Further North

Funny stuff. I'm not a slow action rod guy either...but I am getting to appreciate them more. Casts don't need to 70 feet very often...

Here's how I'd describe it: Most people who fly fish want that long, tight looped cast that flies across the river and drops without a ripple into a pool where the big fish lurks, 70 ft. away... The Bad News: That ain't gonna happen with a line that's too light for the rod. The Good News: If you practice a lot you'll be able to finesse that fly into a spot 30 ft. away so softly no fish will be able to tell it's not a real bug. What I mean by "a lot" is...like 80 hours on the lawn. I may be exaggerating to make a point...but you get my drift*. ...but I'm not sure that's useful. That you are asking the question indicates to me that you're not an experienced fly fisherman...and I'd posit that it'd take a fairly experienced fly fisherman to get the best out of a rig set up like that. I'd try to swap it for a 6 wt line..or: 1) Buy a new 5 wt. rod (for trout, really not enough rod for bass in most places). 2) Suck it up and buy a new 6 wt. line, sell the 5 wt. line. Many fly rods these days are faster actions...which exacerbates your issue. While it's easy to go one line wt. up when you have a faster action rod...it makes lighter line all but impossible to use. *Yeah...pun intended. Sue me if it didn't make you smile. Great rod! Had one like it...got stupid and swapped for something I was convinced would be better...it wasn't, and I can't even remember what it was...but I remember the RPL... I was, however, smart enough to hang onto the Scott....

If that Tatula is really bugging you and you feel the need to move it down the road...I'll order a new Kastking and have it shipped right to you if you send me the the Tatula...

I just looked that up...it looks really complicated...until you try it. Cool knot, will give it a shot next time I'm out. ...I'm wondering how well it'll work on flies...

Note to self: Don't Google "Stripper Guide" on the family computer...

That's the one I tie as well.

Understanding that you are looking towards spinning gear, here's an option: After breaking my BFS rod last year...then found they quit making the rod...I replaced it with a St. Croix Avid X. I've got it rigged with an Abu Garcia LTX, 30# Suffix 832 to a leader of 7# Lake Forks co-poly. The rig is so light and sensitive that I can tell when a fish is thinking about hitting the bait... I'm obviously kidding a bit, but it's super sensitive, I can detect the slightest touch.

A lake around 45.7 Latitude, headed up towards Superior was 56° in the main basin, 62° in back bays (shallow). Fish all over, some spawning, some just cranky and hitting about everything you tossed at them.

That's weird...

Mick, do read the manual, then practice doing what it tells you to do...but here's a short-cut: While on the SI screen, press the "check" button, it will cycle you through the frequencies. ...now go read the manual, so you know how to set them via the menus.

I have a Helix MEGA SI GPS 12"...the SI detail is very, very good. I would expect the 9" to be the same...but with a smaller screen. I don't have any images saved yet but the on-screen imaging is far superior to the 798 and 1198 units I replaced. I have heard that Lowrance and Garmin license SI from Humminbird, I wonder Raymarine licenses SI from Humminbird... Yup: ...and: Exactly what I am seeing ...I thnk one of the things that gets missed is this: Captured SI images from older core units (x97, x98, x99, etc.) were often better than what we were seeing on screen. What I'm seeing this time around is that when people take photos (usually with their phones, not exactly high res image sources) of the screens on the new G2N MEGA units, the detail is much better than even the old captured images were. Here's an example of a screen capture from one of my old units: I think that was from a 997...the image on screen wasn't that clear...what I saw when I ran over that spot with the new equipment was much clearer than that. I know Jason Halfen has some images on his site of the same area, captured from a Solix unit recently: ...note the frequency on that image. Here's the same spot with MEGA: ...on screen image quality differences will be similar... ...Did you notice the loss of detail in the boat? That's because it's 7 year later and it's full of lake bottom...

Cool...sounds like progress!

Bummer...right hand retrieve... I have an MGS and an STX...I prefer the MGX...if I could buy the MGX for $10 less than the STX I wouldn't even think about it...if the handle was on the other side of the reel, I'd have one on the way right now... (I also have an LTX. Like it even more than the MGX)

Sounds like we need a NW WI BassResource.com get together this weekend... I'll bring the lies "exagerations"...no, that's not quite right either...I'll bring the truth stretcher.

In my case, I believe the problem sourced to the original wiring in the boat...but there was no way I was going to re-wire the whole thing, so the separate circuit with independent battery and charger solved the issue handily...and gives me an independent back-up in case something dumb (that means operator error. 95% of the time) happens with my starting battery. I think you're on the right path, looking forward to the follow-up.

Correct - it works just fine, see the screen caps above. I think there's a lot of willingness to buy into what folks are saying without doing the work to find out if it's really true. I can tell you that how high the MEGA transducer sits to get the readings at speed is not what I expected based on years of running Core units. It's a different animal and needs different adjustments.

We cut our cable years ago, don't regret it even a little bit. ...OK, I miss Grand Prix racing and the Olympics every two years, but I got over it. We don't even have an antenna for local stuff. The few shows we hear about that we want to see are always available in some other format, even if it means waiting until it comes out on DVD if we can't catch it on the internet someplace. No commercials, no gawd-awful "news", no politics...it's kinda funny, but not having TV pushed me to buy Sirius Radio so that I can listen to the music I want commercial, politics and "news" free as well. It's been a nice, quiet few years. Really like it.

Important question no one else has asked: Is she hot? ...just kidding...like 68 Camaro, I've been married to the love of my life for 26 years, wouldn't trade that for anything. She doesn't fish, hunt, shoot clays...or really even much like my hunting dogs...but we get along great anyway...because we make sure we make time for each other. Long term relationships can be hard work, and you don't always get to do what you want...but you should get to do what you want a fair amount of the time...and so should your partner. The folks who have said it's not up to you to find things for her to do are right...though it's admirable that you want to do that. She needs to find her own interests, hobbies and friends...not count on you to be the only source of happiness in her life. Just guessing here, but I'd guess you are both pretty young, maybe even your first serious relations ship...give it time, be there for her when she really needs you. carve out time for yourself to fish and do whatever else makes you tick. Work at it, and it'll work out. Ignore the sourpusses who think dumping her is the only answer - if she's the right one for you, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find that out, too.

Yeah...you're gonna run right into...something. I'm just not sure what. I think it will depend a ton on where you go - a half hour to an hour north or south should put you on fish if you have that kind of mobility. Where are you staying?

Hard to say...weather this time of year is notoriously unstable. The mid 70's we had for the week leading to those higher than normal temps seem to be getting set back pretty hard with all the cooler air, rain and wind. Depending on when you're planning on being here, it could "interesting". Smallies should be well past post-spawn by then, hopefull the same for largemouth.

Same lake, same areas, surface temps centered around 56°...couple degrees to either side depending on where you were.

Back to being serious... Great set up, one suggestion: move it to the passenger side. Those things usually generate a ton of wind noise, better to have them on the other side of the vehicle IMO.

For the lake I was on (I can PM it to you if you'd like) there were already empty smallie beds and a few largemouth on beds already. We had Ice out in mid=March, vegetation ia ahead of average, but not as much as ice out that early might indicate. Rivers are blown and dirty as are any lakes connected to them. The Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls is at 44,000 cfs (about 5.5x mean and about 8x median) after peaking around 54,000 Friday...and I'd expect it to came back up after an all day rain yesterday: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/wi/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_default&site_no=05365500&period=120&begin_date=1998-03-22&end_date=2017-05-21 Other rivers are in similar shape. Won't know about other lakes until later today.

Hmmm....I scored an Avid X at our Gander a few weeks ago for $160, and a 201 Curado the week before that for a good price... Also cleaned them out of one Senko color I use a lot of for 20% off and bought some other decent lures at that same discount.

In my area (north of Eau Claire) I was on a deep, clear lake last Sunday afternoon, main lake water temps were around 62°, sheltered bays were as high as 68°. Same lake the week before (Sunday of opening weekend) main lake was about 55°, sheltered bays were as high as 62°. Weather was rainy and cooler most of the week, with a frost warning one night...don't know the impact yet.