Russ E

I own 2 sv's, 4 ct's, and 2 fuegos. they all get heavy use. the sv is a pretty big step above both of them. In my hands, the ct casts farther and feels smoother on the retreive than the fuego. If that is because of the t-wing and the handle bearings , so be it. I do notice a difference.

I use a fuego for Flukes. It is close to a ct. I actually think my ct's are smoother. Definitely not the same as an sv tatula.

It is pretty easy to pull the line out of the channel of the t-wing, if you are running the line over your finger. The easiest way to tell if this happens is,look at the reel after a long cast. the line will not be level on the reel. it will usually have more on the left side(if you are holding the reel with your left hand). As others have said, I lay my finger on top of the line with a t-wing reel.

bass pro/cabelas has an electronic sale going on starting today and ending tuesday the 18th. It is called the triple crown bonus. it applies to the fish finders. Not sure what else is involved. you get a gift card. triple points if you use their credit card and free installation. I bought a Helix 7 mega si g3/gps at the local cabelas. It cost $699.00 initially. I got a $50.00 gift card and $105.00 in Cabelas points. It will also get installed for free. Installation is normally $220.00. Since I cracked my current helix 7 si/gps, it was going to be relpaced anyway. this just made it cheaper. Plus now I will have mega imaging.?

^^^this. I have an ultrex. Tried out a terrova a couple times, but could not get used to the pedal. An Ultrex works like a cable steer with power assist. You still have feedback in the pedal. I had cable drives for 30 years and never had to watch the motor to see what direction it was pointing. the Ultrex works the same way. You can tell which way it is pointing by the angle of the pedal. With the terrova I had to constantly look at the motor to see what direction it was pointing. I will not own a trolling motor that does not have feedback in the pedal.

I have a helix g2 di GPS and a helix g2 si gps. They both do the same thing with a Navionics card. I had to buy a navionics card for my helix 7 g2., because my lakemaster cards did not map our power plant lakes. Every time I use the navionics card, I have to manually select it to get maps working. On a a helix 7 g2 : 1 go to the chart menu 3: scroll down to map source 4: highlight fish n chips 5: press the right arrow this should get your maps working. my helix and map card are 3 years old, hopefully this helps. I have to do this Every time I power up the helix with navionics. Lakemaster is automatic. hummingbird tech support was no help on this. I called navionics. They gave me this sequence.

All of our local lakes have Zebra mussels. When fishing the bottom, I use Sunline Sniper or Assasin Fluorocarbon line. It tends to slide over the mussels better than most lines, without getting shredded. A good copoly or mono also works fairly well. With any line you have to check for nicks often. from my own experience using braid around zebra mussels is about the same as using sewing thread. It is nearly useless.

spent the day at La Cygne. projected cloudy cold front did not happen it was calm, blue bird skies and got up to 48 degrees. It made fishing tough. caught a few white bass and crappie on a squarebill. This was the only bass of the day . caught it on a jerkbait. It weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces.

I was also disappointed with my last President. It feels cheaply made. Geary and not very smooth. My latest spinning reel Is a Diawa regal LT- 2500XH. I bought it for $59.00 at bass pro. It can probably be found elsewhere cheaper. It is extremely smooth and well balanced. I will be buying another soon.

Every state I have fished, suggests not eating the larger predators because of mercury levels. That usually includes bass, catfish, and the stiper/white bass family. Fish that live a long time usually have the highest levels. I personally have never heard of anyone having health problems from eating fish. I have eaten plenty of large catfish in my life and don't know of any I'll effects. Now I only eat the smaller fish. Not because of mercury, more for conservation of larger fish. As @J Francho stated your local dnr knows more than anyone else on the subject

At times a bass will hit nearly anything that looks alive. The only predatory fish I know of that will regularly hit cut bait is catfish. Bass are primarily sight feeders. They are triggered by something moving, but will occasionally pick up things off the bottom. Catfish find food primarily by smell, but will also bite things that swim by.

Thanks. Don't fish in the dark very often. I never paid much attention, mine probably does too.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I was wondering if your front running lights are on when you have the yolotek powered up. my front lights are built into the boat. I was wondering if leaving them on all day ever runs your battery down?

i have had my go pro hero 3 under water a couple times, but our kansas waters are pretty stained. hard to get much of a picture.

thanks. Not yet. I have only had it a month. Plus the water is cold at the moment. it is supposed to be water proof to 100 foot.

this is with my dragon touch on a cloudy day.

I have a 2 year old go pro hero 3 with a remote control. It works fine, but I wanted a backup. Lat month I bought the dragontouch vista 5 on amazon for 79.99. it is a nice camera for the price. It comes with 2 batteries with charger, a remote control, and a few other accessories. It has all of the features of my go pro.The only thing I wish it had was a recording light on the front, like my go pro. the Dragon touch recording light is on the back. I also use the yolotek mount like @A-Jay

My helix 7 di used to get a hiccup occasionally. The depth would go crazy and the down imaging would look strange. I had to cycle the power to my graph to reset it. 6 months ago i hit a tree with the trolling motor and crushed the transducer. It has never done it with the new transducer

In regards to switching to 24 volt. If you have basic electrical knowledge of parallel vs series circuits it is fairly simple. If not it is best to have someone with that knowledge assisit you. 24 volts will smoke any 12 volt equipment attached to the same circuit and 12 volt will not do a 24 volt trolling motor much good. I am a Minn Kota/ Hummingbird fan. I have a minn kota Ultrex. They pair well with hummingbird graphs. I have a helix 7 down image/ gps graph up front. If you want to stick with a garmin graph, I would consider the Garmin trolling motor. As mentioned above spotlock is a must. Does not matter if you have power poles.

@Crestliner2008 We have both here. every sale lately, was the same at both stores. The main difference was, Bass Pro tends to have a little better selection in the fishing department.

straight out of high school in 1981, my dream was to own a lure company. I did start a company and was fairly successful making and selling spinnerbaits and jigs at fishing shows around Iowa. it did not make enough to live off of, but it did help support my fishing habit. I was also working in a factory to pay the bills. Then i got married and had a family. the lure company died out and the factory job took over. My new dream job was to become a controls engineer at the factory I was working. Not so much for enjoyment, but because I was an electonics/computer nerd and it paid very well. After 5 years of school while working full time in maintenance, that dream came true. After 28 years at that job I retired at 53 years old. Now 4 years into retirement I finally realized this was my true dream job..... If I work it is because I want to, not because I need to. That is a great feeling.

The owner utrahead is a ballhead with an offset eyelet. It also have a flat spot on the head to aid in standing up. Z man makes a floating worm, I beleive it is made of elaztech. Bass pro and zoom both make flaoting worms that look about the same as a trick worm. if a worm has salt it usually sinks. I am usually not all that concerned about a worm standing up when it is sitting still. I am usually slowly dragging, hoppig or shaking the shakyhead. That keeps it standing.

As others have said it depends on the lake. Wind direction is also a big factor. There is one reservoir just west of me that can get 3 to 4 foot rollers with a 10 mph west wind. A 20 mph west wind can make the lake dangerous. In contrast my home lake is sheltered and can easily be fished in 40 to 50 mph gusts. Fortunately there are several lakes and reservoirs in my area. wind and weather is a big factor when chooisng a lake to fish. Like @Bluebasser86 mentioned the wind nearly always blows here. You either learn to deal with it or stay home a lot. When i moved to Kansas 4 years ago, I traded in my mod v bass boat for a fiberglass bass boat. The wind was a big factor in that decision. On another note,when the wind does not blow here, fishing can get tough.

I am a little late to this party. 2019 was not a great big fish year for me. the biggest largemouth was 6 pounds 2 ounces on a shakyhead with a trickworm. the biggest smallmouth was 3 pounds 8 ounces on a berkley drift walker. 2020 seems to be starting off better. On January 20 I caught a 7 pound 6 ounce largemouth on a jerkbait. hopefully a sign of good things to come.

while Lakemaster is my preferred mapping card, there are a couple lakes in my area lakemaster does not cover. for those lakes I have a Navionics card. I have not found a lake yet that Navionics does not map. the problem with navionics is the maps are not as defined as lakemaster, but they are better than no maps.