Goose52

I use mine as part of a three-rung ladder of NRXs used for bottom contact: 852, 893, 894. I use the 852 mostly for small plastic craws and plastic worms up to 7 1/2 inches, with up to 1/4 oz weight. I have a 2015 Aldebaran on it with 12lb Sniper. Nice combo ...

I was on the lake today, saw this SI image, thought of this thread, and got a screen shot. This is a Helix 10 with the HDSI transducer. Depth is only 12 feet but you can see a bunch of stuff on each side, including spawning beds. When I had my HB 798 with the standard compact transducer I would not have seen this much detail, this sharp, but I would have seen enough to know if I wanted to work over that area. So, for me, and with the equipment that I've had, I'd say the last 5 years that I've been using SI has indeed let me see more stuff...and catch more fish...

Here you go - look away...

OUTSTANDING GROWTH ! I am nearing the end of my second season of tagging LMB in three of my local lakes (38, 16, and 11 acres). I have tagged 691 bass so far and have 298 recaptures of those bass. Of those 298 recaptures, NONE have generated any of the oft-quoted growth metrics (e.g., x inches/year, x pounds/year). I get pretty exited when I have, say, a 14" bass grow an inch in a year. I have bass that I measured at 260 mm 16 months ago that are now only 270/275 mm (in other words - a 10" bass still being around 10" 16 months later). So my lakes represent the flip-side of your lake - mine are very infertile, with generally poor forage, with many skinny bass having very low "relative weights". OTOH, I do have some very healthy, plump bass having relative weights at 100% or over that apparently are able to out-compete most of the other bass for available forage. Here are my average relative weights for inch classes from 10" to 22": 10" 79.1% 11" 81.1% 12" 77.5% 13" 75.6% 14" 73.8% 15" 73.5% 16" 75.2% 17" 77.9% 18" 76.9% 19" 77.1% 20" 76.8% 21" 81.3% 22" 77.0% These results have REALLY made me appreciate it when I catch a 4, 5, or 6 pound bass in my water - they are scarce, and have taken a LONG time to achieve those weights. Anyway - it sounds like your investment in forage (shad and bluegill) is paying BIG dividends !

Back in August I bought the KVD Helix 10 SI for $1200 shipped. Probably not the lowest price these went for (shipped)...but a pretty good price. As has been mentioned, you get the three baits (a 6XD, a spinnerbait, and a 3rd that I've already forgotten) and the red accents on the unit. The only downside that I see is that the red will eventually fade to pink. BUT, for the $$$ savings, I can live with a sonar with pink accents...

A great post ! Nicely summarized and it speaks for many of us...

Hello Joe - welcome to BR... I thought we had a thread on that boat some time back but I didn't find it in a quick search. I did find one short review of it here. It looks like a nifty boat - I would think it is as stable or more so than an equivalent size "bass raider" type boat since it's heavier. When we discussed this boat before, I remember appreciating the engineering that went into it but I eliminated it from my consideration because it's too heavy, requires a trailer, and operating the pedal controls seems to mean you have to be seated. I fish standing 100% of the time so I wouldn't really be able to steer the boat while fishing. Another concern that I had was while the "prop tunnels" under the boat have weedguards, I'm thinking that the curly-leaf pondweed that is present in several of my lakes might make it past those guards and foul the props - requiring beaching the boat and tilting it up on it's side to clear - probably not that easy when the boat is said to weigh 175 pounds. But, in mostly open water, and for an angler that likes to fish sitting (at least sitting when underway), it looks like a viable option.

I got that product announcement from HB via email. Pretty nifty - the "trickle-down" of some very nice features formerly only found on the larger/more$$$ units to the smaller/less$$$ units is great. The new H5-G2s will be great units for applications where space might be somewhat limited (like on a kayak or a portable application) or where the budget is limited. I guess my HB 570 that I still have in the attic has become even MORE obsolete...

Some casting models still show on the St. Croix Factory Store here. Don't see any spinning rods. EDIT: I edited this post to provide the link to the remaining Rage casting rods. When I originally posted last Friday, I didn't see any Rage rods in the factory store and said they were NLA. Perhaps St. Croix was updating their web site last Friday....or I am getting really old and senile...

A-Jay - I know you will keep at it until your bait bounces off the hard water ... Good luck up there It's nice that we have mild winters here in Tennessee...

It works OK at those weights since it has that mod-fast action. I had the rod already and I don't spend a lot of time tossing those >1.5 oz baits so I didn't want to spend the $$$ to get an optimized rod like the often recommended Dobyns 806CB. That Dobyns is also rated Heavy-ModFast like the Rage but people seem to rave about it as "the" 10XD rod. Anyway - if you have any heavy cranks - tie one on your 7'11" Rage and see how it feels to you. The Rage is rated to 2 oz and would probably be OK a bit above that weight as well.

I have a TE200GT on a Rage 7'11" H-ModFast rod with 17lb line. I mostly use it for 10XDs and similar BIG cranks and might end up using it for A-rigs as mentioned by RW.

Yowser A-Jay - nice brown fish !!! I didn't see your post until just now (Saturday afternoon)...but I was thinking of this thread when I was packing gear for the boat this morning. I said to myself: "Self - you should try the u-rig again." I had fished a 3-wire full-size Yumbrella for an hour or so a couple years ago and only got a couple dinks on it and didn't fish it much again after that. But this morning, based on the references above from @roadwarrior and @WRB, I remembered I also had a Tennessee-legal 3-wire Flash Mob Jr that I had bought and never used. Baits? I had nothing much in the way of jigheads on hand so I grabbed a three-pack of the Storm pre-rigged swimbaits that I have had laying around forever. Got to the lake, plugged the baits onto the u-rig, and clipped it on the rod I was going to use that day for deep cranking (a coincidence A-Jay - the same rod you are using!). Picked a likely spot and tossed the rig into a couple feet of water and slow-rolled it down to the 15 ft contour line that I was fiollowing. On the 3rd cast in about 7 fow - bam - 19 inch LMB. Couple casts later - bam - 16 inch LMB. About 10 minutes later - bam - another 16 incher. Not giants but SOLID fish for my water. After that, I hit the >20 fow part of the lake and went to a plan B. So - THANKS A-Jay for posting this thread and giving me the motivation to try the u-rig again. Looks like I need to toss this rig a bit more in the coming days...and perhaps buy some different baits and jigheads... Lots of luck involved to be on the fish so quickly this morning but no doubt the rig is effective and made them want to get one of those "school fish" for breakfast... I was so jazzed on the first fish (19 incher) that I didn't get a photo. This was one of the 16 inchers:

On rod length vs. handling issues and potential damage...I have a feeling that many of these >8' rods will end up being two-piece.

Hmmmm - there could be times when a 9 to 9 1/2 foot, 8 or 9 weight fly rod might be a nifty tool to have in the arsenal... EDIT: just read the linked article...looks like the rule might still limit the type of rods that may be used to "casting, spin-casting, or spinning".....

Here is the BR log that is posted in the "Tools" section of the board. This is a pretty extensive log sheet - you may, or may not, want to capture this much data but it DOES provide an example that one can tailor to their own needs...

There's a lot of "record claiming" here...but my fish is the only one so far that's laid out next to a measuring tape for length verification ... ...just sayin'...

My entry was foul hooked as well !

More changes, eh ! My rod is rated at 8-16lb line and it works well with the 14lb flouro that I run on it. The TT article quoted the same 8-16lb rating in their data table but quoted 8-14lb in the text of the article so I don't know which is actually correct for the tested rod. Anyway - good luck in your decision !

I measure for length every bass I catch; I weigh all bass 14" or over - that data populates a spread sheet. All my data is periodically transmitted to the lakes consultant that manages our water. He uses that data, along with the catch data from the local bass club, as part of his overall assessment of the health of the fishery. I am also involved in a LMB tagging program. If I am on one of my tagging lakes, I measure AND weigh every tagged bass that I catch (10" and up).

TT reviewed the Calcutta DC, a USDM model, in March 2004. Calais DC was a USDM model that was available starting around 2006/2007. So, it's been 10-12 years that DC reel models have been available on the US domestic market. However, as kickerfish1 mentioned, they might not have been on most folks radar due to being a bit "spendy"...

So - it looks like you will be able to use that HDSI transducer after all. Good deal ! I have about 70 hours on my Helix 10 now with that transducer and the difference in side-imaging resolution/quality is very noticeable compared to the Compact SI transducer that I had been using on my 798.

Ain't that the truth! I haven't been able to put together any kind of pattern for the past couple of weeks and resorted to targeting those "isolated pieces of cover" in areas of the lake that I don't usually fish. Cruised around, looking at the down- and side-imaging, and stopping at all the little pieces of cover that I would usually ignore. Caught a number of dinks...but I did get this 'ole girl off an isolated brushpile in 18 fow... I didn't downsize however - she seemed to like the 10" plastic worm that I drug across her cover...

I have the that rod in the previous generation of LTB. The rod was 6'9" then but still had the XF rating. I agree that I've never had the sensation that the blank is XF, even factoring in the ML power rating. As far as what I use it for - mostly light t-rigs with worms or craws tossed on 8lb test.