WIGuide

Thank you El Nino! Weather has been in the upper 30's to low 40's up here. In contrast to last year when it was 0 to -15 this is a welcomed sight!

I just dump it in the tank. It does what it says and why it's been around for 50 some years. I don't run it with every tank, but a few times throughout the summer.

Had a friend do well with them on a dropshot.

If your motor actually drops rpm's when you trim you might want to get that looked at first before you go off buying props. You might want to double check that your motor is actually dropping the RPM and not just you tach doing goofy things.

You don't really need much experience as a non-boater. If you can keep your casts out of the trees while going down the bank and you know not to cast too far in front of the center line of the boat you should be ok to start off with. Since you are new, you might want to let your boater know that. Not sure if the club you're looking at has a seperate boater/non-boater division, or if it's just a team club, but a team format might be better for you to start. The guy in the front of the boat might be more willing to help you learn since the teams performance can do nothing but improve as you get better.

I'd go with 50 or 65lb braid, however if you're trying to both with the same gear I'm not sure how that will work. I've definitely caught muskies while bass fishing, but if you're targeting them with musky baits there aren't many rods out there that can handle both. You'll also want to add a wire or very heavy fluoro leader when musky fishing as braid and bass fishing sized fluoro will be no match for their teeth.

Xcalibur XCS 100 (if you can find one) in sexy shad Luck E Strike RC2 in sunfish Rapala DT10 in purple craw Rapala DT10 in yellow perch Bomber Fat Free Fingerling in Dance's Crawfish It's really tough to narrow it down to only 5 without knowing water clarity.

The last time I was over there fishing was TOUGH, but green pumpkin seemed to be what they went for when they did want to eat. A lot of people were using 2 1/2" Howie Tubes. Howie's tackle either makes them or has them made for them and they're available right in Sturgeon Bay or you can get them online http://www.howiestackle.com/category/HT.html . If the fish are on, I'm sure they'll crush a bigger tube, but those seemed to catch some when others wouldn't. If you want to venture off the green pumpkin color, just remember it's clear water over there so stick to the more natural colors for the most part.

How long is it. If it's long enough, I'd second what Sam said. Pitch/flip- Yes Froggin'- no

It should be fine to buy it in bulk. Sitting on the spool isn't hurting it.

I have tried Red Label and have not used it since. Was less than impressed.

Yes GoPro has that feature. As stated it's called loop recording. It helps keep your memory card cleaner. Otherwise, if you use a camera that doesn't have that, just stop it after a fish catch and start it again. Then when you go through your clips to edit them, go to the end first and see if it's one that ended in a catch and chop off the first part of it. Not as nice as the loop, but still effective.

Try finding a flat near deeper water. At least up by me, in the fall they'll hang in the deeper water and come up on the flats to feed. With the weather being warmer, you might be able to find a concentration of them up feeding but still being close to the deeper water.

For me it's the Xcalibur/Booyah XR series. I also use Cotton Cordell's. I have a handful of others that are in my box, but those two are the ones I reach for the most.

Had a somewhat similar situation to scaleface's. Pitched my craw up by a grass bed felt one wack it so I set the hook pulled up a northern in the mid 20" range. The fish had hit my tungsten weight which wasn't pegged the line somehow was back far enough in the mouth that it looped around the extending jaw bones that northers have and my bait wound around my main line. No hook in the fish at all. Had to be about a 1 in a million catch since had the line not been wrapped the way it was around both sides the razor sharp teeth would have cut it almost instantly. The oddest catch I've had came this last summer when I was fishing a new lake. I was idling out of a bay and there were some cribs showing up on my side scan. You could see a few isolated fish on them, but there was one that had schools of fish around it. There were streaks all over the locator so I dropped a waypoint and turned around to fish it. I threw my worm out there and felt a good thump, set that sucker hard and my bait came flying up to the top but something wasn't right. It skipped sideways a little bit and there was no resistance.

Another vote for the hollow bodied frog.

It sounds like in that situation you have a few options. If you don't cast at an angle as far ahead so you can still twitch your rod downward. If you reel a little more slack out of your line you won't have to jerk your rod as far either. The other option would be to jerk it back handed. It might feel weird at first, but most fish that hit a jerkbait in the fall/winter don't fight nearly as hard so you don't have to worry about one ripping the rod out of your hand. It's a good idea to keep at least a decent grip on it though.

This is pretty much me as well. I've organized my boat the night before a tournament and by the end of the tourney it needs to be done again.

Eco Pro Tungsten has the Free Ball Jig heads. You'd have to modify them a bit to switch the hooks out since they don't come with a split ring. However, you can cut the stock hook and add a split ring and hook of your choice to them. I'm not sure what shipping on them would be, but it might be worth a look. Also, the link you sent to BPS the banner on the page states free shipping with no minimum. For orders going to Canada, there's only a $3.50 brokerage fee. That might be worth a look then too.

Thanks! St. Croix makes a great stick that's for sure. I guide pretty much anywhere within roughly an hour of Holcombe, so I'll go up around the Hayward area, down to Eau Claire. I can go a little further than that if need be, but I prefer to stick to that area. The one I caught in the picture however was caught on Sturgeon Bay. What part of the state are you from?

The ML/XF dropshot rod is a great stick! It sounds like it should do great with what you're wanting to throw. It has plenty of power to handle a 4 lb smallie in current. It handled a 26ish inch northern without too much of an issue, and it had the power to keep this 5 lb beast out of a channel marker buoy cable this past If you get one I highly doubt you'll be disappointed. Fishes similar to the M/XF "Wacky Style" rod, but has a softer tip and slightly less backbone.

I'd just get a new one welded on. It's not a tough fix. Have them weld it and clean it up and then take a rattle can to it. I'll be good as new.

The value of that boat will be mostly in the condition of the boat. A faded out, beaten piece of crap is not going to be worth what a garage kept babied specimen will be.

You can screw in a screw with a pair of vise grips too but that's really not the way you should do it. Sure your trailer rides better with car tires, but that's because their radial tires. Radial trailer tires would do the same thing and last as long as your car tires, and would be made for that application. I just hope when your tire blows nobody is next to you on the road because your safety isn't the only one in your hands.

If you're looking for a different prop pitch for a TM there aren't very man options out there. Mainly because most don't care about a 0.1 difference in speed. However, there's one aftermarket company that I know of that makes a prop that can help increase speed http://www.kipawapropellers.com/. I've heard mixed reviews on them though. Many have said they do what they say, but there have been a number of TM's burnt up because of them. Also, I don't think either Minnkota or Motorguide will warranty their motors if one of these props is used.