Russ E

not sure how motor guide works, but minn kota has a boat scale offset setting. each motor is deisgned for a certain boat weight. the boat scale setting allows you to fine tune the motor for your particular boat. this helps calm down the search in spotlock. generally, if the motor is moving the boat too much you turn down the offset. if it is having trouble holding position you turn up the offset

Fluorocarbon

you can , but you run a greater risk of hitting things.

it will fit. there is a height adjustment ring you can adjust. the extra length will be sitting above the motor mount. problem is if you currently have a 36 inch shaft and are going to a 48 inch shaft there will be quite a bit sticking above the mount and getting in the way. it will also have a different hole mounting pattern.

a friend has panoptix on his boat. it works well for pinpointing fish, but it does not tell you what species is there. It also will not make them bite. I have seen a lot of guys spend more time watching the panoptix screen, than fishing. It is also extremely expensive. I personally don't have it on my boat. I use hummingbird mega imaging. If setup correctly you can get a good picture of the structure and where the fish are, on that structure. I will make a pass by an area I want to fish. Once I get a mental image of the area, I go back and fish it. I don't like constantly watching a screen while fishing.

Did both rods have the same line? Line type has a lot of bearing on sensitivity. I own 4 dobyns fury rods and 4 mojo bass rods. The Dobyns rods are all more sensitive than the st Croix mojo bass rods.

I have a dobyns 733. same power as the 663. just longer. I use this for light texas rigs. I also have a mojo 7ft 3 in medium/fast Mojo bass. I mainly use this for weightless flukes and senkos. the actions of the Medium st croix and medium heavy Dobyns are very similar. The mojo is a litlle tip heavy compared to the Dobyns. The Dobyns seems more sensitive, but that may be because the dobyns is balanced a little better. If you want a true medium heavy Dobyns, the 664 would be better. I have a 734. that is used for heavier texas rigs and jigs. just for reference on Dobyns rods the first 2 numbers are the rod length. The last number is the rods power. a 734 is a 7 foot 3 inch 4 power rod .

Sniper is pretty forgiving, compared to most other fluorocarbon lines. Personally I would not use a Palomar or improved clinch knot with any fluoro line. For me the best knot is the double San Diego jam knot. Very strong with good flourocarbon line. It is also called the pitzen, or Shaw Grimsby knot Wow!!. Did not notice the typo when posting. Not sure how to tie the Shaw Grimsby knot. I can however tie the Shaw Grigsby knot.

You need a switch. If you are using 2 identical transducers. My boat has 2 transducers without a switch, but they are doing different things. One is a shoot thru hull for 2d and depth. The other is on the transom for side and down imaging. This is pretty common on fiberglass boats. If I unhook the shoot thru there is no depth reading. If I unhook the transom there is no imaging. It takes a special cable but it works. The reason for the shoot thru hull is to still get depth readings while on plane. On a 16 foot boat I would just use the transom transducer all of the time? Why mess with 2 transducers?

unfortunately it is not just Minn Kota. A lot of companies are having issues at the moment. I recently had an issue with a new hummingbird. I sat on hold for over an hours before a tech answered. Once the tech answered, it was obvious he knew nothing about my unit, after getting put on hold 2 more times, I hungup I went to the Cabelas boat shop, where I bought the unit, they found the issue fairly quick. In the past Minn Kota and Hummingbird answered right away and resolved the issue quickly.

a blade bait works great for whites. 99% of the time i am fishing for largemouth or smallmouth. the exception is when the black bass are not cooperating during the dog days of summer. I will tie on a blade and chase the white bass and wipers around old roadbeds on a couple local reservoirs. there are many days when you can catch a fish every cast. the great thing about blade baits is you can jig them in deep water or cast them in shallow water. As a bonus white bass make excellent fish tacos.

There are a few big fish out there, but they are finicky. It seems you found something to get their interest. I spent a few hours at Olathe today. It was pretty slow. Water only had 1 foot of visibility. And the fish were not up shallow. Ended up with 8 dinks for the day.

bought mine 3 years ago at the local Cabelas, 2 weeks after I purchased it, my ultrex went bonkers on spotlock and overtavelled. it broke the steering cable and the pedal went limp. it was fixed within a week. Cabelas replaced the cable and a sensor on the head and It has worked fine ever since. Haven't heard of many problems lately. Most online posts I have seen with Ultrex issues, are over 2 years old. The first year it came out was hit and miss. if you have a cabelas close by, most of their boat shops are Minn Kota warranty repair shops. Like @Ski213 mentioned, I would try to take it back to where you purchased it for an exchange.

For worm and jig fishing I use straight fluoro. Personally don't like leaders for baitcasters. I use leaders for spinning finesse setups, but run straight fluoro for worm/jig fishing with baitcasters. I agree with @Teal Trokar worms are garbage. Make a nasty hole that gives the fish much more chance to throw the bait. Pickup some good mustad or gamakatsu hooks. You will lose less fish. must be summer. worms on the brain.. trokar hooks not worms.?

are you sure your tester is accurate. if your starting battery was at 10.63. the electronics would not work and the outboard would not start.

I agree. Always be aware of what gives you success. Looking back through my 40+ years of bass fishing i have never stopped learning. Every fishing excursion, successful or not, I gain a little more experience.

That is a fairly standad purple curly tail worm. berkley power worm, zoom utail worm, culprit worm, and Yum ribbon tail, are just a few that are real similar. they all come is some form of purple.

I agree with @NHBull. it depends on the state. Kansas is a castle doctrine and stand your ground state. you can also open or conceal carry with no permit. If you are going to carry, it is a good idea to know your states laws. here is a link that spells it out pretty clear. In Kansas. https://ag.ks.gov/docs/documents/self-defense-statutes.pdf?sfvrsn=516a2f2b_4#:~:text=(a) A person who is,of the Kansas Statute Annotated

Zoom trick worm. Zoom utail worm. Zoom ol monster .Zoom super fluke. Zman trd

turn mine on when I launch. shut them off when I trailer. Don't know many people that shut them off while on the water. in 30 years of having hummingbirds with a trolling motor mounted transducer. I have never had one go out. Actually I have had 3 break, but that is from smacking them on rocks or trees.

^^^ This. I do put a drop of super glue on the bait before sliding it on the keeper. The bait will slide off of the nedlockz keeper after a few fish. The hooks are much better than the standard shroomz.

I own 3 2500d-xh excelers. they are nice reels for the price. in regards to breaking a carbon frame, I don't think you can set the drag tight enough to put that kind of strain on it. max drag setting is 22 pounds. I caught a 15 pound flathead on one, while bass fishing. it handled it easily.

A mojo rig weight is basically an inline spinner body. add a top brass rubber weight peg and you are set.

If you want to catch a big fish, target flathead or blue catfish. they get much bigger. With any luck, here in the midwest carp may become rare. according to some biologists, KOI herpes may be spreading across the midwest. Killing carp along the way. Fortunately it does not seem to hurt any fish besides carp.. Carp are a destructive invasive species that does a lot of damage to our waters.

I have all colors, but bone and loon are used 99% of the time. the others are just hanging out in tackle storage. bone is used when the sun is out. loon is used when overcast.