Further North

Good choice!

Forgot a thought about the unit working when you pick it up: Most people don't have a way to run a fish finder off the boat...but you don't want to have to uninstall it after they show you it works. I have a power supply that plugs into a standard 110 outlet (so I can do updates in the house). Handy to have.

Same here. If the unit works when you pick it up, you're good to go. On choice of unit, that one is really not suitable for much past the very basics...I'd hang one one a canoe for a river trip, but not much past that.

Both units don't need to be MEGA. I can see SI on my DI front unit. Both units need to be G2N. I don't understand the reason for spending 2x to set one unit to right and the other to left...and then trying to save money by only hanging one transducer. There is plenty of detail on one 12" Helix screen. ..or one 15" Solix screen @ 1.2 MHz... ...but if I wanted to do this, the best way, no question about it, would be to place one transducer on each side of the outboard motor.

The reason Albright/Alberto knots hang up on small guides is that we have 2x line thickness minimum trying to get through the guides. This is why I use the FG knot. Just a hair (one thickness of braid, pulled down tight) over one line thickness works great. On the Alberto (I use it religiously for slippery leader material like Knot-2-Kinky) I don't feel like the number up and down need to be the same, but I do think the number up should exceed the number down.

Not even the slightest, tiniest little bit. ...but I deal with printing and color all day, so that might have something to do with it. Note that worrying about color matching fishing rigs has zero to do with keeping it in top condition.

Sounds like good reasoning to me. ...I just used surgeon's knot to splice in a new rope for the dog out back.

As you can see, I'm a big Lamson reel fan...but don't ignore the Cabela's RLS...I thnk it might be the RLS II now. I've got two of those, one on a 5 wt. nymph rod, one on the St. Croix Bank Robber mentioned above. I've also got a couple of Nautilus reels, love them, but they are spendy unless you trip over a good deal. Sage, Cheeky, Echo, Hardy...TFO has some reels...hard to find bad ones made by reputable companies. Chinese junk is Chinese junk, just like it is with any other gear...you get what you pay for, to a point. Regarding the reel storing the line...that works OK...until you get into a fish with some size, or with some power...at that point, you're going to want to get the line on the reel and play the fish from there. You don't want that line on deck or even floating around you in current when you've got a decent fish on...it'll tangle on everything...twice...and you do not want that to be the reason you loose a fish and break off a fly. That largemouth above, and the musky on Sunday were both brought in with the line on the reel...the musky was unhappy about the hook and made a good run with a tail walk thrown in to let me know that...not something you want to try to control with the line wrapped 'round your shoes, the fish finder, the rope cleats and pliers you left on deck...

I love tying bass and pike/musky flies...and some trout streamers. Can't stand tying the itty bitty trout flies (I lack that kind of patience)...so I just buy those, they're cheap. If you're just starting out, don't get sucked into the crazy expensive gear. I highly recommend rods like the Cabela's LSi and their "house brand" reels like the RLS. I slight step above those rods are the Temple Fork Outfitters rods I've mentioned - I really like those. I'd spend time and money there before I jumped into the Sage - Winston - Orvis - G Loomis waters...you can dump half a grand or more then in th eblink of an eye and wind up with something you figure out later you don't like... EBay is also your friend. Lotta folks buy fly gear and never use it...or give up after a few tries...and sell it off cheap. That's where I get almost all my stuff...

I'm the same way. Good to know I can do it, have never ever tried on the water... That's hilarious...I was just going to PM you a link to STP...they are selling out Lightspeed 3.5s and 4.0s for really good prices. I'm going to have to look away before I get myself in trouble there...

It's a good knot, but can be kind of a pain with a long leader.

I think the Lightspeed reels are my favorite Lamson reels. I've got on in 2.0 on a 7 ft. 3 wt...it's a jewel of a reel, the one I mention above on the L-Tech, a 3.5 like yours, but th eprevious version, and 4.0 the same version as yours on a 10 wt. St. Croix Legend X. The 3.5 really hits the sweet-spot on 7 wt. and 8 wt. rods...I think the 3.0 would have been too light.

Last weekend I had the front deck set up with six fly rods: 7 wt. St. Croix Bank robber, Scientific Angler Hover line on a Cabela's RLS reel (one of the absolute best deals out there in a fly reel!). CRSing on what fly I've got on there right now. 8 wt. TFO Axiom, Rio Outbound Short Intermediate on a Nautilus reel. This is my "heavy" set up, for getting bigger flies out a ways. This has an orange/yellow weedless hollow-tie on it. 8 wt. TFO Mangrove, Scientific Anglers Clear Intermediate tip on a Lamson Guru HD 3.5, that's the one I used with the baitfish pattern last Sunday. 8 wt. Scott S2, Airflo Bass floating line, Lamson Speedster 3.5, that's the one with the Ol' Mr. Wiggly on it. 9 wt. Cabela's L-Tech Salt, Airflo Pike/Musky floating line on a Lamson Lightspeed 3.5. There's one of my hollow-tie-on-a-7/0 EWG hook flies on that one right now. This rig is so light you'd think it was an 8 wt. 10 wt. TFO Axiom, Rio Outbound Short type VI sinking line on a Lamson Speedster 4.0...there's another weedless hollow tie on that one, made with blue and purple wig hair from a wig my daughter wore for Halloween a few years back. THat's the one that tricked the musky Sunday. ...and the back deck set up with 4 gear rods: St. Croix Avid X ML with Abu Garcia LTX, Weightless Texas Rigged Senko. St Croix Legend Extreme MLXF spinning rod with a Quantum Reel, Hula grub on a shakey head. Custom made 7 ft. "crankbait" rod, Diawa Tatula CT Type R, #5 red and White Mepps dual blade. 7'3" TFO, Cabela's Arachanid 7:1 (It's a Tatula clone), Texas rigged (over wire leader) Smokin' Rooster. Only the Senko, the Ol' Mr. Wiggly and the baitfish patterns produced bass, but they produced over 30 of them...and the wig-fly pulled the musky...so crossover was a good tactic that day! Thanks for the review! Looks like a Lamson Lightspeed reel? Which size? I've had my share of stiff fly rods - those TFO Axioms can be telephone poles with the wrong line on them, and I had a Winston 10 wt. that could have been used as a construction crane. I've been interested in that Sage because of the length...thinking it might improve accuracy at the slight cost of distance. ...and perfect loops are over-rated...and you'll not get a lot them checking bass flies.

How do you like it? I tried one of their pike/musky rods up in Canada and was underwhelmed...but it was an 11 wt...way heavier than I like for anything...

That's how I got mine as well. It came with a Kelly Galloup sinking streamer line that I still have around here somewhere...I found it too heavy for wadeable river smalies around here...the Hover solves that problem for flies I want to run just under the surface...if you keep the weight out of the flies when you tie them.

I've got that same rod. I've got a Cabela's RLS reel on it with a Scientific Angler's Hover line on it. It's a killer combination.

I think one of the things I learned bouncing back and forth between gear and fly fishing is that there are ways to get deep (not 30 feet kind if deep, but 8 to 10 feet is doable. Also...I don't use a 5 wt. There's no way anyone would want to throw the flies I throw at bass on a 5 wt., at least not for long. Tailing loops and new unintentional piercings would be the result. The smallest rod I'd use for bass is a 6 wt...and that's not very often. Most often I'm using an 8 wt., sometimes a 7. Here's some examples from last Sunday: The fly in the first two is about 2 1/2" long and is miserable to throw with a 6 wt., the fly in the 2nd two pictures is about 7" long, and I hauled that largemouth out of a snarl of sunken tree limbs about 8 feet deep. One thing that bass fishermen that haven't tried flies yet will find interesting: you have one hand on the line most of the time...you'll feel even the lightest takes.

One of the biggest reasons landowners on the water (lakes, rivers, streams) get upset about public access is that a significant percentage of the public are slobs and either leave trash directly in their property, or chuck it in the water and it floats ashore. I know fishermen who sink their empty beer bottles over the side of the boat, who don't chop up fishing line they are going to throw out, and who don't police the launch when they leave. It's unfortunate, but we are often our own worst representatives. I really like this idea - thanks Fishing Rhino!

Spin or Fly: It’s Time to Think Outside the Box I have a confession to make: I bought my first spinning rod and reel in more than 20 years. I admit it. I’m a diehard fly-only, fly fisherman. I grew with the old closed face, Zebco reels, but once I got the long rod in my hand, I never wanted to let it go. Was I stubborn? Maybe. The truth is I fell in love with making a rod bend and forming a loop. However, my passion for fly casting recently ran smack into a dose of reality. Traditionally, I’ve fished the Florida salt — in Tampa, Jupiter, St. Augustine, but recently switched to freshwater when I moved inland —- to the banks of the Santa Fe River in North Florida. My river house has a platform on the water that backs up to a treeline. There’s no floating dock and no way to cast a fly. If I wanted to fish in my backyard, spinning gear was the only way to go. Passion yielded to pragmatism and I bought a spinning outfit and a batch of Rooster Tail spinners from the local True Value hardware store, a development that led to the idea for this blog post: What can gear fishermen learn from fly fishermen and vice versa? I called upon Collins Illich, Vice President/Bass Category Manager of TFO, for a bit of insight on how fly and gear anglers can learn from each type of fishing. Collins is a former fly shop owner and fly fishing guide. He also fishes with traditional gear. Below are a few excerpts of our conversation. TFO: What can gear fishermen learn from fly fishermen? CI: “The number one thing fly fishermen have that gear fishermen are trying to do. … There’s a whole category of gear fishing that’s called finesse fishing. No matter how finesse you get with a baitcaster or a spinning reel, you are never going to be as finesse as you are with a fly rod. Fly fishermen represent the ultimate in finesse fishing. Associated with finesse fishing, I would talk about precision. Gear fishermen in the bass category, they’re going to cover a lot of water quickly. They make a lot of casts. Fly fishermen are much more precise, more methodical traditionally. One thing that I try to visualize when I’m trying to get guys to cross over is if I’m fishing a specific piece of water, but I only care about the first three feet of the retrieve, if I fish with a fly rod, I can cast, make the first few feet of the retrieve and cast again. You can’t do that with a baitcasting rod. The methodical nature of fly fishing is a good lesson. The finesse of fly fishing is a good lesson for the gear fisherman. You’re seeing a lot of techniques in the gear side adapted from the fly side. You’re seeing bass fishermen use bucktail jigs.” TFO: Is it realistic to expect the gear fishermen to acquire the finesse without the fly rod and fly? CI: “It’s how you use a rod, how you use a bait. They’re all realistic. Studying other fishermen is going to make you a better fisherman. There’s an expression Rick Pope uses here at TFO: A master mechanic has more than just a crescent wrench in his toolbox. You can literally take a rabbit strip fly — rabbit strip is one of the most effective materials in terms of enticing a fish to bite —- you can take that instead of a soft plastic and drop shot it on 6-pound mono or 6-pound fluoro and catch fish that you would have never caught (before), heavily pressured fish. TFO: I know (pro bass fisherman) Shaw Grigbsy is a big fly fisherman: CI: “Best sight fisherman in the world.” TFO: I heard Roland Martin is a big fly fisherman as well. CI: “I’ve fished with Roland Martin. That’s cool. It doesn’t surprise me that Shaw Grigsby is a fly fisherman. As you slow down and as you get more precise with you casts, you’re going to become a better fly fisherman. No one questions whether Shaw Grigsby is the best sight fisherman among the elites.” TFO: Now for the second half of the equation: What can fly anglers learn from gear fishermen? CI: “The first and most effective thing is to fish deep. The number one limitation that people complain about in fly fishing outside of the wind is fishing deep. Seeing how a gear fisherman positions himself and studies the water and uses various columns and how he uses electronics, you don’t see a fly-fishing guide with $3,000 graph on their boat very often. There’s a reason the gear fisherman has that; he’s looking at water; he’s looking at water temperature; he’s looking at structure. He’s looking at ways to present a bait in 30 feet of water, in 20 feet of water, in 12 feet of water that the fly fisherman would have never even tried without watching a gear fisherman do it. “The other thing would be (to speed up) and it’s the inverse of teaching a gear fisherman to slow down. Well, a gear fisherman can teach a fly fisherman to how to speed things up. If you fish a bait efficiently, you can fish it very, very quickly, especially if you’re skipping spots. Learn where the fish are. Don’t fish the open water. Fish the water with the fish in it. Both can teach efficiency, but on a different spectrum. One faster. One is slower. “I would talk less about teaching it and more about enjoying it. If I’m a fly fisherman fishing Toledo Bend with a fly rod, I’m enjoying it. I’ve got a three-day trip. This is awesome. Then day three, it’s raining and the temperature’s dropped 10 degrees overnight and we’re blowing 30 miles an hour, and I don’t know how to gear fish, I’m not going to be able to fish effectively. Learning how to broaden your scope will make you a better fisherman, let you fish in more conditions and let you enjoy more of it.” https://tforods.com/spin-fly-time-think-outside-box/ ______________________________________________________________ I switch back and forth between fly fishing and gear fishing all the time...lots of benefits: Show the fish something they haven't been seeing...show a bass or a pressured musky a fly, show a trout a soft plastic rig... Lessens fatigue...sure, I can do either all day...but why do that if there's an option. There's a lot of presentations, tactics, strategies, gear...and things as simple as knots...that work great in both worlds that most people don't cross-over. ...and that's just for starters...

That's the key, right there. Try them all, go with what works. All the facts about which one is the strongest and which one is the smallest isn't going to help if you can't tie the knot well, on your boat, on the water. Overall strength probably doesn't matter much - most of us are fishing with line more than heavy enough to get the job done. Knot size doesn't matter much (unless you're using really heavy line, or you have microguides). Go with what you can tie the best.

My axle wasn't hung up either...but the wheel got banged into the drop-off pretty good...axles was less than a 1/4" off...but the tire still got chewed up fast.

Make sure your trailer axle is still straight. Depending on how hard you had to yank it to get it out, it could be off just enough to wear your tires faster than normal or it could be off enough to take the tread down to the cords in a couple trips. I had the latter happen a few years ago and wound up changing a trailer tire halfway home on my next trip..and then having to replace that tire after I got the trailer fixed. It can take a lot less than most people think to knock the axle off by just enough to eat a tire. I launch on gravel ramps frequently. Get out and look the ramp over before you launch to check for problems...every time. Gravel ramps can change overnight, particularly on rivers...or one gomer who power loads poorly can dig a hole in the ramp on a lake in a hurry.

Good choice! Enjoy it...and you're spot on with "pay now or pay later" logic.

That's never made any sense to me... Tin is a much better choice in that price range. You'll probably wind up with newer, fewer hours on the motor and better condition. A $5K glass boat has a high likelihood of being a money pit and first time buyer won't know what to avoid.

OK...couldn't figure out where you were going with it...