moguy1973

I've heard of people having issues with the MG spot lock. They may have fixed them with software upgrades but I know a friend was looking a while back and ended up going with an Ultrex instead. He has Garmin finders though and may be upgrading to the new Garmin Force so it works with his finders.

I have the Stohlquist Fisherman PFD and it's a great kayaking PFD. High back pad that clears the seatback, lots of storage in the pockets and they even flip down to to serve as a little "table" to hold baits as you tie on or whatever. Has places to hold your forceps and small pliers too.

Nice, you'll love it after the irritation goes away.

Yep, now in 20th. Knew it wouldn't take long. Kyle Welcher with a 10-1.

Somehow I'm 5th in the group after Day 1. I expect that to change.

My favorite tubes are Bass Pro 4.5" magnum flipping tubes. They'll last through 10+ fish. I've caught more with them all beat up than when they are new.

I have a 2.7l ecoboost F150 and it doesn’t even know my 175 tracker is behind it. Handles great and gas mileage only goes down about 3MPG when towing it. I know my tracker is a lot lighter than the OPs boat but bumping up to the 3.5l ecoboost would take care if that. The 3.5l are great towing engines. Don’t let the small displacement with turbos scare you away. I know the 3.5L ecoboost oil changes are a little more involved but my 2.7L ecoboost is the easiest oil change I’ve even done on a vehicle. If I didn’t have to take off a skid plate that covers the oil pan it would take me about 20 minutes to change the oil. The oil filter is a canister style filter and it’s on the top of the engine and I don’t even need a tool to remove the oil plug since it’s a composite pan and the plug is made of plastic. It’s also the cleanest oil change I’ve ever done. No messy oil going everywhere when I take the filter out.

They've just recently expanded north into Missouri. Prior to a couple years ago the closest ones were Springfield and Joplin MO. Other than that, they were mainly spread throughout the southeast parts of the country.

It's kind of sad. The one at West County Mall used to have a pretty good sized fishing section at the top of the main escalator going to the 2nd floor. Go up there and it was right in your face. They had some pretty good deals from time to time and their selection was pretty good too. Then they moved it over on the other side of the second floor opposite the escalator on the other side of the hunting stuff. Went from about 5 aisles to 3, and I'm guessing, now to none. Oh well. Academy is just down the road and isn't in that horrible mall.

P-Line CX Premium is my go to, non-braid line. For braid I'm a fan of Power Pro Super Slick 8.

I don't have a lot of input on this as I don't have either on my boat, but my uncle who fishes several tournaments out of his Z521 has been looking at getting some for his and has done some research and had several friends that have each on their boats. He fishes a lot of really silty mucky rivers and lakes in Illinois and he said that those that have Talons have had issues getting them loose from the mud bottoms at times. People running Power Poles don't seem to have that issue. Rocky bottoms or hard bottoms don't seem to have as much of a problem. As for the Power Poles the only comments his friends with those have is they don't go as deep being only 8 or 10' but they also have to have room behind them to deploy them since they kick out behind the boat before going down in the water. Not a big deal but something to remember if you have something behind you.

I will agree with this. I have had a couple Berkley Amp spinning rods in the past and they were really sensitive and a nice rod for how cheap they are. I currently use a couple Berkley Lightning rods that work well for my kind of fishing also. I'll agree with Abu reels being disappointments also. I have a Revo S that had bearings go out after about 5 fishing trips. Abu rods are a different story as one of my favorite rods is a 2nd gen Veritas.

Man those are some small tubes you use. I typically use 4 and 4 1/2” flipping tubes for both smallmouth and largemouth. Up your size of tube and up your weight to 1/4-3/8oz and go for the bigguns!

I use a small Goody hair rubber band that when I put it on the stick worm it needs to be doubled. Doubling it creates an "X" and I put the hook through the worm under the "X" perpendicular to the worm. I have really good hook up ratio doing this, and I can usually get 10 or so fish out of one worm before it's cut in half from the rubber band. Two O-rings can do the same thing but the Goody bands are about 100 for $5 at Walmart so it's a cheaper alternative.

They are doing just this in 2020. They are having a Heavy Hitters tournament that tallies each anglers largest fish for the first 5 tournaments and the 30 anglers with the highest total 5 big bass will qualify for the Heavy Hitters tourney on the Kissimmee Chain in May. Will give them incentive to go after some big fish in order to fish for $100k as well as daily big bass prizes. https://majorleaguefishing.com/featured/major-league-fishing-adds-heavy-hitters-to-the-2020-bass-pro-tour-schedule/

Mine is a Black Dog Shellcracker G2 wake bait. I think I paid $19.99 for it a few years ago but it seems their price has gone up a bit since then.

Anything largemouth eat a smallmouth will also eat. Don’t overthink it. 4” tubes, Ned Rig, walking top waters, 90 or 110 whopper ploppers, square bill cranks, inline spinners, willow leaf spinner boats. All should work fine. Smallies are pretty aggressive fish and are awesome fighters when you hook up.

I know my buddies FWD Ford Explorer won’t pull a boat up a muddy river ramp. Barely pulled the empty trailer up. Had to call another guy with 4wd to get us out. My 4wd F150 has never had an issue on any boat ramp. That being said, unless I have to back in past my read wheel on a shallow ramp I leave it in 2wd. I actually prefer steeper ramps as you don’t have to back the trailer in as far.

Lew's owns Strike King now. Lew's also sells fishing line with their name on it. Most likely it's the same line as the Strike King line. Both brands claim of their braided lines to be made of the highest quality "Japanese fibers". So wherever Lew's makes or get their line from it's from the same place Strike King does.

I had LASIK back in 2002, and it was the best $5000 I've ever spent. I had worn glasses or contacts since 4th grade (1982) and opening my eyes after the surgery without wearing glasses or contacts and being able to read the clock across the room was amazing. I only had a few issues with the LASIK. One was in dim light, such as around dusk when I was driving or in dimly lit rooms things would get blurry. It would only last for a few moments at dusk and once it was dark enough it would clear up, or in dim rooms I would just deal with it. Wasn't bad at all though. The other issue was I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye, so it has never really been as perfect as my left eye, so if I have to look out of just my right eye everything isn't completely clear, but again, tolerable. I think they tested my eyes after the procedure and I was 18/20 in my left eye and 25/20 in my right. It's much cheaper now than what I paid 18 years ago and a lot of insurance plans give a discount. I don't think I've been to the eye doctor in 15 years to have my vision checked. That being said.... Over the past year and a half my reading vision (i.e. old eyes) has set in and I have to resort to cheap dollar store cheater glasses, but alas, it is what happens when time goes by. My distance vision is still near what it was when I had the procedure done.

Save your money, go with Academy Magellan brand or other store (Cabela's, BPS, etc) brand stuff. So much cheaper than Columbia, North Face, and Under Armor and it's basically the same material and does the same job.

I have to force myself to actually go out and do some fishing. Had the boat out a total of 4 times the past 2 years. That's not going to cut it.

Only caught one over 5 this year and it was my PB largemouth. Caught on a wacky rigged green pumkin/gold flake BPS Stick-o worm.

My favorite all around spinning rod I have is a Lews TP-1 Speedstick. Has winn grips, microwave micro guides, is really sensitive, and IM8 blank. $99

Caught this one this morning slow rolling a spinner bait in the cold water of my in-laws pond. 3.97lbs