WIGuide

We do have it pretty good up here without a doubt, but man that possibility and the likelihood of hooking into something not just a little bigger, but WAY bigger than what swims in the waters up here is a huge draw.

As far as I know we don't have any around my area. There are some privately owned lakes, but none that are pay to play that I know of. (unless you count launch fees) There is one pay to play lake I'd love to go to though, but I don't think it will happen unless I win the lottery lol. They manage the waters as trophy fisheries and keep the pressure pretty low. You're permitted up to 3 people in a boat, but the lakes are limited to only 2 boats per day. https://camelotbell.com/

Green pumpkin colored spinnerbaits....those will never work ? The number one selling color of spinnerbaits is white and chartreuse and they work, but pretty much ever bass out there has seen one. I've had a lot of success on spinnerbaits and have always thrown a ton of colors, green pumpkin and other panfish imitating colors included.

I don't see why not. I know 832 isn't supposed to be quite as buoyant as some other braids, but it should still work out just fine.

12 lb. Berkley 100% for squarebills and other smaller crankbaits. I use the fluoro for the abrasion resistance 12 lb. Berkley Big Game for mid depth 8-12 ish depth range crankbaits, oversized square bills, and lipless crankbaits in relatively open water. I only use mono here because currently this rod doubles as my topwater stick and fluoro wouldn't work 12 lb. Berkley 100% for 12'+ crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, and chatterbaits. Again the main reason is the abrasion resistance as well as the line will help the bait run slightly deeper.

It sounds like some wire has probably rubbed on the hull enough to wear through the coating. Since your TM has been acting up, I'd start there and work my way back.

Although nothing can be completely ruled out, I'd be guessing it has to do more with the bottom composition in combination with the frequency since it seemed to be reading just fine in shallow water. Maybe try idling around more on the same frequency and see if you can find an area with a harder bottom or if you can find some deeper rip rap you can check to make sure a harder surface is still giving you a good return. If that doesn't work, then try changing frequencies and see if that's the issue.

Anyone guiding from a bass boat rather than a tiller will most likely be up front. Even though I can control my boat with a remote, I don't have the same control that I do with my foot on the pedal so being up front allows me to put clients in a better position than I could otherwise.

Interesting stuff for sure and definitely some food for thought. Interesting note on how the grade B will end up lasting a long time without having issues. I generally fish over 100 days a year so to do easy math, having issues at 1,000 charging cycles with 100 recharges a year, even a cheap lie of a lithium should expect to give me 10 years of good service? If that's true, that seems pretty decent considering the neverstarts I usually run will last about 3 years before craping the bed.

You could always do the bow trick of pulling the line out and spinning the rod a few times to keep it tight to the blank. It might take a few seconds to undo it, but it's still probably faster than untangling the mass it sounds like you end up with.

I don't mind fishing out of the back for a team tournament or fun fishing. A lot of times you have different angles on the same cover or angles the boater didn't. I don't feel disadvantaged fishing back there and most of the friends I fish with won't intentionally front end you. Fishing as a co-angler in tournaments I've had a few good experiences and one that was pretty terrible. The terrible one was a tournament where fish were keyed on very small specific targets on a river that was primarily blown out from big rains. The boater would stay completely down current leaving me without any sort of casting angle. When I'm guiding I'm up front running the trolling motor pretty much all the time. The exception to that is if I'm running down a stretch of docks, where I'll occasionally sit down at the console and run the TM with the remote to make it easier for my clients to cast. Aside from that scenario, I am generally fishing to some extent, not like I would if I was by myself, but still fishing. I'll pass on high priority targets and point them out to my clients in order to give them the best possible chance to catch'em.

Not an expert, but the 150 4 strokes are strongly recommended to run a battery with 975 CCA or higher. If going with something smaller than that, I'd definitely be going out with some sort of jump switch, cables, or box to make sure you aren't stuck out there.

Yeah, unless you're going to go with the new Lowrance Pro, you'd have to buy the black box which as you found out isn't cheap! I'm sure you'll be happy with the Garmin!

Did you try changing to a lower frequency in deeper water? Also, what was the bottom composition in that area. Something very soft has a tendency to absorb sonar signals and not provide a very strong return which would look very dark on side imaging.

Yep that's definitely one from the right gene pool to be a future giant! Just make sure location is turned off and take pictures without showing the background, or take the fish to an area you've never caught one and take pictures there lol.

Not the ideal answer as it'll be a bit of work, but you should be able to unscrew the front deck and take a look. That way you know for sure, not to mention it'd be a great opportunity to upgrade things wile you're in there.

Help to build it back better than ever! Put some man made cover/structure in there and although it'll take a while, the big'uns will be back!

I've caught some good ones early the past few years. It's been a bit of a new experience for me since Wisconsin used to be a completely closed season until the first weekend in May, with the exception of a few waterways. I think this is the 3rd season now that we can actually target bass, before the catch and keep season begins so in a way it's kind of cool that this far into the game there's something completely new to figure out. Spring is taking forever this year though, and I've been just waiting to get my boat out of storage, I've got a laundry list of things I want to do to it, but even if I had it at home, it's been too cold and crappy to work on it anyway. Fingers crossed the weather breaks soon.

The way I see it, I'll look to the fishes activity level/mood to tell me which to throw. A swim jig, although more finesse than something like a spinnerbait is still bigger and bulkier than a stand alone swimbait on a jig head. If I feel like the fish are more active, I'll start with the swim jig, and if they seem to be in more passive mood I'll throw just the swimbait alone. Cover would normally dictate as well since the swim jig has a weed guard on it, but the swimbait could be thrown on Texas rig or belly weighted hook as well for the same effect.

They don't drop through the ice very well, but any time there's open water I've caught fish on them. I would say some of my best days with them have been in the spring and fall, but have done very well in the summer around the veggies too.

To my knowledge Lowrance doesn't have a y cable to split a transducer to two units. Networking them together allows the information to be shared between units. When it comes to compatible units, you'll want to look at a Carbon, Live, Elite FS, or a Pro. All of them allow for ethernet networking which is as simple as a single cable and will share waypoints, charts, and sonar data. The FS units only have one ethernet port where the HDS 9 and above units have two, allowing you to add more of them to your network. You can network older units as well, but usually that will put the newer units on the network into legacy mode to be compatible and limits their ability. If you wanted to use your older unit exclusively for a chart and just want it to be able to share waypoints, you can set up a NMEA2000 network. It would be slightly more expensive and complex, but since it doesn't share sonar or map data, but should prevent your Live unit from entering legacy mode.

I use 12# Berkley 100% Fluoro for jigs. If I'm putting it somewhere nasty enough that I need something heavier, I'm generally going to be putting something other than a jig in there anyway.

I'm going to go against the grain of the last few posts about cranking rods not applying to smaller crankbaits, as I feel there's enough of a benefit of using one. I have an older LTB Graphite 7'2" MM that I use for all my 100 size square bills, OG Tiny 4's, DT 6's and 8's, along with the Spro Little John and Little John MD. I can use it for DT 10's and 200-300 size squarebills although not ideal, it'll get you through in a pinch. I didn't lose a ton of fish before switching, but after switching to that rod I believe I lost less than 5 fish the entire season on those smaller crankbaits and I fish them a lot. St. Croix hasn't made it as clear as they should on their listings of what rods have the iAct glass which is a composite rod of glass and graphite, but any of the LTB rods that are listed as "glass" have this construction. The Legend Glass rods (orange rods) are completely linear s glass construction. Personally, for those smaller baits I'd go with the 7'2" MM. If you wanted to get a bit more versatility, then the MH finesse cranker. The crankbait rod is pretty technique specific as you're not going to be able to use it for a ton else, but the small Whopper Ploppers would probably be ok and if you end up with the finesse cranker, you might be able to throw a walking topwater with them. I don't think either choice will have enough backbone for a bladed jig though.

One thing that stuck out to me about your summary was that you caught fish in the warmest water you found. Early in the year, I've found that even a degree or two difference often times results in more active fish. Maybe not the whole case here, but I'd suspect it's a contributing factor.

Haven't stepped up to 2 on the console yet, but the common configuration would be 1 transducer shared. Running two different transducers won't benefit you as they'll be reading the same information anyway and most likely causing interference unless you're running different frequencies.