Thread: My DIY Projects and Great Adventures

I believe that you would count coup in brownie points with the visit to Don Cesar and be in a very nice and historic place. Said brownie points might come into play on future dates when fishing promises to be the holy grail. In my house they are referred to as the coveted kitchen pass. I seem to have a large supply of those stocked up cuz my queen grants me the kitchen pass without a roll of the eyes or cross words. Not everyone is that lucky and I sympathize. Enjoy your stay and maybe you can devise an AC unit to fit the aquatic ride while you’re there, making the dawg days more pleasant.

Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

Certainly some pretty water there. Don't see glass smooth water up this way very often

I prefer the glass surface days, but when it is hot, not so much. Even a slight breeze would have been most welcome yesterday. I like to run the boat all out on those days, and I did so yesterday and it felt great. I was screaming along and slowed down some to line up on the canal that has the ramp, and the engine burped and I knew I was out of gas. So I turned it off and used the TM to get me home. Paranoid I guess about leaving gas in the tank to gather water.

Xpress 20’ bay boat with a Yamaha 115 SHO does pretty good. I remove the front seat, put the poles flush to the deck, hide behind the console and it reaches 4o mph pretty easily. If I play with the trim it will just reach 50 mph. But the water has to be flat to do that. I prefer cruising at 30-35 mostly. Fast enough for me and my small lakes.

I would say that in my area glass smooth is probably the case more often than not, especially early in the morning. I drive past a lake on my way to work and I always look and when I see glass I wish I had the day off to go fishing. When I see rough I am grateful that isn’t my day off.

My boat does not really care for windy conditions. If I lift the engine it is impossible to steer it with the TM. The back end swings one way, while the TM tries to steer the other. I have used the engine to help guide the boat, by canting it somewhat. The only effective way for me to steer is going with the wind, and that is a nuisance actually. I like to go differently but it isn’t worth the fight. Waves slapping making loud noises probably isn’t helpful to catching fish I imagine.

Shame that you rarely get those days. Kansas is bad for wind I understand. North Dakota forget about it. Here in Florida many fishermen will avoid days that would be great days for them to fish. LOL

An old man advised me that crappie like a little ripple on the surface. I don’t know enough yet to claim foul, but suspect he just made that up in his own mind. Possible but I doubt it. I wonder what they think is causing the waves. They can’t come up and see for themselves. During a hurricane being six feet under the surface is probably the best place to be. Speaking of storms, we have Fred on his way to visit. Looks like he will be a rain event mostly. The ground is already saturated from all the thunder storms we have been having. The lakes are all high and the water has cooled them slightly.



I have been reading about spinner blades and learning a few things about them. There are different speeds for each to begin to spin, and different levels of resistance to being spun. I was interested in three designs, the Colorado, Indiana, and the Willow Leaf. These three are the most popular by far. There are other shapes as well, such as chopping away one side of an Indiana to make a hatchet, or snipping away the bottom middle to make another design. These other shapes fit in somewhere between the big three for the most part.

A selection would have me with these three shapes available. One spitting out water wildly and resisting being pulled. Another pulling easily and one that is in between. I need to study each alongside the boat to see how the plastic bait is oriented. I have not taken the time to have looked very closely yet. Pretty sure my speeds will remain 0.8- 1.5 mph, so getting them spinning is not a huge issue for me. Want different sounds and vibrations for a fickle fish. LOL

The orientation of the plastic is for me the biggest consideration. I sent my friend a picture of my fish and told him I stayed until Noon. He said I must not be using the right jigs as I should have had a limit by 900 am. The man knows these things, so he wants to get with me and discuss jigs. Pretty sure he will say a plain 1/16th ounce head and a 2” curly tail grub is king. He uses the least expensive varieties he can find at Rural King. That means they are Big Bites brand.

I like my Curly Slabs though and so I will listen and try to learn and no doubt will fix some up just as he indicates. Then I will fish each and see for myself.

I’ve started a day with glass conditions several times and caught little until the wind picked up a little and gave a ripple to the surface. I usually trim the big motor up some but like having something to steer against on the other end from TM. My skiff is flat bottomed and high sided and doesn’t like too much wind. I wind up crabbing sideways a bit and the lines get jacked up a little. That’s when I think of going home or somewhere out of the wind.

Originally Posted by skeetbum

I’ve started a day with glass conditions several times and caught little until the wind picked up a little and gave a ripple to the surface. I usually trim the big motor up some but like having something to steer against on the other end from TM. My skiff is flat bottomed and high sided and doesn’t like too much wind. I wind up crabbing sideways a bit and the lines get jacked up a little. That’s when I think of going home or somewhere out of the wind.

Will leaving engine down, but cocked to one side, will it help to prevent some of that crabbing ?

To a point, yes. But wind gusts. When it does, the crab will increase and then it will subside and the crab will straighten out some. At some point it becomes aggravating and I begin thinking of the ramp. My glass bass boat sat much lower in the water and it took a steady 15 mph wind with gusts to send me home, and I was usually the last to go. Our light boats that sit on top of the water come with their own set of rules. I’ve thought of taking a pair of dead transom mount TMs and set up a pair of tillers, one on either side of the outboard. The motors would be removed and sheet metal blades attached to have enough area to be effective. Hope you find a solution, keep us posted.

To a point, yes. But wind gusts. When it does, the crab will increase and then it will subside and the crab will straighten out some. At some point it becomes aggravating and I begin thinking of the ramp. My glass bass boat sat much lower in the water and it took a steady 15 mph wind with gusts to send me home, and I was usually the last to go. Our light boats that sit on top of the water come with their own set of rules. I’ve thought of taking a pair of dead transom mount TMs and set up a pair of tillers, one on either side of the outboard. The motors would be removed and sheet metal blades attached to have enough area to be effective. Hope you find a solution, keep us posted.

I tried to cancel the Don Cesar Hotel adventure. Red Tide is disrupting many of the Gulf beaches right now. She called them last night and they said it had drifted out to sea and everything was fine. I told her that Fred was gonna blow it all right back in just in time for us to make our arrival. Going anyways I guess. She has her itinerary and well that is that. I just hate to see her be disappointed. Told her we could sit in our room and watch COPS on the TV. LOL



My crappie friend sent me a picture of his four favorite jigs, and after looking them over I noticed that I have three of them. Painted 1/16th oz jig head and 2” curly tail grubs. So I plan to make up some new jigs using his color schemes and see if it is the jigs or the man. He said he and his son caught 100 in three hours. One every two minutes. I ain’t that good yet, but want to be.

He uses an 18’ Jon boat with six rods in the back and six out the sides in the front. So he is using twice as many baits as me, and there are two of them working the rods, but still I have plenty of room to improve. He fishes tournaments in the area and has won several times. Everybody agrees that he is one of the best in our area.

So I want to go fishing tomorrow morning, and would like to go again on Sunday but that storm is coming. Sunday morning the winds pick up to the 20mph range, so lots of luck with that. It will be a rainy few days after that to be sure. Fred is a tropical storm and that beats a hurricane any day of the week. We have had some nasty hurricanes come through in August. September is the month I look for the bad storms. So I fish one day early on, and then one day at the end of my vacation. Might take her and the boat to the springs for some swimming and pleasure boating.

Probably fish too often anyways.

Originally Posted by Micanopy

I prefer the glass surface days, but when it is hot, not so much. Even a slight breeze would have been most welcome yesterday. I like to run the boat all out on those days, and I did so yesterday and it felt great. I was screaming along and slowed down some to line up on the canal that has the ramp, and the engine burped and I knew I was out of gas. So I turned it off and used the TM to get me home. Paranoid I guess about leaving gas in the tank to gather water.

Xpress 20’ bay boat with a Yamaha 115 SHO does pretty good. I remove the front seat, put the poles flush to the deck, hide behind the console and it reaches 4o mph pretty easily. If I play with the trim it will just reach 50 mph. But the water has to be flat to do that. I prefer cruising at 30-35 mostly. Fast enough for me and my small lakes.

I would say that in my area glass smooth is probably the case more often than not, especially early in the morning. I drive past a lake on my way to work and I always look and when I see glass I wish I had the day off to go fishing. When I see rough I am grateful that isn’t my day off.

My boat does not really care for windy conditions. If I lift the engine it is impossible to steer it with the TM. The back end swings one way, while the TM tries to steer the other. I have used the engine to help guide the boat, by canting it somewhat. The only effective way for me to steer is going with the wind, and that is a nuisance actually. I like to go differently but it isn’t worth the fight. Waves slapping making loud noises probably isn’t helpful to catching fish I imagine.

Shame that you rarely get those days. Kansas is bad for wind I understand. North Dakota forget about it. Here in Florida many fishermen will avoid days that would be great days for them to fish. LOL

An old man advised me that crappie like a little ripple on the surface. I don’t know enough yet to claim foul, but suspect he just made that up in his own mind. Possible but I doubt it. I wonder what they think is causing the waves. They can’t come up and see for themselves. During a hurricane being six feet under the surface is probably the best place to be. Speaking of storms, we have Fred on his way to visit. Looks like he will be a rain event mostly. The ground is already saturated from all the thunder storms we have been having. The lakes are all high and the water has cooled them slightly.



I have been reading about spinner blades and learning a few things about them. There are different speeds for each to begin to spin, and different levels of resistance to being spun. I was interested in three designs, the Colorado, Indiana, and the Willow Leaf. These three are the most popular by far. There are other shapes as well, such as chopping away one side of an Indiana to make a hatchet, or snipping away the bottom middle to make another design. These other shapes fit in somewhere between the big three for the most part.

A selection would have me with these three shapes available. One spitting out water wildly and resisting being pulled. Another pulling easily and one that is in between. I need to study each alongside the boat to see how the plastic bait is oriented. I have not taken the time to have looked very closely yet. Pretty sure my speeds will remain 0.8- 1.5 mph, so getting them spinning is not a huge issue for me. Want different sounds and vibrations for a fickle fish. LOL

The orientation of the plastic is for me the biggest consideration. I sent my friend a picture of my fish and told him I stayed until Noon. He said I must not be using the right jigs as I should have had a limit by 900 am. The man knows these things, so he wants to get with me and discuss jigs. Pretty sure he will say a plain 1/16th ounce head and a 2” curly tail grub is king. He uses the least expensive varieties he can find at Rural King. That means they are Big Bites brand.

I like my Curly Slabs though and so I will listen and try to learn and no doubt will fix some up just as he indicates. Then I will fish each and see for myself.

That Stratos with a 150hp Johnson preferred a nice ripple on the water. That little ripple would get you around 6 mph glass smooth was around 60 mph