VtSmallmouth

The wiring was my issue. Found a bad spot in the wires, replaced all the wire with new 6ga and new fuse and everything is back up and running.

After talking to a tech and doing further testing its looking like I have a partial break somewhere in my wires. The tech said some of the wire strands can be broken but will still send 24 volts if unconnected but when connected to the motor it applies a load and the remaining wire can't handle it, so the volts drop. Looks like new wires are the solution.

I'm having issues with my trolling motor, and I'm not good with electronics. So went to go fish, deployed my motor, hit the pedal and nothing... Went home to check everything and all connections seem to be in good shape. I disconnected the wires coming off the pedal at the splice and checked my voltage coming from the batteries, the wires coming from the batteries have 24.4 volts (24 volt system and motor) so I assumed it was my motor. To check I took the motor off the mount and connected the wires coming off the pedal direct to the batteries and it works fine. So in doing more testing I discovered that when the wires coming off the batteries aren't connected to the pedal, I have 24.4 volts, as soon as I touch those wires to the wires going into the pedal, the Volts at the connection drop to 12.3 even with the switch on the pedal in the off posistion. No idea what's going on. Any ideas?!?!?

I use seaguar invizx as a leader, no problems.

Its been a month since ive been on the water due to a broken down boat, but she's finally done. Anybody still catching them?

The promax combo was the first bc combo I ever bought with the same mh rod, and I still use the rod everytime I'm out but the reel has been replaced. I use it for t rigs, jigs, heavier stuff ect. It honestly is a good rod I wouldn't replace it. Get a good reel for it and you'll be happy with it.

I have a okuma Helios tcs, and I gotta tell ya that reel is amazing. Smooth awesome drag, easy to adjust the brakes. But like many others will tell you almost all reels in that price range will be great reels. I agree a high gear ratio is important for pitching.

Albino fluke on a Swarming hornet head spin

Another thing to add, there are also other bays close to mallets you can fish that have launches, shelburne bay, converse bay in Charlotte, I have fished both in my 14 with no problems and caught bass in both. So you can fish a lot of water without having to go out on the main lake, you just gotta trailer a little ways

I haven't fished mallets bay yet, but I have fished Champlain quite a bit in my 14 ft v-hull with a 10hp, I just try to find pockets where I'm out of the wind. My advice to you is don't go out to the main lake, especially if you have a small motor like I do. Champlain can get nasty fast. I always stay close to shore and where I launched so I can get off the water fast if I need to. 2nd, if it starts to get to rough don't hesitate to head back in. That might not answer your question, but just wanted to tell you that there are great places to fish on Champlain that can be fished in a small boat. Stay safe

Got a tackle warehouse gift card for my birthday, that helped convince me I "needed" a new crank bait setup. Went with a okuma Helios tcs reel with a okuma tcs rod 7' medium moderate. My first higher end reel, and she's beautiful!

Anybody else having trouble finding fish? The past two weekends I've been fishless. Launched by the crown point bridge and went south, looking for largemouth, was seeing plenty of baitfish but still couldnt get bit. Tried alot of differnet things, squarebills to jigs, anything i could think of. There were quite a few bass boats out, but they all seemed to be running around as much as I was. Help!!

They are on sale right now at tackle warehouse for $100. I bought a 7' medium spinning one, I haven't used it yet because my boat is in the shop, but they seem like they are a quality rod especially for that price. The guides look great and the grips are awesome. I'd say go for it.

Anybody been out on Champlain yet? If so any luck?

When I started using baitcasters my first combo was an entry level Abu Garcia combo as well, great gear to learn on. My advice is to watch and read as much as you can. There are tons of videos on here from setting them up to casting. I'd spool it with monofilament, it's cheap and forgiving. Also practice before you take it to the water if you can. It'll be tricky at first but stick with it cause once you get it figured out baitcasters are awesome. As far as fishing id learn to rig up a Texas rig. There is a video about it on this site. Texas rigs can be fished so many different ways with pretty much any soft plastic, and they catch fish. So that's my advice, watch some videos, practice, practice, learn the Texas rig and go have fun!!

I have not used the avid, but my dropshot - finesse rod is a st croix rage and I love it. St croix makes great rods, I think you'd be happy with one.

I bought one last year called 101 bass fishing tips by John neporadny jr, it's a collection of tips from a bunch of bass pros. Great book check it out

Hard baits, no. When I buy a new crank bait, I prefer to buy two different colors instead of two of the same if I have the money. I'd rather have a good variety of colors and sizes. Plastics is a different story, I stock up on my go-to plastics.

I thought about putting it on one of my baitcasters but I decided to spool them up with copolymer instead. I have never used braid before, my spinning gear did have fluorocarbon on it last season but it needs to be replaced. I was going to put fluro back on it but saw that braid on sale.

Thanks for all the input, it sounds like people have used 30 without issues. Im going to give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks again everyone.

I have a pflueger supreme size 30 and pflueger triton 35

Shaky heads are designed to stand up at rest, making the bait stand at an angle in the water. It wont fall over with light shaking of the rod tip. A regular ball jig head wont do that it will roll over if shaken in place. Shaky heads are for fishing on the bottom where a ball head is more for swimming.

Ive decided to try braid on my spinning gear this year after finding some suffix 832 on sale at dicks sporting goods. The only spools they had left were 30 lb test but at $16 for a 300 yard spool I couldn't pass it up. But now I'm wondering if 30 is to big for a spinning reel. Will I have any problems with 30lb? Never used braid before so any info will help. Thanks alot

Licensing depends where you plan to fish. Most of the lake Is open to anybody with a ny or vt license. North or Burlington where the lake kind of splits, you have to have a vt license to fish the vt side of the big islands. That includes mallets bay, inland sea, and missisquoi bay. I'm pretty sure the only part that requires a ny license is way down in the southern end. So if you want to catch smallies your best bet is a vt license. There is a good map of the lake with license requirements in the vt hunting and fishing lawbook that you get for free wherever you can buy a license.

Drilling and blasting. Still do it but it's a blast! (Pun intended) my posistion is the driller, I run a 25000 lb rock drill all day, dirty loud job but a lot of fun. Plus I get to watch stuff blow up everyday haha