MickD

Braid is fine for just about all applications. I love the feel of a fish hitting a spinnerbait or just about anything else-very solid, no doubt about it kind of feel. It's great for finesse, the most sensitive of the lines, and in weights like 15 or 20, will cast a mile. I would focus on an easy to tie knot, like a double uni first, then branch out into others if you see a need. Uni is easy to tie right, reliable, and quite strong. I recommend your starting with 15 or 20 pound braid, a good name brand. Some off brand stuff is not that great. Leaders should be about 15 to 20 pound test, either FC or mono. I really like hard mono designed to be a leader, not a line. Same for FC. More expensive, but you don't use much. Length can be about anything. As mentioned, if you have trouble with your knot going through guides, use a shorter leader and cast with it outside the guides. I use from 4-6 feet. With most guides a double uni on 15 or 20 braid and 15 or 20 mono/FC will go through the guides fine. Check it out every few hours of casting to see if it's getting beaten up. Retie if it is. The FG knot is a great knot, the smallest and strongest knot IF IT'S TIED RIGHT. It's not easy to learn, and it's easy to screw up. After you have mastered the double uni, practice the FG while watching TV. Don't use it on the water until you have really mastered it. After you've mastered it, do not change a thing. Anything different that you do will probably not work out well.

I hardly used a spinnerbait last year, have to be careful not to give up on them. But I've had so much success with swim jigs with 3-4 inch paddle tail swimbaits for a trailer, also the Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craw that I've not gone to spinnerbaits as much. They cast so much easier than spinnerbaits if there are wind problems.

Wayne, sounds like I should have been given an autochart chip with my unit based on what you and the catalog text says, do you know that this is correct?

I surprised by the lack of presence on the lists of 4 inch paddle tail swimbaits on a bullet jig, ned rig, + the others for me would be in order tubes, super flukes, and senko type plastic.

Thanks, Wayne. I appreciate your advice and tech support. My wife will be so pleased to find out I have to spend another $100 to make this outfit work as well as the one I sold. :-) Yes, I understand I didn't have SI on the other one. The name of the unit, which is mega, is exactly "Helix 9 Chirp SI GPS G2N" on the box label that also has the serial number on it. Wayne, while I'm here, another question, if I may. I see on my menu that it has an autochart selection, and the text on this model in the "catalogs" says it has autochart capability. Does it? And I think I know the answer, but verify, I have to buy more stuff to make it work? thanks again. Much appreciated.

With the Eagle I had there was only a problem if the transducer was not mounted the correct height relative to the water coming off the bottom of the hull. If the water were too deep, like 30-50 feet, at some speed, like 20mph, it can be a problem as you mention when the signal gets back to the transducer after the boat is gone. The Helix 9 Chirp SI GPS G2N came with one transducer, a flat one about 3 x 6 inches viewed from the top, I think it is the Mega SI transducer. It is mounted about 1/2 in below the hull edge. Are you suggesting that I try lowering it, Wayne? According to Humminbird I don't have to chose between SI image quality and good depth indication at speed if I spend another $100. Do you believe this is not true? thanks for coming on.

The second transducer, an added transducer, Hum says I need is a smaller, puck style transducer that is plugged into one wire of the Y cable, with the original big mega transducer plugged into the other. They go to the unit by the original cable from the original transducer, and the unit auto sorts the signals to give accurate readings at speeds over the 6-10 max of the original transducer. But. . . on one Hum trouble shooting item on the web site it says a second transducer can block the signal going to the side imaging transducer. I have no idea if the transducer they recommend I buy is a problem or not.

Thanks. I've had my Eagle 640 Elite have no trouble at 15-20 mph in 15-20 feet of water. I talked to Humminbird support and the problem can be solved with another $100 purchase, second transducer and cable. So I paid about $4000 for motor and two graphs and cannot tell how deep the water is at over 6 mph unless I spend another $100. This is very disappointing to say the least. No warning from the dealer, nothing I can find in the manual, supposedly there is mention of it on the website, if you search for "high speed."

I had my new Lund Rebel 1650 ss on the water Sunday, with a Helix 9 with the side imaging big flat transducer, and found that I only had accurate speed indication when I was going fairly slowly. As I would speed up, in 10-15 feet of water, at about 20mph the depth indication would slowly climb in number until it was reading totally unrealistic high numbers. The transducer is mounted so it's about 1/2 inch below the bottom of the hull, which seems about right to me. My first move,without having any expert advice, would be to lower it a quarter to 1/2 inch. Do others have this problem with the Helix 9 with this transducer? Does anyone have a solution to propose? thanks, Mick PS, never had this problem with my old Monark and the Eagle 640 Elite unit.

I'm a builder and not familiar with the actions of the rods mentioned, but most recommend a fast or extra fast action in order to jerk the spinnerbait effectively through weeds. Slow and moderate actions are not as good. Also, some say that faster actions reduce helicopering, but I'm not sure that's accurate. Get the power that will load properly with the weight lures you plan to use most often (tell by the lure weight range for the rod)

Major issues with old engines are 1. they have carburetors which are very finicky, especially if they've been sitting a long time with fuel in them. They can work fine, or they can be a horror case. Fuel contamination by dirt or alcohol could really screw an engine up, too. 2. water pump impellers - most don't change them often enough. Make sure you know the situation with a prospective engine. They wear out, chunks go missing, and they simply get too stiff if very old. 3. Oil injection- If talking some of the bigger engines, Johnson/Evinrude had an oil injection system that took oil from a separate container and used a diaphragm pump in the engine to inject oil. Very unreliable, and your first indication of trouble was a scored cylinder wall. Happened to me. I would not recommend buying one of these. Merc had, if I'm not mistaken, a gear pump and integral oil reservoir- much more reliable. One thing for sure, you don't buy an engine until you've seen it run at all throttle positions, and have seen it start from cold.

I wonder if all the dock fishermen who claim every square in of water as theirs would feel the same way if they were repairing their boat covers and canopies of damage inflicted by fishing lures. Some can be effective fishing docks and doing no damage, but others cannot. But that does not stop some of them from trying. It would be nice if fishermen would not even go close to a dock with a person on it, or on shore by it. It would be nice if those who are not really good at accurate casting would simply cast a good distance away from a dock and take the fish that come out. There is the law, and there is common courtesy. They are not the same.

I think this forum is populated by a bunch of happy masochists, trying and trying to make FC work well. Just kidding a bit, but hear me out. FC, especially the ones that are supposed to solve the problems of FC are very expensive. Then it is touted for having better sensitivity than mono, and for being more invisible in the water than mono. Has anyone seen any really decent data on either of these supposed advantages? Even if there is a difference, is it enough to justify all the hassles? Is it significant? While many of us are facing the frustrations trying to have the most invisible line available, others are tying directly to braid and doing well. Like the previous post. And many others. And what about FC disadvantages? Get a backlash with FC, and that's very easy to do, and you just may break the line before you get it untangled. And knot strength is often suspect. I'm dropping out of the frustration, using only braid and mono for casting, still using up some FC for leaders. But when I need more leader material it will be hard mono or leader grade FC. I'm not a masochist, so I wasn't having much fun trying to make FC work.

This whole thing sounds confusing, skeg tab "all the way to the right," hammering on a lower unit, motor mount area caved in, getting it back from having the hull patched. It doesn't sound to me that this is the place to get this situation under control. I think it can be done only by having a competent boat mechanic take the boat and do what it takes to fix it right. Then avoid stumps and leave the adjustments alone. IMHO

The rapid spin looks like a nice seat, but the cheapest one is about $20. For a first rod I would use a $5-9 pipe style seat, size 17. By "that style" I think you are asking how well a skeleton seat holds the reel, and the answer is they do fine at that. Ergonomics is possibly a different story.

For your first build, keep it simple and use a seat that comes already assembled so you only have to mount it on the blank using either masking tape wrapped to form arbors (make sure when gluing that the tape is totally covered with epoxy) or rigid foam shims. Any brand seat will do but I prefer the Fuji DPS size 17. Better for long fingers than a size 16. The Aero is fine, too, and is very good ergonomically in even the standard size 16.

I should have added that the same deglossing needs to be done to the skeleton seat components. A good way to do that is to use a shotgun patch cleaning tip on one section of a gun cleaning rod mounted in your drill driver. But put a piece of Scotch brite in the slot instead of a cleaning patch.

The hump will be in the cork, the seat in front, so the hump and the skeleton seat are separate issues. If you like the hump you're interested in comfort, but also want a skeleton seat? The skeleton will have no "insert," just the rod blank, which will make it, at the reel stem, pretty skinny and not the greatest ergonomically. But if you want it, any of the brands are probably fine; I don't use them so don't know details on the differences. But the important thing is that they rely on a very small surface for the epoxy adhesive to hold the reel. The sheer stresses are much larger than with conventional seats which have large areas for epoxy. So you need to maximize the strength of the bond, and how you do this is: 1. buff the interface surface between the blank and the seat parts with Scotch abrasive pads to degloss the surface and remove any contaminants. Do not follow this with anything other than wiping the dust away with a dry cloth or paper towel. 2. Don't skimp on the epoxy, and use structural epoxy, not wrap epoxy. Make sure that every bit of available interface between the components and blank are generously epoxyed. Clean the excess off with alcohol on a paper towel before it hardens. Personal preference, but I like the fast cure Rod Bond paste epoxy. It stays put better than liquid epoxy, hardens fairly quickly, yet still allows adjustments for quite a while after applying.

I went to the Charity Islands in Saginaw Bay with a friend who never got beyond Zebco 33's. We were fishing a nice rocky drop, the deep water about 10-12 feet, and I was fishing tubes. He put on a yellow jitterbug with a metal leader plus enough split shots to take it down, . . . and almost immediately caught a nice smallmouth.

I favor putting your best unit at the helm where you can use it to scan for the right structure and fish while travelling with the big motor. Since most of the time I'm in front I'm standing, I cannot see the detail anyway. The front unit, for the most part, is for water depth and "gross" structure" changes. Which would mean that the transducer for your best unit will be at the back and the transducer for the front unit will be mounted to the trolling motor head. That's not God's word, so it may be imperfect. Just give it a lot of thought before drilling holes.

When you like a spot, whether on spot lock or not, enter a waypoint into your independent GPS unit.

Never mind . :-) Nice that you got out so easily. I just finished a long reply, glad you don't need it.

My only suggestion is to line the second outfit with 15 pound braid + 15-20 pound FC leader. And take some extra line to handle any serious issues with the lines.

I feel that life is too short to waste time trying to find the right FC, or even using FC as a line. Too many disadvantages. So I only use it for leader, and prefer the saltwater hard leader material. Many have made it work, but not I.

I think many will be surprised if they use a scale to see what drag they are using. I would be surprised if mine is over about 4-5 pounds on 20 pound braid.