Further North

Cool...and fun to read!

I've been painting bass popper heads for fly fishing with nail polish for years... Considering moving to UV cured nail polish this season, but haven't got off the starting line on getting it done yet. This is a good reminder!

To me...it's about what I can afford...and what will make a difference. I'm not good enough for some really expensive gear to make enough of a difference to make the jump...and I am anything but a "good enough" guy. I'll put it this way: I used to race. The difference in price between a 1969 Austin Healey Sprite and a Ferrari was about $70,000. I wasn't anywhere good enough to utilize the $70K worth of improvements, refinements and added capability...so I just went out and had a ton of fun in the Sprite. Worked for me... Still does. cars, SUVs, boats, fishing gear...whatever. Some things are worth paying for...the Shimano Calais DC I bought paid off quickly in terms of moving me along the baitcasting learning curve and remains one heck of reel for getting 1 oz. + spoons waaaaay the heck out there for pike and musky...The Scott 8 wt. fly rod I bought has has a similar imact on my fly casting...

Try upside down, suspended leaves with little air pockets under them. Took me two years to figure that one out...looked like eight billion panfish...just hanging there...

Fish flesh, like people flesh, is mostly water. Being cold blooded, fish flesh tends to be be pretty much the same temperature as the surrounding water... The air bladder is, OTOH, a completely different element in the water surrounding it...thus it stands out like...a big ol' bubble...underwater. THat's how I think of it. Hope that helps... Note that with DI and SI, that's not what you see...

Not sure if it'll "raise the bow", but the weight and its placement are a consideration for a lot of things. My three trolling motor batteries sit relatively forward, just ahead of the consoles, below center rod locker, dead center, in a row along the keel of the boat. There are two more batteries (starting/misc and electronics) at the back, along with a 4 bank and single bank chargers. That last battery made a difference in how the boat trims and runs...not a lot, but it was noticeable. One thought: If you can possibly squeeze out the cash...don't go 65#, 24 volt. Go 80#. You'll be happier all the way around.

Read The...um..Freakin' Manual. Don't see any way it possibly could...as long as you don't cut, drill or tap into the housing. That'd be dumb, regardless... Minn Kota had no problem honoring the warranty on my old Terrova 2 1/2 years into the deal, after I smacked it into an underwater rock and bent the prop shaft...even though I'd mounted an external transducer...which involved taking off and replacing the head, and gluing the transducer cable into the slot onthe shaft...

and...

6 my azzz.... 9.5 on Big Bad John.... The Good Stuff...

Ouch. Bullit is an iconographic film. McQueen is an icon. Sheyrl looks enough like my first serious girlfriend to make me hurt... 9.95... Been in a David Lee Murphy mood lately... ...probably in reaction to all the Gomers insisting the end of the world is right 'round the corner... Cognitive dissonance rules!

A thought: I'd attribute any problem to user error...but I'm a simple guy...tend to RTFM... $60 was cheap, for me, at my stage of life...I suspect one would work fine if $$$ are a challenge.

They come with a very strong 3M adhesive strip. Works as advertised. Mine has been hot, cold, wet, dry and everything in between since last season. Still there.

Unless you want a knot that'll go through micro guides... It's one way to go...a good one...but not the only way...

I tried a couple of those...complete PITA, for me. Wind batted them around like a ping-pong ball in a hurricane, no room for gear, no way to stand up, cramps, sore back, had to pump up at the lake... Way more work than they were worth, to this guy. Other folks like them and that's great, but the Bluesky 360° look a like a much more buttoned up, complete solution. That'll do it.

Works great on an Ulterra. I installed two, per their instructions, on my Ulterra 112. Looks like floating salad after I go through a patch of weeds. I create all kinds of habitat edges...

Old Town makes nice equipment.

Those are all cool concepts, would work well on NW WI musky rivers! Another alternative: http://www.onefrogtwo.com/

I use the Ninja Grass Blade, but have heard others work just fine. Can't recall...I just pulled the nut, took it to the hardware store and grabbed some that were the same. That was years ago.

I'd keep it simple: Which boat do you like the best? Buy that one.

I've never broken a Minn Kota prop...but I've sure run plenty into rocs and things that chew up the edges...so I do carry a spare. Conversly, while I've never proken a Minn Kota shear pin, I've bent one or three. So I carry spares of those as well. Stash a prop nut or two someplace you can find them. You're gonna be PO'd if you drop the one you have in the lake. There are not enough "+" symbols in the world to indicate how much I think you should get a weed cutter. I was slow on the uptake here, just added them last year...night and day difference.

On the easy to operate thing: Extremely subjective, depends entirely on user preference. Best way to deal with this is go to the store and try out all the different units and see what works best for how you think. All comments about usability are well meant, but don't address how you look at things. I am, for instance, a Humminbird guy. The menus make sense to me. I can find things quickly, stuff is where I expect it...but that doesn't mean the next guy will have the same experience. I fish with folks who have Garmin and Lowrance and they love their electronics. None of them are any better than the others. On 2 through 6: For all general purposes, the major brands are the same, with a tweak here, or a feature there. None of that stuff makes the tiniest bit of difference if the menue system makes you crazy. It's like a Mac/Windows thing: They both do the same thing, same overall reliability and performance...but one will make more sense to you than the other. Go with that. Oh yeah: Don't listen to the sales people. Their goal is to sell you what they have, what the store makes the most profit on, or what they like best. Many of them have zero real world experience, or very little. Every now and then you'll find an exception, but you'e best to go with the odds here.

I have several choices, depending on where and how I'm fishing. I have a spool of Sunline Sniper. Good stuff I have a couple spools of Lake Forks co-poly. I like that better than the Sniper, but that's just preference. I have a couple spools of Seguar STS leader material...this is mostly heavier stuff, gets used on fly rods. I like it better than the Lake Forks...but again, it's usually heavier. ...just to shake things up, I have a few spools if tieable wire (mostly Tyger Leader) for when there's pike and musky around.

...then he'd have to go out and knock the snow off the cover every couple hours...

8.0...only because I like ballads... Here's one for you, off the beaten path... Grace has serious pipes, significant musical talent...and a whole bunch of other musical attributes that make her stand out...spend an hour, or three, down the Grace Potter rabbit hole...you'll be pleased you did. Crazy range, incredible talent...listen to that voice... Check out her bassist...and no, it's not important how she looks...close your eyes...listen...tell me why this music isn't all over the place, popularity wise... Favorite Grace Potter quote on No Shoes Radio, when asked what the highest note she can sing: "I have no idea. I don't step on a scale and I don't know what notes I can hit." She can hit the notes that matter... That's nuts...thanks!

Aw, Man...that'd be tough.