slonezp

My son has been hitting subdivision ponds in Lake and McHenry counties. Did quite well over the weekend. He caught this 4lbr on Saturday on a chatterbait. Sunday the bite was on an 8" worm

If it just started now on your last tank of gas, maybe you got a bad tank or the pumps were off. Burn thru this tank and fill up somewhere else next time before you jump to conclusions.

Take the wrapper off your rod LOL Nice work

Never been into trolling. Too much work involved. I did the trolling thing with my dad for Great Lakes salmon and trout when he had a boat. Not my cup o tea. I'm looking for ideas for a boarding ladder if anybody has any?

Another vote for Pit Boss

We'll see how one works out. I have an iPilot on the Terrova. If it gets too windy I should be able to use the autopilot feature in conjunction with the Talon to keep me on mark.

Took around 2 hours. I went direct to the transom instead of having the motor pulled and installing the sandwich bracket. I was able to install the tilt bracket, which is not designed for direct transom mount due to clearance issues, by making a few easy modifications. I installed the tilt bracket in the reverse direction. The holes line up with the Talon, it's just the wider footprint is connected to the Talon and the narrower to the Transom. I bought a plastic cutting board and cut it to size and sandwiched it in between the tilt bracket and the transom, to get the clearance I needed. Sealed the holes and perimeter of the cutting board with 3M 5200. Installed the MK locks to hopefully deter theft. Going to save wiring up the alarm to the ignition for another day.

Outstanding!

If they weren't breaking any size or creel regulations, what you did was uncalled for and could have been dangerous. If they are not breaking rules, they have every right to keep their catch.

Hawgtech Hawg Handle

Interesting first post

Great news!

Was it a buss bar located in the boat somewhere?

Be glad it's only 15 days.

PM sent Going to look badazz on my Ardents

My boat: A basic tool set. Couple screwdrivers, crescent wrenches, channel locks, sandpaper(for cleaning electrical terminals) wire stripper/crimper and terminals, spare fuses, a jump box, spare shear pins for the TM, some stainless nuts and bolts. You may want to keep a spare prop on board. I also have flare kit and first aid kit, 2 anchors, marker buoys, dock lines, bump board, pfd's and a throwable, fire extinguisher, spare drain plug, a net, and my gear. hard baits are in 3700 boxes and soft baits are in Ziploc bags. There are companies that manufacture tackle storage systems that fit on the underside of the storage lids.

Can I trade?

Storage yard. Electronics come off the boat at the ramp. I live in a townhome and rules say I can have the boat in my driveway for no longer than 24hrs. I pick it up the night before I go out and plug in the charger. This is the 3rd boat I've stored there in 10 years as well as my work van which holds my livelihood. Never an issue. The guy who runs/owns the lot is really on the ball. Every inch of the lot is covered by security cameras.

The ice just left this week in Lake County. Fox Chain still not completely open. I was out breaking in my new motor this morning dodging icebergs.

I have no patience. I won't fish a bed unless it's the end of the tourney and I need something good. There are prespawn and postspawn fish around the same areas at the same time that are easier to catch.

You're going to want to spool up with flourocarbon. It's a more sensitive line and will give you better feel.

If it's got bluegills, throw bluegill immitators with a little flash. Maybe firetiger, or a darkbody orange belly crank. BnB for jigs. Northstar's bull gill swimjig with a green pumpkin or black paddletail trailer. Orange craw ipless cranks.

Guy didn't make it to the family

Brown Craw for the reg jigs and bull gill for the swim jigs. I have had success with other colors but these 2 are top producers

Welcome to IL. If you haven't been fishing yet, the Fox River is a pretty devent smallie fishery