Tim Kelly

No point in taking a risk of damaging the guide. Put the hook through the guide's legs rather than the ring and the risk of damaging the guide is negligible.

How thick is the line? If you're using braid that's too thin in situations where you're putting a lot of strain on it, it will bed into the spool. Some braids are worse than others for this, but it's probably the main reason people recommend 65lb braid for flipping.

Ultrex.

I'm pretty certain I didn't sit on your balls John.

They offer much greater stability at rest than a pad or mod v hull of the same width though. I suppose boats are generally wider now, so that stability issue is less relevant?

Thank you. I'm surprised the cathedral hull isn't used in more small freshwater boats any more. They used to be very popular. I can only think of the Tuffy esox and esox magnum that are still made and sold for freshwater fishing.

Been watching some of those Structure fishing films, love the older films of the guys demonstrating stuff on the water. Does anyone know what the old catherdral/tri hulled tiller boats they're using are?

Thanks for putting those films up Sloan. I really learnt a lot form reading spoonplugging and these films are a great way of reminding myself some of the key points. I have subscribed.

Keitech do a solid bodied tube and VMC make a mushroom shaped head in larger sizes. The tube won't work in a same way as a hollow one with an inside weight, but I'm sure it will still catch fish.

Didn't look like he'd ever fished a river before either, but that's a whole other story! LOL KVD had a 360, but I doubt you can fit it to an Ultrex.

Watching the bracket tournament and I can't quite get a good view, but I think Kreiger is using the minn kota Ultrex.

Last saturday I had a surprising large perch munch a trd on the river. It was followed by one slightly smaller as I was winding it in. I caught the smaller one too a few minutes later. 19+" 4lb 11oz and 3lb 06oz. The bigger one was my largest summer perch by a long way. I've had a few larger ones in the winter when they're heavier anyway and more likely to get caught too.

I use an MHX hi mod 7ft popping blank for the sort of application and really like it. It's something like 4-10lb rating and 1/16 to 3/8. It's a fast, rather than Xfast action but has some power lower down. I find the spin jig rods tend to be much less powerful and softer action, despite their similar fast rating.

I'll bet the kids will be nagging dad to buy a boat. When you're fishing on the shore and see people catching from a boat, the obvious difference is the boat. Be nice to think dad buys a boat and the kids enjoy many years fishing from it with him.

Agreed. Great pic, but I would want to see line attached and the hooks swept backwards if you're going to make it look like it's a shot of the lure in action. Put an attachment wire in the blind side of the lure, then you can alter the angle of the lure to make the hooks hang at an appropriate angle, then attach the line and get it to a good angle, cut it out and you're good to go. Look forward to seeing more of your stuff. I used to do a lot of still life ads in the days of film. There were even people who's profession it was to do the retouching on the transparencies. How times change. Respect to you for making a living at it. I'm a plumber these days!

Sounds like you were rigging a Niko rig with a nail weight and a wacky hook? Different animal, but equally unsuited to weeds.

Hackney's been making me smile. A lot of his Icast presentations have been delightfully flippant and amusing.

I don't think #1 is? It has a built in GPS receiver, like the birds and probably the Lowrance, but the heading sensor is a magnetic compass that tells you which way the boat is pointing when you are stationary, or virtually stationary. Very useful as you can easily work out which way it is to a marked point before you set off, or which way to cast to a mark. Lowrance and Humminbird sell a specific GPS puck to achieve this as an extra. It could be addressed in the set up as you could tell it which direction it was to the front of the boat. However, you might have trouble with magnetic interference if it were built into the unit as it might be mounted near something that caused a magnetic field. You have to be careful mounting the pucks in locations where they will be interference free.

No. I can't make myself spend that much money on a sonar, as much as I'd love it!

Autochart live. It's on the Helix 9-12 and the Onix units. I think the newer Garmins have a similar feature too.

Number 2 already exists on Humminbirds.

Fishing with Gussy is my current favorite. Nice guy, great locations. Aaron Weibe's (Uncut Angling) stuff is always good too.

The new Minn Kota, if it is what it appears to be, a foretrex with anchor lock!

I have one and really like it. I don't think it's quite as solidly built as the original, but it's a great reel. I would definitely buy more.

More than a hint of Cross tail shad about it.