dwtaylor

Fond Du Lac here. I have a love/hate relationship with Winnebago.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but what do you guys use to seal to swim test a bait?

I can't speak for the 3" version, but the 4" and 5" versions of the dinger are pretty light in comparison to GY Senko. I like the Senkos, but it was hard to pass up a bunch of singers at 2 bucks a pack last summer.

Baby rage craws work pretty well, as do Zoom Super Chunk Jrs. I caught a pig of a smallie on a 5/16 oz eakins jig and a 3" green pumpkin senko on Big Green Lake near Princeton, WI this last fall. So don't just limit trailers to just craws or chunks either.

I am using braid mostly because I'll be using it for musky fishing too. I want that no stretch line to get good hook sets in a bony musky or pike's mouth.

Do you have experience with this blank? What I am reading is a mod fast blank is the way to go for these baits (for what its worth). Plus I will be throwing 80lb braid with this setup so I'm thinking a mod fast would be better anyways?

I am not going to disagree with you about the market trend going toward 4 strokes, as the sales volumes of 4 stroke Mercs are going up. However, the Opti ProXS is still a very good engine as far as sales go. I am employed at Mercury, for what it is worth.

So here I am, re-watching Southern Trout Eaters for the 4th time since Saturday. Needless to say, I want to try swimbaiting this upcoming year. I want something that I can throw 8" hudds, glide baits (200 size S waver), and similar sizes musky baits. Thus, what blank ($150 or less) should I build off of? I would rather build than buy because of Wisconsin winter is horrible.

This is false.

First and foremost, thank you very much for considering a Mercury powered Lund. The fine folks working here at Merc headquarters here in Fond Du Lac truly appreciate it. Second of all, I would highly recommend the Opti ProXS 200 hp over a L4 Verado (175-200). Performance, weight, and economy will be better than the Vrod. Contrary to popular belief, the difference between the 3.0L V6 optis (200-250) are not just "chipping." There are some part number/assembly differences between the models. They are very close, though.

Get bit baits 3.5" finesse tube.

Depends. Sometimes it's a kalins grub if I want to fish the lower 3rd of the water column. Or a strike king menace (most used) if I want to fish the middle of the water column. Or a skinny dipper if I want to fish the upper portion of the water column. In my opinion, the swimbait trailer is the least versatile on a swim jig because of the lift. The menace fishes well deeper like the kalins, but has a little more lift so in order to fish it faster and deeper, you have to upsize on head size. I use 1/4 oz Brovarney or Lethal Weapon Lures' swim jigs 90% of the time.

I have an 06 Explorer with the 4L V6 (5200ish tow capacity). It tows my Tr-185 and gear (appx 3300lbs) at about 14-16 MPG. It works her pretty good though getting up to speed. With that said, I am actually looking to purchase at least a 1/2 ton truck to pull with for the others' above mentioned reasons. A Explorer just isn't meant to pull that much weight. With that said, the furthest place I intend on going is Sturgeon Bay, which is a little over 100 miles one way away. The more I think about it, I am looking more and more at an early 2000s 7.3 powerstroke superduty.

I picked up a 2500 ci4+ for $175 at a sport show last winter. If the same guys are there again, I have more cash... With that said, that is still a good deal because Shimano has set pricing pretty much across all of their dealers. Tough to catch a deal unless they are discontinued.

They aren't bad IMO, but they are noisy. I noticed a couple of years ago while fishing shallow water in Green Bay, I turned the trolling motor (without thrust engaged) and it spooked a fish from the noise. This was in my dad's 2025 Pro-V. I am a shallow water/power fishing guy so I like my cable steers. If I was mostly structure fishing, I would get one in a heart beat. I have a 70 lb Minn Kota now that I am thinking about getting rid of if I can find a spot for a 3rd battery in my TR-185 so I can get a 100lb plus motor. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Only if it magically turned itself into a Shimano...

BS. You will get one. Don't lie to yourself.

Yes, Peninsula State Park has a bunch of camping opportunities.

I doubt that 522 is a speed demon, thus you would probably not get the benefits of a sportmaster gearcase for sure. The torquemaster may help, but still that is a heavy boat that probably won't scoot too fast. If it were me, I would go with the Verado Pro Fourstroke. Since the Racing Pro XS 300 isn't exactly the same as the 3.0L standard production Pro XS engines, I can't tell you what efficiencies the engine would have vs a Verado. Most of the time, the Opti is more efficient than a Vrod, but that typically is with the lower horsepower engines. With that said, the Verado is super quiet and actually still performs quite well. I don't know for sure, but I would see if those come standard with a Poseidon HD gearcase (the one with the 1.25" propshaft). That would be the gearcase you would want for durability sake. Many of the components used in this gearcase are the same as the new 400R.

I pretty much only fish with my kayak there, primarily due to fewer pleasure boats. I have caught some brutes there, and if you are available, head up there the 2nd week of June. Plenty of fish up shallow by the kayak/canoe launch so you don't have to paddle as far or battle wind as much. But now I have a bass boat, so I anticipate my kayak fishing days up there are going to be very rare.

I live on Winnebago...if I want big ol sheepshead, I'll just dump the boat in here rather than drive 2 hrs and catch them there lol.

A guy in my bass club had a 97 175 efi that would bog down when he opened it up. It would idle fine, but when he opened it up, it would intermittently sputter. Sometimes it would work beautifully and other times not so much. The fuel system and plugs were checked and it was found that he had a bad ecu (computer). This is an issue with the 2.5 L mercs, unfortunately. Without having more information, it is hard to say that the ecu is the cause of the problem though.

Also, a glass rod is crucial for this. Bass choke it when the conditions are right.

If you don't mind the wear and tear on your hands and arms, crankin with a high speed reel can be DEADLY. If I just let a cat out of the bag that should have not left, I'm sorry.

First of all, its good that you have found someone that will stand behind your club like that. In my college club, Pure Fishing was great in stepping up and providing discounted pricing to the members of the club. It is really nice, especially with a college budget, to be able to afford better stuff than you could without their help.