WIGuide

I hear ya, fluoro has a tendency to dig into itself more so to combat that, try working the knot down some by hand before you try tightening it up, and again wet it well and pull it tight smooth and slow. If that still doesn't work for you, then I guess you'll have to find a new knot. There really isn't a right knot, just one that works for you!

Yep there's no reason not to. I prefer a shorter rod as it gives me a leg up on accuracy, but if you feel comfortable with that it'll work!

Practice with the polomar a little more, there's no reason it should be fraying or binding. Make sure you wet your knot before you sinch it down, and make sure when you tie it to keep the double lines running parallel so they aren't twisted together.

Spinnerbait, squarebill, swimbait, jig or creature bait to flip, and a worm/senko style bait. On a lake like that where everything is the same, look for something that's different. Some of the stuff has already been said, try to find a channel or a small point or hump, but even just in the stumps themselves maybe you can find a few that are grouped closer together, or it might be that there are a few really big stumps scattered on a flat with a bunch of little stumps covering the rest of the flat. Try paying closer attention to the big ones and see if you can develop a pattern from something like that.

12:01am to as late as you can get away with haha. Around first light should be good though. What lake is this tourney on?

Congrats on the new rig.

Rippin's idea looks pretty promising, otherwise you could make some sort of rack out of PVC that would work for you

Are you burnt under the wife beater too....oh wait.... haha. That is an epic burn. I've done that a time or two. I don't get the blisters that bad though. My last mistake that bad was when I went down to OK to fish in the Oakley Big Bass Tour even on Grand Lake. Being hot, I threw on a cutoff not thinking that since it was early on in the summer I hadn't gone suns out guns out yet. We scouted for about 3 hours and the poor white skin on my biceps and especially the top of my shoulders that had been living in the dark for roughly 7 months didn't fair so well. I burn easily anyway, but that time I burnt BAD! The skin on towards the tops of my shoulders turned almost leathery and it was pretty painful.

Buy the SV spool for your 103, and then buy a Pixy to compare. +1 to bait monkey for outside the box thinking, +1 bait monkey for enabling Pixy fantasy +2>0 Therefore this is the best option haha

If you're comparing how a reel cast from rod to rod, that's like comparing apples to oranges. Like roadworrior said length plays a big role in distance, so does action of the rod as it effects how the rod loads. The only way to see any true comparison would be to measure casting distance with braid, and then switch line with everything else staying the same.

If it were me, it would depend on what technique I was planning to do more. I'm sure you can frog with a 7'11, but it's going to be tougher with a longer rod like that. If you go down to the Mojo Frog and Slop rod it'll make froggin' easier and even though you might lose just a little distance on your flip/pitch it's more of an all around rod. If you mostly flip/pitch/punch you might want to go with the 7'11" instead, but if it's anything around that 60/40 split of flip/pitch/punch to frogin' ratio, I'd be looking at the shorter rod.

What motor do you have?

It's a nice little bait. It walks/glides a lot more than the original Bronzeye frog. Like lecisnith said, it's more of an open water bait for working the outside edges of cover, or skipping docks.

See if you can get some 50 lb test Berkley profesional grade braid. Any line that sinks isn't good for topwater applications especially for froggin'. Also, you're experiencing the nature of the topwater beast. There's days they will choke it, and there's days you get their attention, but they won't commit. When they do that, you can try changing something: a color change, change profile either by changing size or trimming legs, change retrieve (faster, slower, adding pauses). Sometimes that'll help other times they are still going to be fickle. Stick with it though as frogs are great big bass producers.

Yep they work just fine that way.

From the sounds of what you want it to do, I think a rod in an extra fast action will work well for you.

Simple question, but are your speed readings coming from a GPS or the old school speedo? The reason I ask is because although the spedo will give you a ballpark on your speed they aren't very accurate at all. Your 3 blade Raker is going to be a faster prop. You will probably lose a little on your hole shot. 4 blade props are usually a little slower top end unless they are on the right boat. They offer better grip, that equates to better handling and better takeoff, as well as usually providing more lift and lower planing speed. Your prop to pad measurement is the vertical measurement between the pad and the center of the prop shaft.

I use 12 lb Berkley 100% Fluroro and and I tie a Polamar knot with it. I use it because I have zero issues with it, and that combo works very well with one another as far as not breaking.

I'd probably just go with one like they have on the back deck. The adjustable kind as I would think that aircraft carrier size deck you've got on the 522 should have plenty of room to get around it.

Just curious, what's wrong with stock? I thought the S posts were to help make space in smaller boats so your seat wasn't always bumping you in the back of the legs.

Sweet ride! Congrats on the new rig!

I used to use both depending on situation. Back in the day the XT stood for Xtra tough, and XL was for Xtra limp. XT was designed to be used on a baitcasting reel as it was more abrasion resistant, but that came at a trade off that it had more memory. XL was a limper line designed for use on spinning reels and is a good line, but it doesn't have the same abrasion resistance that XT has. Before I started using fluoro, I would use them both the way they were intended.

For $16 I'd say give the Shock a shot. If you don't like it, you can sell it for more than that on the bay.

Junk, sorry if this seemed to be directed at you which wasn't my intention. The weight card comes up in every conversation about aluminum vs fiberglass. A lot of aluminum rigs are in fact lighter, but it's more because of the style and design of the hull vs actual material weight. My example was showing that two similarly designed hulls, with similar layouts the weight difference isn't as much as everyone makes it out to be.

Always do it in the fall after it's winterized. There's a simple reason, water doesn't freeze and expand when it's in liquid form. When it freezes is when it's going to do the damage. The lube doesn't go bad sitting in the lower unit when it's not being used. You still have fresh oil in the spring as it hasn't been used. If it really bothers you that much then drain it in the fall, and then in the spring go buy your lower unit oil that's been sitting on the shelf all winter and fill it with the fresh stuff before you use it. Just don't forget to do that, because if you do you'll be wishing you would have just changed it in the fall!