senile1

That is good news!

If you have the exact issues I had, the parts are shown below that will fix those issues. They cost a bit over $123 in March with no shipping cost. After watching the videos for installing this stuff it maybe took an hour and 15 minutes to complete. I know you would rather get it repaired under warranty but if you are anxious to be on the water without these issues this will probably do it.

I just read through your thread, Joe. Nice work on the boat!

@MontanaBasser I recently had to replace my power switch and my steering sensor board on my 2021 Ultrex. The power switch would not shut off and, at times, the motor could not be turned to the left with the pedal. It did function with the remote, however. I bought the replacement sealed parts from TrollingMotorParts.com and did the work myself. The TrollingMotorParts website has good videos that explain how to remove the old and install the new parts. Everything functions as it should now. There are known issues of water causing these unsealed parts to fail on older Ultrex models, but supposedly, they are corrected with sealed parts on models beyond 2020 or 2021. (I can't remember which.) My original steering sensor board was sealed and yet, it still failed, so I don't know what to tell you about that.

Oink, oink!

I hope you heal up quickly A-jay. I have had this issue for years and it can be quite painful if you tear a great deal of cartilage. In my early 30s I was playing volleyball with some other couples in a sand pit. I dove to make a save and stretched my body out full length, hitting the ball and then landing flat on my chest. It felt like every part of my rib cage had popped loose after I landed. What I didn't know was that this type of injury hurts much worse after a day or two and I was in extreme pain for a few weeks. It eventually healed but due to how much cartilage had been damaged, I would "repop" or "repull" it on occasion. Fortunately, I am still able to lift weights and remain active because I have learned over the years how to avoid popping the cartilage. All I can say is I don't lean across an auto console to pick something up off the floor on the passenger side of a vehicle anymore.

I use the 2.75 inch Zman Finesse Trd in the New Money color. Occasionally pro yellow perch, black/blue flake, and some of the shad colors like The Deal and Smelt get some love, but the New Money does most of the heavy lifting. I fish it on a sensitive light spinning rod with braid and an 8 lb fluoro leader. Obviously, if I am fishing in a good wind, boat position with respect to wind direction and using the leeward side of islands, channel banks, etc. plays a part in getting this tiny bait down to these depths.

I use 1/10th oz Zman jig heads and 1/8th for other brands when fishing a Ned deep at Table Rock Lake. I catch a lot of smallies and spotted bass using these weights in 15 - 25 feet of water. It is rare that I fish them 30 feet deep though that has happened. Usually when I find fish in 30 to 40 feet at TR a drop shot is more conducive to catching them.

Nice pics of some beautiful smallies. What a great trip! Love it!

@Swamp Girl, I would say that you spending 5 weeks in wilderness is very hardcore. You Maine residents are quite fortunate to have Baxter State Park set aside for perpetuity. I love that place.

I have enjoyed watching Alone. And I love the wilderness. Over the past six years I have been involved in wilderness escapades every year in the Colorado mountains climbing 14ers and 13ers (peaks exceeding 14,000 and 13,000 feet). A significant number of the climbs can be completed as day hikes, although we are talking 8 to 16 hours of hiking depending on the mountain and the difficulty. For many of these day hikes, I drive a 4wd Tacoma up to trailheads and hike a few mountains from there, while camping in a truck tent for five to seven days. For the mountains that do require a hike to a base camp location, the trips typically do not require more than four to six days of backpacking. The biggest danger on these trips is not the length of time in wilderness, nor finding plants and animals to eat because I carry food with me. It is the climbing at altitude and the chance of taking a fall on class 3 and 4 terrain. As a "flatlander" at 14,000 feet we are only able to take in approximately 60 percent of the oxygen we normally receive at sea level and it takes a month or so to acclimatize to the altitude. Until then, every day you climb you become quite winded especially above 12,000 feet. "Embracing the suck" and training all year long to have the aerobic capacity to climb at my age is required to make it to the summit . Below are some pics from last year and also the last two pics are from Maine's Mount Katahdin for @Swamp Girl. Pic below is from the summit of El Diente Peak. A selfie from the top of El Diente. Early in a climb of Wilson Peak which is on the left in the pic. This was a "moderate" hike of about 10 miles and 4000 feet of elevation gain. At the summit of Mt Katahdin. I take off my backpack for pics if there is enough space to lay it down. The most difficult part of Katahdin's Helon Taylor Trail is the climb up to these peaks and then crossing them on the ridge to the high point.

@A-Jay Thanks for the update!

@A-Jay I like your use of the Mendoza line as an analogy. It took me a while to read through all of the early posts in this thread because I rarely get to fish smallmouth waters. I travel to Southwest Missouri a couple of times a year and catch a few then. I read through the posts earlier this year and was very impressed with the amount of information you provided. I thought it would make a good e-book for smallmouth. Since this thread first began in 2018, I was curious if there is anything in that information that has changed for you or some aspect of it that you would add to.

@gim I know exactly how you feel. My largemouth PB came in 2008 at 7 lb 5 oz. I have caught numerous 5 and 6 lb bass over the last 18 years but exceeding my PB has eluded me. And knowing how long you have been on this forum and how long you have been fishing, I suspect you will have implemented most, if not all, of the advice given. A piece of advice that @geo g gave may slip under the radar for some, but I think it rings true. As he stated, "fish often." The only other thing I would add is this. Fish often on a lake that is known for fish bigger than your PB. I live in northwest Missouri and there are a handful of lakes that are known by MDC for bass in the 20 to 22 inch range. Smithville Lake, which is nearby hasn't produced an 8 lb'er in tournaments since 2001. That doesn't mean they haven't been caught and not reported though. I have caught a number of 6 lb fish there. The smaller lakes tend to not have any reports about bigger fish. Over the past couple of years I have kept my eyes peeled for fish bigger than 6 lbs being caught, but only one lake in that handful has produced a reported 8 lb'er in that time. That lake is a bit over 2 hours from me. I rarely fish that lake but it appears I will have to do a lot more driving if I want a better chance at upping my PB.

@Glenn, I am glad everything is back to normal. I am sure you have been pulling your hair out. I've been out of town visiting my sister and her husband in Arkansas for a few days but I did notice when things came back up. Wow! Approximately two and a half weeks of being down and checking every day or so was quite surprising. I knew within a week that your database was corrupted. Typically, these things don't take this long unless a database needs to be rebuilt. In my career as a network engineer, we designed, configured, programmed and built converged networks and call centers for corporations. Something like this would have cost us a lot of money in compensation for not meeting our Service Level Agreement (SLA) built into our customers' contracts. I am sure it is probably confidential but this did make me wonder what kind of contract the site has with the sponsors and if this was a point of contention with them. Anyway, not to emphasize the negatives, but all of this reminded me of work. LOL!

@Glenn, I had the same issue this morning. It wouldn't accept my childhood nickname. I chose a different form of verification and got online with the QR code and Google Authenticator.

I experience the same thing since we moved from metro Kansas City into the country. The area we chose is a more rugged and woodsy area and we chose it for that very reason. I am amazed at the amount of trash that is discarded, not just on my property, but on a significant number of the country roads around our area. We have a creek on our property that goes under the road and litterers seem to love to throw their trash in or near the creek as they pass over it. It is a constant battle to keep it picked up. As for picking up trash when I go fishing, I pick up what I can get to and what I have time for. The environment is a big deal to me but there are limitations for what I can do sometimes. If you only have a specific amount of time to fish, you can't spend all that time picking up trash in really bad areas. The best thing to do is to take a dedicated trip to that location for trash pickup only. Also, emails, letters, and social media communications to news organizations in the area can sometimes instigate community efforts to clean up these locations.

@Jar11591, I think you handled your situation with Coco well. All we can do is give them our love and keep them from unnecessary pain which you did. I have stayed away from this thread until today because of how raw my emotions are still. We lost our beloved border collie, KC, on December 2nd of last year at age 10. In mid-October we noticed her lymph nodes were somewhat swollen and took her to the vet. We were advised that it was likely she had lymphoma and had approximately 40 to 50 days to live with no treatment. We took her to Blue Pearl Oncology to run tests to confirm the diagnosis and the type of lymphoma she had. After testing we were told she that she indeed had lymphoma but it could be treated. The treatment would last approximately 5 months and the likely result would have been only 5 more months of life after completion. Though KC was a well-behaved dog she had certain anxieties and riding in cars was one of those. We could not see taking her on weekly one hour drives for treatments and checkups for 5 months to only gain 5 more additional months afterward (10 months including the time in treatment). The treatments also typically cause some painful side effects that also have to be treated. We didn't want to put her through that. So we chose to give her prednisone to ease the symptoms until she passed. Prednisone initially takes away all the swelling and your dog will seem normal, but by the second month it starts to lose its efficacy and the swelling comes back. KC did pretty well through Friday, November 29th, eating well and playing, though her endurance was slowly ebbing. On Saturday, November 30th, I awakened to KC lying with her head down on the floor and not wanting to move. I knew that it was time. I called our vet to setup euthanasia for the following Monday. By mid-day she had come out of her stupor and was a bit like herself. The next day, Sunday, she was worse but by mid-afternoon had recovered somewhat again. Monday came, along with a snow storm, and the home euthanasia appointment had to be rescheduled to Tuesday. On Tuesday, December 2nd KC was euthanized with my wife and I by her side at our house. We buried KC down by the woods and creek at the back of our property where she spent many fun days. I could go into a long soliloquy about all of the things that made KC the best dog we have ever had, but instead I will just say this. If dogs don't go to heaven, then there is no heaven.

That is an awesome rig! The only thing you are missing is an outboard motor. 😉

That ad is for me. 😉

Awesome fish! Congrats on the new PB and welcome to the circus.

It has happened to me too. LOL

Yep. I have found over the years that my tires will usually go 5 years, though once in a while that is cutting it close. Three years is too soon to replace IME. @padlin, A-jay's original post about his tire blowout was in 2021.

@scaleface, very good point. The jigs I use for brush and the football heads for rocks all have recessed line ties. @Jig Man, same here. You know you are in thick brush when you have to work the jig up and over limbs. I often find myself climbing over some limbs and releasing the thumb bar to drop the lure back to the bottom on the other side.

I failed to mention something in my post above. When you are fishing a jig and it feels hung, give it a gentle pull, not a hard one. If it is still hung, hit the thumb bar and give the line some slack, then engage the reel and try a gentle pull again. Sometimes an upward pull of the rod after hitting the thumb bar is what is needed as well. Also, use the bow and arrow technique where you create tension on the line by pulling it out from the rod with your hand and then releasing it to snap back toward the lure. Usually, with practice, you can release quite a few of those hang ups with your jigs.