Nice job on quality, quantity, and variety of baits!
Nice job on quality, quantity, and variety of baits!
Hahaha a guy on stilts you say? Definitely must be a sight fisherman! Ahh man they better not be at the west dam and they better not use any of those baits they're MINE All jokes aside all 3 dams hold a great volume of baitfish/crawfish year round and the bass certainly know this more than I do.
As for rentals it mostly comes down to funds and boat availability. If I had a preference it would be the deluxe bass boat with trolling motor and fish finder. Although I don't trust their ff for locating fish instead I use it to read depth, bottom contour, high spots and drop offs, and water temp. I fish solo a lot and I end up getting the basic bass boat more often though, so I'll do a lot of drift fishing in the morning before the wind picks up then I'll just anchor on certain spots in accordance to the wind direction and/or current. I actually prefer anchoring on some spots that I'm confident are holding that way I can present multiple baits across a particular target area without making a bunch of noise with the trolling motor. It's surprising sometimes how many casts it can take with different baits at one specific target before you get one to commit. I prefer the bass boats over the red fishing boats because they offer a much more stable platform to fish from and allows me to stand up and fish comfortably anywhere in the boat. The red boats however are definitely the fastest in the fleet.
Thanks for responding Mudbone. I got a deluxe a couple weeks ago and one of the red fishing boats. Both were fine, but that little red fishing boat is fairly fast for only a 20 horsepower. Thanks for the tips on the dams and the rockie areas. For some reason ive been skipping those spots in favor of points, channels, islands, etc. Ive been getting fish, but not the quality you got..wow.
Good update and report. thanks
That is how I fish when I don't get a trolling motor. Drift fish until the wind. I use the meter the same way too. No good for seeing fish, but good for everything else. Regarding the red Lunds, I feel they are plenty stable, but the biggest thing is they are 2 to 3 times faster than all the John boats. Fish alone mostly too.
You know the "In Fisherman" fishing show. Canadian with the Linders. They have the exact same Lunds for smaller bodies of water, with smaller to them being 3 DVLs. It is all fixed up with like a 50 or 90 horse motor. Decks fore and aft. Power pole, troller, two meters etc..setup very nicely.
Regarding the dams, I find them hit or miss. Zero or hero. No middle ground. You usually know in 10 minutes.
Great post spawn as they get packed with fry.
I cut my teeth fishing back east out of red Lund boats. Almost everyone back there has one. Kind of their version of a Bass Tracker. However, most of the ones I fished out of had 8 horse motors so imagine the smile on my face when I rented one from DVL with a 20 horsepower motor. I thought I was going for the gold in the all valley power boat championships with all that power at my disposal. Those smaller motors are better for trolling and while walleye fishing in Minnesota and the Dakotas we spent most of our time back trolling (yep, trolling backwards) to really slow it down. A common practice in the upper Midwest states and a practice that might get you admitted to the nearest mental hospital or nut house if you were seen doing it in so cal.
Nuthouse in California??? C'mon Rod, you're giving us waaaaay too much credit.
If you have a half day to fish and want to fish anywhere away from the marina, I would not recommend the basic or deluxe bass boat or 2-3 hours of your half day will be the ride. Slow does not begin to describe the painful ride to fish good water.
Your right on their, Brent. I rented the premium boat once thinking I was a big shot with all top of the line everything. I was kicking my self by the end of the day for not bringing a trolling rod because it was so slow I could have easily trolled some leadcore from spot to spot. Hell, one time I had the hammer dropped and a family of ducks came wattling buy and left me in their wake.........WTH. I couldn't believe it
Last edited by HuskerRod; 04-13-2016 at 03:30 PM.