Stapsy

Thanks for the help guys, I will hook the fish finder up to the trolling motor battery. If I have problems I will try a small 12v. I was originally looking at the Helix 5 SI however after seeing it in person the screen seems a little small for using a split screen view. I think that a 7inch screen will be much better for my purposes. I know that the Helix 7 is coming out in a couple of months however I noticed the Garmin 73sv, which isn't that much more money than the MSRP for the Helix 7 when you consider it comes pre-loaded with a mapping chip. I know the Helix 7 hasn't come out yet but how do you think the Garmin unit would compare with the Helix 5 or 7? Are there any other units I am missing?

I recently bought a 1036 jon boat and am trying to figure out how the best way to set it up with a fishfinder. Originally I was planning to hook it up to the trolling motor battery, however I have read that it isn't the best idea. I don't want to clutter up the boat with another large battery if I can help it. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to hook everything up? The fishfinder I am looking at is the Helix 5 SI. Thanks!

Definitely give tackle trap a call. I bought my NRX 893 from Gary and it is a pleasure dealing with him. He was a huge help in narrowing down my choices and selecting the right rod based on exactly what I wanted. Tackle Trap provides a lot of added value with their service.

The EMTF will be perfect for what you want to do. It is almost too powerful for 3/16 oz texas rigs, but with the baits you listed it will be fine. To me, the ideal lure weight for that rod is about 1/2 oz total and you should be right in that range.

What line, type of cover, and plastics do you usually fish? The Orochi XX Extreme Mission Type F, 13 *** MH, and Orochi XX Perfect Pitch could all be contenders. The *** MH and XX Perfect pitch feel quite similar to me, with the Perfect Pitch having a slight step up in power. Both have nice light tips for pitching and casting that quickly moves into a strong backbone. The EMTF is lighter in power than both. It is more similar to the *** in terms of power but has a relatively stiffer tip section with a more moderate action. If you provide a bit more information on what and how you will be fishing the rod I would be happy to go into more detail.

Relatively speaking a 3 has more power than a 2. Personally I think the 852 will be the best for the 5 inch senko given that you aren't around cover. I have the 893c and the 852c (which I read is the same blank as the 852s) and I would prefer the 852s for your purposes. It has plenty of backbone and has an awesome taper for casting 3/8 oz lures. It loads deeper into the blank without feeling overpowered and the lighter action makes it easier to feel lighter lures. The 893 has a strong backbone and a light tip which feels a lot different when casting a Senko compared to the 852. My recommendation is If you want to use total weight of 3/8 or under go with the 852. If you think you will generally be casting lures of 3/8oz or greater I would go with the 3 power.

I have played around with the Flat Side Special in store and I though it felt too soft for spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swim jigs. I would definitely go for the spinnerbait special or diablo spec R,especially if you plan on primarily fishing the above.

I am about 4 hours west of there and water temps right now are in the 60-65 degree range. Lots of perch and bluegill in 1-4 feet of water and the bass and pike are following them in. Should be a great time for pike, musky, and walleye since bass season won't be open yet. Just think bass spawning temps and you should be pretty close.

I stand corrected, I must have confused the Gold iridium with another lens. It just underlines my point about how difficult Oakley makes finding lenses without being able to test them yourself. I don't have a lot of experience with rose color on the water, but I use them for golfing a lot and they really make the color green pop. I don't know if it would work the same way underwater. Bronze is kind of a middle ground between black and rose. Black doesn't help contrast and reduces transmission evenly across the spectrum. Rose increases contrast for certain colors but alters the spectrum a bit to much for me in general use. The bronze is in the middle where it will increase the contrast without effecting color as much as a rose lens. Since you already have black iridium I would go for something in the 15% transmission range to help in lower light conditions and stick with the black iridium for salt water and really bright conditions. I like to go for the lightest lens I can get away with, so I usually start off with a bronze color and adjust to black if I find myself squinting a lot. I think you will get more utility by having a ~10% and ~15% lens instead of two ~10% lenses

Definitely go for the Bronze Iridium. The Gold iridium will be the same base lens color (black) as your Black iridium lenses except with the Gold reflective outer coating instead of Black. The iridium coatings won't make much of a difference but going to a bronze/brown base lens with the Bronze Iridium will improve contrast for shallow water and lower light conditions. Oakley lens names are confusing because they are usually based on the iridium coating color and not the color of the actual lens. General rule of thumb is he lowest light transmission are black base lenses, followed by bronze in the middle range, and then rose/green/lighter bronze color when you get to the higher light transmissions. I am using the Shallow Blue Iridium which is also a bronze based lens and it is noticeably better than the black lens in every condition except direct sunlight.

I love the roboworm re-barb hooks. If you are only going to get one size I would go for the 4/0, which would let you rig up larger stickbaits and will still work for thinner worms.

I also find that trying to rip a jig just results in more time spent removing weeds than gradually loading up the rod and allowing the jig to slide out. Also, try to pay attention to where weeds are accumulating on the jig. That really helped me to pin point what style of jig to look for to increase weedlessness. For example, I can guarantee if your football jig had a 90 degree line tie the grass was getting stuck due to the angle of the line tie relative to the head. Everything has trade offs, but something like a grass or swim jig with a more horizontal line tie in the 30 degree range will probably work better.

No Canadian sites that I have found show all the items they have in store on their websites. If possible, try to visit the stores in person to see the full selection. A couple good stores in the GTA that I like are Sail, Fishing World (Hamilton), and Pro J's (Scarborough). Shipping rods to Canada from the US can be a bit of a pain. Generally fishing rods are above the length limit of what Canada Post will accept, which leaves you with UPS and Fed Ex. Out of the two I prefer Fed Ex as they will include brokerage in certain shipping services. UPS will include brokerage but only for 5 items (it is slightly more complicated than that but if you are less than 5 you are safe). Both will generally charge you sales tax on whatever you purchase so just count on adding that into the prices. UPS also charges you a percentage on whatever tax they pay upfront unless you call them and pre authorize an tax charges before it clears Canadian customs. All that said, I don't think ordering from TW would end up costing you more than the provincial sales tax. If you are ordering a couple of rods I think it would be worth it. Maybe if you find some stuff that you want through TW or another US retailer people here could direct you to a Canadian retailer who stocks those items.

The tip is definitely quite light on this rod, which makes it easy to pitch and short cast weights down to ~3/8oz. It has a really strong backbone after the tip though. It feels a bit weird trying to bomb casts with lighter weights though because it is tough to engage the rest of the rod. Of course that isn't what it was designed for. Anything within 20 yards is effortless even with lighter weights.