J Francho

With all the flooding, massive flows in all creeks and rivers, I'll be looking for trout stacking up at the mouths. It's a little early for bass, but I might try a pond or three in the afternoon. None of the rivers are safe to even attempt. Looking forward to the high water in a week or two, when things settle. I have LOTS of places that were not even accessible due to drought last year. I'm not going to make any assumptions about location or seasonal patterns until I get on the water. It's a hard concept for me, but I'm going in with blank slate.

If you don't feed the lake gods, you'll never get bit!

For the locals. Stay off my spots!!!!

My sporty LU has no turn fin, though my 115 elpto Merc did. Those are always off center. Turn fins aren't necessary with power steering. I still say it pulls due to it being out of alignment on the transom. "Trim Tabs" are flaps either recessed in the bottom of the boat, or attached to the transom.

Wacky jigs are perfect for this. We pour our own, but Buckeye, VMC, and Zappu all make good wacky jigs. You can also pinch a small weight on the line, just above the hook.

The skeg is sacrificial, and meant to protect your prop. Do you think you need another layer of protection? I don't think I've ever seen a skeg guard at the ramp.

Tens of thousands of these sold to happy customers, and these two with the same issue? Take them back.

You have two pages of advice, here:

The marker buoys are what provide your second, third, or even fourth reference point. On a Great Lake, you can only see ONE shoreline.

Okay, that explains it better. My general rule is no one "8-12'" diver does it all. I like to have a few bait styles that overlap in both depth, and behavior. This would include baits that might a bit overrated for depth, but good diggers for kicking up a commotion. A DT-16 comes to mind. Others might be better at deflecting off rocky bottom. Coffin bills were made for this, as well as wood. For dealing with cover, you want a bait that backs out well. Lucky Craft has a myriad of possibilities, and any of the their floating cranks back up and rise on the pause. I don't like to get into brands too much, but those are some examples I use and know. Often, NONE of these characteristics that we as fisherman care about are part of the marketing information, so you generally have to check them out on the water, and decide what baits work the way you want them to.

Line is a very personal choice, and opinions about what the data means is less important than what your hands tell you. For years, decades really, Trilene was fine and worked well for me. I tried a super line when it first came out, but couldn't really adjust to it. Later, I tried a different mono, simply out of curiosity. Times had changed, and there were better lines than Trilene. Clearly, since they changed the formula a couple times since. So, that's a case where technology had changed, and newer lines were just better made than the old stand by. Other times, the line becomes a limitation, and something different is better solution. Braid and slop is a good example of this. T9's article highlights exactly why I started trying out fluorocarbon lines for drop shot, and other finesse presentations - being able to detect the "thump" of a fish taking your bait. I'm not a big proponent of wholesale changes to your game, when it comes to fishing. Rather, I see it as an evolution, brought out by discovery of newer, maybe better products. Or overcoming fishing challenges with a more suited product. For the most part, I like to add to my game, not change it. That's my advice here.

What is "mod-depth"? Mid-Depth? Moderate depth? How deep is the water you're fishing? What's the structure like?

I can find the hump at the City Dump by the boat shed and Hill Haven rest home, lol.

Don't let Kent back-boat you!

Basically, you want to mark two points, shallow enough so your weight hits bottom. Those two points should be far enough apart to be able to use two-point triangulation to locate your deep structure. Some form of shoreline feature(s) that is easily visible should help too. This is how I learned to locate spots on Lake Ontario before GPS.

They are shimming the transom? That sounds ugly. Also sounds like the motor isn't perfectly 90° to the transom, due to the spot for the mounting bolt. That will cause steering problems. Anyway, My 2.5 ProMax has it adjusted slightly to the right, I mean ever so subtle. I asked about the setup, and was told it's correct, keeps the boat running straight. iBoats and ScreamAndFly have some info. I'm running over 260 hp on the back of a 1300 lb. boat. So, perhaps it's more sensitive. Good luck with the repair, and let us know how it turns out. Set up is as much art as it is science.

This would be my philosophy as well. Size relates to depth and speed. I use Aruku Shad and Aruku Jr. mostly. I switch to the Jr. when I want to stay shallower, or a slower retrieve.

The 130 uses #2. For bass, I'd replace with ST-36. If I were targeting something with a bony jaw, like northern pike or musky, then I'd want the cutting points on the ST-41. The stock hooks look fine for bass, right out of the box.

It's usually better to form an opinion based on facts and data. Most of these features have been around for almost a decade. If they were designed to fail, these companies would be lynched. Is there more that can go wrong? Of course. But those things can be fixed to, just like mechanical cable steering can fail and be fixed. I prefer the speed and control of a cable steer when working around docks and shoreline cover. I've had three models to my buddy's one electric drive with SpotLock. Does that mean the Maxxums are designed to fail? Probably not, two were used, and one brand new. The brand new one is still kicking after two years.

The Kurita fish does two things for me. It's puts the Perry fish to bed, even though it's an IGFA tie, because it's bigger by mass. The second, it confirms that a fish can actually get that big. All the myth and lore about the Perry bass doesn't matter to me - 20+ lb. fish are possible.

Anything that gets you off the bank will open new doors. Have fun, and thank your aunt!

There's tons of threads with tips, but there will be a lot of things you can't do without a stable fishing platform. One them, pitching, pretty much dictates a standing position. Keep it light, and have fun. Start noting the limitations of the current craft, and when you want to upgrade, you'll better know what you want in a boat.

Seriously..... wow.

"Go to YouTube" as an answer is about as useful as "Google it." Disrespectful? Probably not, but not helpful at all, and is discouraged. Yes, we have a YouTube channel. It's a tool to put useful, instructional videos in the threads on this forum. The forum software even lets you view them, without leaving this site. Our tagline is after all, The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource Guide. We expect our membership to live up to that tagline. Membership contributions are what make this site what it is.

If you're using TourneyX, it's pretty exciting. Good luck!