dizzy5868

What ever you do mount it on a ram mount. It will help protect it from vibration and hard bow hits.

Trolling motor- Minn Kota Maxxum hands down! GPS- Lowrance H2o, great unit and easy to use. Depth finder- Go with an Eagle. the 480 is an awsome unit. Unless your fishing in water over 100' deep you really don't need anything more expensive. This has great graphics. Check some earlier posts about this. Lowrance is too expensive for basiclly the same product. I would stay away from a combo unit gps/depth. if the unit craps out you lost both.

signed and confirmed! Glad to help out.

45 degrees isn't really cold for smallies. You can always find them shallow even in the lower 30's. It all depends on conditions and food supply. If this temp is your winter temp than I would start deep and work shallow. Large groups of smallies will school up in the winter and suspend deep off of drops. I only fish from a boat so thats makes it easy. Shore fishing is another story.

As a general rule your right, however don't rule out the gradual drops, especially long tapering points that are gravel or rock. These areas are awsome when wind blown. Smallies will move all over the lake following the food. Certains hold fish at certain times, each lake is different, you just have to put a pattern together.

If your looking for them this time of year I would start out around any steep drop offs and look for suspended fish. More than likely they will be the smallies. Note the depth they are at and look for that depth in the lake with any type of rock. 1/4-1/2 ounce silver kastmaster spoon fished vertical is the ticket. Rip and drop you'll find them. One other thing I'd keep 2 more rods rigged the same way becasue once you hook one, it usaully starts a frenzy. Rob

Ya maybe I did misunderstand. I do get the same effect that you get . When they start feeding heavy, they eat anything that looks like a crawfish.

The Susquehanna River near Wilkes Barre Pa. Best all aound smallie ever. Trophies in the 5lb range are not uncommon but 3-4 lb fish you can catch pretty consistantly. When the water is above 50 degrees, if you ain't puttin 30 fish a man in the boat a day, you ain't fishin. Rob

Lehighton is about 90 minutes from me. Late Sept on the Suskie ;D Woo Hoo! I just have my wife deliver supper to the launch.

Crawfish are the smallies main food staple. You would get even better results if you did a little checking on the bank. Flip some rocks and see what color the crawfish are, take one and lay it next to your tubes and match the color and size. Also look at the claws for tinting, orange, red, blue and dip the tip of the skirt to match. You will increase your catch rate two fold. I do this at every tournament and it pays off. the water will you what you need just trust it. Rob

Need Info. If there are smallies we can find them! They can run but not hide.

Ya I think we can handle this. That just ain't right, only one smallie. Man are you missing out. You got an open invite to the Susky, just drop me a line, maybe we can make it a trio here in NEPA. We can hookup shallow or deep. Anytime from april to november I can guarantee you a 30 fish day. If the bite is on in the fall you'll be looking at 50-100 easy with lots of 3-4lbers. Rob

just remove the head cover and look for the bolt that goes through the shaft and head. Remove the bolt, rotate the head and reinstall. They are setup for it from the factory. Just make sure you don't twist the wires to much. I have done this to many motors. Rob

In my opinion, line size should'nt matter to the fish. I use braid, fusion or 10 lb mono on my spinning reels and 20lb mono on my baitcasters. In clear lakes I agree with a more invisable line however there is a huge difference between lake smallies and river smallies, mostly in the way they feed. Most anglers that fish rivers don't even realize this. In a lake the smallie will hit the bait and and then hit again and you set the hook(most times). In a river you will usually just get one tap, the reason for this is in a lake the fish will "kill" or injure the prey first and then come back and scoop it up. In a river they have moving water which means they only get one shot at it. If they kill it first it might drift away into another fish. Of course this really only applies to crawfish type baits. I would also say that in rivers the fish are more aggressive and less spooky. Of course this is just my opinion. Rob

It all comes down to personal preference. I myself prefer Eagle, I think their graphics are better. I had bought a Humm, 565 and was very disapointed. I now own only Eagle.

Forget the power drive, You'll be replacing footswitches in on season. The plastic circuit board dries out and cracks. This is one of Minn Kotas major screw ups. Stay with their cable drive.

This was not on a tracker it was a 16' jon boat. I said similair. The motor has power tirm which helps greatly. The motor is a neptune and was designed to push a pontoon boat. 130lbs at 24 volts is a lot of torque. Once you get moving just trim it up a bit and it acts just like an outboard. I was almost keeping up with guys running 9.9's At least they were'nt blowing me away anyway. Hey it was just an option for you.

1994 Ford F150 4X4 V8 1989 Tracker FS1800 w/ Merc XR4 150 6 batteries.

Ryan, Why don't you consider a larger trolling motor. I have one for sale that was meant for what you are doing. It's a 130 lb thrust. PM me I'll fill you in. I had it on a boat similair to yours. Your killing yourself with all the weight of those batteries. This one runs on just 2 or 4 and you will get more speed this way. I was getting at least 8-9 mph on mine with a full touny load. Rob

Heres a boat I think tops them all. http://www.phantomjetboat.com/ Check out this setup. I ordered their free dvd and I can't believe what this boat can do. You can run on wet rocks. Rob

I met Ike at a seminar 2 years ago and it sounds he is the same person today. Really great guy to talk to. Many people think he is obnoxious but I think thats just his way or technique to get siked for a tourny. Thanks For the update.

There were alot of good points hit on in the previous posts, I would have to agree with most. However saying "who's the best" is question that cannot be answered. It's like asking who is the best guitar player or best singer of all time. Each person could be the best in a specific area, You can't say Eddie Van halen is better than Roy Clark, Two completely different styles. I don't think we will ever know who is really the best, we can only speculate and choose our favorites. As for myself, I think the guy that can consistantly put a limit in the livewell, no matter what the conditions or where they are is the better angler. Fishing is the most mentally challenging sport in the wolrd. There are no other sports that have as many variables and conditions. My first choice for the most versitle angler would have to be KVD. He just seems to put it together. The angler with the most determination would go to Ike. I met both of them and I have to say the are a credit to bass fisherman everywhere, They held up a seminar just to sit around with us and talk shop, no rushing the discussion or I have to go, The stayed until they answered all of our questions. After saying that, I think that also has play into the decision. Sharing the wealth of knowledge and helping out other anglers, kinda the say way we do here. Just my 2 cents. Rob

I had a boat like that once and did the same thing. Try cutting a piece of 3/4 plywood to fit in the front of the boat and just set it in across the seats. Take it out and test it. It would probably be ok on small lakes, but it's not going to be a very stable boat.

I would have to agree with Striperone, Not only dropping them but unplugging them that much puts a lot of needless on the wire connectors and the pins can be be bent very easy on the head unit. The neoprene covers from Cabelas will keep any stones or debris from hitting the screen, besides if your graph is mounted facing your tow vehicle your just begging for it to take a stone. Put the cover on and fold the unit face down.

About removing your electronics while trailering. Somehow I think they take a bigger beating on rough water. If someones trailer is riding that hard, they have a problem. Rob