Russ E

I live out on the edge of Kansas City Ks. People literally dump their pets out here on a daily basis. Every week we see new cats wandering around. They are usually not here very long. We have so many coyote, I think they keep them under control. 2 of my neighbors pets have been attacked by coyotes. Plus even though we live in the city limits, the crack of a 22 is a fairly common sound.

This. Sunline has a small diameter compared to a lot of other lines. I actually use 18 or 20 lb sunline for pitching. 20 pound is still only .37 mm. In diameter and it is very strong and abrasion resistant. I am not a big fan of braid to leader for pitching in cover. Around here zebra mussels cut braid like it is sewing thread.

Our local lake gets pretty entertaining at the ramp. My favorite time was 2 years ago. I may have mentioned this in an older thread, but I will repeat it here. A couple osprey were nesting nearby and people were coming out to film them. On this morning I pulled up to launch the boat and an SUV was parked sideways blocking all 3 lanes. When I walked up to ask what was going on a lady was filming an osprey eating a drum at the end of the ramp. I asked the lady to move so I could get by. Her answer was"not until the osprey leaves". I said ok, and walked down the ramp to scare the bird away. She called me several unfriendly names and left. I smiled and waved. Problem solved.

6 foot to 7 foot it depends on how tall you are. I am 6ft. 1in. A 6ft 10 inch works perfectly for me.

It is all personal preference. I have cheaper setups and expensive combos. They all catch fish. In general I use the cheaper combos for horizontal baits. The expensive combos for bottom contact. I will say that my higher end equipment is much more comfortable to use on a long day of fishing. Much better balance and sensitivity.

A small 55 acre lake close to a metropolitan area, probably gets a lot of fishing pressure. A small fish finder would be your friend. This time of year a good portion of the fish are probably offshore. Especially on a clearwater lake. If you can't get a fish finder try to find a top map. I was fishing a clear 100 acre lake yesterday. Could not get a bite near shore. I drove around the lake watching the fish finder. Nearly every fish in the lake was in 10 to 15 foot of water. I started dragging a worm on points around 10 foot deep. Caught 54 bass in 4 hours. Including a few nice ones.

Boat speedometers are highly inaccurate and finicky. I don't pay much attention to mine. I rely on the GPS based speedometer on my fishfinder.

The way I approach a big expanse of heavy cover, Whether it is weeds or flooded timber, is to initially ignore the cover and look at the bottom contour. Generally the fish will hang around contour changes. Find those areas, then fish the cover around it. As @Buzzbaiter mentioned I also look for Baitfish activity in the area.

There is no absolute rule. The main thing is keep it low enough, so it does not blowout, when running the motor As a starting point the top of the motor should be about 12 inches below surface. I move it around depending on conditions. If I am fishing in shallow water, I move it up to to avoid snags and bottom. You just don't want go too high or it will blowout. If I am in rough water I move it down. to keep it in the water

My combos cover the spectrum with prices. Most of the combos I use for horizontal baits are in the$150.00 to $300.00 range. Most combos I use for bottom contact and vertical presentations are in the $400.00 to $500.00 range. I am not unhappy using the cheaper rods and reels. The extra sensitivity, balance, and reduced weight of higher end gear is a lot more pleasurable to fish with.

The heat of summer is my favorite time to fish. once Iacclimate to the heat, it produces the biggest fish of the year for me. I take 3 basic approaches on hot calm bluebird days. First is skipping a frog into shady areas. Second is dragging a big worm or swivelhead jig along weed edges or ledges. Third in clear water I slowly swim glidebaits around docks or weed edges. this can produce some of the biggest bites of the year. It seems to work best in the middle of the day. it can be nerve racking, because often times big bass will follow without biting.

A canoe would have ended up in the next county last friday. It blew over my air conditioner condenser and tore up my shingles.

Should not matter. My lakemaster cards are gen 2 and 6 years old. They both work in my newer gen 3 units.

Personally if you bought it at academy, I would take it back and get an 8.1to1 diawa fuego. Academy has the fuego for $99.99.. The 8.1 to 1 is still plenty fast. You will be much happier a year from now.

Kast King uses fancy names and high speed to sell subpar equipment. They are very inconsistent. Some work great. Some are lemons. I took the bait and bought a few rods and reels. Hopefully you got lucky and get a good one. I had the same problems as @Bluebasser86. Plus I had three speed demon pro rods break mysteriously. I now have no kast king equipment in my boat. There are much more consistent brands out there.

what Kind of gloves are you wearing? velvet? Lace? I wear these. Never had anyone think they looked feminine I wear gloves and a wide brim hat. I own several buffs and have never worn one more than 10 minutes they drive me nuts

my old jon boat did that if the outboard was not in the water. my current bass boat does not do it at all . a lot of it depends on the boat. if there is no weight on the back, wind will push it around a lot more.

I only put fluoro on casting reels. Spinning reels get braid with leader or straight mono. Fluorocarcarbon line generally has too much memory for spinning reels in my opinion.

I have two Bucoo rods. Their rod ratings are similar to Dobyns, but in my opinion softer. One is a 7 foot med light fast action spinning rod. it is more light than med/lt. and closer to moderate action the other is a heavy/fast 7ft 3in casting rod. It is somewhere between medium and medium/heavy. with a moderate fast action

I worked in the automotive industry as a controls engineer for 30 years. I was able to retire 5 years ago at the age of 53. I get together with my former coworkers occasionally. Beyond that I do not miss the stress of that job. for the last 5 years I have been spending most of the time taking care of my handicapped wife and fishing every chance I get. Life is pretty good.

Everything with humminbird is elusive right now. My new helix and and mega 360 has been on backorder for 2 months.

I have rolled over several stumps and tree tops with my fiberglass ranger. there is not even a scratch on the bottom. if you hit something hard I am sure it would not be good. fiberglass is expensive to fix. I hit a stump with my previous crestliner aluminum boat and cracked a weld. it had to be welded, but did not cost much.

Reman means remanufactured. First thing I would ask is why they had to rebuild a 2016 motor. If they just rebuilt the powerhead any wear and tear on the rest of the motor and gear train will still be there. I have a 2017 115 pro XS. That gets a lot of use, but is still in like new shape. Mercury only has a 3 year warranty. I just extended my warranty for 2 more years. If it is a 2016, there is no more warranty, unless someone bought the extended warranty.

Curious what kind of boat you have that a 115 pro xs will only run 40 to 44 mph. I have a 2017 115 pro xs with a command thrust lower unit. It is turning a 23 pitch tempest prop at 6000 rpm and 49-50 mph. With a very quick hole shot on my Ranger z175 fiberglass boat. It came with a 24 pitch prop. Hole shot was a little slow. Top end was the same but wot was 5600 rpm

I tried it in 12, 14, and 16 pound. Cabelas had it on sale this spring. It seemed ok at first, but after a little use I had strange breakoffs in all three sizes. It was never at the knot.. I will not be buying it again. Going back to sunline sniper.