tkunk

Focusing on things that aren't required by the coast guard, I can attest that jumper cables and a bilge pump with alligator clips can save your boat, and more importantly, your life. An anchor can save your boat if your engine fails and you're getting pushed into a rocky shore by big waves. The key is to get it out there as soon as your worried, so that it has time to bite on something. I also wouldn't go out onto big water without a low-HP kicker engine, because you can always start one of those by hand if everything else fails. And, after 20 minutes or so, it'll charge your cranking battery enough to get your big engine started. Better yet, devote one of your batteries to cranking only, and keep the kicker in case your big engine has a mechanical problem.

I have gen 3 Lowrances, and I've noticed the same issue as the OP. I'll mark an isolated boulder or crib in ~20 fow on side imaging, but when I try to find it using down imaging, it's often not where the mark is (but it's usually pretty close). I figured the issue was that waves/wind were messing with my speed and position, which would prevent the system from providing an accurate estimate of the boulder's position relative to the transducer when I made the mark. I've found that marking stuff on calm days while moving in a constant speed in a straight line helps quite a bit. With an antenna, is it realistic to expect to be able to mark a boulder on side imaging and be able drive over it on down imaging?

I've seen some big name guys trolling before tournaments in order to find fish. I find it boring, but IMO it's the best way to find pelagic bass. If the bass are eating things with swim bladders, I'll troll a swimbait at 1-1.5 MPH. The bait should hit the bottom once in awhile. If the bass are on crawdads or gobies, I'll troll a tube at 0.8 MPH. The tube has to constantly be on the bottom. The percentage of time you want the lure to contact the bottom should dictate the amount of line you let out. I always hold the rod in my hand, because I only care about getting bit. If I get bit or hook a fish, I drop a waypoint immediately and go back there to fish the spot. One major benefit of trolling is that you can watch your structure scan and find interesting stuff. When I fish a new lake, I'll troll for muskies/pike at 3-8 MPH (because they'll bit a lure moving that fast) and waypoint everything that looks remotely interesting. It's a great way to find cribs, wrecks, trees, boulders, and schools of bait.

IMO, the main things that matter are casting distance and not losing fish, so I use the longest rod I can find and avoid XF action rods. For weights less than 1/4 oz, I use a 7' ML/F spinning rod with 6 lb braid. I'd get a longer rod, but I've never found any long one-piece rod rated for light lures. For weights greater than 1/4 oz, I use an 8' MH/moderate casting rod. Sensitivity matters, too. In my experience, it's rare that a big fish hammers a bait. Most of the time, while I'm retrieving the lure, something just feels different.

I have six of the CI4+ FA reels, one of which is dedicated to drop shotting. The drags are smooth, they cast well, and I've never had any problems with any of them. Not sure about the FB's, but for the FA's the only difference between the 2500 and the 3000 is that the latter can hold more line. If that's still the case, I'd go with the 2500 to save a few cents on the amount of cheap mono backing you use.

I have a bunch of Stradics, and I fish in the rain all the time without any problems.

Where I fish, the good spots are pretty far apart. Plus, I usually fish for smallies, which move around a lot. If weather permits, my plan is always to work my way north until I find fish. I'll typically spend 30 minutes on an area, covering water as fast as I can. I don't see bait or get any bites, I move. I only sit on a spot if I see tons of bait or I'm catching fish. On a bad fishing day with decent weather, I often run 40+ miles on a round trip. I've had plenty of days where the bass were at the last place I checked.

It depends on where you're fishing. I usually fish gin clear water for smallies, and I don't get bit much when I use a leader. A few times, after locating a school of smallies, I've tried using a 30-100 lb wire leader or 100+ lb fluoro leader while my partner's using a 7 lb fluoro leader, and he's consistently outfished me 5:1. Mostly, I was using swimbaits, so the leader wasn't messing with the lure's action. I'd really like leaders to work, because I'd avoid pike bite-offs and save tons of money, but they never have. On the other hand, I've spent a couple of weeks fishing Okeechobee, where I've always tied 65 lb braid direct to my lures, and I've caught tons of fish.

I lose many, many lures to pike. Last week, I lost 15 swim bait heads in one trip. I've tried using steel and heavy fluoro leaders, and I can say for sure that bass don't like them. I fish gin clear waters, though. The only solution I've found is to cover the area I want to fish with swim baits before I switch to jerk baits, because swim baits are cheap, and I don't care too much if I lose them. I also sometimes troll HJ 12's, which pike love, through an area before throwing the expensive stuff. The idea is to catch all the aggressive pike first. I'd love to hear of a better idea.

Thanks, guys. The boat's in storage for the winter, so I can't take any pictures. It's a Skeeter WX2190. I've attached the best picture I could find. The seats have a dark, hard plastic base.

In the past year, I've broken three boat seats. The manufacturer warranty has covered all of them, but that'll end in about a year. The hard plastic bottom splits in half near the back of the seat, at which point it basically becomes a recliner with no back support. I'm a big guy, I fish very rough conditions, and I make long runs, so my seats take a beating. I'm wondering whether something like a Smooth Moves seat will prevent breakage. It's about the same price as a new boat seat, so I don't think I have much to lose from trying it. Is there anything better (besides staying home on windy days)?

I normally use 2-10 lb braid for bass on spinning gear. If you always [1] close your bail by hand and [2] make sure your line isn't crossing the face of your spool before you cast, you'll never get a wind knot. Often [1] prevents you from having to do [2] but not always.

I musky fish with 80 lb braid. All my reels have 20+ lbs of drag, and I always crank the drag down about as tight as I can. On the rare occasion that I get bit, I horse them back as fast as I can. I doubt that I've ever had a fight that lasted more than a minute. My main goal is to get the fish back in the water ASAP after I first set the hook. For bass, if you're using strong hooks, and your rod is rated for heavy braid, you should be fine. But there's a trade-off. In open water, I think you catch more fish if you play them, because you can avoid losing them when you skin-hook them, which happens often with light-wire hooks. After I set the hook on a big smallie, I loosen the drag considerably. On the other hand, if you're in heavy cover, you probably want to get the fish in as fast as possible, so it doesn't get stuck on something.

I use the Alberto on any braid that's 8 lb test or heavier, mainly because it's easy to tie. In my experience, the FG knot works much better for lighter braid.

1. When you're driving around looking for bait fish on your sonar, you're really sampling water. If you see a big school of bait fish on your graph, chances are good that there are many more schools around that aren't in your cone. Maybe you get unlucky and happen to sample a big school that's just passing through an area, but that's seldom what happens in my experience. 2. If I see a big blob of bait fish, I drop a waypoint and immediately start fishing. Note that when you're moving faster, the blobs will appear to be thinner, so you have to make mental adjustments for the speed at which you're traveling. 3. I throw my highest confidence baits, typically in order of fastest retrieve to slowest. If the bass are keyed in on minnows, my favorite thing to do is cast a swimbait out, let it hit bottom, and slow roll it back. With this approach, you're covering the entire water column. If you see bait around, any bass in the area are there to eat, so you know that they're active. 4. I fish big, not-so-fertile lakes, so finding bait fish isn't always easy. Whenever I do, I will cruise around the area and cast until I stop marking anything.

Zaldain won a tournament on one of the lakes I fish, and I recognized the spots he was fishing. I can attest that he likes to fish in areas where there are lots of different depths and types of structure. The really surprising thing is that he found many of the good, bouldery spots, which took me months to find. Where I fish, you can have dozens of pieces of structure in a 5 square mile area that look very similar, but only a few will have big boulders on it.

On my first cast with a new Metanium, I cast out practically my entire spool (and ended up getting bit by a nice salmon near the end of my cast). Casting distance matters a lot where I fish, so I ordered another one the next day.

I don't think anyone's mentioned casting distance. On a slick calm day, when bass are shallow and wary, I'll only throw lures that I can absolutely bomb. If I can't cast out more than 75% of my spool with a lure, I won't use it. I see guys trying to sight fish bass with drop shots, senkos, and other finesse lures, and they don't have a lot of success. I have much better luck with swimbaits, jerkbaits, and tubes. The lightest lure I'll throw is 1/4 oz. Retrieving baits much faster than normal seems to help, too. Of course, if you absolutely want to clean up, live bait is pretty awesome.

Congrats. Mind if I ask what you were doing in 80 FOW while fishing for smallies? Did you see birds? Were you cruising with your big engine on, looking for bait/marks?

I typically use a ML/F rod for hair jigs, light swim baits, and light jerk baits. I also use a ML/XF rod for light, shallow finesse applications. I've caught tons 5+ lb smallies with these rods. I've also caught a bunch of 10+ lb sheepshead, some big pike, and a 45" musky with them. I wouldn't use anything else for light baits, because casting distance is so important. The only exception is if I'm fishing near structure, where I might need to horse a fish away from a chain, branch, or something like that.

It happens around Lake Michigan too. It's really important to consider the baitfish. If shad is the primary food source, you know that shad will move shallow in Fall, and smallies will follow them, so they'll be easy to catch. If, on the other hand, something that has no reason to concentrate in a particular area is the primary food source, you're kind of screwed, because there's so much water to cover.

Something is definitely wrong, and I'm nearly certain it has nothing to do with your ability to interpret the screen. You should be able to clearly see big stumps and boulders with side imaging. Hopefully, your settings are just messed up, because then it's an easy fix. Typically, the default side-imaging sensitivity is set way too high. Try setting yours lower. Also, be aware have to manually adjust sensitivity for different depths.

If budget weren't an issue, I'd recommend a Revo Toro Beast or NACL. They're low profile, hold tons of line, and have high IPT ratings, despite having low gear ratios. I got both of mine on sale, but they were around $300 each.

It's hard to find a decent musky reel for under $300. I have the curado 300e, and it's a good reel. The main problem with it, though, is that doesn't have much line capacity. If you use 80 lb braid, you'll be able to cast out your entire spool with heavy lures.

Thanks for the response, Way2slow. Much appreciated. The batteries are connected in parallel. The 20% less run time figure helps a lot. I'll invest in the voltmeter and hydrometer.