Todd2

IMO... limp braid isn't the most sensitive line on slack line. Great on tight line though.

The lakes here almost never freeze. I do remember busting through some thin ice at the dock one time. Caught one of my best Winter bass that day. My "Winterizing" is replacing the Bass stuff for Crappie stuff. I feel for you guys up North.

Lol, I see you fish the Ville...I feel your pain. If it wasn't so close to me, I'd keep on driving. I've had some good days there and some that will humble you and make you question your life decisions...lol

I wish that was my worst day of the year.?

I decided to not target the Whites..my freezer is getting full and I do quite a bit of cold water Crappie fishing, so I need to leave some room for them..lol I did throw a barbless crank some, caught two dink Bass without issue..but the better bite was the T-Rig yesterday. I'll try it some more.

It's amazing how that second cast is always smoother...water is cheaper too.

8-10lb Mono or 15 - 20lb braid should work..

I tried the KVD stuff once...not impressed, but I've normally used lines that don't really need it. Maybe on stiffer lines it helps??

This thread has got me thinking..going back into the river tomorrow where we caught almost two limits of White Bass on small crankbaits last weekend. I'll go barbless tomorrow and see, should get a good sampling. Hard to get those cranks out of Whites and small Bass sometimes. I'll report back with my detailed findings..lol

Strange...still using same line...bad spool? I did get a bad bulk spool one time, had deformities all the way up as far as I pulled off.

I was on vacation in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago. One day I was ocean pier fishing and started talking to a dude that was a FLW guy. Very friendly guy, I won't say his name but I looked him up. It was kind of eye opening. Sure, some do really well, but it's a grind and a lot of guys struggle to stay on the tour. It's not as glamorous as you might think. I'd say most of them choose which one they feel gives them the best chance to stick around and make the most $$$$.

They made changes to both back in 2012/2013. They are not the same formula from what I can tell. XT has less stretch when comparing equal diameters...but yeah..shop by diameter, not lb test. I have 8lb XT on some spinning gear and it does fine for me. I wouldn't go any higher though. With XL I'd go 10lb.

So the wife and I were out fishing last weekend up in the river and I started slaying some white bass on a crankbait. She switched to the same one but I kept catching.and she didn't. It didn't come to me that I'd give mine a few swipes of Fish Sticks...She did the same and started catching...so I am a believer in it. I've seen this happen before. Unfortunately the Bass didn't really want to play (caught 1)..but we limited out on Whites. I like fish sticks...1 tube lasts a very long time if you keep it out of the sun (melts). Other than that, a very non messy way to put on scent.

It's weird...you know it shouldn't matter...you've caught fish before on it..but when the bites slow down you start thinking about every little detail..when really location, lure, and presentation are way more important. I just like seeing my line.

Everybody's got opinions on this, but how many of you have or are using Hi-Viz (Yellow, Chartreuse, Orange) either mono or braid (no leaders) straight to the lure? Do you feel you get as many bites as clear line? What color is your water? I'm switching to Trilene XT from Stren but XT doesn't come in my favorite Clear Blue Fluorescent, so looking at putting on some Solar Collector for some rods. I hear color doesnt matter but back in mind somewhere it messes with me if I'm not getting bites.

Good luck to on the 5th..you got this!

I don't know the ratio, I'd have to find that IF I decide to go this route. I've only owned it for 5 years..no problems with the engine. I guess my thought is..since it is 16 years old, if something were to fail (oil pump), would an alarm sound in time for me to not do damage? The low oil alarm apparently works fine, since it went off with the defective float. I don't burn a lot of gas. I probably only refill my tank 5 times a year so the premixing wouldn't be much of a hassle. Back about 10 or 15 years ago, I did fry a piston in an older outboard.. It wasn't the oil pump but a cracked hose that I didn't catch in time. So I guess that's still in my mind.

Very interesting..for most of us when we catch on a certain color we stick with that color and keep catching and always think they were on that color for the day. I probably have 20 or so crankbaits and try to find times to use them all...maybe not so much anymore..lol

So mine is a 2003 Tracker by Mercury...seems I'm right on the edge from some old threads I've read. Where can I find this list?

So I was out yesterday a good distance from the ramp and my alarm went off on my 40 HP Tracker. I trolled in, got home and found a cool video that showed me how to fix it. The problem was the magnet attached to the oil float inside the oil tank had separated. So I had to remove the tank, drain it, remove the float/ magnet, clean it up, reglue, reassemble, refill the oil. All is good, but now I'm wondering I should just bypass the auto oiler and pre-mix to avoid issues like this in the future. I see some videos on how to do it..just curious if I should or not? Seems to be solid arguments both ways..Any thoughts?

As a young country boy in the 80's, I either used worms that I dug up or shiners/craw dads that I seined with a homemade seine made with two tobacco sticks. Somewhere in there I was throwing a Roostertail a lot too. In the late 80's, I was shown the Texas rig and it's still going strong in 2019 for me...lol.

Usually no music here. I do listen to some college Football sometimes. I just prefer it quiet.

I knew it..what's my prize?...lol I remember not being a fan of XT back in the day, but they made it more flexible back in 2013, or so I read. But it does run thicker...that 12lb is .015 in diameter..that is 15 lb line for some brands. I'm using 8lb on Spinning and that is the absolute max for me, you could easy go with 6lb without any issues I believe.

Well yeah.. If you can get to it, usually just pulling from the opposite direction works. But when pitching back into laydowns it gets tricky. Usually I pull the boat until it stops then am able to break it free.

If you pull the boat in by pulling with your hands there is not much else you can do..Trilene makes very good lines.