Nice_Bass

You should make a trip to clinton as well- many more wipers and stripers. Good pop. of whites though as well. If you want an even shorter trip Evergreen has large populatios of whites as well and is only 15 minutes or so from you. I usually just find the bait, and fish following the schools around. Fall is great as well-they shock up record musky every year from evergreen. Only promblem is the lake is only 900 acres- so can get a bit borning. Clinton I find to be the best midstate lake.

Stripers and wipers most likely at the same lake is what i chase.

The where is much more important...but, if you like most others want exciting top water action and are looking for a big frog- order a "3:16 no bull frog". By far some of the most fun fishing i have had tossing that thing around.

You could travel far to catch larger fish but that was not the question- I also would be much more proud with a 10+ NLMB than travel south where it may be better odds. We have 10 pound fish caught in IL every year, however I do not know a single person that has one over 8 from my in state waters. Best bet for a 10 pounder NLMB is in MO as blue stated. That is where i catch all my PB's.

I think the goal of catching a NLMB and a florida strain is vastly different- My goal is to catch a 10# northern strain- of course, i would still go crazy if I had boated one down south.

Depends on your patience level- rof 5 will take a bit to get down if you are working the bottom of the water column. If you are wanting to fish the top end, then rof 5 if you want a nice slow retreive. Honestly, I would get both if I were you, and then depending on your situation you can select. If you can only get one, get the rof 12 for this time of year and your depth range you are wanting to use it in.

I find out of the box trebles to be just fine as well for cranks- never could understand the need either. Normans and fat free's always seem to have sticky trebles. SK's, rapalas same deal out of the box.

I think if you can already skip the jig you are light years beyond brand...I do think it is eaiser to skip jigs with different types of trailers. I am a Berkely chigger fan, but if I really need to skip docks and cover real far back and not just trees and so forth, than i prefer a flatter beaver style bait. To me it just makes sense to have the beaver bait covering a greater surface area of the water, thus helping it stay on plane. I am sure the difference is minimal and it is just in my head, nonetheless...

Got to have a goal, and if you have met it already, set somthing way higher. I found the only way for motivation is sports personally- of course I play/played soccer- and globally much eaiser to find a group to put together. Stay safe out there.

Yes, there will be a transducer that you will need to mount on your TM. You will most likely need to buy a bracket to mount the ducer, unless you can reuse your old one. What kind of finder did you have at the bow? It may be eaiser to stick with the same wiring used so you dont have to run any new wires.

Store them in original bags. I then clip all the same colors or size together with golf bag clips though the holes that would hang at a store, and then throw that with corresponding like baits in reusable grocery bags. So all 3" trailers in green on one clip, 4 inch in purple on another clip, etc. Then all craws are kept in one bag, worms in another, creatures in another, and finesse in another.

I always fish this way- i think the most important thing is to have your drag set as tight as possible for the long hook sets, and start to dial it back once fish is hooked.

I leave the dead ones in a pile at my bow- on going battle. If only berkely made the 4" chigger in the 100 count bags I would be a happy man. Other than that the NS keep a pretty good grab on it for me. I also like the rattle chamber on the SK denny brauers jig- keeps the craw pretty snug against the hook.

With a PB of between 8-9 you must be doing somthing right! Color does matter, just not as much as depth control, location, size, speed, vibration...etc. etc. IMO.

I guess I am with RW on this one- Stained water- Brown and purple jig clear water- brown and purple jig sunny skys- brown and purple jig cloudy- brown and purple jig. Same thing goes for the various other baits i throw- pumpkinseed for worm, shad color cranks, etc. Depth control is more important than color when dealing with sunny vs. cloudy etc. They may be tighter to cover or structure, but regardless of color if you put it in front of them chances are they will bite. Sunny day with some chop on the water they could be up in the water a bit more than no wind, etc...color would be the last factor i really look at other than for confidence. Most love black and blue- i feel less confident with that myself.

Fish have been done here for a bit- Start of May they were full of eggs still, end of may they were done- post spawn/summer patter pretty easy to spot at this point.

Just an opinion here...but i think you would be much happier with a unit with 2d and gps with an available mapping port vs. a unit that will run just DI off the front of your boat. Are you running it off drivers or bow? You will have to run new wires but fairly simple whatever you end up choosing. With the trackers you just have to start unscrewing lots of panals.

will do.

Wow...that really does suck, I would be worried about that axel- hopefully your adjuster just gets you a brand new one and not try and get it fixed- may be going through a new set of tires every month if that is the case! good luck with it all.

I dont own that unit but it does have an update that you will need to download from Lowrance website to a micro sd card. Have you done that already?

Sounds like you should just unscrew your front panel and see if it is a loose wire there for starters. It does not sound like a fuse, but i would check those as well just in case. Sounds like you have a loose wire. What do you have in the at the counsel? If you can depending on how you have them mounted try to see if it works at the counsel if it is the same wiring, if it works then you have narrowed your problem. Does not really sound like anything you should have to drive 4 hours for though. Start eliminating the easy options, and let us know.

I agree, and well written- except for that awful sound it makes going through the guides....gahhh, it gives me chills.

I do not own an MK, but from what i have heard from others is that you either have a big loop of cable if you just mount it and have stray wire, or you can do it through the shaft- Hang in there and someone on here will give you a good answer.

I would agree, but would also add the 3:16 no bull frog to a category of its own.

5+ Always happy with back to back keepers though as well.