Junger

If it's more than $40-50 to ship back, you may want to consider buying a cheapo Amazon one.

Like everyone said, get the biggest boat/engine in your budget if you have no storage restraints. I bought my boat off the lot. There was a 1 year+ wait if I wanted to order the boat with features I would have liked, but I wasn't going to wait. I wish my boat had a padded deck, a Seadek type material over carpet, a galvanized custom trailer, and some other minor aesthetics. So, if you time, consider ordering a boat to your specs rather than buying off the lot. As for boat, of course I'll advocate for the Lund PVB...go 2075 with a 250HP Merc ProXS. I come through shallow grass pretty easy, but also handle 2' chop pretty easy. But if I had no storage restaints, I'd probably look at the Xpress 23B center console.

If you have a HB console unit networked with a networked MK trolling motor, you can use the "go to waypoint" feature and spotlock on it.

I think the Quests are supposed to work with Lowrance and Garmin with CHIRP: https://minnkota.johnsonoutdoors.com/us/support/compatibility/dual-spectrum-chirp I was debating going with a Garmin livescope unit at the bow with the Ultrex Quest, but ultimately decided to just wait for the next generation of MegaLive.

@DitchPanda When are you going to start the "favorite bourbon in the $1000-$5000 range". For ~$50, I'll take John J Bowman SiB all day.

If you have expensive fish grippers, you'll want to put a small buoy tie on it, and maybe even consider putting some pool floats on your rods just in case...

The whizzing sound gets annoying after a couple seasons. I find the MGL spool is just a better all around spool than the DC braking system/spool. I have 2 DC reels sitting in a box, I bring them out for my kids when they power fish with me.

Good price on this unit, I just got it a couple months ago and it's a solid unit, generates less heat than my QuadPro SS4. https://a.co/d/aQCFJlL

I read the horror stories of neighbor battles and I would never want to be in that situation. I'm pretty friendly with most of my neighbors, but for one family that keeps to themselves. We walk our dog up and down the street and she liked to pee on their lawn by the curb. We received an email from them with pictures of their Ring camera asking if that was us walking our dog, which it clearly was and if we could not let our dog pee on "their" lawn. I could have responded that the first 6' is county owned right of way, but didn't want to incite any disagreements over something trivial. On the other hand, I called my other neighbor and asked if I could trim some branches that were overhanging on one side of my house where squirrels were using to get to my roof and gnawing on the gutters. A couple days later, I see a tree company trimming back all the branches to his property line, he took care of it.

Yep, min 40lb, I use suffix 832.

A weightless fluke with a big glass bead in front of the hook eye to deflect off the stalks. When it hits water, dangle/jig it, and go slow. The vibrations in the water, and on the spatterdock themselves will attract fish to it.

Love my dual purpose Florida Lithium starter battery, I just did a long weekend, fishing everyday from 7/3-7/7 in some god awful heat and the battery cranked my Merc200HP and ran all my electronics fine all day without issue.

Some of the man made lakes around me prohibit any kind of water vessel, and the signs are sporadic and not easy to spot. The reason is that there's no access for first responders in case of an emergency. It's only hiking trails to them. Easiest thing to do is check with your local DNR office, also check the body of water on a weekend and see if anyone else is fishing it on a water vessel.

Drop and drain 2x if you want to get as much old fluid out as possible.

That’s what I did with my Lithiums. The M8 bolts are pretty short so you can’t fit more than maybe 2, 3 lugs max. I ended up terminating them from the batteries to a bus bar.

Also don’t run your TM at max speed for long periods of time. The Li battery will provide full voltage for a long period without dropping. You’ll wear out your brushes, potentially melt wiring, and burn out the armature. Happened to me with my Ultrex.

Two time member here.

I enjoy cigars while having a dram and sometimes while fishing. My approach to cigars and whiskey is the same, you're putting something that's not good for you, and may even kill you, into your body, so it better be good. I probably average $15 per cigar. Price doesn't always equate to quality, but with cigars, you mostly get what you pay for. That being said, my line up revolves around: 1) My Father The Judge - this is my regular cigar, it's medium+ bodied to me, and I've had friends, new to cigars smoke it without issues. If you're new to cigars, get the robusto and just take your time, it will be a 60 minute smoke. The last 1/4 will be strong, consider skipping it. 2) Perdomo 30th Connecticut - I actually love the Maduro version of this, it's probably my #1 at the moment, but the Connecticut will be an amazing beginner cigar, I believe this averages around 15 year aged filler, it will be extremely smooth, creamy. 3) Oliva Serie V Melanio - This is a peppery cigar that pairs nicely with a rye. Again, if you're starting out get the robusto or even petite corona. I don't think it's as smooth as the ones above, but it has a lot of leather, wood, and pepper. There are a lot of harder/expensive to get cigars, like Opus X and Rare Pinks, but don't chase those until you've developed your palate for cigars, much like whiskey.

* PDF on in all areas other than no-wake zones * Cigars need to be ashed early and often * No talk of work or politics on the boat * No catfish allowed over the gunwale

Quick hike and stog at Swain's last night. The lock is open and water is coming through real good. Some parts actually have some current. The wider area past the pump house is really mucky though, not duck weed or milfoil, the nasty algae snot clumps. Bring a frog, or weightless trick worm if you wanna fish it. Frog leg sticking out of this 3lber's gullet.

I find they last about 1 fishing season before the coating starts to flake off, I'm on my third pair of Skidaways. But for ~$25, that's fine with me. Better than buying $200 expensive sunglasses and cracking/losing/scratching them in 1 season.

My Helix10 has two slots, maybe try the other slot too if you have it.

@IneedAnewScreenName-98161861 I don't think your HB unit is reading your Navionics card. I just loaded up my unit and here's what I see:

It's about 10lbs heavier, mostly due to the larger mount assembly, but the weight difference wasn't that noticeable when I installed it. The new lift assist makes it seem a lot lighter than the old Ultrex. The Quest mounting bolts are 5/16" instead of 1/4", same bolt pattern, so the existing holes just need to be drilled a little. Mounting washers are 1.5", and MK says 4 mounting bolts is the minimum, I have 5 on the PVB because of how the outter edge of bow is reinforced/constructed. There's no flexing on the PVB, even on speed 10 and turning 90 degrees...almost threw my buddy out of the back doing that.

I’ve had it for 3 weeks. One minor issue is going from Spot Lock to Auto N using the micro remote, sometimes it just searches for a heading rather than just engaging with the current heading. Easy fix is to disengage and re-engage. I reported it and hopefully they’ll update the firmware. Other than that, it comes with a micro remote rather than a full size remote, but all functions can be controlled with the app on your phone. I kind of like the micro remote, the Ultrex Link remote was big and my belly would buttdial the touch screen often. The new lift assist system is really nice and easy to stow, really smooth too. It uses a lot less power, the specs say you need a 60amp breaker but I pull 27.3A with the high speed prop (it comes with an open water high speed and weedless wedge prop). I hit 4.0SOG with it on my electronic only lake. On speeds 1-5, it’s almost silent, I’ve come up on fish who didn’t get spooked until I was on top of them. I think the old Ultrex AutoN on legacy mode worked better in terms of locking a heading and holding it. The Quest seems to hunt a bit more, even when using the Locked Heading mode. But I feel like they update that stuff frequently. I haven’t messed around with drift mode yet, but that feature looks really interesting, I’ll use it this summer in tidal water. I would do the upgrade all over again if I had to. Mostly because it allows me to be on the water longer and not have to worry about battery life.