Stockton/Maze Creek 5/2

[coyotewhacker]

Fished Maze creek with Billy today. After all the rain, we were not expecting much, but turned out to be a decent trip.
The water is high, but virtually no trash or floating debris. For the most part, except near the 245 Bridge at the back of the creek, the water is pretty clear with little color. We boated fifteen bass for the day: 14 largemouths and one smallie. Virtually all came on plastics. I caught one largemouth on a Spittin' Image topwater near shoreline brush. The rest of the fish all came from roughly ten feet deep. The cold has definitely driven them off the banks. Preferred baits today were a motor oil lizard (Billy) and black cherry split tail worm (me). We both fished white and yellow spinner baits in the brush, but no hits at all on them. We got rained on, but the wind never got bad. There was no particular place that seemed to produce more hits than any other. It was fairly slow fishing, the bites were scattered, and came primarily along transition banks with wood structure out away from the shoreline. Not much else to report.

[fishnxs]

Hey CW how's that new T/M working out?
I've got my prop in the shop and the stiches out, will be on the water by next weekend hopefully.
It's 24f here this morning with frost.

[coyotewhacker]

Hey, Gary...glad to hear that you are up and about. We were wondering yesterday how you were doing. BB's annual garage sale closes up Saturday afternoon, so we will be back on the water on Sunday, weather permitting. Maybe you can join us. Billy prefers an aluminum prop for his type of fishing, as you know, and he has put another one of those awful, ugly purple jobs on the boat. That prop must scare off every fish within a hundred yards, so he's going to have to tilt the motor up out of the water...know what I mean?
Next time we will probably go in my boat. I have just about worn out my welcome in his boat for the time being. Will keep you in the loop on any planned trip, however. With things starting to get "right" all over, it's hard to decide where to go.
The new trolling motor is not quite what I had hoped it would be, but in all fairness, I probably did not give it a proper test. After mounting it (the base fit the existing holes on the boat hull) I had to modify the wiring slightly. That involved making a "jumper" for the batteries in the back, and then playing with the wires coming out at the front until I had 24 volts of power. Changing flashlight batteries is an electrical challenge for me, so wiring up a straight 24 volt motor was really something that brought out a lot of "colorful" language. Mostly blue.
When the deed was finally done, I took the boat up to Bolivar Landing and ran up the river. The wind was whistling pretty good, so I pulled off into the cove on the left where the channel makes the big wide left turn. The foot control felt good and on #1 it slowly moved the boat with the wind at my back. I kept moving up in power and the boat was responding. Coming back out into the wind, I was using #2 which would barely move the boat forward into a 22-23 mph headwind. #3 gave me some more headway, and on #4 I could not feel any difference in power or speed. Of course, by then I was back on the main lake and catching the full force of the wind. When #5, or full High was kicked in, the 65 lbs of thrust was pretty evident. The boat hull vibrated with the torque the motor was generating, and things started happening fast....the motor is not underpowered for my size hull, that's for sure. I suppose I was expecting some kind of mega-change in the power throughout the entire range compared to the old 46 lb thrust motor. In the higher numbers, it certainly has a big change in performance. It will just take some time on the water to get used to the difference in how the two motors put power to the prop. The main improvement, and the one I like most, is the return to a foot control. I learned to use a trolling motor with a single wire Motor Guide Brute way back when, and the new fangled wireless remote just did not work for me. This MinnKota has a double wire pull-pull control, and torque while turning just isn't there like the older motors had. Bottom line is that I think is was money well spent...now I just have to do my part and learn to use the available power. Next time we run into each other, ask me about the price difference between that place out in Nebraska and that big store down in Springfield. Hope to see you next weekend, and glad you're back in the game.

[Wolfman]

Sounds like you'll be ready for some kitties about the time turk season is over gary...lol

[coyotewhacker]

Yo, Wolfie...believe it or not, the words bottom feeding, scum sucking, sleazy sliding slick coated whisker fish actually was mentioned this weekend. We might be up for some of that action if we can track down a boat that it won't matter if it stinks to high heaven after a trip for
"those things"....if we can throw something together, maybe we got a little project you would be interested in. Twist Gary's arm for this coming Sunday, and we can kick it around. You can "mark" my trailer tires all you want. Just don't leave any smell from "those fish" on the gelcoat

[safetybass]

CW: "bottom feeding, scum sucking, sleazy sliding slick coated whisker FISH" For a minute I thought you were talking ABOUT Wolfman!

[Wolfman]

Now BB's got that lil Jon boat of his, make a good cat boat.

Gary might be ready for a stockton cat trip by then, don't know, have'nt talked to him for about two days. Ill probably see him in the morning if he's not back at the doc's again. Sundays a maybe, at least of a morning unless i tag out before then. Their calling for rain sunday eveing again. After sunday it's all catfish though, the finest there is, the King of Fish!...lol



SB, Tis better to be associated with a fine eatting hard fighting intelligent fish such as the Catfish. Better then to be associated with one of them scaley plastic eatting wood chomping wormy one eyebrowed fin dragging low IQ'ed verminous BASS!...lol

[coyotewhacker]

Safetybass...now that you mention it, I can see where that description could be interpreted either way.....but just to clear things up, I was talking about the fish species, not the canine type.

[fishnxs]

Ralph and I are planning on Stockton this weekend. Crappie first then if the weather cooperates cats in the evening.

[Hellbender]

I think more often then not its the nighttime temp that has the most influence on water temps. While the daytime temps forecast is high, so is the night temp. If there is any wind the water temps could rise real fast. The middle of the month could be real hot for fishing.

[coyotewhacker]

Hellbender...I think you are absolutely right about that. The forecast highs all this week are in the upper 80's with 10 to 20 mph wind to stir up the water. Nighttime lows are supposed to be in the mid-60's. The water was almost 59 degrees this past weekend. Something has to break loose in a big way in the next few days unless we get another cold front.