dwtaylor

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.

I have a field and stream talon 12 foot kayak that I would be selling soon. I have a seat upgrade on it and a depth finder. You aren't far from me so I'd be willing to let you try it out if you want. I'd be negotiable on price.

I have marshaled in a few pros boats in the past. Bernie Schultz takes particularly good care of his boat and I discussed the process of selling them at the end of the year. He says he usually sells them by word of mouth before the end of the season. However, last year he didn't have it sold by the AOY Championship and he told me what he would start at for price. If I had that cash, I would have owned a 2014 ranger z520c fully rigged with 250 Merc Pro XS soon after that day.

Yup, its most likely the anti-reverse pawl. Easy fix. And really, there is already an anti-reverse bearing in the reel preventing backplay in the gears. In fact, I have removed these in the past in some of my e curados. They seem to work just fine.

I'm in the same boat (see what I did there). After doing a lot of research, I want a 2000 or newer Triton Tr-186 with a Merc XR6 150 on it. The storage and setup and size are about what I want.

I have both the 735c and the 736c. I bought the 736c first, and in my opinion, it is right for the backbone, but not enough tip to make good casts and control the frog well. I use this stick primarily for pitching/punching 1/2oz plus baits. That is why I bought the 735c. That is the prefect frog rod IMO. Awesome tip section and a great backbone. I do not think you can go wrong with a 735c as a jig rod either. It is one of the most versatile sticks in thier lineup.

I was up there the 2nd weekend of June last year and fishing was pretty good. Fish could be found in prespawn, on beds, and post spawn. With all of the attention aimed toward Sturgeon Bay as far as media goes, there were a lot of boats. I personally like taking my kayak out of Peninsula State Park and fish up there. Typically the more North you go, the less pressure.

I just built a rod with the MHX DS822. So far I like it, but I need 2 feet of ice to thaw first before I can try it. It does feel like a medium side of medium heavy, but I wanted a rod for bulkier baits on a drop shot, like creature baits, gobies, senkos, or small tube baits. I am a rod balance guy, I want the rod to balance right under my front finger at the real seat. I had to put a 1/2 oz bullet weight it my butt cap to balance it out, which makes me think I wanted to go with the MHX DS822 HM. However, Mudhole was out of the HM model at the time, as they were on clearance. I had a lot of fun with my first build and I went with Microwave guides for mine...for something different. I also went with sk2 seats too, although I don't know if I would build a rod with that again. The most challenging part about the build was applying the wrap epoxy. I don't know if I used a bad applicator brush or not, but I don't have square edges on the epoxy. When I get time, I think I will touch that off to make it look a little better. When I get around to it, I'll post pictures.