TOXIC

Just a little story. Was doing a show with a rep from Pure Fishing (Trilene) and he did a little demo. Had a 7ft rod spooled with 12lb mono, walked off about an average cast and held the line with 2 fingers. Told various people to pick up the rod/reel and jerk like they were setting the hook. No one pulled the line out from between his fingers.

Totally depends on what modifications you are going to do to it. If you mean things like adding a casting deck or any mods that add weight, then you have to be careful not to overload the boat or make it top heavy. No Jon does well in rough water so you always have to be cautious.

I can tell you this....over weighting a rod is the most miserable fishing you can do. You lose all sensitivity and to me I feel like I am always trying to play catch up to the lure if that makes any sense. As has been said, I like to keep my lure weights right in the middle of the weight recommendations. The only exception is on heavy rated rods, I will go closer to the max.

Mono is mono to me. The only differences I can easily see are memory and stiffness. Stretch is a non factor. Since you are spooling on a baitcaster, memory will be less of a problem. Personally, I go with Excel from BPS/Cabelas. It's cheap and I change it out on a regular basis. I also keep it treated with a line conditioner.

Very, very important fact. Check out the guide thoroughly. Best way is to ask the local marinas. The marina I guided out of had a "Brag Book" with pictures and dates of guides and their clients fish.

Having been a guide, I was hired a lot to pattern fish before a tournament. I was also hired by folks who were spending a week at the lake and just wanted to know where to go to find fish. In that case, I would take a 1/2 day and fish with them showing locations/baits that work and take the other 1/2 of the day and take them to different spots around the lake that I feel will hold fish. Usually we don't have time to fish during the "tour" part but I would try to give them enough spots to put a pattern together. I've also had clients use a "Shadow Boat" for a reduced price. I have also gotten in their boat. My advise is hire a guide for a day if you've never been there and are going to be there for an extended time. Make sure you tell the guide what you want to accomplish.

Oh, I don't have a problem with people knowing. I have a problem with people spreading innuendo and untrue information about a product. My question to someone who supposedly knows the information would be "And you know this how?"

Normally, how they source their products (that goes for anyone in the fishing industry) is a secret held close to the vest. You will never get anyone with any real knowledge to reveal those type of details. There's so many that claim to have the inside scoop that you get 100 different stories. I would never ask anyone in the manufacturing business to disclose that type of info. It would be bad form.

I'll be fishing with the product development manager for Lews next week and I'll ask him if you want but I think I know what his answer will be.

Honestly......and I am being honest. IMHO You would be better served learning the seasonal habits of the fish you are targeting and the body of water they are on and using some "good" electronics to verify they are there. Electronics are a tool, they are no guarantee. For my style of fishing I am content with older units that give me sidescan, downscan, 2d and GPS. Are you really willing to put out thousands of dollars in electronics to find out they are not the magic boxes you thought they were? I can honestly say I very rarely catch fish that I can actually see on my electronics and I don't have the video game quality optics. I have caught some dropshot fish off my finder and I have caught crappie off my finder when I can see the school. Normally where I fish we are shallow 90% of the time and you can't see squat on the electronics other than to pinpoint when we are in the weeds and depth changes on the bottom. Your electronics will not find the fish for you. You find the fish and your electronics will verify they are there.

Awesome!!

Bait and tackle you're all set. There are very good responses above. Likewise extra emphasis on not making it a bad experience for them. Make it fun whatever you need to do. I had a lot of tricks up my sleeve when clients would show up for a guide trip and have a 5 year old in tow. My daughter on the other hand was as hardcore as they come. At 5 years old I had to drag her out of the boat. Even when we would take my little 2 man PVC boat out. If she got tired, she would crawl under the seat and take a nap but did not want to get off the water. We caught a lot of crappie and then brought them home and she was right alongside me in the garage cleaning them. She still enjoys going to this day,

I have been dropshotting for many, many years and I say that only because I have tried many different setups. I have found that first you have to establish what version of a dropshot you are going to throw most often (which you have). That involves a lot of things like type of water (lake or river), depth of water you fish the most, size of bait, species of fish you are targeting, etc. I have fished differing setups depending on a lot of these factors. There's also a lot to consider on what YOU like to throw, that's why I never give anything more than very general recommendations when it comes to rods and actions. Yes, there are some general "givens" but just in your write up, you lost me when you stated you like braid and a leader. "Personally" this is what I use.....I just set up my dropshot for my annual trip to Lake St Clair (we leave to go up for a week starting this Saturday). I use a 6'6-8" rod medium/fast with 6lb mono. That's because I can be casting or drift fishing with this set up. I can be shallow or deep with up to a 1/4oz dropshot weight (QuickDrop). I can be in grass/cabbage or sandy clear bottom. I too only T-rig my baits (Yamamoto Shad Shape worm or a 5" Pro Senko) on a #1 Gamakatsu EWG hook. It's one of my go to rigs on St Clair.

I have a 21 foot floating tackle box. I can put 28 rods/reels in the front port compartment plus however many more I can lash to the deck. I have spare setups. If I backlash a reel or it breaks or becomes unusable for some reason, I just pull another out of the box. If I were bank fishing, I would swing more to spinning reels because they backlash less and you can always carry a spare spool that is easy to change, lightweight and packable. For baitcasters, you can also carry spare spools but there is more involved with changing out a baitcasting spool. I've seen many a side plate take a dive in the lake never to be seen again.

Great Day!! Yer Killin me Smalls!!

One you won't soon forget!!

It's gonna be a Ford vs Chevy thing in the long run. BTW, a Blade is a Power Pole so you really have only 2 choices. Soon enough someone will pipe up and tell you to get an Ulterx/Ulterra and forget the anchors. These Trolling Motors have a feature called "Spot Lock" and although very handy, it is not the same as having a solid anchoring method in shallow water. Me, I have Power Poles. Reasons, less weight and I would rather trust hydraulics vs electric. Power pole customer service is second to none. Finally, aesthetics. One style or the other will appeal to you more than the other. They both do the job they are designed for.

Correct. Trailers with Brakes. Trailers must be equipped with brakes if they weigh 3,000 lbs or more. All trailers with brakes must have an annual state inspection. The connection between the vehicle and the trailer must consist of a drawbar, trailer hitch, or other similar device. It is not to exceed 15 feet in length.

There are "General" theories to color and then there are "specifics" for example, on the Potomac a lot of colors work but they work better if there's a little red fleck in it. Not to mention there are exceptions to the general rules by location. On Lake St Clair for example, the smallmouth bite better on the darker 297 Senko (Green Pumpkin/Black Fleck) when the sun is out but let it get cloudy and they react better to a lighter 305 (Baby Bass).

Aaaaaahhhhhh Yesssss A-Jayson....but with a good teacher all things are possible!!

Line test is only one consideration. Type and quality of gear is another and finally the skill of the angler also comes into play.

You are using a leader from braid? You are overpowering your leader material and exactly why I don't like leaders. Pressure from fish or hooksets from non-stretch braid to a leader "shocks" the leader material (even more with a shorter leader). I know many like the braid to leader setup but to me, that is not finesse. While changing your knot may help, I would not be surprised if you still break off unless you upsize or lengthen your leader.

A lot of things go into shakeyhead fishing and the weights used. I need the 1/4 oz for depth and current but will use the lightest I can. I use a lot of the Spotsticker Pro heads and they have a flat side to stand the bait up. In order for that feature to work, I have to have pretty solid contact with the bottom. I don't like tungsten for shakeyheads because I get too much feedback from the bottom. I want the bottom feel to be "soft" if that makes sense. I then can tell the difference between the bottom and a bite much easier. Now ball head shakeyheads are different. I go very light with those. I stumbled on that while in Wisconsin one year in the heat of summer and I couldn't get bit. I grabbed a ball head shakeyhead that I swear the hook was heavier than the ball head with a screwlock. I tore them up with that rig and have used them ever since. I also have some football head shakeyheads that I use if I am in a lot of rocks. So you see, shakeyheads as a technique have a LOT of variables.

I use a spooling box and all of my line comes off the bottom of the spool to the reel. After I spool up I ALWAYS walk the line off the spool in the street or yard and respool it with tension from my fingers. You know that you at least started out with line that is not twisted. If it feeds off in loops when you make your first couple of casts, then you overfilled your spool. I try to spool up with about 1/16th of the lip of the spool visible. The best you can do if you overfilled is to reel it in with some heavy pressure from your fingers to try and compress it on the spool as much as possible. If you get twist after using a lure for a while, just feed it out behind the boat or walk it off on the bank and respool. This is with Mono. I only have braid on 1 spinning rig and it's for flipping and pitching to beds with no leader.

I will add to my comment earlier that I drastically shorten the leader in rocks and tend to keep the bait moving more. What I have found that really helps is to use a quality dropshot weight. I use QuickDrop teardrop weights and have gone a full week on Lake St Clair dropshotting and never lost a weight whereas before using cheap Bass Pro cylinder weights, I have gone through boxes of them. It does matter.