Scott F

Who made your $500 rain suit? Most high end clothing is guaranteed. Cabela's warrants their clothing for life.

I'd rather have arthritis.

I had one several years ago. I used to see clouds of "fish" on my depth finder, stopped, and would spend time trying to catch them with no luck. I bought an Aqua Vu to see what exactly I was seeing. Most of the time, what I found was that what looked like schools of bait was just suspended debris. I wound up spending a lot of time watching TV and not fishing. I also found that unless the camera was within a couple feet of the bottom, there was nothing on the screen. I lost patience wasting time monkeying around with the camera and loosing fishing time. My boat partners were not happy when I was looking at the monitor and not controlling the boat. It never did help me put fish in the boat so I sold it.

Go to Amazon.com and order "Largemouth Bass an In-Fisherman Handbook of Strategies". There is also a smallmouth bass version. They were written several years ago, but it is an excellent source of information concerning bass behavior in natural lakes and reservoirs.

See if there is a shoe and luggage repair store near you. They'll do a good job and it will only cost a couple bucks.

I'll be glad when someone comes out with a camera like the GoPro that gives the user a choice of focal lengths. I find that anything except close ups shot with the fish eye lens of the GoPro, very hard to watch. The "bent" horizons on long shots drive me nuts.

What extra maintenance is required with an inflatable? I've had personal pontoons for 12 years that have required almost zero maintenance. What makes you think they are not durable? I can out maneuver any kayak or canoe. You might need to do some more research before you come to conclusions about inflatables that may not be true.

8 lb Fireline, no leader.

If quality rain gear were available for $50, nobody would buy Gore Tex.

The heavier line will no nothing to stop you from getting bit off if a pike or musky decides to inhale your bait. You'd need to increase your flouro leader to at least 60 pound test and that just will make it a bit more difficult for a musky to slice through your line. Walleyes won't cut your line. Everybody hates to use steel leaders but sometimes it is necessary if you want to keep your $16 lures.

I literally catch hundreds and hundreds of prespawn smallmouth every year in very clear water with 10 pound braid and no leader. Try it, you may find the "visibility" of braid makes little if any difference.

According to Lucky Craft's web site, the information on the Tackle warehouse site is correct. I use nothing but braid for my jerkbaits. I want all the action I impart to move the bait, not be absorbed by the stretch of fluoro or mono. A snap on a suspending bait will cause it to sink.

I was confused when you said "My one problem is smallies love live bait and chew it to hell" "Smallies" for most of us is short for smallmouth bass.

You don't want to catch the smallmouth bass that are biting? Are you sure it's smallmouth that are tearing up your bait and not other panfish?

Please explain why you use thick mono as the standard by which you choose braid? One of the advantages of braid is how thin it is. Why take that away? I use nothing higher than 10 pound test braid on all my spinning gear. The rod gives me the shock absorption I need. It has plenty of strength, casts farther, and lets lures run deeper than thicker lines.

Measure from the deck of your boat to the water line and add 12 inches. Having a shaft that is too long and the head of the motor will set up so high that it can interfere with your fishing. At least, I don't like it when the motor sets up too high.

I get river water levels from waterdata.usgs.gov. Only a few of the rivers have temperature gauges however.

I was going to get one for my personal pontoon. What did you hate about it?

I would use a Bigfoot trolling motor foot switch. It has a momentary on/off switch where as soon as you take your foot off, it shuts off the motor. Makes it easy to use as it keep your hands free to fish.

I can't comment on the ability of pickerel to bite off lures but I have caught plenty of pike. Pike can easily cut 50 lb braid as well as 50 lb fluoro. I use the tieable wire with my jerkbaits. I put just a loop on one end that I attach to my bait, and a small, oval split ring on the other end of 4 or 5 inches of wire that I tie my line to. The suspending jerkbait now sinks but not nearly as fast as it would with a normal steel leader. I still caught plenty of pike and smallmouth. Just be aware that longer pauses will make the lure sink deeper. Aside from the bait sinking faster, the bait still acts just about the same when you jerk - pause.

I just bought some PowerPro Super 8 Slick which looks promising. Much smoother and quieter than original PowerPro. I think the 8 strand braids like 832 are the better lines these days. The Super 8 Slick is also not real stiff. I do think super lines start to get weak when they get old.

That's why when I'm up in Canada pike fishing, we tie the jaw spreaders to the boat. Too many went over the side still in the mouth of the fish.

Where I fish in the early spring, it can change big time over night. When the water that was frozen a week or 10 days before hits a surface temp of 50, it goes from being a dead zone to a bonanza. One day, 5 fish, the next 100 all with a surface temp reading that went up by 2 degrees. It's happened the last 2 years when there was a very late ice out.

You'd think that would be true unless your brain disengages from your fingers. I had just tied on a Lucky Craft Pointer. The area I was fishing had a bunch of northern so I put on a light steel leader to keep from being bit off. I cut what I thought was the tag end of the line and tossed it over the side. Unfortunately, I cut the main line instead and with the little added weight of the leader, the normally suspending Pointer sank out of sight. Oh nooooo.....

Split shot and a leech.