J Francho

What's the arc of visibility on those?

First, let's diagnose what exactly is going on, and what your doing. As A-Jay says, why run at that RPM if the boat settles down at a different RPM? Anyway, here's what cavitation and ventilation are:

You'd have to do more damage than that to break them. I just think it's ugly.

The key word in cartopping is CAR. If you have a truck, just shove it in the bed. That's what I do now. I don't bother with a bed extender, even with my 14' Commander. The standard bed works fine with the gate down.

I car topped an 82 lb. Ocean Kayak Big Game Prowler. There's plenty of videos that show the technique. It doesn't require lifting the entire boat at once.

None of you chuckers ever used a Hudd, lol.

The latest trend is to have them in the rub rail. I'm not really a fan.

You could add a trolling plate instead. https://www.ironwoodpacific.com/EasyTroller-Trolling-Plate

I'll try to remember to test this later. Closed they do.

I usually rig wacky. I skewer the bait as well. The worm itself becomes the weed guard, as long as you aren't ripping the bait. Often gently popping it through weeds gets you bit.

Oddly, the most visible color on the water has often been said to be blue. I personally think yellow or orange is more visible. I am rocking a blue boat right now.

I agree with Catt. Sensitivity is NOT a reason to use braid. I've already provided the use case for why it isn't sensitive. You only feel anything when the fish swims away from you. If it doesn't and you're using braid, you better hope the line moves or something happens to tell you something is there.

I flip them, after a certain length of time of not getting bit, I replace. Can't really say how long that is.

I'm not sure I understand the correlation between stretch and sensitivity. Someone explain this to me. I'm not disputing there is more information transmitted when fishing, I'm talking about when the fish bites.

Got it for you bud.

Try Siebert Outdoors, and see if Mike can make them. https://www.siebertoutdoors.com/

I'm fairly knowledgeable about boat terms, but this was a new one. Thanks!

I think we're seeing some degradation from our hosts. It's probably not on your end, and I'm sure they're working on the issue.

I think that's as close as daytime fishers can get to Catt's advice to fish at night.

People love to cite that Glen Lau video, and it's very poignant, but I think they intentionally oversold the rejection rate of bass. Most of those fish held onto the hookless baits long enough for an angler to detect it. It's really what Catt has preached - you have to learn to trust your feel for the tick that often get when they strike the bait. Braid is just one tool, but it's not gonna be more sensitive than denser mono or fluorocarbon. Braid depends on the line being taught - and it's really good at this. Mono and fluoro can transmit vibrations on even slack line. Again, they're just tools as well. You aren't likely to winch a bass from dense weeds with even 20 lb. mono as you are with 50 lb. braid, unless you are a seriously experienced angler. I tell this story often: I was pitching to holes in the thick weed flat, moving very slowly. Occasionally I'd see something I missed or was too interesting to skip that was way too close for a pitch. This is where I'd use a flip cast. Fishing this way is almost automatic for me now. The first time this happened, my mind was blown. I made a pitch to a perfect ambush point, and sure enough a very nice bass VIOLENTLY struck the jig. It came out of the weeds at like 100 mph and turned on that bait. I felt NOTHING. All I saw was a tiny twitch of the braid. Yes, I did set the hook, and got a pic of that catch. I've seen many times since.

Exhibit A. Nice.

Nope, I'm out.

All but one were more than a decade old. I replaced a short shaft with a new long shaft model on my Xpress because I fish in fairly rough waters (Lake Ontario). There was nothing wrong with the old one, so I kept it as a back up but never needed it. Sold it w/ the boat. So, I'd say pretty durable.

Toussaint?

Pretty sure the Maxxum has a maximiser for better battery life. At any rate, I've had three 70 lb. and an older 80 lb. version and they all worked flawlessly.