slonezp

Mark, You can get the weights in the bulk bin at Cabelas, They have the split rings too, I've been using 4/0 EWG hooks. We've been killing them on the Chain with Pit Boss' and Rage Craws

This

The 50 on the Tracker is way underpowered. Send J Francho a PM. His Xpress is for sale and it's in your price range. The Xpress is the 2nd best riding tin rig. I own the best riding tin rig and I'll sell it to you for 50k

The Triton, Tracker, and Ranger hulls are modified v's. The Xpress is a pad hull which is more of a hi performance hull. You can run the same speeds as John's Xpress in a Tracker with a 115 properly set up. The pad hull just pulls more of the boat out of the water. The less hull in the water, the less resistance, the faster the boat. One of the reasons tin boats ride rougher is because of their light weight. The hulls you are looking at are probably around 1000lbs. A glass boat hull of the same size is going to weigh 1600-1800lbs. The heavier, longer, and wider the hull the better it will handle the chop.

Guess I misunderstood your post. I try to keep it fun as well. I don't have the competitive nature my son has. He takes it personal.

Everyone knows the middle is not a side.(except the members from Kansas, Oklahoma, and Joilet ) That's almost as dumb as restaurants serving med. and large drinks. Can't have a med. if you don't have a small. Carry on...

You can go to Auto Zone and have them do a load test on the batteries. I had a bank go out on a MK charger and it cooked the battery. The MK bad bank was always charging and never went into "float" mode.

An interesting read thus far. My question, Do you believe the big girls were in the deep water this time of year? I guess what I'm getting at is I'm guessing the spawn is in progress or just ending. I'm no expert but I think it's premature to fish 20ft humps in 35fow. I would think the females would be holding at the first drop. I think the technique could be deadly in the next few weeks after the girls recoup from the spawn and move out to their summer haunts.

How did it go? I will definitely volunteer my boat next year. Madison is less than a 2 hour drive from here and a 1/2 hour from our property in the Dells.

I don't believe you will be able to do 40 in a 2-3 foot chop without it being quite bumpy and possibly dangerous. There are 2 rules of thumb, and you would need to figure out where the boat fits. 1.Trim down and slow down. (This is more than likely where a 17' tin will fit) 2. Ride the tops of the waves. (This takes a bigger boat, a hotfoot, and experience)

I nose hook them

No backing, no problems.

An age old question. Unless I'm trying new water or presentations, I'm with Glenn. If it's new water, and I'm not pressed for time, I'll give it as much time as I feel it takes to thoroughly work the area.

Brings back memories. I have a few in the garage that haven't seen the light of day in 30 years.

Are you 100% sure there are fish where you are looking? Are you sitting on top of or going over fish which you are catching and not seeing them on the screen? As far as bottom composition, a hard bottom is shown as a hard line. A soft bottom is fuzzy, dense weeds are fuzzy, light weeds are noticeable as fuzzy clumps shooting up from the bottom. You may want to check your chart speed. It should be close to the boat speed meaning 3mph= chart speed 3. If you are sitting on top of a school and vertical jigging then you'll want the chart speed on 10 to get fast returns.

If you ant to save money on jigs invest in some good braid.

Have you tried adjusting the sensitivity?

My son caught this one last spring on a t-rigged Havoc Pit Boss. We catch 5-7lb channels all the time. I've thought about going on a guided trip on the Rock River in IL which is about an hour west of me. They pull 40lb cats out of there on a regular basis.

On the flipside

The Lake Michigan is stocked with salmon which are non native and for the most part cannot reproduce. They were stocked heavily in the 70's and 80's to control the alewife population. Dead alewives were covering the beaches in the summertime and smelled disgusting. The salmon fishery is incredible and many business' thrive on it. The alewife population is under control and the smelt population has been decimated. Smelt fishing used to be a tradition on the lakefront for many folks. A social gathering of sorts. Now, guys are lucky to get a handful of fish n their nets. During the 90's overstocking caused the salmon to become malnourished and diseased. They have since reduced the stocking to keep things in check and fish healthy. Only took them 40 years to get it right.

I have always wanted a kitty that big or bigger. I bet the fight is awesome

Sucks to be you

Don't take this the wrong way. Why do you fish tournaments? If you are fishing them for fun, then why not just fun fish? Why spend the extra money? Tournament fishing is work and for me takes much of the fun out of it. I fish tourneys for 2 reasons. My son(my partner) and money. He want's to fish more local tourneys but the numbers don't add up. I'm involved with a larger club and it's a gamble. It could, and has, paid off big. For me, the smaller clubs IMO are a waste. By the time. I figure in entry fees and fuel(including prefish) and I'd be way ahead fun fishing.

Needing trout stamps is fine. Requiring them even if they are not the target species is robbery.

You broke the site. I think a time out is in order.