Been lurking these boards for a week or so now and figured i'd introduce myself. Jason from down at the rec center invited me here after helping me with a bunch of gear at bass pro.
Anyways i'm Joe, been active duty now for 3 years, joined the air force for educational purposes and to get away from home for a bit. Was hoping for an exotic place somewhere far far away but was sent to Offutt instead. I'm married, from florida, and have been fishing since I was able to hold a fishing rod.
Went through a long period without fishing while I was getting alot of personal priorities squared away, and basicly my new years resolution was to get back into fishing. Florida was great to me for fishing, within an hour from my house there was any type of natural water environment to fish in, be it fresh/salt/brackish/flats/offshore anything you could imagine. I guess i'm no specialist in any specific area but I learn quickly. I have done more bass fishing than anything however.
One of my buddies from florida who owed me a huge favor brought my boat here for me and i'm just a battery charger and a fish finder away from being fully operational. I gave away 90% of my gear when I enlisted so i'm in the process of picking up all new stuff and i'm just in time for the fishing classic and other good sales in all the outdoor stores available here (damn there is a ton).
Anyways glad to meet you guys and hopefully will hook up with some of ya soon as the weather improves. Looking forward to maybe seeing some diffrent lures, rigs, presentations, and tactics you nebraska guys use over here before I stock up on tackle. I work untill about 4pm mon-fri and take night classes from 7-9:30 mon-thurs but am always up for some fishing. Plenty of leave saved up!
-Joe
Work- (402)294-4598
Cell- (352)361-1476
Welcome Joe. If you are active duty, see Rod at outdoor rec equipment rental, and he has the scoop on the Base's intramural fishing.
After that, there is a bunch of local clubs and circuits if you are into or would like to be into tournament fishing.
And even more so, buy an Iowa license and a Missouri license because all the really good bass fishing (and almost all of the tournaments (both intramural and club) are in Iowa/NW Missouri.
There are at least 19 lakes "over the border(s)" we regularly fish. and almost all of them are within 2 hours, except Okoboji and Brushy Creek (they are about 3 hours).
Anyway, Welcome. Maybe we'll meet at BPS, I am going to exorcise the demon (also called the bait monkey) on Friday night (double points night) cause I need to stock up on fishing line and i need to replace both of my PFD's auto-inflate arming kits...Cha-ching.
Give me a PM and we can talk about non-intramural fishing (I am retired and just can't make it to those tournaments anymore), and help you get set up.
Doug
Hey Joe, welcome ~c~
Looking forward to you stopping by the shop so we can talk fishing.
Welcome Joe,
I think you'll find that Bass fishing is pretty popular around here. My name is Dean and I retired from the AF a few months ago and spend as much time fishing as I can. I have lived here and fished all the local lakes and believe it or not there are some big bass around here. (Not Florida big but.....) Anyway, welcome to Omaha and maybe our paths will cross.
Thanks for the welcome replies. Have plenty of information to get started now thanks to you guys. I'll probably start taking 1-2 fishing trips a week once the ice goes away depending on how my classes are treating me. If anyone is interested in tag teaming some bass send me a private message and ill have a swivel seat open for ya and give you my contact info. If anyone wants a partner, go ahead and send me a message as well and we can set something up.
Not a problem Joe, we look forward to having you fish with us this year!! ~c~ ~c~
Man I am really getting pissed over this fishfinder crisis I am in right now.
First I bought a Raymarine, nice unit, color, etc...and after I get it home and decide I want to install it, I get my heart set on installing it in the front of my boat off my trolling motor, since that is where I will do 95% of my fishing. After a week of calling Raytheon and Airmar about thier transducers, and looking at possible fixes, I am told that i'm the first guy to ever asked about a trolling motor mount for one of thier ducers....I returned it.
So then I buy a Humminbird 585c, nice unit again, color, on sale, etc...I was excited and it was worth getting yelled at by my wife over it...so I thought.
I guess I ended up buying a newer version of the FF that comes with a diffrent transcom ducer from Bass pro, and the ducer trolling motor hardware they sold was for the older "versions" that I didn't buy. So after buying the hardware that looked like it would work, I went home and realized it was the wrong thing. Another trip over to the store and I explain the problem and all the guys over there finally get me squared away after swapping my transducer out with the transducer that came with the floor model, because they had the hardware in stock that would fit it. Woohoo i'm all set now..so I thought.
I got home and after like 3 trips to menards, and going totally bob villa on this setup with running the wire through tubing and stuff to try to prevent it from dangling, I plug it all up and it says "Transducer not connected". So i read the manual and it said that "for a reliable transducer detection, it needs to be submerged in water". So as thick headed as I am, I go outside in the 20 degree wind and snow and fill my freaking garbage can with water and deploy the TM into it with the ducer submerged...Same error comes up.
I called humminbird and explained the problem and told them what I did. After dicking around with the unit for quite some time, they told me to go exchange it. Yea so now I have like 37 zip ties to cut and hose clamps to re-purchase (since I cut them to size) and gotta find another couple hours in my busy schedule to re-do this thing, and I have a garbage can that is frozen solid from top to bottom with ice.
I'm pretty close to just buying a long pvc pipe and marking off inches/feet on it and using it as a stupid depthfinder at this point.
What crisis. there won't be soft water around here until 4/12/08.
~rant ~rant ~rant ~rant ~rant
Hey Joe,
Did you try running the finder in simulator mode? perhaps you need to reset the factory settings.
Dean,
Problem is that when it starts up it goes right into simulator mode and does not see the transducer at all.
Welcome Joe, sorry to hear about your fishfinder/transducer woes. Hope to be able to meet you at one of the OAFB tournaments. I'm retired AF and have not fished the base tournaments much lately but I hope to change that this year. If your interested in joining a club there are plenty of clubs in the local area and on both sides of the river. Some clubs may be better suited to your interest than others so check into them before joining. I belong to Iowa Bass Anglers at iowabassanglers.com for example out of Des Moines; but, we do a lot of traveling. For example we fish in Missouri, Iowa, and the Mississippi River. If you have kids there is a large kids tournament held each June on 3-mile Lake, if interested let me know as the field is already almost full. Rod at the rental center can put you contact with me or just go to the web site.
The fishfinder woes have been long gone just thought i'd give you guys that showed some sympathy an update to put your mind's at rest because I know you have been saying prayers for me at night and stuff.
I took the damn thing off my trolling motor and plugged it on to the back of my boat. I'm gonna fish with it there for most of this year and possibly upgrade my TM with one of the ones with a ducer built in the prop later on. The way my TM deploys it was just way more trouble then it was worth to have the sonar coverage towards the front of the boat.
~gf - Joe