PNWdude

I'm really underestimating the weight of these fish haha. Still a fun way to have a contest though!

Sweet! Thanks for the opportunity Bass Resource. Where do we find out who the winner of the last contest was? Edit: Never mind, I found the info! http://www.bassresource.com/giveaway/okuma-giveaway-5.html

For 25+ years I've only shore fished until this year when I purchased a fishing kayak and then eventually a sonar unit(Lowrance 4x CHIRP). So far I've mostly been catching fish by just fishing where I think they might be based on what I see above the water, like how fast the shore is sloping or the more obvious laydowns and rocks sticking out of the water. Every now and then when I'm moving around I'll notice on my sonar a change in bottom depths or structure and try to fish it, but I don't seem to catch fish as consistently that way. It probably just had to do with the time of day, season, water temp, or user ignorance more than anything lol. The most useful thing about my sonar unit for me is knowing the water temp and depth so far. Hopefully that changes the more I use it.

I recently had some whining sounds during casting with my Chronarch Ci4. My first thought was that it also needed some oil on the brake pipe. That didn't work, so I took the spool completely out and noticed that the pin on the spool shaft wasn't centered. I took some pliers and centered the pin and that fixed the noise. I'm not sure how the pin became un-centered to begin with as I've never messed with it before and it takes some pressure for it to even move, but anyways, hopefully that works for you.

I can't speak on the St. Croix or Phenix rods, but I can on the G.Loomis E6X. I picked up a 6'6" M-F a couple weeks ago to throw finesse rigs with, drop shot, wacky worms, and shaky heads, (I can't afford to have 3 finesse setups) and it is the most sensitive rod I've ever handled. I can detect the tiniest hits even on slack line. The rod has plenty of backbone while not being too stiff. It's really light and comfortable too. At first I wasn't planning on spending that much on a finesse rod, but after fishing with it I'm glad I did. I ended up pairing it with a Cabelas Verano 2000 (engineered by Daiwa) since it balanced out the best and spooled that with 20 lb Sufix 832.

From my understanding, all bites on a crankbait are from triggering a reaction bite.

Oops. My memory isn't as good as I thought. You're right, it's going to be $75. It's good thing you called to see if it'll be available. I hate that Cabelas website doesn't let you check local store stock.

Just a heads up. I got a Cabelas advertisement in the mail a few days ago saying the Pflueger Supreme XT will be on sale starting Saturday for $70!

Another vote for the Alberto knot. It casts great through the guides like it's not even there.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to check out my local Cabelas tomorrow.

Chameleon?

My local Dick's doesn't have a great selection, but I did find a few things I needed and thought were worth grabbing at the huge discounts. Ended up spending $60 on: 7 Luck E Strike RC STX jerkbaits. I got one of each color that they had available. And some VMC Tungsten drop shot weights (1/8,3/16 and 1/4 oz), VMC Spinshot hooks (1/0 and 2/0), and VMC worm hooks (2/0 and 3/0) outlined in red.

Yup, I cleaned house on the 88 cent XCalibur XR50 real craw lipless cranks in November. I just couldn't pass up a deal like that and got a dozen of them.

I'm sorry I don't have any personal experience to share with you about the Elite-4 HDI, but you might want to consider going with the Elite-4 CHIRP that is coming out soon for the same price. If you don't need the unit right away (2-3 weeks) you will still get all the great features you want plus Chirp. I'm in the market for a new fish finder myself and was about to pull the trigger on the Elite-4x HDI until I saw the Chirp versions were available to order at Cabelas.com. I'm glad I waited a week before buying the older version

Are you sure about this? I've seen a few install videos for kayaks on Youtube (Austin Kayak and Hobie for example) that place the transducer in the hull and say that as long as it's flat on the bottom it will work fine. I'm also in the market for a fish finder for my kayak. I considered this same unit as well, but after researching more, came to the same conclusion that I would rather spend more and get a unit with more features (GPS, Multi-Window Display, DownScan Imaging) to help future proof it a little longer. I'm more than likely going to end up getting the Lowrance Elite-4 HDI.