Rathbun Trip

[izzysfishin]

The fishin was as slow at Rathbun for us as it was at Truman last week. My pardner and myself brought home 22 crappie, 1 channel cat and 1 walleye. Had 1-15 1/2", the rest in the 10" range. Was some pretty tough fishin to say the least. I talked to a few of the guys in the Crappie Masters Tourny, they all said it was as tuff as they had ever seen it there. We came in to use the restroom and watched the weigh in for maybe a half hour, 8lbs something was winning at that time with a 1.9 oz for big fish. We caught more 10 and 11 inch walleye than you could count (a first for me), that was fun. Them little buggers put up a pretty good fight on a micro-lite rod. Rathbun was a whole new world for us (very little standing timber), caught most of the fish drifting and slow trolling minnow tipped jigs in 12 to 16 ft. We did here some of the tourny guys caught some on the banks, but we never caught a fish in shallow water. Did'nt catch a bunch of biggun's, but still had a good time and would like to do it again next year. Stayed at the Grey Goose Inn and enjoyed that very much, they run it kinda like a bed and breakfast (great people). I don't need help posting pics Ted, to pooped to walk up the hill for the camera for the one goodun. We got off work at 1am Fri. morning, drove up and fished till 7:30pm. plumb tuckered out...izzy

[izzysfishin]

One more thing while i'm still up. I noticed my trailer tires are wearing real bad on the outside of the tire. The right side much worse that the left. I allways check the air pressure before each trip so i know it's not a low pressure problem. The right side tire is allmost bald for an inch and a half on the outside. The dang thing is'nt a year old and does'nt have but maybe 1500 miles on it. Anybody ever have a problem like this. I'm gonna call the dealer tomorrow, it's still under warranty. I'm hoping it's just bad tires and not a trailer issue...izzy

[Mo'nBack]

Izzy; It's sounds like you had a great time! I've had that happen to my trailer tires twice. Once was an older trailer and the clamp that holds the spring on one side had came loose, and the other time I had a blowout on tires that were'nt over a year old on a new boat. I always watch my pressure, but when I went and bought some more tires and ask my buddy that sells tires about it, he ask how much pressure I run in them and I told him 35-40. He said to run it up to 60 and I would never have that problem again. Same tires now for almost 4 years and I fish alot. Hope you get it fixed.

[TAE73]

Dang Izzy I was already to help out. Did you go all the way up the lake past the bridge? Once past that, that whole area is nothing but standing timber. It was to shallow during the summer to fish but should of been good right now. Eight pounds isnt to bad, for 7 fish that is. Sounds like you still had alot of fun, and at least caught some fish.

[TAE73]

Just looked at the results 8.94 was the winning weight, I dont think thats to bad at all.

[izzysfishin]

Dang Izzy I was already to help out. Did you go all the way up the lake past the bridge? Once past that, that whole area is nothing but standing timber. It was to shallow during the summer to fish but should of been good right now. Eight pounds isnt to bad, for 7 fish that is. Sounds like you still had alot of fun, and at least caught some fish.

I thought we would really get into them on this trip, but mother nature is still the boss. Yep, Fri. we spent the first couple hours just checking out the lake with a map and the lowrance. Covered alot of spots that that some friends told us about. The lake is down about 2ft. back in the timber you mentioned had about 6 to 8 ft. of water, and we did'nt mark any fish to speak of. Never caught a fish in there. All the fish we caught off wood (but they were'nt really relating to it) came from crappie cove, just easing around in 12 to 16ft. Done the best off of Ranger Point took a few from Honey and Buck creek. We were on Ranger Point before dayight Sat. and that's when we had the best action, caught 30 to 40 in the 9 to 10 inch range a bunch of 10 to 12 inch Walleye (i've only caught 1 walleye before) so that was a ball. We had a great time and will probably do this trip again. The guys at the weigh in were pretty dissapointed with there weights, they thought they would do much better. I was told there was only 68 boats in the tournament, i thought there would be double that...izzy

[izzysfishin]

Izzy; It's sounds like you had a great time! I've had that happen to my trailer tires twice. Once was an older trailer and the clamp that holds the spring on one side had came loose, and the other time I had a blowout on tires that were'nt over a year old on a new boat. I always watch my pressure, but when I went and bought some more tires and ask my buddy that sells tires about it, he ask how much pressure I run in them and I told him 35-40. He said to run it up to 60 and I would never have that problem again. Same tires now for almost 4 years and I fish alot. Hope you get it fixed.

Yep had a ball, even if we did'nt slay em. I called the dealer and he said to check to see if the bearings were loose before i brought it up to him. I've owned several boats and the tires allways dry rotted before the tread went away. I've never had this happen before and hope it is'nt a manufacturing problem with the trailer. After all the trouble Slab Hunter had with Xpress, i'm getting a little nervous over it...izzy

[BarryG]

I had that trouble also. My tires look ok now and I bought them last year just before I went to MN. I always look to see if they are starting to wear unevenly.

[izzysfishin]

What caused your problem Barry?...izzy

[centerdriver]

Hey Izzy,
I just bought my rig last october. Had the same problem. After only 1900 miles the tread was completely gone from the inside of the left tire. I contacted Nationwide trailers in Lebanon (I was in florida at the time) and they sent me 2 new tires, new axel, new hubs with bearings and all. Had the stuff changed out and not had the problem in the last 2400 miles since. We do travel a bunch, put more miles on the trailer in a year than most people put on the life of their boat and depend on having stuff that won't leave us on the side of the road, so it was nice they sent me the replacement parts at no cost. Probable cause, bent spindel.
Dusty