J Francho

I think you got three species here. Long ear, red breast, and blue gill.

Nice!!!!

Truth! ^^^^

Probably A-jay, Dwight, Catt, Steve Parks - the usual suspects. There's a few guys local to me that keep meaning to get out with, but we never quite hook up. Mostly, I'd like to show them something different - northern pike in a kayak. Casting shallow for salmon, browns, steelhead, and smallmouth - all in the same spots. Dwight knows a little about this mish-mosh of species in transition seasons. It's fun. Next cast could be 4# smallmouth, or a 40# king!

Heavier mono definitely makes more noise. I can vividly recall the sound of my dad's 14# line when cast on his 7-6 Garcia rod with a Quick 5000 reel. I had a smaller reel, so was limited to no more than 8# mono. The sound was very distinctive.

I'll file spinner/buzz baits and trebles on the water. Trebles get replaced when I get home. Worm hooks, no way. Not worth the time, even though you can get them really sharp properly filed, that never seems to last as long at the original.

I burned out a few years ago. Came back with a fresh attitude to do my thing, and above all, HAVE FUN. I top three'd every event I entered as a boater, which wasn't many. They were all team style events (best five from the boat), and I fished maybe a half dozen of them.

You can also ask Mike himself. He's a very helpful guy!

That's cute, A-Jay. I'm 100% accurate judging the ones that get away.

Converting physical dimensions to mass is rarely accurate. Doesn't hold any water with me. You catch a fish up here over 20", and I'm like, "Yeah! Nice fish!"

So, my opinion is that for tournaments, we should use displacement. That will ALWAYS tell what fish is bigger. We don't really have that tech yet, so for now, mass will have to work. I wish they'd start measuring weight in tournaments in a tank. It's pretty simple, Newton's laws apply, even if they're underwater, just zero out the tank before adding the fish. Mass is mass (meaning weight) and the weight will show, and they fish won't be flopping around in a basket, and you won't have the issue of extra water being weighed as well. They do this in many college level tournaments. That said, I do a few online tournaments, through TourneyX. They all use length. I have a bump board for this. If it's a beast, I'll weigh it too. The thing to keep in mind, is be prepared. In my boat, I unhook the fish, put a cull tag on it, which prevents unnecessary handling when getting the fish out of the livewell. Then I prepare my measuring device, and camera. get the fish, weigh it, snap a pic, and return it to the water. In the kayak, the process is similar, except I use a cull tag attached to a retractable tether made by T-Reigns. The fish is on the tether, and in the water near the boat. I suppose others would be interested in girth measurements, along with length and weight, but I'm not interested enough to do it. The point is, I do not have the fish out of the water for more than 30-45 seconds. You keep your fish out of the water for more than a minute, you might as well release it into hot oil. Out of the water time is a bigger killer than any livewell, handling, "breading the fish" in the dirt on shore, or even prolonged playing the fish out. Remember, the second that fish is out of the water, the clock is ticking. Try this, run a 100 yard dash, then hold your breath for a minute or more. Tell me how you feel after...

That picture shows a wind knot from twist. Braid will twist, and especially if it's loaded wrong. While you don't get the fly away loops like you do with single filament lines, you will get wind knots. The solution: troll it out, reel in through a towel, with some pressure, and treat it with KVD L&L.

This is incorrect, and why I always spool my line myself. Per Shimano spinning reel instructions:

Was fishing in 80° water last week. Jigs are always in play. Especially living rubber, mop jigs. Dead stick them to give the rubber skirt enough time to "bloom." You'll get bit.

You won't be fishing vertically in 3-5 FOW. Here is an article I wrote a few years back about using drop shot for shallow, bedding fish. Throw out the bits about waiting for it to commit, and simply fish it in high percentage ambush points. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/dropshot-bedding-bass.html For hooks, You can use weedless DS hooks from Owner: They work great. For weights, I'd go with skinny pencil weights in the weeds. Gently popping the weight off the weeds often triggers a bite, especially right at the deep side of the weed edge.

That IS weedless, in the picture.

My takeaway from this thread is that Strike King has responded with an offer for support. Says volumes about how they value their customers.

Towing package usually includes a transmission cooler, along with the other towing hardware. Brakes should be fine.

Sounds like the battery is bad. My Interstates generally go around 12 hours of fishing use. If it's a bad windy day, and I'm using more, it might be less, but I don't recall them ever dying in 4 hours. Just doesn't make sense.

Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I wouldn't even consider putting a deck on a 1236, let alone one that is twice as wide as the hull.

This is exactly the advice I was going to type up.

It's sort of like asking, which is better: Hammer or screwdriver? Different tools.

Owners manual contains schematic diagrams. You only have to go to their website: http://www.minnkotamotors.com/Support/Owner-Manuals/Maxxum/

I'm not sure the boat weighs enough to benefit from them. I disabled mine on my Bullet because it made almost no difference.

Oh crap, my mistake! Sorry! (see mods aren't always all knowing, lol) These are the hard baits - there was quite a bit of buzz when they came out. https://store.baits.com/home.php?cat=2