Further North

Looks like you did all the due diligence you could. Enjoy it!

That's what I do.

That should work just fine.

I voted for the EVA foam, though I actually prefer the material St. Croix uses.

Nailed it, IMO.

Blue matches the reels better.

Even with your time in the equation? I'm thinkin' that at $50/hour, no way I could build that in 2 hours or less.

Great looking rig, love the layout. You're going to love that Suzuki 140; Mine is an '06 and I love it. Quiet, smooths, miserly on gas, gets 'er done. IMO, follow the manual. They can read what you did when they plug it in at the dealership, if you don't go by the recommendation and you have a problem...opens the door to not fix under warranty.

I was wondering what a Z-Launch Cord was...looked it up...it's a long bungee cord with a clip on both ends. ...been using that for years except I don't have the fancy plastic over the knots. I bought 50' from Amazon for what the Z-Launch cost (free shipping from Amazon), cut it half to make my launch rope, used the other half to make custom bungee ropes to tie the boat to the dock and hold my bumpers...I still have about 10' left.

You could look at it that way. Or you could look at it that the company that made the product is trying to get it in your hands for the best price they can offer and still make a profit...and that they have no idea what you're gonna mount it on, or how you're gonna mount it. I like the second option better.

There is no best. There's a lot of opinions about what people like, for various reasons, but there is no best.

Casey, thanks. I love learning stuff like that.

Dumb question: if a fish is following a bait down, does it ever get more than 12' behind? ...and if it does...is adding another 8' - 18" feet ever make a difference? We fish vastly different water, so I'm not 2nd guessing you...am genuinely curious. Even 15# PowerPro will cut me, 10# is a sure thing. Up here in the northwoods, relatively low pressure, I see zero difference between 10# and 30#...above the leader...I do not believe fish ar looking 7 ft. above the bait that's gettign their attention... I'm open minded enough to consider that it might make a difference elsewhere in the country...but I'd need to see it to believe it.

Do yourself a favor, use 30# braid. Easier to tie knots. Is closer to the fluoro diameter; makes better knots. Doesn't carve up your fingers tying in leaders. Snugging down an Alberto or FG knot with 10# braid will cut your fingers, sooner or later. Not an "If", it's a "When". Takes way less to fill up a spool (inches = $$$). 150 yards of 10# costs the same as 150 yards of 30#...or so close it doesn't matter... Line diameter above your leader means just about nothing...so go with all of the above.

Would this spool: ...Fit a Cabela's Arachanid reel?

Seems like that'll work, but I'm a simple guy...

Not where I live. Rough structure will bead brad to death, large, toothy fish will cut it like it's not there... Yes. Structure that will scuff up the line (rocks, docks, sunken trees in some water), and local fish (we have pike and musky) that can cut braid with sharp teeth encourage those of use who don't care to buy new tackle just because we're not sharp enough to take a reasonable caution to tie in a leader... Limp line that gets tangled in the lure is another place to use it.

Don't take this wrong...but I couldn't deal with that... There's likely fewer people in out county...1,040 sq. miles...than in your town/city. There's less than 65K people in the whole county than live within about 5 miles of you. Your county (507 sq. miles and 1.04 million people...) is more than I could deal with at my age...I'd go outta my mind...

I agree...but I think nailing the "spot on the spot" is more important than being able to cast to Brazil... The day I need that 10 yards? Time to fish for something else....those fish are over pressured...best to leave them the heck alone and go find something that's not as stressed... ...but that works up here...maybe not where you are.

Not heavy jigs, but yeah, there's about 8,000,000 walleye fishermen out there using jigs on spinning equipment. We can learn some stuff from them with regard to finesse. I had the 24# on a ML spinning rig...thought it was the cat's PJs...until I took it trout fishing early last January. Our trout streams are full of rocks, trees, branches, washing machines, barbed wire fences...you name it...and I lost two spinners to Gliss line failures...which, in my head, shouldn't happen with 24# line when fishing for 8" - 12" fish...and I was fishing it with a 6 ft. co-poly leader that was doing just fine. It got so beat up in that one 4-hour outing that I lost all confidence in it. The visual I use is: Remember Dog from Back to the future? Remember his hair? Looked like that...

I remain underwhelmed. I want to like it, but the frayed appearance, slippery knots (there's ways to work around this...but why would I when other braid doesn't need the work-arounds?) and inability to hold a leader just put me off the product. That's just my perspective, folks that love it should keep using it. Interesting, thanks. I ran the 40# on a baitcaster for part of a season and didn't care for it at all. May need to re-think that. I use 30# 832 on my BFS rig, with a leader. This is the rig that had the 40# Gliss on it. IMO, 832 is the better choice. More durable, casts close to as far, easier to see.

That's good stuff. I have spools of Seaguar's Salmon/Trout Leader material for my heavy fly rigs (8 wt. and above) often to a hunk of tieable wire. http://www.seaguar.com/about-seaguar/press-releases/42-seaguar-launches-sts-fluorocarbon-leader-material-for-salmon-trout-and-steelhead.html If I feel th eneed to "taper" the leader, I'll go 50# - 40# - 30#...about 18" - 24"...or sometimes, with a fly that's particulary resistant to turning over...30# - 40# - 50#. That'll make sense to some of the fly guys, everyone else will be scratching their head. I have to replace it so seldom that I haven't had a need to buy any Blue Label, but I did use it on a guided musky trip once - impressive! ************************************ A thought on tippet material as leader: We can buy this stuff for pennies on the dollar places like Sierra Trading Post, and stored correctly, it'll last forever. That drives the $/inch cost down significantly.

I fly fish a fair amount and, other than trout fishing for pressured fish, seldom use tippet even on my fly rods. That said, it will be fine.

If you do the math, there's actually some benefit to mounting it close to the transducer to get rid of the error between the location of the unit itself and the transducer...or you can use the offset function in the unit to account for it. Do I think it makes any significant difference? Probably not....but math is math...I got my heading sensor with my Humminbird 360°, and it is mounted on the back deck, up against the transom, centered on the 360°. The sensor for the new Link is a different animal, and where it is relative to the transducer probaly isn't important.

I don't believe there are any restrictions.