Scott F

The only one who can answer this is Abu Garcia. If your nephew was my son, I'd expect him to take responsibility for your rod.

Every depth finder can easily be used on a canoe. None come with a battery or a transducer arm, you have to get those separately. There are several clamp on transducer arms available or with a little ingenuity, you can fabricate your own. A small 8ah battery is available to power it. Check with a store like Batteries +. If you shut off the unit when you don't really need it, the battery should last a week. They always did for me on my fly in trips. I used to use a small tackle box to transport the unit and battery. I drilled holes in the top to mount the depth finder bracket and carried screws with wing nuts to hold it on the box.

The fact that braid floats is exactly why I only use it for my weightless senkos. It is so barely buoyant that it really has little to no effect on the fall rate of the bait. But, because it does float, It makes it MUCH easier to watch the line. So many of my bites are detected because I saw the line laying on the surface "twitch". If the line was under water, I'd never have known I had a bite.

I own a Frabil Conservation Series net. It is a good net BUT if you use lures with treble hooks, like crankbaits, you will spend more time getting the fish and the lure out of the net than you wanted. I was doing a lot of jerkbait fishing and not wanting to lip a fish with a mouth full of trebles, I'd use the net. If a fish goes a little nuts, your hooks will get caught up and you'll have big problems. I liked the handle it came with so I got a rubber net and put it with the handle on the Frabil. SOOO much easier to deal with the fish with crankbaits. For single hook lures, the conservation series net works just fine.

Why don't you try it out with some different lures and see what YOU like it for.

Google "gore tex shoes". Lots to choose from. I also like LL Bean Boots. They have moccasin style, or low cut shoes that are waterproof and these; the Men's Storm Chasers I like these so much, I just ordered a pair for myself.

My state is so broke, they took the trash cans out of the state park because they can't afford to pay someone to empty them.

I use 10lb braid on all my spinning reels. I used to use 8lb and have never had line hang up a a line roller. You should not have any problems.

Shhhhhh.....There are a lot of guys who would invade your waters and turn them into the crowded, overfished, reservoirs they are used to fishing if they knew how good the bass fishing is up there.

OK, first off I was talking about line twist. Nothing else. Please explain what happens when you close the bail by turning the handle that explains why it will twist line but closing the bail by hand doesn't twist line.

I use inline spinners frequently for river smallmouth. Lots of people do. On inline, double blade spinners, each blade has its own clevis.

There is no possible way closing the bail by turning the handle can introduce line twist more than closing it by hand. How does your line know what method was used to close the bail? The problem panfish12 is having is that he gets a loose loop of line coming off the spool before he begins to reel. On the next cast, the line coming off the spool grabs that loose loop and causes what is usually called a "wind knot". To keep this from happening, when you close the bail, tug a bit on the line to be sure there are no loose loops that aren't snug on the spool before you start winding.

I just got back from a trip where I spent 2 weeks fishing mostly jerkbaits using straight braid. When using jerkbaits where I add action to the lure, I want all my movements to transfer to the bait and not be absorbed by the stretch of the line. I use jerkbaits in open water where line abrasion is not a factor so there is no reason to complicate things with a leader. A common comment I see about braid is that guys feel they will tear the bait out of the fishes mouth without some stretch in the line. As someone who has used nothing but braid for many years and never with a leader, It has never been an issue with me. I also don't use bait casters with 50 pound test line and ski fish back to the boat. I keep steady pressure on and let the fish tire out some before landing them. If you are tearing out hooks, you need to back off your drag a bit and ease up.

I fished with a guide several years ago who had a couple of baits with no hooks. He'd use one to throw up into the reeds to draw pike out into open water. You'd see the wakes created by the fish following his bait. When he got the bait and the fish to open water, I'd throw my bait to catch em'.

Contact a professional who can analyze the ponds habitat - water quality, depth and available forage. No one here can give you any advice without knowing what you have to work with.

Terminator spinner baits won't get bent out of shape but the wire can break.

I use the batteries from Walmart. I've never had any issues with the batteries so I never had to return one. Make sure you leave the date sticker on the battery that shows how old it is. Keeping the receipt is always a good idea. I just replaced one of my Everstart batteries I bought from them. The sticker showed 6/09

Contact the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance. I think they are based just outside of St Louis. They fish Missouri rivers. I'm sure they can help you out if you don't mind catching smallmouth.

If it fell off completely and was not on the tip, for that rod, I'd probably not even attempt to fix it. I'd clean up any thread and glue still stuck to the blank and use it as is. I doubt you'd even know it was missing.

If you pinch down the barb on the hook you use, you can easily remove the hook even if the bass is gut hooked. Before you say I think I'd loose too many fish, the pinched barb penetrates more easily and if you keep good pressure on, you'll land just about as many fish and most importantly most if not all with swim off alive.

We call a downed tree that holds a bunch of fish a "magic tree".

I'm sure the decimal system came into play because that's the way electronic digital scales display weights. The majority of scales are used in the grocery business to weigh meat and produce for retail sale. It's easier and more accurate to calculate the price of an object using decimals than fractions.

The bad apples of the tournament world I'm sure make up just a small minority of the total number of tournament anglers. I just must be extremely unlucky that I run into so many. They aren't limited to bass tournaments though. Musky tournies have their share of rude fishermen. Their rude tactics do work though. I've had enough bad encounters that I stay off lakes on weekends. I do have to say that these guys have given me a negative attitude about how I feel about fishing tournaments as a whole. It bothers me that I can't fish when I'd like because of tournaments and the risk that one of those guys is going to ruin my day.

I have one of those also. My best advice is to get out on the water and play with it. For me, reading about how to use it does not help me as much as pushing the buttons and seeing what they do. Start with it on automatic and experiment with the different settings, and screen views to find out what YOU like. I never use the down view function where you may like it better and use it all the time. Some people like the fish ID, some don't. Get used to it and adjust it to suit what you like and what works best for your fishing.

While you are learning, I'd stick to just throwing one bait. Each different style can have a slightly different cadence to get it to walk. Switching back and forth between baits may make it more difficult. I taught myself to walk a Zara Spook. A Lucky Craft Sammy does not walk exactly the same way and I always have trouble getting it to walk with my normal retrieve.