Wayne P.

I keep a record of numbers of bass caught. As of yesterday, 26 days and 732 bass

You are assuming that those baits were discarded instead of just pulled off the hook by the fish. I have lots of plastic worms taken off the hook by the fish. Yes the baits were removed and the fish was released. The person that caught the fish showed me the baits and told me about it , then sent me the picture the next day.

I was sent this picture of a bass caught at Briery yesterday. It had parts of two Senkos and a swimbait in its gullet that were not the presentation used to catch it that time.

I prefer the 1/4oz size and most of the time I use a Zoom Split Tail trailer. If I want more weight for longer casts and deeper presentation, I use a 4" Lake Fork Live Magic Shad. If I am fishing timber exclusively, I use a twin curly tail grub to reduce hangups.

I fished Briery today. It was tough for me---only caught 29 bass and no big ones. The water temp ranged from 60 to 64 degrees. Yesterday's rain has made the upper end a little more dingy than it was Friday. The cold nights aren't doing the ones wanting to spawn any good. If the weather doesn't get too crazy, the biggest wave of spawners should be happening when you are there.

Some with a single or dual axle trailer with limited space use the wheel jacks for positioning the trailer in the garage.

The Extreme SS is a light weight, fast hull, made for speed. If you can handle its performance you want as low drag from the motor as you can get.

Do yourself and your wallet a favor and purchase from a marine electronics dealer instead of a big box general sporting goods place like BPS. Decide what you want and do a web search for it. You will save several hundred dollars.

Evidently you don't know much about setting up a boat for performance. You are dragging the lower unit too much. The purpose of the jackplate is to RAISE the motor to decrease drag. If your prop is in good shape, the 25" pitch should be the correct one. If your motor is performing as it should, you should get about 70mph WOT

I agree also, I replace all my spring hooks with the center pin style. It makes it a lot faster and easier to rig baits.

I use a 6/0 or 7/0 with the Magnum and sometimes a weighted version of them (swimbait hooks).

RnneB, If you can't get at least an outline of a body of water either with the included background mapping or Navionics, you can make your own using Google Earth. I have about 75 waypoints for a lake that has no digital maps, or paper contour maps available. I did my own outline for a reference for the waypoints. BTW, GPS is not any mapping, that is a separate feature. Mapping is just a background on a Chart Plotter. GPS units work the same with or without any background. additional note: no matter which one of the three Humminbird 597 units you get, they all have Uni-map background mapping which has no lake contours and a high probability there will be no lake outine of your waters. Before you purchase the Navionics software, check their website to see if the waters you are interested in are included. The more recent higher end models have ContourXD background mapping that does have a limited number of waters with contours.

Rig the worm like I do and your hangups will be greatly reduced.

For the two models you have in mind, the Lowance is just Down Scan and the Humminbird has Down Imaging and regular dual frequency sonar. Any imaging units have to be in motion to "draw" the sonar returns so they are basically useless for vertical presentations and sitting still on the water. You want regular sonar for that. Most sonar units I know of come with a mount system of some sort. The Humminbird units have a quick disconnect mount that holds the cables so the display can be removed easily. The Hummibird has a higher resolution display also (640 vertical pixels vs 480 vertical pixels)

5- 1/16 oz maribou jigs

5- Rat-L-Traps

Incoming message that may help. Just saw this

I looked up that model Ranger and you have one of "those" type transoms. Some prefer to use a thru-hull SI transducer under the transom extension. That takes a 1"+ hole through the transom for mounting. You can exchange the supplied transducer through Humminbird's exchange program by calling them. The thru-hull transducer model is XPTH 9 HDSI 180 T and you will still need the shoot-thru 2D transducer for on-plane depth readings. You are waaaayyyyy away from a "Standard" application.

At a minumum, you will need to add a shoot-thru 83/200 kHz transducer (XP 9 20) and a AS SIDB Y cable to connect that and the Side Imaging transducer to the display. You will also need a RAM mount, The unit is too big to just mount on any surface near the console. The RAM model is RAM-D-111U Is the motor on a jackplate?

Noise filter OFF. Never needed to use it. I don't want that interfering with the unit's sensitivity.

I have two of them. The unit comes with everything to install it and use all the functions it has for a "Standard" installation world-wide. The included transducer does all the functions. A high performance fiberglass bass boat with a stepped transom is NOT a "Standard" application. A pontoon boat is not a "Standard" one either. If you do not have a "Standard" application, then there are accessories available to customize it to your craft. Some like to use another mount system with the included gimbal mount such as the RAM mount. Some like to use an aftermarket transducer mount for a more sturdy setup. Some have to use an additional transducer for on-plane depth readings if the performance level and hull style are not suitable for a transom mounted transducer. Some have to use a different Side Imaging transducer due to the hull style and rigging. If you need direct assistance to set it up properly for your craft, email me a picture of your boat so I can see the right side of the transom and motor mount at a level that shows all of the transom including any step/s it may have. purdum43@aol.com

There are only two fish in this school that meet the criteria for a fish symbol. The symbols are blue since they are in the 83 kHz cone and not in the 200 kHz cone of coverage. There are several bass also, I caught two of them (on the right side SI view close to the bottom). This image and the other two are with a bow mounted SI unit and a trolling motor mounted transducer.

I don't use Switchfire Max at all. I get all the information I need (including fish arches) with Switchfire Clear and the default Sensitivity setting. The thermocline is at about 30' in these screen shots.

I saw the mount you have at a Gander Mt. a few days ago that had the rail clamp. You did a good job with that install.

That full view of the sky refers mostly to boats that have a metal canopy or some other overhead structure that blocks radio frequencies. Some think that antenna is a satellite dish, it isn't. The accuracy of the antenna is one of the best features of the units. I and many others get 2' EPE. The display mount looks quite sturdy. I use the ball type RAM mounts. Once you get familiar with that technology and decide you want the same at the bow, you will already have the antenna in the right place for that. It is a great fishing tool as well as a search tool.