smaller club shows. Which by the way isn’t any better, the fees are just smaller because of the lower ticket cost.

The cost of a monopoly selling tix like somebody said above.

This is so crazy to me. We had our best luck pitching jigs, but light. Usually 1/8 oz. We were using 3/32 for a good while when the wind was down.

I don’t want to be critical…but I’d tell him that bobber is too big for frogs. Best to downsize, that thing is only going to telegraph a bite from the mightiest of Kermit’s.

Funny kids

We will be up there Friday through Sunday. I’ll keep my eyes peeled if you’ll still be up there.

Slow today. Slow

I do a thorough wash of my rain gear each spring, like someone noted above being clean helps it work. Then I treat with the spray on nikwax product. This has worked really well for me on my Gill rain gear. Every year in March/April I clean and retreat and I’m getting good results.

My take on this is that it’s more about being respectful than a fish care thing. If you e ever seen fish cannons at a dam or the high altitude lakes that they stock with planes…those fish aren’t being set in the water.

But if you are going to have a tv show I think you should set a good example.

I made a batch of cold brew concentrate after reading this thread. It’s good, I think I’ll tweak some things when I mix my next cup. The one thing that I tend to dislike about coffee is when it is bitter. This batch that I made isn’t bitter at all. Also, I think somebody mentioned this…but this seems like a pretty strong cuppa java. (I made a hot cup with the concentrate)

We went down and tried it last night and it was slow again. I think we got 7, only two decent ones. I’d have thought with the front blowing in that we would have found a few willing buyers, but that wasn’t really the case.

I sure could go for a good steady bite for a few days. Last fall seemed to carry right into this spring with a sporadic bite. Maybe this shot of water in the forecast will perk things up…

Slow out there this weekend. We fished all around the upper end Saturday morning. Caught a couple decent fish. It seemed like where we caught walleyes, they were all mixed in with rough fish. I was surprised because we were looking for and fishing current, but there were carp and cats piled in the same spots.

Anybody else been seeing this?

This dude either ate, or was unlucky and got snagged in the lip.

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One important thing to note about the inflatable PFDs is that most of them say on there that they only count as a valid PFD recognized by the coast guard (and DNR enforcement) if they are being worn. We got checked twice in redwing last year and they read them all. So if you want to just keep them in the boat to save on space most of them do not count and you can still get a life jacket ticket.

Thanks guys, it was a bunch of work, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

I’ll revive this one last time to post the finished product. If anybody would like more details and photos of this project I’ll start a separate thread and go into detail.

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I agree, I could appreciate more winters like this. I really enjoyed the late fall and early spring.

I have a fingear livescope boat mount that I’d let go for cheap.

Sorry it’s not the brew city

I agree, that’s a simple jon and I’ve heard good things from them. I’ve had my cover altered before and it took literal minutes to have a Velcro flap put on to go around my trolling motor.

I’ll post an update here in this thread. I considered starting my own boat remodel thread….but nah.

We installed the hydro turf in the cockpit today. I have a few minor things like trim to put on, holes to cut out, speakers to install, etc.

Then we will get the rest of the turf installed on the decks and sides.

Then just some minor rigging like mounting the troller, popping the graphs back on, and installing all the latches on the lids.

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I’m in the middle of tearing out all my carpet. I’m going to install hydro turf rather than marine vinyl. To do this I had to replace all of the decking so that the edge gaps aligned correctly. Here are some photos so far, but this is a big job.

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I like to play music, especially in the winter months. This is a hobby I started as an adult and immediately knew it would have been 20x easier to learn as a kid. It’s ok though, I still have lots of miles left to go. I joined my first band recently so keep an eye out for a bunch of middle aged dudes playing Bob Segar tunes at a bowling alley near you.

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Riverrat wrote:

Tiny Boat Nation. How to videos, and supplies.

This is the best advice you can receive. You can even call them and they’ll walk through your project and get you a supply list. They are good folks too.

We were out yesterday, it was not quite as warm as I was thinking it was going to be. That said, the bite was slow/average but fairly steady. We ended up with 25 fish with no particular presentation working better than others. It seemed to be the same story as the rest of the fall where we had to hop around a lot to pick up our fish.

I bought the FinGear mount, ducer pole etc. when I first got my Livescope… That mount is now laying on the floor of my garage after I went and bought a brew city. I did not like the FinGear stuff at all.

I cannot speak on the ArcLab stuff.

The bajios are made with mostly recycled materials as well if I remember right. I haven’t looked into the RLVNTs but I was considering Bajio’s for the next pair.

I have the whole bundle from Reeds for sale in the Classifieds section. Feel free to make me an offer on that. I also have the pole for the ice transducer that may not be pictured, I’ll update the post. The only thing not included is the garmin unit and transducer.

Curious how you made out Matt, did you pull the trigger on new batteries?

Matt, I just made the switch in my Alumacraft. I had some updates done and went with a new 36v troller and the folks who did everything for me suggested 3 of the 12v lithium (60 amp hour I think). They are all located in my bow, I have been very impressed with the switch so far, the weight reduction was noticeable, I have not used them in cold weather yet.

I cannot recommend Spraungle Performance Marine in Anoka enough. I dealt with Taylor the owner and he was extremely helpful. I’d suggest giving them a call. I thought I’d have to update my charger and go with different batts etc. and he was able to confirm all my questions and let me know my minnkota charger etc would work. I had confidence getting my stuff from them, it’s another layer of support vs just ordering the batteries etc.

I never thought I’d be the sort of guy complaining about the weather on the internet…but here we are. I’m hoping for some rain also.

What is the latest on this? I don’t see any mention of this in the regulations book anywhere. Am I dense and missing it somewhere?

It’ll keep doing that until the MN crests and starts to go down. If you watch the water level on the MN you’ll have a good idea for when things start to clear up…in the spring it could be that way for a good little while if we get a steady melt, spring rain, etc. etc. etc.

We were down on P4 yesterday. Fishing was ok, although we did not go up to the dam for the fish in the scour hole, there were plenty of folks up there. We ended up with 5 and all but one were over 20″ so we were happy with that.

There was some jagaloon in an alumacraft with 2 power poles that must have intentionally snagged 40+ flat heads out of the same hole. I hated that.