TOXIC

I agree with Tom. The biggest I ever throw for bass is the 2500 size and I prefer the old WST, Wide Spool Technology that are becoming pretty rare. Anything over a 2500 series overpowers most bass rigs and most of my spinning applications top out at 8lb test. Anything above that and I switch to a baitcaster.

Does not apply to smacking a stump.

This. Your Troller batteries should have nothing else attached to them. All accessories including pumps. finders, lights, livewells, radio, power poles/Talon, etc., are wired through your cranking battery. I suggest you put a separate fuse panel in for those connections and a jump switch just in case you wear out your cranking battery. That is why you want the biggest baddest cranking battery you can afford that has the required MCA's for your specific motor and enough RC to run all of your accessories. I do know some that run 5 batteries on a 36v trolling motor system 3 for the TM 1 for the cranking and 1 for accessories. Normally 4 is enough if you get the right batteries for the job.

I googled the part number and it seems to be fairly common and even sold on Amazon. I would shop by price and check out the ratings on any retailer I considered.

Cabela's farms their rod building out to some major manufacturer, they do not make their own. So.....the big question is who makes their rods? If you can find that out, you will get a good idea on quality. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to fish any of their store brand rods.

That's not an uncommon feature if I'm not mistaken. The castaway skeleton v2 has that grip.

Our Annual Lake St Clair Toadalapalooza is scheduled for May 21-25th. We need some serious warm weather up that way!! "If" we hit it right, we can catch toad smallmouth in all phases....pre-spawn, bedding, and post spawn. When we hit it right it's heaven on earth!! Fisherman's crack!!

The most important thing is to keep your spirits up. I would hope that your new lifestyle will help in the health problems. I will call it quits a year from this June and be totally happy about it. No major health problems and fishing any day I want.

I'm seriously considering joining a majority of my buddys and getting a GPS EPIRB for my PFD. If you go into the river, wind and tide can put you a loooong ways from your boat and rescue. I already switched back to a full vest pfd from the auto inflate style. I just wasn't comfortable with it anymore. Too many instances of non inflates and the lack of neck support in a possible ejection at speed.

Senko time. Use that to get your confidence up and then branch out to other baits.

I have the large size plano box but I have spooled pretty much every method mentioned in this thread including putting the line in a bucket of warm water and no matter how I spool the line, the first consideration is to not over spool, the second is to keep backing on to save on line (I usualy spool up about 2 and a half cast lengths) and the most important thing I do is after I finish spooling, I walk the line off my spool in my yard, diveway or street until I get to the backing and then I re-spool it up using my fingers for tension. No line twist. I will also peel off my line while fishing and changing lures and re-spool it to eliminate line twist. I never use swivels so I do it often.

When I was guiding, I would use the BPS version to troll deep diving redfins for striper. They used to have better drag systems than the palm size. I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe I'll pull them out of retirement and see how the old reels perform dragging a c-rig. Would also work well on an A-rig I would think.

It's amazing how much water can come over the bow when you spear one. All of my bass boat buddies on Lake St Clair carry a spare 1000 gph pump with battery clips just for that scenario. When you gotta get it out FAST!! I've seen TM's, graphs and even consoles ripped out due to spearing waves. Not fun.

Oh, you can bet most of us (I don't) have the Sirrus Weather add on to their graphs and when the alarms start beeping, we start moving. I just follow their lead.

New Yamamoto Cowboy for craw presentation but my go to is the Yamamoto Zako.

Oh how I know. I've had my share of Potomac baptisms. Took a buddy out of Hope Springs and ran down to the Chop (when it was still open to fish from the main river). While in there we noticed the tops of the trees were swinging pretty good and some dark clouds were moving in. We donned our rain gear and started to head out. Once we got out of the channel and into the main river there were true 5 footers (wind against the tide). I had 2 options....beach the boat and wait it out or make the run back down river. My buddy who has fished the Potomac all his life voted to beach the boat but I felt we could make it if I took it slow and tacked the waves properly. We made it back in 3 hours!! Never stuffed any but I had my boat vertical more than once. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got back. My biggest problem isn't with the waves and rough stuff, I've run a lot of big water, it's the never ending flow of big junk that comes down. I've seen docks, 50 foot trees, kitchen appliances, and semi tires still on the rim. Not to mention the 1 million crab pots you have to run around. Hard to beat the fishing though.

Have you ever unhooked a bass and then thrown your pliers in the lake? As for the tubing, go to a pet store or the pet isle in wal-mart and see if you can find some aquarium tubing the same size or whatever size you need.

"If I can find the fish, there's no fewer than 5 lures I can use to catch the fish" ---Gary Klein---- I totally agree.

Goes back to my overused saying..."there is no wrong way to rig a Senko" I have friends who dropshot a 5" Senko on a short tag line with heaver line and weight on the Potomac and do well with it. To me personally a Dropshot is a finesse technique and my preferred bait is a 5" Pro Senko T-Rigged with a 1/4 oz QuickDrop dropshot weight. I have fished that rig in 60 feet of water and 3 feet of water. It's the best "all-around" setup for me. You can adjust for conditions by upping the weight or downsizing the bait (I switch to a Yamamoto Shad Shaped Worm).

More importantly the water temps will take a hit with all of this up and down weather. Quick to cool, slow to warm. Saturday we found 53-55 degree water on the Potomac. Let's see what the snow does to the temps this Saturday.

Both with the emphasis on water temp. They won't spawn when the water is cold, no matter the phase.

Other names for crappie are papermouths, strawberry bass, speckled bass or specks (especially in Michigan), speckled perch, crappie bass, calico bass, (throughout the Middle Atlantic states, and New England), sac-a-lait (in southern Louisiana, lit.

Will do. I don't have a problem sharing info.

What baits were you throwing on each setup? Spinning rod definitely sounds like line twist.

1 week in Wisconsin 28 rods/reels. 1 week on St Clair (not my boat) 10 rigged and 2 backup.