Russ E

If your line is twisting, that.usually indicates the whole body is spinning. The tail is all that is supposed to spin. The wp 90 is notorious for spinning if you are reeling fast and have a lot of line in the water. Best way to keep it from spinning is, hold the rod tip up to keep the line off the water. Also slow down a little on the retrieve. You can also check between the tail and body. Make sure the tail is spinning freely.

Catching catfish on artificials in our area is pretty common. on a couple reservoirs here, it is a rare day not to catch a few catfish, while bass fishing. big flatheads love deep diving crankbaits. while I never target cats, a big flathead is a fun bonus catch. Drum on the other hand are a pain in the rear.

I Can't compare with the shimano. I don`t personally own one. Tried one, but they don`t fit my hand.

For that price range ther Diawa fuego is hard to beat. Much better performer than the Royal Legend Elite. I owned 2 royal legend elites. I donated them and replaced them with Diawas.

depending on how big your outboard is, putting both batteries up front might affect getting on plane and top speed.

the SV works well for casting light baits,skipping and pitching. If you want distance the CT will cast farther with heavier baits. I have both reels. i use a CT for jerkbaits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, etc. the fuego is not much different. The SV is used for super flukes, worms, senkos and jigs.

I also own both. If you are throwing lighter baits, the 733 loads a lot better on the cast. It also has better sensitivity with light baits. With the 733 I generally use light or medium guage hooks for Texas rigs. If I want to step up to heavier hooks I will step up to the 734.

Yes. You don't have to slam it in and out of gear, but if you slowly try to ease it in or out of gear it will clunk and grind.

I love the megabass vision 110. It just amazes me that an Academy H2O jerkbait for a little over $6.00 has better hooks.

I would love to fish clear lake someday. Just don't eat any fish from there. It is rated as one of the most mercury poisoned lakes in the world.

when shifting to and from neutral with an outboard, it should be a delibrerate move. slowly going in and out of gear will cause grinding and clunking of the gears.. Also the motor should be near idle speed when dropping it out of gear.

Personally I would not pull that boat with a minivan. transmission and gear train are not designed for towing. front wheel drive could have trouble with traction on boat ramps. lack of trailer brakes with a light towing vehicle is dangerous. I tow a ranger z175 with a chevy colorado. my boat is close in weight to yours. the colorado has a 7000 pound towing capacity, A trailer towing package, with transmission cooler. and puts out 310 horsepower. I also have trailer brakes. I would not want much less to tow my boat. I certainly would not tow it with a minivan.

rumor has it Minn Kota is about to unveil a new shallow water anchor called the raptor. they are supposed to function similar to power poles.

I mainly use 1/2 oz in the haze color. It looks similar to a bluegill. One thing I noticed with this bait, is the bass inhale it. Every fish I have caught with it was hooked deep. The bait is fairly durable. The eyes fall off after a couple fish, but that does not seem to matter. The one drawback of this bait is it hangs up in wood fairly easy. It works well around rock and weeds.

The spool tension on a tatula sv is generally set different than most other baitcasters. If you tighten it down, casting distance suffers. What diawa reccomends is: engage the thumb bar. Then adjust the spool tension so there is a small amount of play in the spool. You do not want it tightened down like on other reels. Generally I run the magnet in the middle or on 10.

the ol monster is a good summer ledge bait on nearly any lake. they are also good for fishing deeper brushpiles. Personally I don't like ewg hooks for worms. I have a much better hookup ratio with standard offset worm hooks. usually 4/0 for the ol monster.

@WRB covered almost everything I was going to post. Only one thing I would add. My previous boat was similar to your setup. It had a 45 pound thrust motor when I bought it used. this worked fine in calm water, but was not enough power in the wind. running it on high most of the time quickly depleted the battery. I stepped up to a 24 volt 70 pound thrust motor and had power to spare. the batteries also lasted much longer. adding an onboard charger also ensured the batteries were always charged correctly.

not sure what my schedule is yet, for next week. if I am going to head out there, I will let you know

in previous years I put it on the right side near the rear of the boat. last year the deputy said they prefer it on the back. It is easier for the marina owner to monitor when you are launching the boat. this is where I put it this year.

I don't fish the ned rig much, but there is always one on deck for backup casts. can't count how many short strikers, scarfed the ned rig on a follow up.

that sucks. Those aluminum boats get hot. On my previous boat, my phone was laying on the bare deck after taking some fish selfies. a couple hours later I tried to pick it up. It was so hot I could not hold it. after it cooled down I noticed it would not turn on. I took it to AT&T to get checked out. they said the circuit boards were fried.

I agree with @Bluebasser86. It can be fun to fish, but the fish are highly educated. I love that lake when the weeds get thick. It is a good lake to fish when other lakes beat you down. I was at La Cygne yesterday. Fished hard all day for 6 fish. Nothing was over 3 pounds. Heading to WYCO, later tomorrow morning. if the rains subside. I need a little confidence booster. Plus living 5 minutes away does not hurt anything

I am assuming the engine report said it had bad compression. On a 2 cycle that often indicates the piston rings are bad. If that is the case it would be a costly engine rebuild. Probably why he dropped the price, so quickly. Personally, I would walk away.

My bow depth finder is on the whole time my boat is in the water. It has a trolling motor mount transducer, so it is in and out of the water multiple times every trip. I have done this for 30 years and not had one issue. Banging the transducer on rocks and stumps is a different story. I have replaced a few because of that.